g slow
headway against the refished blackguardism of the evening. The german
was still "on" at the hotel when we ascended to our chamber, satisfied
that Asheville was a lively town.

The sojourner at Asheville can amuse himself very well by walking or
driving to the many picturesque points of view about the town; livery
stables abound, and the roads are good. The Beau-catcher Hill is always
attractive; and Connolly's, a private place a couple of miles from
town, is ideally situated, being on a slight elevation in the valley,
commanding the entire circuit of mountains, for it has the air of repose
which is so seldom experienced in the location of a dwelling in America
whence an extensive prospect is given. Or if the visitor is disinclined
to exertion, he may lounge in the rooms of the hospitable Asheville
Club; or he may sit on the sidewalk in front of the hotels, and talk
with the colonels and judges and generals and ex-members of Congress,
the talk generally drifting to the new commercial and industrial life
of the South, and only to politics as it affects these; and he will be
pleased, if the conversation takes a reminiscent turn, with the lack of
bitterness and the tone of friendliness. The negro problem is commonly
discussed philosophically and without heat, but there is always
discovered, underneath, the determination that the negro shall never
again get the legislative upper hand. And the gentleman from South
Carolina who has an upland farm, and is heartily glad slavery is
gone, and wants the negro educated, when it comes to ascendency in
politics--such as the State once experienced--asks you what you would
do yourself. This is not the place to enter upon the politico-social
question, but the writer may note one impression gathered from much
friendly and agreeable conversation. It is that the Southern whites
misapprehend and make a scarecrow of "social equality." When, during the
war, it was a question at the North of giving the colored people of the
Northern States the ballot, the argument against it used to be stated
in the form of a question: "Do you want your daughter to marry a negro?"
Well, the negro has his political rights in the North, and there has
come no change in the social conditions whatever. And there is no doubt
that the social conditions would remain exactly as they are at the South
if the negro enjoyed all the civil rights which the Constitution tries
to give him. The most sensible view of this