Carolina Chansons Legends of the Low Country
In a continent but recently settled, many parts of which have as yet little historical or cultural background, the material for this volume has been gathered from a section that was one of the first to be colonized. Here the Frenchman, Spaniard, and Englishman all passed, leaving each his legend; and a brilliant and more or less feudal civilization with its aristocracy and slaves has departed with the economic system upon which it rested. From this medley of early colonial discovery and romance, from the memories of war and reconstruction, it has been as difficult to choose coherently as to maintain restraint in selection among the many grotesque negro legends and superstitions so rich in imagery and music. Coupled with this there has been another task; that of keeping these legends and stories in their natural matrix, the semi-tropical landscape of the _Low Country_, which somehow lends them all a pensively melancholy yet fitting background. Not to have so portrayed them, would have been to sacrifice their essentially local tang. To the reader unfamiliar with coastal Carolina, the unique aspects of its landscapes may seem exaggerated in these pages; the observant visitor and the native will, it is hoped, recognize that neither the colors nor the shadows are too strong. These poems, however, are not local only, they
to the causes of disease, and will certainly break down sooner than he
would have done under more favorable circumstances.
"The more frequently alcohol is had recourse to for the purpose of
overcoming feelings of debility, the more it will be required, and by
constant repetition a period is at length reached when it cannot be
foregone, unless reaction is simultaneously brought about by a temporary
total change of the habits of life.
"Owing to the above facts, I conclude that the DAILY USE OF STIMULANTS
IS INDEFENSIBLE UNDER ANY KNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES."
DRIVEN TO THE WALL.
Not finding that alcohol possesses any direct alimentary value, the
medical advocates of its use have been driven to the assumption that it
is a kind of secondary food, in that it has the power to delay the
metamorphosis of tissue. "By the metamorphosis of tissue is meant," says
Dr. Hunt, "that change which is constantly going on in the system which
involves a constant disintegration of material; a breaking up and
avoiding of that which is no longer aliment, making room for that new
supply which is to sustain life." Another medical writer, in referring
to this metamorphosis, says: "The importance of this process to the
maintenance of life is readily shown by the injurious effects which
follow upon its disturbance. If the discharge of the excrementitious
In a continent but recently settled, many parts of which have as yet little historical or cultural background, the material for this volume has been gathered from a section that was one of the first to be colonized. Here the Frenchman, Spaniard, and Englishman all passed, leaving each his legend; and a brilliant and more or less feudal civilization with its aristocracy and slaves has departed with the economic system upon which it rested. From this medley of early colonial discovery and romance, from the memories of war and reconstruction, it has been as difficult to choose coherently as to maintain restraint in selection among the many grotesque negro legends and superstitions so rich in imagery and music. Coupled with this there has been another task; that of keeping these legends and stories in their natural matrix, the semi-tropical landscape of the _Low Country_, which somehow lends them all a pensively melancholy yet fitting background. Not to have so portrayed them, would have been to sacrifice their essentially local tang. To the reader unfamiliar with coastal Carolina, the unique aspects of its landscapes may seem exaggerated in these pages; the observant visitor and the native will, it is hoped, recognize that neither the colors nor the shadows are too strong. These poems, however, are not local only, they