GLIMPSES OF THE PAST. BY MRS. HELEN D. BELL

From my youth up "Historical Mississippi" has possessed a never failing charm__ books, papers and manuscripts I have faithfully searched, and my gleaning has brought me sheaves from many a field, where stronger hands have wrought.

I shall leave chronology and statistics to the members of the Association who are more capable of dealing with them, and shall give a few current events that interested our ancestors some sixty years ago.

In one of Irwin Russell's inimitable dialect poems, he makes an old negro preacher say:

My "knowledge-tree" proved to be an old file of newspapers published from 1836 to 1843.

As far back as 1838 an active interest was taken in Historical Mississippi, and this Association, is not the first to try and preserve records and deeds, facts, traditions and legends of our beloved state.

A Lyceum flourished in the Natchez district, with Mr. Dubuisson as president. A notice of a meeting that was to be held in Washington, Miss., June 2d, 1838, says: "There is a proposition before the Lyceum to change its name to that of 'The Mississippi Philosophical & Historical Society.' It should be incorporated, as it bids fair to be the nucleus around which the taste and talent of this section of our state may rally."

Besides literature and history, an interest was taken by the men and women of this period in many other things. Realizing that Mississippi was an agricultural state, they formed an "Agricultural-Horticultural & Botanical Society," and one meeting was held April 28th, 1843, in the Methodist Church in Washington, President B. S. C. Wailes in the chair. There was no public dinner, but every planter had enough along with him to supply a dozen more than his own family. Col. Wailes, Mr. Affleck and many others, we are told, kept open house; Mrs. Shields, Miss Rawling, Miss Newman and Miss Smith were appointed to examine and report on needle-work and other articles of feminine industry. They made their report through Mr. Joseph D. Shields, and awarded prizes to Mrs. Dr. Broome, Mrs. Anna D. Winn, Mrs. Sarah West, Miss Virginia Branch, Miss Eliza Magruder, Miss Julia Cashell, and Miss Mary McCaleb.

The women of the thirties had never heard of the "new woman" yet they were fully alive to their own interest. It is said that when the "married woman's property right" bill was up for discussion in 1839, it was passed mainly through the exertions and influence of Mrs. T. B. J. Hadley, who kept the most popular boarding house in Jackson. She had become enamored of the civil law principle in Louisiana, and was determined to have this statute in our state. How did she accomplish it? From the day that Adam ate the apple, women have had firm convictions as to the best way of bringing men to their "point of view." If any of Mrs. Hadley's boarders opposed this bill, she put them on short rations and they had no comfort until they gave in. By the way, it is believed that our Mississippi Statute on this subject—property rights of married women—was the first which was passed in any state in the Union, which was governed by the principles of common law.

Politics ran high; Whigs and Democrats were ready at all times to give reason for the faith within them, to fight for it, yea, even to die for it at need. But through it all ran an intense loyalty to the state. Prentiss was once on a boat coming to Natchez, when some one remarked that the Governor of Mississippi was a dog. "Sir," said Mr. Prentiss, rising, "you cannot call the Governor of Mississippi a dog in my presence; it may be that he is a dog, but he is our dog."

In 1843, the burning question was the payment of the state bonds issued by the Union & Planters' Bank. Feeling ran high, it was made an issue in the canvass, and the repudiators were successful. Even to this day we are made to feel the sting of that act, which was a blunder,—and Talleyrand tells us that "a blunder is worse than a crime." Many were the reasons given for the nonpayment, and in a speech delivered in 1843, at the Court House in Natchez, Governor Tucker told his audience not to think for a moment that the real great seal of the state was affixed to those "fictitious and unconstitutional bonds." The Governor goes on to say that when the time came to affix the great seal, no seal was to be found, so "a Vicksburg artist was employed as a Vulcan to forge the seal, which was to make bondsmen of the proud and chivalrous people of Mississippi; he did his best, probably, but as the fates would have it, his eagle turned out to be a buzzard. We cannot but think," goes on the Governor, "that an over-ruling destiny controlled the hiding away of the state seal, so that its broad and honest face should never be seen on a badge of servitude to European note-shavers—and the Union Bank bonds no more have the seal of the state upon them, than the figure of the bond seal looks like an eagle."

On May 28th, 1838, a number of literary and scientific gentlemen, belonging to Natchez and vicinity, went to Selsertown for the purpose of making an excavation in the large Indian Mound, which was evidently a fortress and strong-hold of power in the olden times. The mound is an immense mural pile, with a watch-tower elevated many feet above the level surface of the mound at one side. It had a subterranean or covered way leading to its centre,—the traces of which still remained in 1838. The large mound is most admirably situated for defense, being based on a summit, from which there is a gentle declivity for many hundreds of yards in every direction, commanding a sweeping view of the horizon. It was said by the oldest inhabitants that when they first settled near the Selsertown mounds, there were traces of great roads more worn by apparent travel than any roads in existence in this part of the State now (1838), leading in different directions from the principal mound. This must have been a great central point of aboriginal power, the great metropolitan and kingly residence of the sun—descended dynasty of the Natchez Kings—a dynasty embalmed in story and song, and descended to us on the wings of legend and romance. The gentlemen were: Rev. Messrs. Charles Tyler and Van Court, Doctors Monette, Merwin, Benbroke, Inge, Hitchkock and Mitchell, Judge Thatcher, Prof. Forshey, C. S. Dubisson, J. A. Van Hosen, Thomas Farrar, Col. B. S. C. Wailes, Maj. J. T. Winn and others.

One of the great orators in 1838, was Rev. J. N. Maffett. He was much in demand for lectures and speeches, and was one of the most extraordinary men of the age. It is said that for imagery, enunciation, intonation and a deep knowledge of the human heart, Mr. Maffett stood without a peer.

About 1843, Mr. Thomas Fletcher, of the Natchez bar, was quite a favorite public speaker. His style was said to be smooth, musical and polished.

Mississippians, in the years that are gone, were as generous and open-hearted as they are today. They gave presents, not valued by dollars and cents, but into which they put time, labor and love, as the following letter proves. It was sent with the cradle to a friend in Charleston, S. C.

"The body or frame of the cradle, is manufactured out of the shell of what we call the snapping turtle, that weighed 135 pounds caught by myself out of my own waters. The railing is constructed out of the horns of bucks, killed with my own rifle by my own hands. The rockers were made from a walnut tree that grew on my sister's plantation adjoining mine. The spring mattress, or lining, is stuffed with wool from my own sheep. The loose mattress is also filled with domestic wool, manufactured and lined by my own wife. The pillows are filled with feathers from our own wild geese, and have also been manufactured by my own hands, after having been slain by my own steady aim. The pavilion, which you will perceive is to be thrown over the canopy, was fabricated, fitted and contrived by my own right thrifty, ingenious and very industrious 'better half.' Accompanying the cradle is a whistle which was made by a friend residing with me, and out of a tusk of an alligator, slain by my own hand, as well as a fan, made also by the same friend out of the tail of a wild turkey killed by me; accompanying the whole is the hide of a panther, dressed after the fashion of the Chamois, the animal having been slain by my own hands, and with my trusty rifle. This is for the stranger to loll and roll upon when tired of his cradle."

It is to be hoped that these unique gifts into which the Mississippi planter, his wife, and friend, put hours of love-labor, are today the cherished heir-looms of some old South Carolina family.

So in a minor key I have told of the past. As I read these old files I lived over the lives of our ancestors. I could see the crowds and hear them cheering some favorite speaker—the audiences gathered to hear the words of eloquence from gifted tongues—the Indians stepped for me his "sun dance," I discussed with famous housewives the value of the articles made by deft fingers, and sat with the planter by his fireside, forgetting that "the tender grace of a day that is dead" will never come back.

And may love for Mississippi,—her Past, Present, and Future grow ever in our hearts.

"Mississippi! what bright visions, what pleasant reflections, are associated with thy name! It is the land of flowers, of beauty, of natural wealth, of chivalry and unbending energy; The nursery of native genius and eloquence; The home of hospitality, the generous and confiding Patron of the unknown and friendless stranger! Thy majestic river, thy broad prairies, thy snow-white fields the very air we breathe—gladdens the heart, enlarge the soul, and stimulate to noble deeds."