[A LEAF PROM AN DIARY.]
he largest slave-holder and manager in this country in 1856 was said to be Mr. J. Hamilton Cowper, of Darien, Georgia, who was reputed as directing the labor of 1500 slaves. On our way home from Cuba, in April of that year, where we had been inspecting the system of slave labor, we had the good luck to meet Mr. Cowper on one of the sea islands of South Carolina. He was a remarkable man physically and mentally, and it was said he could throw up two apples into the air and hit both with his two single-barrelled pistols.
A few years before the date of our meeting him he had been wrecked off Cape Hatteras, an account of which we drew from him as follows: He had embarked at Charleston, South Carolina, on the paddle-wheel steamer Pulaski, bound to New York, having under his care a Mrs. Nightingale and her young baby, and another lady with a small child. Before turning in he had inspected the small boats, as was his custom in those dangerous voyages before ocean navigation by steam had been perfected, and when about midnight the boiler burst he went straight to the ladies, told them to hurry on their clothes and wait for him while he ran to explore. Seeing that the steamer was absolutely wrecked by the explosion, he took the two women to the nearest boat, lowered them and their two children into it, and, with half a dozen sailors, pushed off from the sinking ship. They pulled all next day, in company with another small boat, towards the surf-beaten shore of Hatteras, he taking command of the boat. They pulled along the surf for an opening, and saw the other boat try to land, and swamp. At last his crew, without food or water, refused to pull any further, and insisted on trying to land. After trying in vain to show them the danger, he had to submit, but made one of the best men promise to help save the women when they turned over, as he told them they were sure to do. The boat capsized, and his comrade made for the shore; but Cowper called him back. One woman Cowper gave to him; the other had sunk, but he caught her by her long hair, raised her, and the baby under her shawl smiled as she came up. It was Miss Isabella Nightingale, now a bright girl of eighteen, with whom we had just breakfasted. Mr. Cowper managed to get all of his protegées above the surf, and then fell exhausted. All this was drawn out of him without any boasting or exaggeration. It shows what a cool head and firm hand can do in an emergency.
Space will not permit me to give here Mr. Cowper's opinions on the rebellion, and of the relative value of free and slave labor. He was a man of remarkable intelligence and executive ability, and it was said that he kept a record of the work done and the produce gathered on each field of his large domain during his long life. He told me that he considered the popular notion that the white men could not work at the South a mere fallacy. He, however, believed in the economy of slavery, and doubtless, under his skilful administration, it worked better than elsewhere.
[SOMETHING ABOUT BUDS.]
here are two classes of people—those who are forehanded and provident, and those who neglect to look out for the future. One is wise, the other foolish. Our Mother Nature, as she is sometimes called, belongs to the wise class. She constantly and most wonderfully provides for the future. Plants are her children, and foreseeing the winter, she does what she can to preserve them from the severe cold, so that they may revive in spring. She has several ways of doing this. In summer, to provide for new growth of branches and leaves, the next season's buds are formed under the bark. You can only find them by cutting into the bark.