hair hangs in thick mats about his shoulders.

Teck Pervis had served in the war of secession under General Whiting,
and was one of the many demoralized stragglers, who swept before the
advancing tide of the Union troops scampered through the swamps and
marshes after the fall of Fort Fisher, to find refuge in Wilmington.
During the Reconstruction period and many years following, he, with such
characters as Sap Grant, Neal Simonds, Henry Sallins, Watson and others,
made nights hideous on Dry Pond by their brawls and frolics. In
introducing Teck Pervis to the reader, I wish to briefly call attention
to that peculiar class in the South known as the "Poor Whites." Always
an ignorant dependent, entirely different in every respect from the
descendants of the Huguenots, Celt and Cavaliers that make up the
South's best people; the origin of this being, who since the war has
been such a prominent figure in the political uprisings and race
troubles, and so on, is worthy of consideration. In the early centuries
the English Government made of America what in later years Australia
became--_a dumping ground for criminals_. Men and women of the Mother
Country guilty of petty thefts and other misdemeanors were sent to
America, bound out to a responsible person to be owned by said person
until the expiration of sentence imposed, a stipulated sum of money
being paid to the Crown for the services of the convict. At the
expiration of their term of servitude these subjects were given limited
citizenship, but were never allowed to be upon equality with those who
once owned them. These indentured slaves and their descendants were
always considered with contempt by the upper classes. The advance of
American civilization, the tide of progress has arisen and swept over
this indolent creature who remains the same stupid, lazy, ignoramus.

In Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
North and South Carolina, and throughout the entire South are legion of
this people, some of whom could not be taught the rudiments of
arithmetic. When African slavery became established in America, white
slavery was then tried in Australia where the treatment was so severe
that thousands of them fled to the woods to become as wild in many
instances as the natives. As the introduction of African slavery caused
the indentured slave to depreciate in value as bond men, they were
converted into overseers, patrolmen, Negro drivers to look for and to