OCR Text |
Show THE SL'NXY SOUTH. - Down In Mississippi AmoDg the Aristocrats and the Rabble. Different Impressions of tho West. A Railroad Ride and Some ol the Incidents En Route. Special Correspondence of tho iliit ald. Cokinxh.-Miss., March 80, 187S. Surrounded by evidences on every band, of tbia warm, sunny country, in the far south, I seat myself to givo your readers a few jottinga by the wayside ol our journey to this point, 1 L-aviug Pueblo, Col., on the 27ib inet. by what is known as Ihe Banana line of railroad we followed down the Arkansas River valley, for more than 300 miles, and a finer valley I have never looked upon, stretching out from either bank of the river for a distance of from five to filteen miles, all suseeptible of irrigation, and an abundance of water lo do it with. A luxuriant growth of last year's weede and grass testify to the richness of the 1 soil while ledge alter ledge of fine rock cropped out on the bench land above the valley rock that could be 1 utilized (or aoy purpose almoat. Cottonwood Cot-tonwood groves dotted the valley in many, places, with here and there a solitary pioDeer ranchman, doubtless the avant courier of a countless hoBt, 1 that seems to be sweeping westward : from the stateB. The heavy, oroaa-guage cars, uau but few passengers a speculator or two woo baa Deen out west looking at some mines; a lady and her children returning eastward to the old home-atead home-atead (or a visit after years of absence in the wildBof the west; a oattledealer who was going to Cuicago to tako a look at the mariet, while a local passenger would sometimes get aboard at some ol the lonely far-between far-between stations, whose broad bat, unkempt locks, and uuBhaven face gave evidence ol the border cbaiacter of our new fellow paeseuger. So all ihe dny long until lar in the night ..innntu innrriev waSDUrfiUttd. hut toward morning the bum of voicuf, and scuflle of lent on the depot pltuloriua neeuied to betoken more IHe aud action and more people. Daylight revealed to us fields of waving wav-ing grain, and villages of no ordinary ' Bi7B Jor the weBt. True, the houses were to a greater or less extent tem-1 tem-1 poraiy, but elill they were bouses, . Hnd biibceptible of improvement. Paubeng rs crowded into the cars aud we soon lound oumelves in the great uhumiol of emigratiou tending both ways, lor lend both ways it undoubtedly . does It ws odd to bear the remarks vouchsafed by either parly. First you would hear a man say: "The bneat , country in the world;" next, 'I would'nt .give a. ten acre lot id Indiana, for a quarter section ol it. "Look al tbfl wheat," says another; " "sowed in October, eat up by the geeae; Iroze out during the winter, yet it'll make fortv bushels to the acre. What will it do with a fair chance?" A Connecticut boy who left the wooden nutmeg stale thirty days ago .0 to come west and grow up with the - country, Bays "II I am only allowed to get Dftck to the rough bills ol my old home ouce more, I will bo willing to sharpen the other end of shoe tacks aud Bell Ihem for oats for the balance ol my daya, for a living." One East TenueeBeean paid h'B fare from Chattanooga to Black Hawk, Colorado, Col-orado, staid oDe night and concluded while he had money he would get back to the bills of Tennessee, which be forthwith proceeded to do; and au it goes. Thousands are Belting their f;tcea westward to hunt up new bomeB, with out a vague iuea oi tne : dilliculticB to be encountered, and will sicken ol the job; and the emigration emi-gration that heads westward so heavy this ppring will in the Ull turn eastward and many a broken houae-hold houae-hold will illustrate the provrrb, "A . ,,i u .... ui.-ino o--i I hern rta muki. " R . w y companies will gather the harvest of dollars and the laborer as usual pay lor the music. At Kansas city we met carload after carload of emigrant emi-grant westward bound, the enormous number of 2.2;U having pawed through that place the day before our arrival. Turning south over too ,Mi;30iin Tut ific railroad we bead for St. Louis, m.d sooD witntna a tableau of rather novel character. The conductor aud a l.dy had tome i.igb words about fare, when he threatens to stop the Irin nnd put ben'ti. Sue dares him to do i(, and tU'-h a torgue as she i? potse?5cd of! No ten men coy id ketp p,M6 with Ibat claltir. ihe tri'.m stops and sure enough be carries her out ol the car; but as we move on, she walks in at trie other end, and with that everlasting tjngue of hers riiisfs a horuti'a nt'st ail about her ngr.; "M. ninny coma an! men may Bo iiut hor Ijj.jul- rur.i on forevtr," Again she is put cut, but compromises compro-mises the row by paying her lare. So wigs the world. Jrt. Louis with its black, molce-be-g'mrr. tr.ils, its narrow trtt-U, rJ u.l I uiid;r.g, looms up Lpfore ut ne t ti.o rays ol ti.e un come glinUog acrost'be Father ol Watefs, W'i hurry acros the c;tv to Hie Iron Mountain Trad, aod fuiiow.ng down the west bank of the river pass CaronrSelet, Jefi'erson Barrick?. Iron Mountain and on into too Bwamp of southern Miisouri. For miles and miies we pass tnrough black, dismal lookint; -awampi, filled with the rotimg debria i of decayed vegetation, trunks of trees, j slimy, filthy watfr, emitting a stench i ail but unbearable, while aion? its borders we see euch wive-bepoce specimens speci-mens of humanity aa only chilia and fever, re ci'iiring unlimiiwl doses of t quinine could produce. Ptist all this, j on to the his'oric ground ol Belmont, the ecene of GraDt B first military ei- i ploit;.acroiB the Miesia---itpi to Colum ( , bus, Ky., and then by the Mobile and ; Ohio lo inia point. As we go south ; : the vegetation takes on a greener; 'hue. The buds were but swelling ; back in Colorado; the buow reaohed t almost lo the base of the mountain, and the nights were Bharply chilly. As we turned south from Kaueas city evidences of spring increased and until un-til ia the edge ot Kentucky, the earlier vegetation were putting forth ita leaves. Still further un ihe trees were clothed with a mautleof green; May apples had run up to their full height, and the young apples were well formed. Red wood and aog wood bloom colored the landscape, while in the yards of this city, we see tulips in full bloom, oleauder, and magnolia vieing with each other in the richnees ol their tropical flowers. Nature has spread its carpet of velvety green over mother earth to protect her from the blazing rays of a eoutb-erufiun. eoutb-erufiun. A circus in town tbia afternoon after-noon gave us an opportunity of seeing the people aa they g-thered promia riinnslv inepihpr. Hundreds of netrroes thronged tbe grounds, many ol the' women dressed in the latent style, but the great majority of them giving evidence evi-dence of pqualor aod poverty. Yet a jollier crowd it would be bard to find. Such broad gufliws of laughter, such jokes aod euch appreciation of them doubtless could not be found anywhere else in the universe. Alongside of these tattered, rag . tagged and bobtailed ends ot creation, walked stately eouthern dames, whose silkB and satins showed wealth, whose conversations showed culture, and whose every motion betokened aristocracy. aristo-cracy. Miugliog together they all swept into the . immense " canvass together, the two extremes ol humanity. Rough field hands jostled against tun beauty ol the south and though tho one was turned to the left and the other to the right iuside the door, yet here and there an ebony face ehone out from among the Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon crowd who came to sec- tbe circus. Who cannot see in this a strained condition of society, that may at any day snap the band by which it is bound aud inn into the wildest oi communism fatal alike to both parties? . J. M. |