The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1855-05-18

gagged in this business. He passed here re-
Gently, and dropped a hint or so.
But as poor LOPEZ said, so say 1, "Adieu,
sweet Cubaw
We are in The midst of the most gloomy
circumstances. Our nlisfortunes come not
Gas single Spies but in battalons"
And the end Of them is not yet. Still there
is no rain, and no prospect of rain. On"
OF our editors, the other day, said at l.,
forgot how to rain" The very heavens
seem turned to brass, and the earth to ashes.
The trees are dying Of the drought. The
steamboats, arc all stuck hard and fast on
the shoals, and must stick there until it
rains. When will come tic millennium of
rain2 There's no joking about t-tl,c
times are awful. If it does not rain soon,
starvation will stalk like Lcvathan over
the land. In some Of the counties above
here, corn sells for five dollars bushcl.-I
Here it is nominally about one dollar twcn-
tyfvc, but no body has it to sell. To add
to our woes, the WINTER mills, which sup
piled all this section, were burned down
night before last. This is common cal;l,n-
ity. Everybody teclsit. To-day meal COM
mands two dollars and half Il bushel, and
this morning about five hundlcd barrels of
flour, saved from the fire, were sold at auc-
ton at from twelve to sixteen dollars aud Il
half per barrel. This is bad enough, but if
it does not rain, the thing will grow worse
every day. Huns sell for eighteen cents
chickens thiry-threc cents. Day before
yesterday WINTER was giving three dollars
bushel for wheat. This will give YOU all
idea of the cost of living here.
The loss of the WINTERS by the fire is
about ffly-tivc thousand dollars, which is
relieved to the amount Of twenty-five thou
sand by insurance. A part Of the building,
worth one hundred thousand dollars, was
saved. They bear t:,eir loss with admirable
unconcern, and have gone undauntcdly to
wo'k to put up the mills OH larger scale.
Whatever may be said Of JOHN G. WIN
TER, he has been a blessing to every place
where he has been, especially to this city.
Ills energy, his sagacity, and the employ
mcnt Of his vast fortune, have done much
for this part Of Alabama. Almost at his
own exclusive expense he built plank road
eighty miles north Of this city, reaching
nearly to Tennessee. This splendid road
the Legislature of Alabama confscatcd and
took to public use, after he had spent over
two hundred thousand dollars OH it. But
for this, I do not believe he would have al
lowed the St. Mary's Bank to suspend. He
thought himself plundcrcd by the Legisla-
ture of Alabama, and he knew how to get
even with them. 1t is true he incidentally
hurt a few bill holders out of this State, but
that was only an incident. AS for the bills,
they never will DO redeemed. I assure the
holders of them they may as well burn
them. 1t cannot be denied that WINTER
has done much for this city. He has built
for it plank road eighty miles long; he
has erected mills and manufactures worth
three hundred thousand dollars, and has in
creased the population of the city two or
three hundred by his employees. lie has
ransacked every market for wheat and corn,
and regularly supplied the city with flour
and meal at reasonable prices. He has kept
the market even and uniform, not availing
himself Of occasions to extort high prices.
heard a gentleman say that WINTER had
saved this: citysone hundred thousand dol.
lars in:the single matter of exchanges
When he opened his banking house here,
exchange on New York. was at.3 or per
cent. premium. He reduced it to /, and
resisted all overtures and remonstrances
from the other brokers to increase it. Since
then it has remained at or abelow-l. He
sold in one year nineteen millions Of dollars
Of exchange. These are the benefits he has
done for this city, and they are worthy to
be reckoned against his faults.
When, the other night, I saw the. old
man, with his whitened locks, walking a.
mid the ruins of his splendid buildings, and
the loss Of such immense property, unexci.
lted, uhmoved, and calm as May morning,
lgiving his well conceived orders in his clear,
emphatic tones, I.could not but admire the
behavior Of theamat.: He Is no common
man. His manners are very agreeable; his
Econsersad donal powers are very great, and q