Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-06-02
RUsK. Texas. Nav 1s5.
A'N9iA7 A0A09' "AaJ AOo''
MEssRs. EDToRs UNION AND AMERICAN:

RUsK, Texas, May 1857.
MEssRs EDTToRs UNION AND AMERICAN:
Icame oths State some two months ago, as
you are aware, on account of my health, hoping to
find a more sunny region than in the meridian of
Nashville found, ho#ever, after being here
awhile that 1 had reckoned without mine host for
instead Of those warm suns and soft balmy breezes
that had expected to find in this land of the SOUTH
was most uneeremoniously introduced to one of
those terrible sNOrthers, as they are very appro-
priatey styled here and which, for intense severi
ty, far outdo any thing that old Boreas can get
up with even weeks notice in cur latitude l
cannot think this climate good one for consump-
tives notwithstanding my own health has greatly
improved since have been here The changes in
the weather is TOO sudden and too frequent, and
must in time have tendency to develop rather than
eradicate the disease.
The !" northers" here are always the precursors Of
cold disagreeable weather; and in early Spring
most apt to be followed by frosts and light freezes
There has been an unusually large number of them
this Spring, and they have continued up to I'M
precedented lateness for this latitude and from
which the planters have suffered immensely having
had to plant their corn and cotton crops the third
time the present season. The wheat crop has been
almost entirely destroyed in some portions of the
State; in other sections, however, learn that
half crop viii probably be made doubt very much
whether the wheat crop can be grown successfully
here. It grows well enough, and in the northern
part of the State yields abundantY The difficulty
is in getting it ready in good condition for the har
vest On account Of the rust the crop must be an
early one and hence the constant danger of having
It cut down by the frost
The last paintings of the corn and cotton crops
are looking WE'LL and will, with good season, yield
abundant harvests, yet such at least, is the opn-
ion Of the planters here. IT. however, there should
be failure in the crops this year, the consequence
will be most direful, SINCE there is already great
scarcity of corn in the western portion of the State
owing to the short crops of last year. In fact is
reported here that in some Of the extreme western
counties there is already actual distress for the want
of breadstuffs Corn is now selling in Austin city
at the exrayagant figures of 1918 per bushel,
which would be regarded as enormous price per
barrel in Tennessee. There is abundance Of
corn in this part of the State-Eastern Texas-and
can he had at so cents per bushel. Wagons are
constantly coming in here for corn from distance
of three or four hundred miles west of this. They
hawl it in ox-wagOns, very popular mode of trans
portation in this country. To one accustomed to
railroad facilities or with turnpike roads and mule
teams such an undertaking would be discouraging
in the extreme, but to the ox-teamsers of this coun
try, who, perhaps have never heard the whistle Of
locomotive, or enjoyed the luxury of drive upon
turnpike road, it is mere matter Of "moon-
shine"
would advise such persons in Tennessee as con-
template emigrating to this State the ming fall to
look well to the result of the present crop year. as
would be next to suicide for them to come here, un
less the present crop should yield abundantly.
The first thing with which stranger isparticular-
" struck in coming from the older States here is the
great abundance of unsettled country. There is
truly heap of county here, and in the language Of
wag, it would be the greatest country in the world
if it was only fenced in" No withstanding there
has been great influx of migration to this State
for the last ten or fifteen years, yet, owing to the
wide extent of territory, it seems though the
country had just began to be settled up. Some few
counties, it is true in this portion of the Safe, as
well as in Northern and Western Texas, have, on
count OF some local hJlIdCAtOu5s SCttlON uP 'Clg
rapidly, and have assumed good deal the appear
ance of the older States. But where you viii find
half dozen counties thus settled you will find fifty
that have no inhabitants at all scarcely.
There are but few persons coming from the older
States who are prepared to correctly appreciate this
country. They come expecting to find that high
degree of refinement in society, and that ad-
vanced stage of improvement in the general appear
ance of the country which the older States have at
tanned, only by long years Of toll They expect to
find populOus cities and highly cultivated society,
where but the other day was heard the wild war
hoop of the savage, and which were but lately the
bloody scenes of those deadly conflicts between the
treacherous and degenerate descendants Of the an
cient Montezumas and that noble little band Of Tex
as patriots who, with brave hearts and strong arms
wrested this now fair sister State from the savish
despOtism of Mexico, and gave 1t all blushing with
its rich maiden charms to common mother,
fit companion for our noble sisterhood of States.
Life in many parts of Texas is rough And in
what new country is 1t not? Cultivated improve
ment is not the growth of day, or of a year. 1t
only be attained by years of unremitting labor.
And yet brainless upstarts who have never before,
perhaps, been out of sight of the smoke of their
own cabins they come to this country, and because,
peIadventure, may have Oecasionly to drink
their coffee without sWeetnin, and eat corn bread
and fry" and it may be, sometimes sleep in
chincked cabin upon puncheon floor, why they at
once pronounce the country unfit for the habitatOn
Of man.
l noticed recently in LittslPs Lining Age, a hith
srto deservedly popular literary Magazine in the
South, some published extracts from a correspond
ent writing from this State by the name of Omstead
This Mr.. Olmstead labors to prove from the rough
living in parts of Texas that the institution Of sav
cry is wrong that because he was not fed on roast
beef and turkey and entertained in magnifcently
furnished parlors, whilst travelling in the back
woods of Texas, that, ergo, slavery is great curse
and a sore incubus upon the prosperity of the
country.
Now if the Liptag Ags'' correspondent will only
turn his course and travel awhile in the backwOOds
Of free territory he will find equally much rough
living as he did in Texas Such a state of things
IS not attributable to any particular institution, or
to any want Of natural advantages, but is rather
necessity, growing out Of rough, uncutiyated con-
dition of the country. This Mr.. Omstead, like all
other abolition writer's who have attempted to make
an argument against slavery based upon the rela-
tive degrees of prosperity in the free and slave
Statos 5oos go NV making use of extreme isolated