Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-08-31


ployment almost EXCLUSIVES Of clipper ships and
screw steamers to transport troops TO India for
British authorities, is another of the signs which
indicate that coming change in the carrying trade
of the world which has been predicted from more
than quarter. ''Time," as the adage goes. sis
money" Whenever the decentralization of5ce'
iscOvers this, and employs swift vessels in order
to gain time, We may be sure the commercial world
will do it also:
In fact, for several years the tendency OF ocean
transportation has been towards clipper SHIPS and
screw steamers almost exclusively. Nothing but
the comparatively large cost of freight or the one
band, and the pewefful interest engaged on the
other, has prevented their complete triumph long
before this. In the nature OF things, they must
ultimately drive slow craft from the field. The
day Is not far distant when the magnificent lines OF
packet ships of which New York is so justly proud,
will be left to The very causes which enabled
the once powerful Liverpool liner" to suPpl4Bt It's
| tedious predecessor viii, in return, suppIant the
| liner" For the history OF commerce proves IN
contestably, that the quickest route or swittest
sailing vessels will, in the long run, carry the
! day.
! The slow caravan which brought the fabrics Of
India overland to Syria, lost the patronage OF Yves
tern Europe soon as the Cape OF Good Hop
was crcumuavigated. The Baltimore sehooners,
that could beat to windwaFd even OF frlgate, a.
most monOpolized, during the wars at the begin
ming OF this century, certain descriptions OF the
| carrying trade.
The strongly spared and heavily manned 'lin-
| ers," by their quick voyages, secured the entire
passenger traffic aud the most remuneratlve
| freigbts.
Il was to the superior swiftness of the American
| vessels indeed that the United States owed the
rapid rise of her mercantile marine. Until within
the last few years, merchant ships, as class,
made quicker VOYAGES than any in the old world.
Ps,ff N say M
inence. They are losing it, however, not because
we cannot build vessels swift as other nations,
but because we continue building description of
vessels which has had its day. While Scotland Is
turning of slipper ships and screw steam
ers annually, America now builds comparatively
few of the first and almost none at ali OF the last
II is plain that if this condition of things contln-
ues, the United States must, eventually, cease to
rival Great Britain in navigation That equality,
which promised rapidly to become pre-emnence,
and which wers so many years laoorIously al
tanning will be scattered the winds, perhaps tor
ever. Our reats5ip-owners must contne them
| selves hereafter exclusively to clipper ships and
screw steamers, especially to the latter, if they
would retain their fortunes, or preserve the honor
of their country. Already the foreign tonnage, IL
our ports increases yearly. There is time to be
lost. The tide has turned against us. 1t we art
not up and doing shall be swept away.
In this new state of affairs, haIbors like that o
Philadelphia will stand on more equal footing with
their rivals than tney Olu before Inc unesI screw
steamers belong to Glasgow, which lies under the
same natural disadvantages, as compared with Liv
erpOol, which. Philadelphia does compared will
Boston or New York-Pha, Ledger.
MONSTER REPrILE.-A correspondent of th,
Abingdon Democrat, writing from Walnut Hill, Lee
county, Va, who is, as the Democrat assures it
readers, "a gentleman in whom implicit confidence
may be placed" gives the following account of tn
killing of monster reptile in Harlan county, Ky
He says:
About three weeks ago five men went to gathe
whortleberries in the mountainous part OF Harlan
county, Kentucky, and in their travels came 70
small branch at the foot of steep ridge, wher
they discovered a smooth beaten batch, rathe
slide that led from the branch up the ridge Cur
osity tempting them to know its meaning, they fo
lowed the trail the top of the ridge, where,
their astonishment they found about acre c
ground perfectly smooth and destitute of vegeta
ton near the centre of which they discovered
small sink or cave large enough to admit salt bal
rel.
They concluded to drop in a few stones, an
presently their ears were sauted with loud, run
bling sound, accompanied with rafting noise; an
an enormous serpent made his appearance, BLOWN
and spreading his head, and his forked tongue pre-
truded. The men were struck with wonder an
alright, and suddenly the atmosphere was lille
with smell so nauseating that three out OF th
HVe were taken very slcki Tue OLheE I"OJ O1SO'S
| ing the condition OF their companions, dragge
them away from that abode of death. About re
feet of the snake had, to their judgment, made il
| appearance, when they hurried home and told wh'
, | they had seen to their neighbOrs.
The next day mounted some ten OF the ha
dy mountaineers armed with riff s, determined I
destroy the monster. On approaching within on
hundred yards of the dwelling of his snakeshiI
their horses suddenly became restiff, and neithe
kindness force could make them 90 any neare
r The men dismounted, and hitchng their horse
proceeded on foot, with rifles cooked, to the mout
of the cave. They hurled in three or four larg
stones and fell back some fifteen steps, when tn
r same noise was heard as before, and out came tn
dreaded reptile, ready, as his looks indicated,
crush the intruders.
; About the same length of the snake hBd appeal
ed from the hole, when eight ten bullets wer
q through his head, and, as the monster died, !
kept crawling out, until twenty feet OF that hut
boa lay motonless the ground. 1t was rattl
- snake with twenty-eight rattles-the hrst was TOT
I inches in diameter the rest decreasing in size
the last. With difficulty the men dragged hi
home, and his skin can nov be seen by the curio
} in Harlan county.