The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1858-09-08


treatment? Will not the postmaster general
countenance to such gross and repeated abuses
as are practised on our people by Inefficient
mail contractors and carriers. Out upon the
present abomnation. Give us, Mr.. Brown,
return of the old Cairo and New Orleans mail
and as irregular as it was, yet we will rejoice
at its restoration under the circumstances
Wecopy the above from the Lake Providence
louisiana Journal, a strong democratic sheet,
edited by Mr. Hatch, late of the Baton Rouge
Advocate 1t is fair specimen Of the arti-
cles which are daily and weekly promulgated
by the democratic as well as the opposition
journals throughout the south and west; all OF
whom unite in pronouncing the present post
master general to be the most inefficient and
incompetent official that has ever occupied the
office. We were, therefore, we must confess
somewhat astonished when we read the follow
ing glowing panegyric upon postmaster general
Brown in the Columbus (Mississippi) Demo
crat This paper, in its enthusiasm, informs the
benighted people of this country, that:
ut is highly honorable to Gov. Brown that
he has been able to discharge his difficult and
.onerous duties in amanner entirely satisfactory
10 the country But he has done more. He
has not only supplied the postal wants and ne
cessities of the people, buthe has afforded them
facilities for communication and travel which
they never enjoyed before. He has opened up
the fertile territory between the States that lie
along the Mississippi, and those which border
on the Pacific. He has penetrated the wilder
ness and invited civilization into remote but
productive regions, which might otherwise have
been left half century as habltation for the
wild beast and -"
But, ".hold, enough" Who would have
thought that even all official organ Of democra-
CIV could dole out such fulsome and sycophant-
c strain in. honor of federal office holder
Perhaps postmaster general Brown is one OF
the stockholders of the Columbus organ, and
has been trying his hand at putting himself
We can surnlise no other foundation for the
audation. The manner in which Mr.. Brown
has ''supplied the postal wants and necessities
of the people," is too we'll known to our readers
10 require comment. As an example of the
mode in which his contractors perform the du-
ties for which they are paid high prices, we
will merely add the following article from the
Waco Texas) Democrat: Q
"OUTRAGE.-1nform was received here
one day last week by the postmaster that the
stage driver from this place to Dallas had sLor-
,J ~ al INV na SIi Ia
mail sacks and matter enough to load heavily
a two-horse wagon. How long they have been
there we did not learn. The gentleman who
brought the news to our postmaster learned
from boy in the neighborhood of the old house
that the driver pitched them in there. Mr..
Moore, our postmaster's informant accidentally
happened in at the old house, while hunting
hogs, and found the mail sacks, or they might
have laid there until totally destroyed. Such
outrages upon the public should not be toera-
ted. Our people have to pay taxes to support
the government. to see that the rights of its cit
liens are not thus wantonly disregarded. The
delinquent driver should at once be dismissed
and the contractor severely fined, and if, posi-
BILE imprisoned No wonder we never receive
any northern papers, or that ours cannot get
out of the confines of our own county north
ward.
"P. s. Since the above was in type Mr.. S
J. BilIingsley, our mdefatigable postmaster, in
forms us that he hired horse and buggy at
his own expense and went and hauled in four
large sacks full of mail matter. This is too
bad"
The postmaster at Waco Immediately officI-
ally informed postmaster-general Brown of the
objectionable outrage Oh the community COM
mitted by the mail carrier and contractor
How were these worthless punished think you,
reader? Why, postmaster general Brown, who
"has penetrated the wilderness and invited
civilization into remote, but productive regions, -
fined the mail CONTRACTOR, or rather deducted
from his pay, the enormous sum of-th5rfy.tIue
doUarSW Just IS IS for each bag of mali
matter thrown out on the roadside. We now
know the value at which the postmaster-gen-
eral estimates the mails and the Importance he
places on rccitude and punetuaty in postal
affairs.
HARD T1MEs-The Crescent draws sombre
picture of the scantincss prevailing in the New
| Orleans markets, and declares, there has not
in the memory Of the oldest H1habitant been
such hard times as at present. as in respect to
the scarcity and costliness of market provender
1t states that little runty heads of cabbage sell
at 40 and 50 cents EACH and the other escuents
7 in proportion; okra being the only exception.
The Crescent adds:
The alarm which has been aroused by the
prevalence of the black tongue among the cat
tie throughout the country east of us-the d.
sease being as near as'the other side of the lake
has had a most serious effect upon many OF
our consumers of meat. The ignorant and su-
perstitious classes Of the community, who have
not sense enough to know that all the beef, pork
and mutton sold in the New Orleans markets,
comes from the north and west of us, that is
from Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri, and from
Texas and the Attakapas country-shun fresh
meat as they would poisoned sausage. Fol
a few days this had the effect of making beef
especially, cheaper than usual; but as the alarm
continued, many of the butchers stopped bring
ing beef to market, and now there is almost q
beef famine Yesterday morning. in the French
market-tbe chief market of the cjtv-soJne Of