Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-07-02
Correspondence Of the Free Press.]
LETTER FROM MISSISSIPPI.
LAUREL HILL, June S, 1885,

Spring !. with you now in beauty and freshness,
while We withering and scorching from sunrise
to setting, in temperature Of 81 to l04 degrees,
only preserved from instant dissolution by tie
memory Of other days-days which have been
cooler' How they come before US! What glorious
visions Of snow drifts roofs the frozen
street all white, and the distant water hardened
into rock then, if to make fancy reality, you
run against the Ice Man, who comes rafting over
dusty puvcmouts and through the dusty crowd,
with huge blocks Of the veritable crystal, silently
admonishing you to keep cool-how provoking
,eA, could, with burning sun head, bum.
ing bricks at their feet, and piles Of high-hcat-
ed bricks on every side? You hear the cry:
" Boston Ice, only one bit pound ~ and spec
/ ulate how many bits" it would require to pur-
chase all you feel like having--others wonder if
! coming from Boston, it may not be somewhat tine
turcd with AJeltcnism, md decide, perhaps, you
are better without it yet, while you plod along,
there ret urns the longing for piece, though ever
small, put in the toes Of your tight bc OTIS md
in that Sunday hat which covers your pro-slavery
| head. Poets may sing Of the sunlight and merry
sunshine, but there is neither poetry nor merriness
| in this, and so agree the inhabitants Of cur city,
| who are focking off to all known watering
| places both North and South--some Of the most
fashionable resorts for the season accessible
by steamers across the beautiful Lake Ponchur-
train either at Mississippi City, Pass Christian
| Biloxi Here are all the advantages Of town-lilc,
! without its inconvenience, beside the luxury of
bathing in the clear waters Of the big, bread Gulf
of Mexico. The Bayous round about afford rare
sport ror fishermen and hunters, and We have most
amusing results Of three and five days tramps thro
the marshes and cane-brakcs; it is tall walking,
| assure you-the scdge higher than ones head and
the cane Is feet that, with the wind bowling
and rattling through both. You have occasionally
pond to wade plunge down into the unctuousoozc
Of lagoon, where, by stopping for an appreciative
gaze, the variety and comelness of your comrades
will be very likely to burst upon your imagination.
ALL eager to cultivate an acquaintance, musk
rats, possums, coons, wild hogs and snakes will
crowd around, but most forward in thei advances,
most ready to enter into your tesiinJs will be the
mosquitoes An efectual protection against this
army Of lightfooted gentry is alliGator's oil,
smearing the face and lands with which is proved
to be utterly repellant to the whole tlibe. Avery
good antidote to the snake bite also, is powder
found as root in certain localities, in the absence
of which, the Indian practice is to suck the wound
or covering it with gunpowder, set fire to it, These
monsters are principally of one Species the thick,
blunt.taied, scaled, rusty-blaek moceasin'
sluggish but very venomous. You return Jad-
cd, dirty grabbed, faint and famished, but that
forgotten you pronounce such an excursion an excel.
lent tonic for the entire system and unanimously
vote second expedition.
These same lagoons of standing water have CIV
ell ground for various surmises as to the healthi'
ness of our environs but the which filed all
hearts in prospect of the yellow fever's return,
begins to wear away, as (takng the " Oldest in.
habtant" for authority it has never been kOown
to propagate after an overflow such as has deuged
our land. Notwithstanding our hopes are founded
more on the prospects that the mass OF water can
not sub.de for many weeks. Should this prove
delusion however and all the malaria of these
- swamps, marshes and bayous, be added to and
disseminated with the heat of July and August,
then woe to this pleasant land for sickness and
death shall enter household bands unbidden, cher
shcd ones from the family circle shall be carried
out as many proud heart groans in its Loneliness
and sorrow over graves where the green vine creep:
and on whose white portal is engraved preciou:
II In the commencement of this desultory epistls
:, proposed sketch of every day life in our goody
" metropolis but like Anacreon when he essayed tC
sing of Heroes and battlcdelds but found his harI
VI would sound only of love, find certain thought
"a have guided my pen; and now lest you are wearieC
"a (knowng patience over long letter is not in th'
catalogue of masculine virtues) I will close ab
ruptly, promising in the future to take more tim
and write more briefly. Yours,
INDIANoLA
81 VIII our MISS. Correspondent increase th
as value of such favors by writing on but one sid
of the paper. The printer has reason TO
making this often reiterated and often dis
-- regarded request. 1t isinconvenient to divid
C. "copy" which is written on both sides, int
suitable " takes" for the compostors.