The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1858-08-18
Correspondence. % 100 ..
HonER, CLMsoRNE PARISH, LOUISIANA
July 18th, 1853.

July 18th, 1885.
Editors North Ioua Times :, ,.l E,
A few lines from this distant portion of
the world may not prove unintcresting ia your
hosts Of readers. am now on one of the large
cotton plantations near the pleasant village
named at the head of this letter. The planter,
whose name is John A. Murrcll, owns some
forty or fifty darkies and has fine place. If
l were good at description, would try to give
you some idea of the dwelling, but know it
would be but an imperfect one at best 1t con
sists of three separate houses of hewn timber,
at a distance Of some twelve feet from each
other, in the shape of an l., with roof cover
ing the whole, and the spaces. or passes between
form very pleasant, airy places for sitting dur.
ing this intensely warm weather 1t is very
plainly furnished in fact, there are very few
Comparatively, of even the wealthy planters who
have good houses or what would be considered
in your region, the ordinary necessaries and
convenience of life. The grand and all per-
vading idea is to enlarge one possessions the
height of ambition is to make the greatest num-
Der of bales Of cotton. -.
The result Of this is that another slave is
purchased whenever the planter has the money
to spare, and the conveniences of life are done
without We are reveling in an abund ance of
excellent peaches and melons green corn. DC,
will soon be gone. The cotton crops looks fine
and corn will be good for this Latitude the
people herc 40 ~ Know what GOOD corn is
The yield per acre does not average over IS
bushels. one year with another. At this imme-
date locality rain is needed, but this is not gen.
orally the case. To all present appearances,
there will be full average yield of cotton,
where not injured by the great overflow of the
Mississippi, Red, Arkansas and other rivers
The loss from this cause is now estimated at
not less than four hundred thousand (4OU, OOO)
bales, which at ten cents per pound would
amount to Eighteen Millions Of Dollars {SlS-
OOO,OOG -a. ~
The all exciting topic Of politics, as connect
ed with slavery. is Of course the thing first and
last in the minds of the people. The North
may rest assured that Southern Rights have
fiercer guardians than the angels with their
flaming swords at the gates Of Paradise. 1t is
a great time of political excitement and speech
making. and every petty aspirant for office,
though lie can scarcely tell his own state, yet
has learned his stereotyped trade of falsehood,
about the poor down trodden, starving "labor-
ing people of the benishted North But as
the Arkansas Representative, (Hon. E. A..
Warren, said, it is not my intention ID speak
of slavery. After speaking half an hour on
Kansas, he said that was not what he was going
TO talk about. only wish the whitc-livcred
poltroons of the North who dare not say their
souls are their own. could hear one Of the
high-bred, naughty Souiherns speak Of them
and the free hills they tread and the pure air
they breathe. II it did not awaken thrill OF
indignation, as we'll as an honest pride that
they were born on free soil, then would will
ingly surrender them to the devil, and drop no
tears for their memory.
Tits a general time of health, with the cx-
ception Of the ''chills." This is the Southern
cognomen for miserable dumb dgue, but as it
never kills, it is not called sickness. have
been trying on a few of them, Int do not like
them very well. shall leave for the North
in the course Of five or six weeks.
Alden, ITINERANT.