Des Arc citizen., 1860-04-21

you some cnarcoal SketcneS oi tue HIT pressions made upon me by what little l saw of that growing commonwealth.
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 At Clarendon, 1 took the Iatan, regu- lar New Orleans and White river packet, for Des Arc. Passed Devalrs, Bluff, both going and coming, in the night. That is the place where the Memphis and Little Rock railroads is to cross White river. By the way, heard many and great doubts expressed in Arkansas as to the probability that the link between White and S,. Francis rivers ever would be built. How is this? What does such talk as that, at this stage of the game, mean 2 Some even went so far as to say that Lit tie Rock didn't care continental if her end of the Toad was never finished any farther than White rver--that, as for the gap between Devall's Bluff and Madi- son, she was perfectly indifferent, if not positively hostile, to its ever being filled up. By "Lttle Rock" the controlling power of the State was meant. suppose. 1 sincerely hope this "talk" is all gam mon; but, of veri,y, it does seem that the Memphis and Little Rock road does not by any means progress as rapidly toward completion as was promised two or three years ago. 't ~
 At Des Arc, spen; three or four days most pleasantly. I met so many Mem. phis and Shelby county people there, I could hardly realize that had left home. A more hospitable people don't exist. Des Arc contains between 1900 and 1900 inhabitants, and is growing apace. It stands on an elevated bluff, which is the White river abutment to that grand pla- teau of prairie and plain which spreads away in far.stretching reaches of fertility toward Pine Bluff, Little Rock and the Upper Arkansas.
 Des Arc has two or three large steam saw mills, ships l2.000 or 13.00O bales cotton annually, has fair share of schools and churches, is remarkably we'll built for 50 new place, { (mostly of wood, how ever, and liable at any day to regular Jacksonport fire, and may boast of as intelligent population both in town and in the surrounding country, as is to be found in any part of the Union. The country all around, on both sides of the river, is rapidly settling up. Surround ed Hill,' as it is called, immediately op- poslte. on the east, containing something less than l5,000 acres of as fine land as crow ever flew over, is a little princi- pality in itself, and, when fully opened up and properly guarded from overflow, will prove an exhaustless store house, meat house, corn crib and garden to the future capital of .Arkansas. s Z
 Yes, it is to this proud position that Des Arc aspires. And who will say that she hasn't perfect right to do so if she chooses! She is handsomely, if not cen. trally, seated in the midst of the q fairest and most delightsome region of the State, on the banks of the only perenni- ally navigable stream Arkansas possesses, and right in the track of that colossal rail-. way which the current of events, no less than the passionate wishes of the Ameri- can people, plainly indicate must before long be thrown across the continent, from Memphis, through sFort Smith, through the waiting widernesses, over the Rocky mountains, 10 the golden gateway of the Pacific. g (l Y lFe
 It IS not unworthy ambition in Des Arc, possessing the advantages she does, to aspire to be the capital of the State. And yet I understand that this ambition has brought odium and even legislative injury upon her. Little Rock, it is said wants everything. It has the Memphis road, the Napoleon road, and the Cairo and Fulton road; and yet when Des Arc applies to the legislature for charter for the Des Arc and Fort Smith raIlroad"- one of the most feasible and promising of all the projected lines in the South West Little Rock influence steps in and the charter is denied. I tell the tale i as twas told to me- and have only to re- | mark that it is the first instance I ever heard of, in free country, where a peo. | pie, who, as far as can learn, have done nothing to make themselves outlaws, were | ienled the poor privilege of building an line of railway with their own money t i' sAe1
 Des Arc IS in Prairie county, not far rom the corners of five of the richest counties in the State, to-wit: Jackson. St. .rancls, Monroe, Prairie and White. The southern part of White, lying next 5ayou Des Arc. has high reputation for er'lli'y and IS rapidly settling up. The 5ayou Devue and Cache river country. in- luding "Richland Township" is but ozen miles of and will pour all of its ich trade into the lap of Des Arc.