Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1861-08-01
RusselPs Letter from Cairo.
Merciless Ridicule OF Cen. PILLOW and
the Seceshers generally.

ns and
the scceshers generally.
One of the raciest letters yet written by
the London Times correspondent is the one
written from Cairo, under date of June 20.
We give some lengthy extracts from it:
On Friday evening, June l4, | started from
Natchez for Yicksburs on board the steam.
er General Quitman, up the Mississippi
These long yellow rivers are very fine 70,
patriots to talk about, for poets to write
about, for buffalo fish to live in. and for
steamers to navigate when there are no snaps.
but l confess the Father of Waters is ex.
tremely tiresome. Even the good cheer and
the comfort of the General Quitman could
not reconcile me to the eternal beating OF
steam drums, blowing whistles, bumpipps
at landings, and the general oppression OF
levees, clearings, and plantations, which
marked the course of the river, and / was
not sorry next morning when Vicksburg
came in sight on the left bank of the giant
stream-.-a city on hill, not very large, be-
steepled, becupaloed, large hoteled. Here
lives a man who has been the pioneer of
hotels in the West, and who has now estab-
lished himself in big caravanserai, which
he rules in a curious fashion. M'Makin, has,
he tells us, been rendered famous by Sir
Charles Lyell. The large dining room-a
stall, q nlonger, as friend of mine called it
is filled with small tables covered with
particolored cloths. At the end is q long
deal table, heavy with dishes of meat and
vegetables, presided over by negresses and
gentlemen of uncertain hue. In the center
OF the room stood my host, shouting out at
the top of his voice the names of the Joints,
and recommending his guests to particular
dishes, very much as the chronicler tells us
was the wont of the taverners in old London.
Many little negroes ran about in attendance,
driven hither and thither by the command
Of their white Soulouque- teethed,
pensive-eyed but sad as memory. "Are
you happy here p asked | of one of them
who stood Ey my chair. He looked uneasy
and frightened "Why don't You answer?H
'T sc feared to tell dat tc massa." "Why.
your master is kind to your" Berry good
man, sir, when he not angry wild me !''-
And the little fellows eyes filled with tears
at some recollection which pained him. |
asked no more. Vicksburg is Secessionist
There were hundreds of soldiers in the
streets, many in the hotel, and my host said
some hundreds of Irish had gone off to the
wars, to fight for the good cause. IF Mr.
O'Connell were alive, he would surely be
panied to see the course taken by so many
OF his countrymen on this question. After
dinner Twas invited to attend a meeting of
some of the citizens at the railway station,
where the time passed very agreeably till q
o'clock, when the train started for jackson,
the capital Of Mississippi; and after pass.
age Of two hours through poor, clay coun-
try, scared with water.courses and gullies,
with scanty crops of Indian corn and very
backward cotton, we were deposited in that
city. 1t must be called City. 1t is the
State capital, but otherwise there is no rea-
son why, in strict nomenclature. it should
be designated by any such title. 1t is IN the
usual style of the cities" which spring up
in the course of few years amid the stumps
Of half-cleared fields in the Wilderness
wooden houses, stores kept by Germans,
French, Irish, Italians; large hotel swarm
ing with people, with noisy billiard room
and nosier bar, the arena and the cause of
difficulties !" wooden houses, with porten-
tous white porticoes, and pillars of all the
Grecan orders cupola or two, and two or
three steeples, too large for the feeble bodies
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS architecture a
State house, looking well at distance, rag
ged, dirty, and mean within groups ofidlcrs
in front of Exchange" where the business
transacted consists of a barter between mon
ey or credit and drinks" ofvarious stimu-
lants; secluded telegraph-office round a
corner; forward newspaper in the
street, and population of negroes shutting
through the thick dust which forms the
streets. | called on Mr. Pettus, the Cover
nor of the State of Mississippi, according to
invitation, and found him in the State house
in very poor room, with broken windows
and ragged carpets and dilapidated furniture.
He is grim, silent man, tobacco
abrupt. .speeched, firmly believing that the
state of society in which he exists, wherein
there are monthly foul murders perpetrated
at the very seat of Government, is the most
free and civilized in the world He is easy
of access to all, and men sauntered in and
out of his Office just as they would walk in.
to public house. Once on time, indeed
the Governor was deer hunter in the for.
est, and lived far away from the haunts oi
men, and he is proud Of the fact. He is Q
strenuous seceder, and has done high hand
ed things in his way-simple apparently
honest probably, fierce certainly-and h
lives, while he is Governor, on his salary O
i 81, 900 year in the house provided for hin
by the State. There was not much to say
on either SIDE l can answer for one. Mex
day being Sunday / remained at rest in tn,
house of friend listening to local stories
not couleur de rose, but of deeper tint
blood-red-how such man shot another
and was afterward stabbed by a third; hoy
this fellow and his friends hunted down il
broad day and murdered one obnoxious t
them--tale after tale such as have hear,
through the South and seen daily narrative
Of in the papers. Aceldama No securit
for life! Property is quite safe. Its pro
prietor is in imminent danger, were it onl
from stray bullets when he turns corner
The ''bar," the drink" the savage prac
! tice of walking about with pistol and poniar
-ungovernable passions ungoverned be
cause there is no law to punish the deeds t
which they lead-these are the causes Q
acts which would not be tolerated in tn
worst days of Corsican vendette, and whicl
must be put down, or the countries in whicl
they are unpunished will become as barbar
Gus as jungles of wild beasts.
1t is astonishing how positive all these peo
pie are that England is in absolute deper
dence on cotton tor her national existence
They are at once savage and childish.
England does not recognize the Souther
[ Confederacy pretty quick, they will pass
resolution not to let her have any cottor
except, &c. Suppose England does eve
recognize Confederation based on the prir
o,,lao oc tha Gnuth .yhok =. Il =