The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1864-12-01
The Mississippi River as it is.

A trip down the Mississippi river now
a-days is very serious matter, far more
serious than in the old days of peace,
when snags and gamblers bowie-kniyes
were the only dangers. Since the rebels
have began to wander along its banks,
and the river has commenced to 'dry up"
for that is the assertion-most sensible
people stay below, rather than promenade
the decks as living targets for rather cor
rectshooting bushwhackers. Concern
ing the drying up" the people of Min
nesota knoM something. The st. Paul
Pioneer complains
The people of this region are still cry
ing for rain, rain, rain. For two long
years rain has been thing almost un-
known in Minnesota The "Fathcr of
Waters" has now dwindlcd into mere
''babbling brook" and even the famous
Falls of Minnchaha are about to lose their
former celebrity.
A correspondent writes, out Of the
midst of the benighted region of the
Southern Mississippi, telling what he has
met in travelling down, and what he has
not met (the bullets), and how he avoid
ed them.
eve have struck snags, run on bars, got
of again, and have been fired into by
guerillas This last item transpired once
while we were at dinner. The shots-a-
bout dozen-came from masked bat
terry, and although we had an entire reg
iment of New York soldiers on board,
there was not musket to reply. But
everything looks uglier in print than it
does in reality. For instance, there are
more misses than hits in these skirmish-
es. 1t is one thing to fire, another to
shoot. 1t is only in cases of real down
carelessness that injury is done. A stea-
mer which reached Cairo just as We were
leaving had been boarded by guerilias
and several people shot. But this was
because she stopped, against all reason, at
a deserted point on the river to take in
cotton. The cotton was the bait Like
an innocent mouse, she nibbled at it,and
the trap was sprung on her.
OF Cairo he has not very high opin-
ion, for he asserts that
"Cairo is, without exception, the filth
est hole in existence. 1t is the end of
the world, the tail of creation, the fnis Of
the sphere, the dirtbo of the globe. 1t
is built on morass, with high embank-
ment in front on the river side to save it
from being wiped of the map by all over
flow. This, however, does not save it
from being constantly inundated, as the
body of the town is far below the water
line Of the river. All the streets are
bridged over with wooden bridges for foot
passengers, and only in three or four
streets can horses travel. Pigs, cows,
hens, and horses run loose in the alleys and
lanes. Every thoroughfare is a garbage
box. All the houses are built on foun-
dations twenty feet high, with no cellars
nor placements. All the stores are varie-
ty stores The telegraph operator even
keeps grocery, and the postmaster has
news stand"
In the same melancholy vein he dis
courses of the river: ''It is the dullest
sheet of water on the globe. Besides it
is only mud puddle with high sliding
banks on either side, covered with cease
less lines of unchangeable trees. This
for four hundred miles. Occasionally
you meet a wreck These are oases.-
They occur every fifty miles. Without
them the passengers would die of ennui
L believe boat is sunk once a fortnight
on the purpose to give amusement to pas
sengers on the river by allowing them to
contemplate the various stages of ship
and dissolution. They
have no regular landings on the river here.
W hen boats want to stop at wood docks 20
wood up" they are tied to a tree in the
woods way up the hill. Everything out
here is young and innocent in the ex-
treme."