Cairo evening times. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1865-1866, 1865-10-18
THE CAIRO THAT WAS.
Dips into Old CHir0 Life.
THE PLACE, THE PEOPLE,, OC-
CURRENCES AND PA SHINES.
By NOSE HARRELL
NJ MEIER Xxi.

The telegraph operators at Cairo and Gale
donia (both gentlemen of education and refine
menD conducted courtship by telegraph be.
| tween smutty Cairo wench. named Jane, and
Caledonia African, named Samuel. So fas
cinating and endearing was the correspond
ence between the parties that they hitched
destinies at sight.
The matter was productive of good deal OF
sport at the time, particularly as the cores
pondcnce was public property, and as the ne
groes like old Rube of to-day, were rather
notorious characters.
The following may be taken as fair speci-
mems of the tender missives that did the
mischief -
SAMUEL TO JANE.
" IruascendeW Honey:
The cerebellum of my syphaN is ardent, and
every phexmoid section of my multicaulis is
burning. Both arms flung three or four times
round your middles ] could die laughing
Oh, honey Just breath or two
JAMES REPLY.
!" Luscious Ch07r0W
From my os occipitaus to M mucous mem
brane I'm in a twitter. My sugiter suture is
fearfully tickled and my occiput is quivering.
Restrain, l pray you, restrain the ardour of
your syphax and reflect upon the condition OF
my occiput.
Lovely paw-paw. Barkis is willin'.''
These senseless dispatches, shaped by the
peculiar humor of the operators, were es-
teemed by these interested darkies as immense
period of eight or ten days, lead to a marriage.
Sam visited Cairo came in on a mule one Sun
day morning-saw his dark complexioned Jane
for the first time-and the following evening
left on his mule with Jane clinsing on behind
him. The couple are, now, living in Pulaski
county, and are respected as hard working,
well to-do negroes
On the 21th day of July, ls4s, the steamer
White Rose was destroyed by fire, having
caught while lying at the landing against
the old wharf-boat lHa=eppa. A passenger,
while hunting for tieas, having lighed candle
in his hand, set his mosquito bar on fire. In
an instant the flames communicated to both
beds in the stateroom, then to the roof and,
before water could be procured good portion
of the cabin was in furious flames. She was
at once deserted by her passengers, cut loose
from the wharf, and as there was Il wind pre-.
vailing she was carried to the middle Of the
Ohio. There she burned to the waters edge,
furnishing fearfully grand spectacle for all
who saw her-and sunk She had ON board
several hundred barrels of lard, bacon and
flour, which, with the boat. proved total loss.
Two hours afterwards three or four
little urchins might have been seen hurrying
hither and thither yelling at the top of their
uudeveloped lungs: Here, gentlemen and Ia
dies, is your Cairo De2tn extra, telling all about
the burning, better than any of you sac it, and
only Ave cents an extra.
l tell you, Mr.. Editor, you cannot imagine
how cititied We all felt over it. The getting
out of that half column extra was u big thing
for that day, which was not only appreciated
but rewarded. Tho editor realized from it the
sum Of one dollar and sixty cents, which proves
ccnclusively that everybody bought one
This was the first and only exhibition of
newspaper fastness to which I can point in the
old times of Cairo.