Cairo evening times. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1865-1866, 1865-09-18
from our Sunday Mornings Edition.
THE CAIRO THAT WAS.
Dips into Old Cairo Life.
THE PLACE, THE PEOPLE, OC.
RRENC GEES AND PASTIMES.
By NOSE HARRELL.
NUMBER TX.


About this time of the year, eighteen years
ago. there was formed in the Office Of the old
Cairo Delta a q Live Mans Society," 1t num-
bered eight members. The objects were to
nurse and aid one another when sick, to assist
the needy, and dispose of the dead as requested
The first annual meeting was rendered in
teresting by wines, meats, sentiments and
speeches. ~. M. H..
One of the sentiments was" Cairo, the
acorn from which the mighty oak must spring"
The member who proposed it, however. had
seen a man empty five or six goblets Of Irish
whisky with hot W alter, lemon and sugar added
to it, and being a little thick tongued, rendered
it as follows: Cairo''-very confidently
"Cairo is err tall loak at must spring or rake
orn.''
This drew out a response so eloquent and
accurately prophetic that have subjected my
self to some trouble to obtain it that it might
be Incorporated entire in these papers.
The member said
Reversing my brothers language and mean
ing, / am not unprepared to tender an intelli-
gent response l have given the location and
surroundings of this delta, and the many causes
that must inevitably impel it forward to COM
mercial prominence, such study and lnvestiga-
lion as to enable me to predict with great Ger
taiptv as to what, for Cairo, remains in the
womb of the future.
1.-The situation of this place, alike geographic
cally and ir relation to the great natural arte-
ries Of trade, independent of every other con-
sideration) is such as Enthusiastically designates it
est for fha OF lOr n.
cial emporium already demanded by the neces-
sites of the Mississippi valley. Centrally loca-
ted al TO territory, and rapidly becoming SO as
TO population, wealth and productive industry
indispu,ably at the head Of uninterrupted navi
cation on the Mississippi; with access to nearly
forty thousand miles of navigable waters rami-
fed through twenty states and territories, II
must become the grand central entrepot Tor
the inland commerce of the country. Were
capital and labor to contribute but mconslder-
ably to such result by a tardy opening up Of
artificial channels of REORGANIZATION, tina,
great result would not be any less certain, il
might only be delayed another generation
Aided, however. as our great natural tho
roughfares must be, by network OF railway
marking the whole country, connecting its ex
tremes and unavoidable rendering this point &
center-the ''eiant oak'' foretold must prove
the development of only score of years, vii
he seen, and its tremendous proportions real
: lied. by you and and most OF this generation
1T requires no stretch of comprehension tt
determine that such are the natural facilities
for transportation possessed by Cairo, that fol
all time to come there must be an ingatherine
here. for transhipment of the surplus products
of n SCOPE of country larger and more fertile
than half of Europe-the first power on earth
stDurinr those seasons when the agricultural
productions of the Northwest are seeking out
let to New Orleans and the Gulf, water com
heaviest tonnage, while those other water
courses penetrating the principal producing
regions of the continent and flowing hlther arc
often INSTRUCTED and always require a class o
light draught steamers which experience has
sufficiently shown cannot successfully navigate
the deeper waters South. Thus it is unaltera-
blv fixed that lines of steamers as numerous
as our rivers, tending to and dlverging from
Cairo as a center, must grow out of the ne
cessties Of commerce and the favorable ar
rangement of the works OF nature.
s'When this is done, when from the touch OF
American energy and industry the vast domain
tapped by the upper Mississippi and its tribu-
taries, the Ohio and its tributaries, begin to
pour in our lap even IL 1.-THE OF their great
wealth, our realzations will surpass, beyond
measure, our most sangune anticpations.
''Invincble necessity has created this order
of things: but man, by intelligent effort, will
vastly increase its scope of usefulness. From
the junction of these great natural highways
must branch out railways extending not only
10 the Northern lakes and the Southern gulf, to
the populous Atlantic seaboard, but through
the great States of Missouri, Arkansas, Texas
and California, to the golden shores OF the
Pacific. Ten years will see much of this eff
fected; twenty years most Of it, and thirty
years all of it.
o1y maj SaH 81 nd
with the certainty of mans vigorous effort
here expended, who shall say that Cairo, for
lorn and God-forsakeI. as it now is, shall not
rise, and soon rise, to a meridian that will show
to the world that she as the greatest CONNER
cial mart of the Mississippi Valley, and pos
sesses an uncomfortable and lnvlnclble ambl-
ton to rank as the greasest inland city OF the
continent of America. *~
When the eloquent member closed one men,
Der was awake to applaud him and he was in
that wakeful condition because there was a
little more wine to open. The other members
aroused, finally, and blankly enquired if the
meeting was going to close without - bit
of speaking!
New York, Sept. l6.-Gold continues brisk.
The demand for customs has been less active
during the past week, but the falling off must
be considered as only temporary, as the re-
ports continue at very heavy rate. and the
activity Of business will cause a larger proper
ton of the arrivals to pass directly INTO con-
sumption. The receipts for the present week,
exclusive Of to-day, have been $24, 744, "a.
The price, this morning, has ranged flom 1929
@l43. The exports this week are very heavy,