Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-08-13
Letter from Henry County-The Great Sul-
phur Wells -Memphians Rusticating.

Correspondence Of tho Public Lodser.l
PARIS, August 5, 1867.
AS have been rustcating here lit
tie, l thought you might like to hear
from me. AS | am little vain Of my
self, and like to see what | write in a
paper like the LEDGSE, which everybody
reads, shall charge you nothing for it,
There were about thousand persons at
the Sulphur we'll, in Henry County, last
Saturday, and Colonel Trezevant, of
your city, delivered an address on po.
liticnl subjects, which was heard with
much attention.
The people often gather in great num-
bers for social enjoyment at that won
derful place.
am told that some fifty years ago an
eccentric and persevering man com
menced boring there for oil, and, at
great expense, having bored some three
hundred feet deep, the water rushed out
driving the drill to an enormous hight.
The stream thereupon was gradually
reduced to its present highth some feet
above the surface, and has been running
a bold stream of sulphur water ever
since sufficient TO drive mill.
This will be news to many, al
though really an old at
fair l might amuse you withal by
telling how General Atkins facetiously
dealt with distinguished fellow towns!
man of yours. But as the InteIIigencer
does the thing well l subjoin the follow
ing extract
On Tuesday last we had the pleasure,
in company with Hon. Ed. Yerger, Of
Memphis, of visiting his old familiar
retreat of our childhood and boyhood
days. Long years had elapsed since we
had visited the Vel" and old Time
had mercilessly wrought very many
changes Where once stood the palatial
old arbor and ballroom, in the center of
the surrounding group of pretty little
white cottages, and where we used
to whirl with the fair ones Of those
days, in the merry and giddy
dance, not a vestige remains to
tell the stranger that there was away
long time ago, the scene Of many rap
turous transport, and overflow of purest
emotion. The very foundations are rased
to the ground-the cottages are gone
all are gone except few grand old oaks,
who still stand the silent representatives
of another age, but whose outrageous
branches afforded us protection from the
summer sun, as they did our fathers q
half century ago.
Our friend was charmed with the scene
himself although lawyer by intuition,
and therefore accustomed to weigh with
accurate and nice discrimination, and
not liable to accept the likeness for tho
thing itself, could not withhold the sdmis-
sion that beneath these cooling shades,
and besides this sparkling icy water
away from the dust and hum of the
crowded city-awsy from the diseases
that stalketh at midnight and wasteth at
noon. day away from the wrangling
court room, and away from Brownlow
and his Radicals - here with genial
friends and accompanying refreshments,
true pleasure might be sought and found.
Only one little scene occurred to mar
the unbroken pleasure Of the occasion.
Our Memphian companion could not re
sist to plunge into the deep waters,
which be did without difficulty, but to
rise from them to shore again was not so
easy matter. After daring US as CRsar
did Cassius, to plunge into the turbid
Tyber-but, unlike Cassius, We took the
dare and staid out-into the deep
cavern be leapsd, snd soon found the
bottom, which, seeming to recede beneath
the pressure (near two hundred poundsl,
he suddenly attempted to rise, which
finding impossible, he cried to Us, help,
Cassius, or / sinkl And unlike the
choleric but msgnanimOus Roman, We
did net recklessly expose ourselves in
the rescue, yet we advanced and pulled
him, like q huge catfish, from the sui.
phurous depths TO shore. Il is needless
to add that in a few moments Richard
was himself again, and said that be
would prefer 8 dive in the old father Of
floods rather than try this experiment
over.
This valuable property belongs to