The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-04-21
OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Cairo, Mound City, and Egypt Gener-
orally - Crops = Central Illinois
railroad - Mt. Carbon Railroad
Fruit Prospects, &c, &c.
CARBONDALE, H.,
April II, 1868.
Editors journal;

Editors Joarnal:
Doubtless you have often heard of
the ancient city of Cairo, where the
people all live up stairs and have no
eellars-where stage coaches and farm
wagons are unknown, as roads and
farms have no existence in that re-
gion Of low lands and high water.
Still the city wears an air of thrift
and comfort that is really surprising,
in view of the disadvantages above
referred to. On the contrary, Mound
City is one of the most forlorn and
beggarly looking places that one can
find outside of the Southern States.
AlIthe manufacturing esta Adjustments,
which drove a heavy business during
the war, are standing idle. Places of
business and dwellings by the score,
can be seen tenantless and dilapidated,
while the ship yards of former days
are lonely and deserted A few naval
officers and marines, who have charge
of the monitors which are lying there,
serve as ghostly reminders of the
prosperity and business of the place
during the war. Of agricultural in
iterests il has none now, nor will have
for many years to come, as thousands
of acres of low swamp lands environ
it with their miasmatic folds. Like
Cairo, Mound City is surrounded with
a levy above high water mark, which
renders it safe from inundatiOn here
after.
The Illinois Central Railroad passes /
through the very heart of Egypt"
and has been the means of opening
up to market and cultivation, some of
the best farming lands In the State.
The fruit growing interests of this
(Jackson) and Union counties are
prObab bly, unsurpassed in the West
considering the brief space of time in
which the lands have been in culti-
walton. Ten years ago the country
was almost an unbrOken wilderness. \
Last year, from one small station, (the
town now contains three hundred in
habitants) three car loads of straWber-
ries were shipped daily during the
season for them. OF peaches, thou
sands of bushels went into market, and /
as the fruit crop is yet unhurt by frost,
we may expect repetition of the same
LAluS VI AaA 81 SSaAC 0uA . 1AS (
coming season.
The mining interests Of this region /
are also being developed. The Mt.
Carbon Railroad from this place to |
Grand Tower, on the Mississippi !
River, % miles distant, passes over |
immense fields of the best quality
of coal, which are now being rapidly !
worked. The Illinois Central Rail- |
road is consuming 200 tons daily, be-
side what goes to Cairo, st. Louis and |
elsewhere. Soon another road will /
be pushed directly into the iron re-
gions Of Missouri, and then the . Iron |
City," the Birmingham of the
New World, will rise upon the banks
of the Mississippi as if by magic. /
After all, the great cities of the world |
can only be located on the shores Of |
some navigable sea, lake or river. I
Our rivers are vast arteries, along
which throb the tides of national life
and prosperity. a.sz
No portion of the earth can be
pointed out as the abode of wealth !
and civilization, except it is pierced |
with navigable streams or extended /
ocean inlets. Hence where mex
haustable mineral elemeRts of wealth |
such as coal and iron, meet on such
stream as the Father of Waters"
great commercial emporium must I
grow up sooner or later. The wheat 1
crop, generally,is looking finely, and we
hope that gaunt famine is yet a dis /
tant spectre Of the future. However, |
our sheet is full.
More anon, Y. u. I