Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-05-28
FROM NASHVILLE.
Legislative ProceediHgs---Aere about the
Issuance Of Railroad Bonds.

NASHVILLE, May 27.-The Legisla
ture passed on the first reading q bil
to repeal the bill allowing railroads {
retire their Indebtedness in bonds {
the State.
Mr.. Steale,s bill scaling the bond
issued TO railroads passed to a secOn,
reading.a 1t provides that new bond
shall issue in lieu of those known a
green bonds, at the rate per dolla
that the companies realized on them
Reports read in the House to-da,
by the Committee of Investigation
disclose alarming frauds in the issu
anee of bonds, and show the price
realized TO have been much les
than the market value. Other re
ports are to follow till all roads re
ceiying State aid are shown up.
The investigation of the manage
ment of railroad bonds of the Stats
We're reported on to-day IN respect t.
the Knoxville and Kentucky road
Over nine hundred bonds have
been obtained within the pasi
two years and thrown upon
the market without making any
showing for the advancement of the
road whatever, and the testimony
goes to show that the thirty miles Of
railroad completed, with its equip
ments, is badly dilapidated, and worth
maeh less than two years ago. The
bonds above mentioned are not pre-
tended to have been used in the ad-
vancement of the road, and so general
is the statements as to what has been
done with them, that the COMMITTEES
charge the president with misappro-
priation, etc.
The Legislative Committee which
visited the penitentiary were very
much pleased with the condition in
which they found that institution.
There are now registered 6l2 convicts,
nearly all of whom are at work. The
committee are, it seems, of opinion
that the prison can be very speedily
made self-sustaining The committee
viii make a report in a few days.
During the three years that Comp
troller Blackburn has been in Office
he has paid out, in bills Of cost of
State prosecution, 1868, 1e5 81. He
has also paid interest to the amount
of S3,7OO,524.
Mr.. A. B. Mullett, the Government
architect, reached the
city this morning. He has examined
all the lots proposed as a site for the
new custOm-hOuse. In a conference
with the Finance Committee, the
Mayor and members of the Board of
Aldermen this evening, he assured
them that the building would be
this fall, and that it will
be 8 larger and much finer builS qg
than was at first anticipated. No os Ie
has yet been decided on, =
FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPOND
ENT.
NASHVILLE, May a, IS70.-West
Tennessee has been again left without
any of the State. offices-Middle and
East Tennessee monOpOlizing them.
1t was a foregone conclusion from the
first, as our section could present no
strength which the others need appre-
hend-in q contest. Your West Ten
nessee candidate for Secretary of State
got every vote of his division, and of
the three absent ones he would have
gotten two. But whilO this amounted
TO but twenty, all told, you can read
lily see what little inrOad was made
into the other sections, when it is seen
that he could not get a dozen from
them. East Tennessee has eight more
Representatives than she has a right
to; and they never go for any man out
Of East Tennessee. Fleming, of Knox
vile, was for West Tennessee all the
time. but could carry few with him.
The Middle Tennessee candidates are
all men Of much popularity; and their
division of the State could not desert
them. This feeling ran through the
of all the State Ofiicersi and
they are divided out between the two
largest divisions. But no one can
complain; for the gentlemen just
elected give all hope for a change from
venality and corruption, to
and integrity. The defeated
aspirants have been beaten by citizens
as worthy and as well qualified as they
can claim to be; and the State will be
honestly and well served
a strange thing Of late.
A glorious rain last night, and a
new atmosphere this morning. Wheat
crops in this section are reported as
never surpassed, and the weather has
been most suitable. Maury and some
other counties are looking to an early
day when they will sell as many fine
little and blooded pigs as some of the
fine Kentucky counties. have lately
seen some Berkshires so tempting in
form, that, as Etheridge says, Moses
and his followers would have been
pork eaters, had they come upon a
drove of such when they left the will
derness. That breed seems to be pre-
ferred TO the Chester white, as more
hardy. In the counties below this it
is ''cotton and corn,' - instead of "corn
and cotton" The result is a steady
rise in the price Of food; for, as grain
grows scarce, meat does too. 1t is
useless to preach to our people. A
citizen from Collierville says the
farms in that region have one-third
more in cotton than last year. 1t
would be well if corn should suddenly
90 to 81 per barrel; and if our mer-
chants would then refuse to make any
advances to a planter who now wants
provisions, many an acre would yet
be planted in corn.
RAMBLER.