Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-10-24

wanting neither in resources nor populatio. n,
Shut out from st. Louis and the upper cOun-
try by the Ozark Hills, with the Indian ma
ton and the Usage Reservation an effectual
barrier to the West; with impenetrable
swampS, filed with all kinds of wild ami
mails, cutting it off from the river and the
river counties, this Southwest country"
formed a little empire of its own, in
which, if there was not always the
peace and happiness one reads Of in the
story books, concerning such isolated COM
munities, there was at least moderate
degree of prosperity, and trade was brisk at
the capital.
But the locomotive long looked for,
and ardently looked for of course, has
come at last, and it is a question in my
mind whether for this little city at least, it
has come as a "spirit of health, or goblin
damned"
The country no doubt will be benefited
by it. The farmer now has st. Louis and
the world for his market. But there is
talk Of ''dull times" among the eight or ten
thousand people of Springfield, and it would
not be matter of much surprise, if the rail-
road carried off the steady going old town,
like a gaIloping consumption. But drink
to its health in lager beer saloon, and
wish, like Mrs. Camp, ''the best of lucks
to all, for of all the ''steady-gOing' old
towns in this land, but few were more
steady-going for the South,
"When through the deep waters he called her
to CO."
Here in this Southwest country Gen.
Price ''ranged his patriot band" won his
f.,li haa tod hxr
defeat amid the protecting shadows of her
everlasting hills to '1girt his loins again.
Here Lyon fell, and here tonight on many
a quiet hillside, sleep her own glorious
dead. | drink to them ALTO friend and
foe, who woke the echoes of these hills in
those stormy times, and wish them peace at
last.
Twenty minutes for supper" and away
again through the fast gathering darkness,
into the deeper night, and at last as day
dawns upon us, to Seneca on the Border.
| have heard much of this Southwest Mis-
souri,, and | take a day or two to ''do it."
There are many old Tennesseeans here;
indeed, most of the settlers that | have
seen are from our State. Restless fellows
who loaded their wagons and started West
years ago and wound up here, not caring
to cross the ''NatiOn," and not taking the
trouble, many of them, to enter the
lands upon which they settled,
working on from year to year raising
.'tTuek' enough TO do them-and putting
up some sort of improvements on their
places; until the government grants their
land or its land" to a railroad company and
the squatters now must either pay the COM
pany for those same improvements or load
mp again and move on, leaving their house
hold gods to strangers.
| rode all day yesterday with the agent Of
lhe company, and many poor mans place,
his csrn ripening behind his house and his
brats tumbling about his door, was pointed
out to me with the remark:
That's ours"
In more than one instance the man HIM
self was called from the house, and stood
whiting irTesOlutely at the fence, saying ''he
didn't know what he'd do yet"-and it
proved mighty hard''-when the agent
would press him to buy his own land.
IL ''peared" 4 little hard to me, too, but
said nothing, and the mustang ponies were
cracked upwith the whip, and away we
went across the open prairie, miles and
miles and no house, miles aud miles and no
tree, nothing but the stunted grass on either
side and the dead level country ahead, bro
ken here and there at regular intervals by
little mounds, made the people say by the
prairie dogs, though why the prairie dogs
should take the trouble to ornament the
country in this fashion is more than can
see.
'sSarcOxie prairie" never varying, stretch
cs away for twenty miles, and winds up at
a little creek and little town, sqIIatted for
these fifty years in a little wood, little old
scraggy black Jack wood, that ought TO be
ashamed of itself if it isn't.
Here, too, the agent seems to have things
pretty much his own way; indeed, it is
noticeable thing about all these
agents that they always do seem to have
things pretty much their own way every
where, the railroad in addition to having
gone heavily into the real estate business,
apparently owning half the hotels, dry
goods and grocery houses in the country,
and exercising some sort Of mysterious su-
pervisOrship over the other half.
l am not prepared to say positively, but l
believe the very chignOns the girls wear
over their heads are the private property Of
the railroad, and if L wanted a wife in this
country would go to the nearest agent and
ask him if he pleased just to pick out some
hing that he thought would suit me.
may say once for all that this particular
section of country, if my opinion is worth
anything, offers but few inducements to
emigrants.
Lands of the same description are about
as high as with us. The best bottom lands
have been taken up long ago and are worth
from thirty to fifty dollars per acre, accord
ing toimprovements, locality, etc.
Hundreds of thousands acres of hill lands
are for sale at three to five dollars per acre,
about as valuable for agricultural purposes
as our Dickson county cOalings, which |
think can be had at a lower figure.
The "upland prarie" is held at s. to so
per acre, on long time. Timber and water
scarce, and the rocks lie suspiciously near
the surface.
Disinterested gentlemen, from their city
Offices, have scattered flaming circulars
broadcast over the land, setting forth the
wonderful natural advantages Of this sec
ton, and holding out dazzling inducements
TO emigrants.
l have one OF these circulars before ME
now, in which the favored spot from which
write, in addition to its superior fitness
for all agricultural purposes, is described as
'the home Of the apple, the pear, the peach
and the vine"
do not wish to appear rude, but l am