New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-24
LETTER FROM TEXAS.
The Raft i'm Upper Red River-views of
an Old Citizen.

Old CIT1Zen.
EDITOR REPUBLICAN:
NV attention has been called to some
structure of yours on the subject of char
tered company to remove the raft in upper
Red river. You are right in opposing such
monoplies to run for fifty years. l dislike
to disagree with others on this subject, and
much hate to leave seclusion and appear
before the public. l have, with others, an
interest to look to, as / live on Red river
and have been there for over fifty years.
yet should not have said one word on the
subject, but being importuned by friends,
who know that | have been familiar with
the raft for over thirty years, to say some
| thing on the subject, l must say it in my
own way. If my views and plans are diff
ferent from the views of others, | wish
them not to suppose that l desire to defeat
the object sought. All want the raft re-
moved, and so do I. Then is it practicable!
| There is no doubt of it in my belief, and it
can be done quickly and cheaply compared
to the utility of it.
| | will repeat what | have said before on
this subject The government is indebted
to Red river. All her land from one hun
dred and ten miles below Shreveport, and
thence up for several hundred miles, was
brought to notice and opened up to market,
and actually sold, by promised removal of
the raft. | will venture the assertion that
one hundred days, with two small steamers,
sternwheel boats well manned for such
work, will remove the present raft. The
| care and work will have to continue to pre-
vent the reformation. BY trimming off
rough points the current will soon aid the
work. Besides that, the constant plying of
packets will do much toward accomplishing
the work in view.
l am not in the overhowed country. l
am five hundred miles above it. All lost
their slaves by the war; which they gave
up. Hundreds of people have now lost
their land by the overflow caused by the
raft and are impoverished beyond descrip-
ton. Many Of them now are falling back
to the hills, asking the privilege to work a
patch of ground.
! If this raft was in Europe or the New
England States, fortunes would be made
out of it. 1t would be worked up into fenc-
ing, frewood, and shoe pegs. They have
the money there and labor comfortable; we
have neither, our labor is demOralized
What are three or four hundred thousand
dollars to this government! No more than
three or four dollars to me. A great cOun-
try would be reclaimed twelve hundred
miles above the raft. now locked up and
hidden as it were. Now the little steamer
Lightest is carrying cotton down one thou
sand miles above the raft. She goes up in
one foot of water and down with seven
hundred bales of cotton on board in less
than three feet Of water. You may ask
why these things have not occurred before;
| can tell you, boats have been sent here
not adapted to the river. We can not pay
expenses at the present price of cotton we
will have to quit, our freights from eight to
fourteen dollars per bale, insurance high,
and other contingent expenses making, per
haps, eighteen dollars per bale. The in
surance high, and necessarily so think. but
the insurance companies of your great city
have always paid us when there was loss
and honest papers were presented
The real wealth of country is labor
where the people are provided for on, and
protected by the laws of the country.
Our cotton is shipped from various places
and distances to the head of the raft, then
trucked four hundred yards across neck
of land, part of the way under water and
part of the way about four inches above the |
water; from thence it is transported in open
fats about five miles, through a road in the |
swamps, the trees having been sawed off |
under water a sufficient depth to let the |
flats pass over the stumps. Then it is
shipped on small steamer through the |
lakes and bayOus to Shreveport, then on
other steamers to New Orleans, having |
been handled ten times | ask you what is |
left for US after the payment of these ex-
city, where his fine plantations on or near
the head of the raft have gone. He will |
tell you they are under water could
name others, but as they are not there it is
useless to do so.
| will allude to one other matter con
nected with this subject. You might ask
me why should not the raft reform at any
IlHlC anu any pltt1C again Sdf UuIuh
not, if the proper remedy is applied at its
location. The reasons | allege are these:
The raft must have commenced, at or near
the Gulf, on the Atchafalaya, which is, or
was, the continuation of Red river This is
no legitimate tributary of the Mississippi
The natural decay at the foot and the accu-
mutation at its head has caused its progress
up, and so it must continue to go on until
it passes the timbered region and enters
the plains of the prairie country / might
be asked if the removal of the raft would
cheaper our freights. l answer, emphatic
ally, it would.
Years ago the steamers Woodman. the
Texas, the X. NJ. Jones, Texas Ranger and
others carried cotton from eight hundred
miles above the raft to New Orleans, for
two dollars and fifty cents per bale. 1t
cheapens freight i'll this way. Large boats
would come, say four hundred miles above,
when they can come to Shreveport, and
thus at some point change freight with the
smaller ones, enabling them to use every
little rise for trip above. Besides this it
must be known that no boat can pass
around the raft except in high water.
The recent Hberality of the United States
hoe cd oil |