The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1872-08-22
LETTERS FRo,a WILLIAM.
EAST MISSISSIPPI, Ang. 10, 1872.

] -
"William, your last letter to THE CLARION
/ is calculated to misIead. Although what
i you say amounts to but little, the fact that
| what you say appears in paper read all
over this continent, lends some Importance
| to your utterances. Let me tell you again,
| the crop will be 30 per cent. less than that OF
/ 1870 and will not exceed that of last year
/ Be not deceived. In the first place one
| fourth of the growing cotton crop did not
come up, until after the first of May. The
constant rains have rusted the weed to a
luXuriant growth, and a mere passer imag-
ines the cotton is fine. Examine closely,
and you will discover very few bolls. There
will be an early frost next fall. That set
ties the question with young cotton. The
older plants have ceased to grow and are
not making forms. The worm is already at
work. Ttking up and combining all the
chances for and against full crop, you must
decide that my estimates given OH early in
the season will hold true. The price al
cotton viii, during the next winter, average
not below 1715 cents in Mobile and may
reach % cents. Please be more careful III
your expressions about the crop"
Other parties tell me that Mr.. Jones is
right. He had little to say about corn, only
to observe that the crop is good, and TO
state that whenever the Democratic party
succeeds the corn crop succeeds. All this
may be so, and | required of him an eX-
PLANTATION of the poor prospect for cotton.
He said
SAT Baltimore the Democratic party acted
with great patriotism, which fixed the corn
crop. If the people ratify its action, and
elect Horace Greeley, and he lives up to the
great responsibility of the occasion the cot
ton crop viii be good next year. Next
year the orchards and vineyards, and groves
and bowers, and fields and meadows, will
bloom and bear, and bless all the people.
Smiles will light up the faces of our young
people and OF our old people,and protracted
and camp meetings will gather the youth OF
the country into the church; and all this
land will be blessed. All these things de-
pend upon the coming Presidential cleo
ton; and they must be looked for after
Greeley has been declared President elect
These things seem strange to me, bat
expect you can understand them.
Since | wrote you last, l have Travelled
very considerably. | have been to Meridian,
Jackson, Brandon. and Columbus. | o.
served many things during the time l was
absent. Meridian is our town. 1t belongs
over here. l have no doubt about Meridi
ans being great place sometime, if it
holds out. Somehow or other, l feel like,
when L look at all the grand, new houses
completed, and witness the progress OF
others, that something will give way, and
say such Il catastrophe is prevented by a
certain mum Der of persons breaking every
year. The city is supported by wagon
trade. Newton Station and Hickory on one
road, and Lauderdale and Enterprise on
another, have only to offer equal facilities
to divert the major portion of the commerce
of this metropolis to those more modest
towns. a mere wagon trade is too capric-
ious-too uncertain To build upon so large
Iy. A mere railroad crossing, simply brings
together, for an hour, moving men, who are
seeking points farther on, and the money
they leave, goes to support hotel, barber
shop, a drinking saloon, and cigar stand.
These Institutions support those who operate
them and hence indirectly one dry-goods
store might be legitimately maintained.
A permanent business of large dimensions
must be on permanent basis. Large cap
ital, sufficient TO offer wares in quantity,
variety, quality and price, as favorable TO
purchasers as Mobile exhibits, must be
cum uiated and employed, A town may be
brought together, and the inhabitants buy
from each other; but such town will have
no lasting prosperity. Meridian is fine
81, ~
mulate Factories of all kinds must be To-
Gated there. The hammer of the artisan
must be heard, and schools and colleges
must be filled with learned professors and
inquiring students. | met some gentlemen
there, whom l shall remember for a long
time Judge Leaehman, whom Gov. Alcorn
Says is 'learned in the law above his fell
lows" lives In Meridian. Mr.. Jones says
he knows Judge Leachman, and that Gov.
Alcorn is wrong about the Judges learning.
The men living in place, usually give it
character. | took some trouble to look up
the men mark of about the city, and found
that there are a number having an extend
ed reputation. First of all L. a. Ragsdale,
who owns a large amount of real estate,
and keeps a hotel, Besides this, lie holds
an amount of stock in the San Rafael Silver
Mines, located in Mexico. | am inclined to
regard this stock as a permanent invest
ment. There are two newspapers published
at Meridian, by three distinguished news
paper men-the Mercury, by Col. a. G..
Horn. ard the Gazette by Col j. j. Shannon
and Col. Fleet I. Cooper. Both papers are
conducted with spirit and are for Greeley
and Brown. There are many lawyers here.
| remember the names of Gen. Ramsey,
Col. shannon, Capts. Fewell and Smith,
Steele & Watts. Whitaker, Coleman q Rob-
erts, Capt. Ford, Stewart. Evans & Henry,
Capt. Thomas IL. Woods. and Hon. J. S.
Hamm. 1t really looks like these gentle
men may he able tie attend to the litigation
to which life at Meridian may give rise.
There are several very fine lawyers among
them, Mr.. Jones saws, that Capt. Woods is
one of the rising men of the State, and Mr..
Jones knows. Judge Hamm occupied the
bench of the Circuit Court for seven years,
in times, when the goddess of justice linger-
ed about the Court Houses of Mississippi.
Upon his seven years of judicial service any
LAWYER could repose for a reputation. As
legal scholar, profoundly learned in all the
literature of the great profession of Law,
Judge Hamm is the peer of any man in the
South. His conversation sounds to me as
oracular. Wise as he is learned, unpre
tending as he is prominent he affords to
the youth of the land a specimen of the
lawyer and the Judge. All these legal gen.
tlemen are for Greeley and Brown. met,
also, with Hon. w. G. Grace, who used to be
a LAWYER and an editor. He is now legis-
lator. When he saw me. he said, civilian,
| am for Greeley" Grace is an East Mis-
sissippian of the old school, and taken alto
oether is a "man of mark"
Brandon is an old substantial town, not