The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1873-04-09

1Iessrs. Edaors-On Thursday, TIN
18th. l bid adieu to the scenes o
boyhood days. and started to seel
"fame and fortune in The great Stat
of Texas. At Knoxville, / wa.
joined by Sam. Taylor. of Morris
town, and II. S. Maloney, of Green,
county. These gentlemen were verY
pleasant travelling companions. w.
purchased tickets ever the Selma
Rome & Dalton Railroad. known,
| believe, as the Blue Mountain Route
We changed cars first at Cleveland
Tenn, and run out on a branch OF
the E. T., Va. & Ga. Railroad, te
Dalton, % miles. This road runs
through remarkably peor country
so poor, in fact. that / could not i'm
agine what it was made for, unless
to fill up a '.big hole" We left Dial.
ton at 6 o'clock. P. NJ, for Calera,
Ala. The road between these places
is rough, and the trains run very
slow. We reached Calera at 6, A.
NJ. This is the point of crossing fer
the n. & S. Railroad. from Decatur
to Montgomery. and the S., r. & D.
Railroad. The only thing Of note
about Calera is large, fine hotel.
In fact, that about constitutes the
town. We left Calera for Montgom-
cry at /, A NJ; arrived at 2, p.
NJ. and laid over until 6. We Wis
tied the Alabama Legislature while
in NJ, and found rather a motley
crew-nearly as many negroes as
white men. If you would ''dress mp
any of your common niggeTs. about
Morristown. they would compare ia
vorably with the Alabama legislators.
sayz some intelligent white men,
but not majority of the members
by any means. We were present at
the adjourning of the House for the
evening, which question gave rise to
a disorderly and disgraceful scene.
Some Of the members had some re-
marks they wanted to make, and
when the Speaker attempted to bring
the question of adjournment before
the House, they would interrupt him
in such a manner that he would be
compelled to stop. To me it seemed
rather disgraceful affair, but being
unsophisticated, perhaps 1 did not
know. They were engaged for some
time in this scene, and the Speaker
seemed to have little or no control
of the House.
AT o'clock, P. NJ, VIC took the
Montgomery & Mobile Railroad for
Mobile. The country from Calera
to Mobile is no account for anything
except pines. We passed through
some of the finest pine forests ev-
er saw. Thousands of trees, straight
without limb for many feet. There
are many steam saw-mills through
this country. Before we got to Mo-
bile the cypress forests set in, and
the timber is very fine. The whole
country is generally low and swampy.
and goes by the name of Hammock
land. We go for miles, in many
places without house. The forests
are said to abound in ducks, snipe
and wild turkey. At daylight, we
crossed the Tensas riyer--twenty-
one hundred feet wide and from 25
to so deep. From this on. we cross
ed rivers, bayous and bays very often.
| began to conclude that the whole
country was made of water. We
reached Mobile at g., 4. NJ. Mo-
bile is a point of considerable bust
ness. We remained here until 10
o'clock, and then took the N. O., NJ.
& Texas Railroad for New Orleans.
We saw no good land--none that an
East Tennesseean would fave. This
was on Saturday. We crossed sew
eral large water courses on that day.
Biloxi Bay is from mile to mile
and a quarter wide; also, the Bay of
Saint Louis is about the same width,
and have good, substantial bridges.
We saw some alligators along the
bayous near the track. and many 9TH
er things that would interest a Ten
nesseean. We saw. corn up, in lit
tie garden spots. along the road the
trees were green, and we began to
discover quite sensibIy that we were
in a warmer climate. We remained
in New Orleans until yesterday morn
ing, at the City Hotel. At s O clock.
we started for Brashear City, over
Morgan's Louisiana & Texas Rail-
road. This road connects with Nor
gan's line of steamers for Galveston.
Morgan is a New York man who
bought this line during the war, when
the stock was LOW. He owns and
controls the whole line from New
Orleans to Galveston. was told
that his income from this line was
about one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars per month. Pretty steep!
but it is a big line. The distance is
$50 miles-sO by rail, 24o by water.
Crossing the Gulf was the great
event Of our journey; one to which