The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-08-08
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mentum of speed can be kept up, it will
gather as it goes until it assumes res
pectable and even gigantic proportions.
The Grange a kind of protective
agricultural society, a very little ball in
its beginning, now looms up a strong
bulWark against the tyranny of monOp-
olies, and bids fair to include the whole
Union in its course.
The "Grange" is an association for
the advancement of Intelligent labor.
1t deals with the question from every
point of view. 1t seeks to adjust the
much vexed problem between labor and
capital, and above all things it aims to
protect the farmer against railroad mo-
nopolies which, at the West, have de-
voured his substance, and are fast driv-
ing him from the tillage of the soil to
some more remunerative industries.
In a few words the object of the assO-
citation is to protect the interests of the
farmer, and to develop all the possible
channels of wealth and prosperity which
are unrecognized in the different States.
We do most earnestly hope the ball
will roll down our way. Evenifitreaches
us, though we fear it will lodge in one
Of our old ruts of custom, for they are
deep enough to swamp al elephant. We
have crawled in them so long that it will
need a strong pull to draw us out. And
if we are drawn out, we are so far be-
hind the progress of the Age that it is
very questionable whether we will not
back into them again, as a hole best
suited to our very limited aspirations.
We are very much welded to good old
ways here in St. Landry. We plough,
and SOW, and reap pretty much upon the
agricultural pattern of fifty years ago..
We dig our bitches with no regard to
the laws of drainage, and water running
up hill, or down hill, is all one to us. In
fact we don't understand that there are
bitches and bitches, as there are men and
men, diferingfr0m each otherin quality.
1t is pretty much the same with every
thing else. Because Sunday trading
was a necessity in the early settlement
of OpelOusas, we are mortified, and
strangers astonished to find open store
doors and brisk trading on the Sabbaths
of to-day. 1t is a standing reprOach to
the community; but, none the less, it is
an established custom which any num-
Der of Oranges" would find it difficult
to do away with, if they took the matter
in hand as a very crying imposition of
capital upon labor.
Even if this association did nothing
more than investigate the quality of soil,
the products, and climate most specially
adapted to each, and the manner of Gull
tivation, it would be of %incalculable ser
vice to the Southern States.
We have a climate and soil adapted
to any form of vegetable life; buta bar
rem waste made fertile by intelligent
labor would yield a richer return to it's
possessors than any of our large i'll titled
plantations. ........
Let the ball roll on and gather as it
goes? Whether the world is speeding
to a better spiritual life or not, it is GER
tain that all its physical needs are be-
coming enlightened. Wickedness may
not grow less, but ignorance will be an
impossibility even in the little corners
of the earth. |
Whether we rebel OF not at the inno-
walton, it is going to be ostrong for us.
Even if Wa set our faces against the new
lights, they will reach us through alb
sorption if in no other way. Twenty
years hence we will see better planting,
new industries, mechanical improve
ments, and the advantages of the finest
parish in Louisiana developed to the
fullest extent. At least we hope so, for
looking meditatively at the bitches on
the streets where the water runs up in
stead of down, and at the tumble down
condition Of things in general, we think
a few new ideas would help matters
nightly.
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