Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-07-29
LIFE ALONG THE RAILROAD
HSw They work and Live Along the
Cincinnati southern Roaai,
PowELL's STATION, July %,

Hcw They work and Live Along the
Cincinnati southern Roast.
PowELL's STATION, July %, 1874
EDITORS CHRONICLE: The drought
has become alarming il our commu-
nifty, and the candidates who scour
our section, say that after canvassing
the entire county they can't tell where
crops need rain the worst. Old men
say we can't make one fourth crop of
corn. For some days the twist has
remained over night in the blade. The
grass has wilted down on pasture lands
Gardens are about used up for good.
Sweet potatoes seem 70 stand the
drouth finely, but Irish potatoes are
generally given over for failure. But
during this writing light rain, with
| fine prospects for more, is falling. This
Will cheer up pastures, late corn, pota-
toes, gardens, etc. We hear men say
that springs are getting lower than
usual
We have great many grasshoppers.
but not an unusual amount for the
time of year. What few we have we
Just let 'em hop where they please;
they can't injure us; we have nothing
for them to eat, and If they can stand
1t narading en- nldSSe around our fields
to infuse life into the grass, we say to
'em, flank into II.
a friend Of ours lately from the
Cincinnati Southern road gives rather
gloomy picture of the moral and civil
prospects along the works that lie
! through the mountains. In some places
! Sundays are put in at baseball, card
! playing and hunting A good deal of
whisky drinking and fighting is done.
One day a party of railroad hands
started to Wartburg for whisky. They
got into Ii row with q man and knocked
him in the head with a rock, which,
! they thought, had killed him. AS they
returned, being intoxicated, they pick
ed IA fuss with another young man, and
began rocking him down the river bank.
! When he couldlgo no farther for the
river, he returned the compliment,
whereupon the rowdies shot at him.
| He split the river and escaped to the
other side. One night general row
took place on the road near Wartburg.
1t commenced between a boss and the
I hostler. Boss Knocked hostler down
and was pegging into him, when the
boss brother seized pick handle
and rushed in to help him.
He was told the hostler was on
top, whereupon he commenced
pick handling the top man with a
Vengeance. 1t is said he changed the
direction of his blows in twinkle,
when he found he was pounding has
brother. At about this juncture
stable hand, with comb and brush in
hand, rushed in to see the fight.
The boss was up by this time, and
seeing the comb and brush thought
they were brickbats, whereupon he
. ! y nnoIyaI ho 10 L.,
off the porch into a pile of picks,
shoves, etc, completely skinning him
20 pieces. He got up running, and
didn't stop soon. BY this time the two
brothers were mad enough to fight all
night, and having one or two more
urgent cases they set to work and soon
had the commissary clerk knocked
down and kicked out of doors. Their
next man was doctor. They floored
him, and one of them taking a position
astride of his stomach churned him,
while the other poked his pistols in
" docks" ears and twisted them
around like boring with gimlet, until
the skin was bored off
That same night row took place
between some darkles, in which brick
bats, pistols, &C., We're freely used. A
negro came into the ane'.. next day to
get MS WOUNDS Ni'--a.. Nnen the
bandage was taken of . II dropped
out of his head, not p-,ol ball-but
his eye-ball.
Our informant says female society is
very scarce there; he would work all
week. and walk two miles to see q wo-
mans apron hanging on clothes-line.
Only saw one woman in two months,
and she was riding man fashion to
mill. had very little to eat out there.
He got 80 thin he couldn't make
shadow, and when he got home had to
lean up against the fence to halloo, and
then his voice sounded like jaybird
or tin whistle.
But with all the evils of the railroad
country, there is a chance for religious
worship. The shanties are built in
rows, and it often occurs that men are
in one room at prayer meeting while
the rooms on either side are filled with
men drinking, dancing, playing cards,
gambling, etc.
The rain has passed We are jubi-
liant over it. Roy.