Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-08-09
THE PLANTATION.
How the People live fn Tsxas-ThsiF
River Farms-Eh hst they Produce
Selling PFiees-Tbe Rarisfsas.
Cedar FOrest-HAg- making Resources
of the COuntry-Habi;s Of the PeO-
PIe-FIeas aud Pigs-A Per
sOuai SkeIch.

John G. Smith, of Bouham-an extraOr-
| dinary name, OF I wouldn't print it
i owns plantation on Red river, in Fam
| min county, OF fourteen hundred acres.
/ II the whole were half TILED and de-
/ voted to cotton production he uld
/ ship fourteen hundred bales to market
and enjoy a comfortable little revenue
/ of eighty-five thousand dollars. He
can only secure labOrers enough to till
four hundred acres. Half this area is
! devoted to cotton, will make two hum
| dred bales, and the rest furnish corn,
/ millet, wheat and tobacco enough fOf
/ two or three such places. Red river is
so called because of the color Of al W.
vium suspended in the water and 0e-
posted in the lowlands. Dry as tne
/ weather has been for six week
/ this surface coil becomes an impalpabl
powder. 1t Is blown about by tie
| winds, and when riding a dromedary
| with ears a foot long and sbambiing
| gait over the place. was converted by
! the pigment that Red river deposits on
| its shores into a ChOctaw chief Perhaps
4 the Indian race found in this soil its orr
gin. Surely then they lived on the fat
/ of the land" Vegetation grows with
| tropical luxuriance. Cedar trees, con-
/ stitutihg extensive fOrests along the
| river shore, are more than one hundred
/ feet high Houses and fences are con-
structed of these, and Solomon, wise as
he was, did not discover this cheapest
market IN which TO buy this durable
wood and set up his planning mills. The
Lebanon OF the continent is in the val
ley 81 Red river.
Isn't IT sACRILEGI0USl
The good housewife, Mrs Viekers, at
I whose table l was sitting Just now,
/ cooked the dinner iE QUE Of Wetter's
| Monroe street stoves, with fires Aindied
/ with odorifsrOus cedar. The rooms Of
/ the cabins, each eighteen or twenty feet
/ square, are of cedar logs foot face. The
/ garden palings and miles Of rail fencing
are of cedar. B0is dare or osage orange
/ tiOuTishes, but cedar fence Outlasts this
/ Tough wood used in making wagon-hubs
and counting the ears of fenduTing stone.
! II is needless to tell that such soil as this
/ is easily cultivated, and especially is this
/ true when little rain falls. Then deep
| blowing and pulverizatiOn Of the soil
/ attracts moisture from breezes sweeping
/ nOrthwardly and perpetuaiiy from the
| Gulf; and whenever industry and INTEL
! ligence shape s farmers fortunes, rich
harvests are assured. Four hundred
acres of this doetOI's plantation ale in
| the open prairie. From the uucultiva-
ted prairie hay is cut by MeCOrmiek's
TeapeTs, and people here have only fail
ed to become enormously rich because
| railways were wanting, and thieves
/ and adventures, through the interven-
| ton of savsges, for time shaped the
| country's political fortunes. An Or
| ehard of three hundred acres furnishes
] -, N-t,fk laA rsrr
supplies fish for the table and an abuDd-
ance Of the purest well water for every
| purpose. This plantation may be bought
at fifteen dollars per acre, and unculti-
waited, uuimproved tracts, to become as
valuable when improved, are sold at
! five and eight dollars. BOnhsm, on the
Texas and Pacific railroad, is twelve
miles from the plantation OF which |
| tell, and the country round is almost
I perfectly level over rolling prairie and
never muddy. When the Texas aud
( Pacific is extended through Paris to
/ Jefferson, and the road built from Pine
4 Bluff through Camden to Jefferson, the
distance to Memphis will be
one hundred miles less than to Calves
I ton, and two hundred and fifty less than
I to st. Louis. If Memphis merchants
aud railways interested build this cheap
highway from DIyalls Bluff to Camden
and Jefferson, forty thousand cotton
/ bales, aud an enormous concurrent trade
will be secured by Memphis from four
| northeastern counties of Texas, lying On
! Rsd river; the density Of population in
all these counties, with the quantity,
value aud variety of their productions,
will he rapidly augmented.
ANADvENTURE.
/ The town of Bouham, at which |
! spent four days, and in its vicinity, was
named in honor of Colonel Bonham,
who fell with Fannin, msssacred by
( Mexicans at the Alamo. But there was
| another Colonel Bonham, who claimed
I the honor Of having ehristeued the pref
ty prosperous village of the plains. Tbs
/ Bonhsm was a red-haired hOrse-tTadlT
of thirty-five years ago. He was wont
| to enter the Indian country across REQ
river, and returning with ponies, dis
tribute them among planters Of Louis
/ lana. BOnham, when crossing Red
river, was arrested by Indians, who had
never before seen such red-baired man.
| They asked him (he spoke their lam
| guage) wry he had painted his head so
| strangely and furiOnsly red. He an
swered that he was not, as charged,
/ OtSEGlSeu nOfsS-tQlel. L lie luulducY lu-
credulous, gave up poor BOnham to the
tender mercies of rude squaws. They
stripped and took him down into the
| depths of Red river, and baptized
and scrubbed pOJr BOnham's skull till
/ its radiant verdure was almost uproOted.
The Eve-sngelicsl squaws at last aoan-
| doned the tssk in despair; the cOlOrs
were fast, and the sore-headed BOnham
rested week, where the pretty village
stands that bears his name. Such is the
uncertainty OF even modern history. II
| may credit recent local publications,
there must ever be two warning factions
ia Bonbam; one, asserting the descent
of the village from the Bonhsm that
fought Mexico, aud fell at the Alamo;
and the other, from him of Rufus-hke
Uranium, who fell into the embraces Of
the dusky, barber-ous maidens of the
forest.
PARIS
is thirty-eight miles east OF Bonham, on
the line OF the Texas and Pacific and
| Memphis road. Ii has perhaps i've or
| fbns.1anH fnho bifun4q A Mrs