The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-12-26
LErrER From WILLIAM.


our path. we can see graves wherein reDose
forever, hopes that are gone. What grave
ward each of US has left behind! How few
of the hopes which we fondly cherished
when We began lilies journey, have been
realized, There was time when we had
no buried hopes. There was time when
| there was no silence in our lives. There
was a time, when our possibilities doomed
up and overshadowed all our fears, but that
time has gone. Now behind us are graves
and in our houses that man is happy who
has no grinning skeleton behind his door
These reflections must come to the heart OF
every thinking man, and arrest him al
| least for moment. The longer one lives
the more keenly he feels the suggestions
made by a closing year. We look back
| fifteen years and the time seems but span
"a hands breadth, yet measured before, as
| it. reaches to the grave, if several winters
have sprinkled the snow upon our heads.
The warm, generous heart that animates the
mother of thirty years will, most probably,
in rifteen years, be still. Fifteen years ago,
it sent the pure blood of her dawning
womanhood, bounding and tingling
| through her system.
The man, now clad with strength and
full of activity, and daily feaplng honors'
in fifteen years, may be disappointed, bro
ken hearted, undOne.
-" for men like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings, but to the
| summer;
| And not a man, for being simply man,
Hath any honor; but honor for those
hOnors
That are without him, as place, riches,
favor,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit:
Which, when they fall, as being slippery
SANDERS,
The love that lean ed on them, as slippery
too,
Do one pluck down another, and together,
Die in the fall
Since 1 wrote you before, l have visited
Austin, and was present at the Capital
State Fair. No one can visit this Fair and
resist the conviction that he is in a grow
ing and powerful country. The State Fair
in Jackson, in Its palme.t days, never pre-
scented such an exhibition and never real
lied so much money at the gate as did the
Fair in Austin in November. The grounds
are beautiful and the buildings large and
attractive. Every industry and all the fine
arts were represented. l met many Mis-
sissippians on the grounds, among them
DR.. j. L. Carter with the pupils from the
State Deaf and Dumb Asylum. The Doc
tor is highly esteemed and very popular. |
took ride from the city to the Fair
grounds with Col. l.. j. DuPre, wife and
little daughter. The Colonel is ealing ed
itor OF the Democratic statesman, and is
making an extended reputation as a gem
tleman of culture and brilliant writer
After spending some time with Mrs. ID.
a suspicion stole over me that DuPre was
inspire.
Among the machinery l Observed in
rapid motion,th Excelsior Cotton Cleaner
a Mississippi invention, aud Capt. Craven
of West Point, in your State, was reciting
his piece to admiring crowds. The value
of this invention can hardly be estimated.
Brazos bottom planters are buying U rap
idly and say, that it will add one cent per
pound in value to the cotton crop of every
plantation that passes through its machin-
cry. 1t takes out all the dirt and nearly all
the trash, makes the lint open, and stand
out well from the seed, and fits it for the |
gin to do ten per cent. more work than it |
could otherwise perform. Besides, all sand
being out of the cotton, the gin continues
sharp for years.
For the first time. saw that grand black |
prairie belt OF Texas, which is but a contin-
uation of the Illinois and Indiana prairies.
The land is better than in those States. l
law the portion in Williamson county. /
nave looked upon the Macon, Aberdeen,
Ind Okolona prairies, In their glory-in the
good old time, but they never were as good
Is this black prairie belt In Texas, espec-
ally in Williamson, Bell Hill, Bosque, ETC.,
counties. This region in Williamson
county is settling up rapidly, immigrants
being wealthy Kentuckians principally.
)ne little town, Taylor, on the International
Dad, ships 500 fine beeves to st. Louis every
week. Parties visiting Texas to settle on
-ood lands, should start from Dallas, or
hereabouts, aud go through Hill. Bosque
nd Williamson counties, in South Westerly
ERECTION. The belt is about one hundred I
alton of the praries of Illinois and Indiana,
eaching to Corpus Christi. The ma in por- {
on of this bait has been, for many years {
inaccessible; but the railroad {
ystem of the State is bringing it all into {
Citations with the world of speculation and I
ldustry. The magnificent farming region a
bout Dallas, Sherma and Paris is a fair a
lowing of what all will be in few year. t
ne thing may prevent. Lower down than
lese points the Mesquit region sets in, and t
TAT will always be a stock country, for the s
Orld must have beef and wool, and there O
no known section Ofthe country where ?
title and sheep can be raised at so little ,
'st. The mesquit grass is as nutritious as ?
ue grass, grows luxuriantly and is in
genOus to the soil. All kinds of stock are :
und grazing on these praries and prosper G
nd fatten at all seasons. Pasturago is not n
common now. Large bodies of lands are !.
need and each stock-raiser confines his n
ard to his own enclosure. There is no in n
lstrY more remnneratiVe than this, and o
1ne more inviting to the newcomer. i
1 have just returned from the Grand n
odge OF Texas, held recently at Houston
aving Joined the Masons in Mississippi, :.
I'd having visited the Grand Lodge there z
concluded to see how the Texas people N
anaged, and attended the recent meeting le
the Grand Lodge. The brethren here ~
e not wanting in those courtesies that dis Il
nguish the craft in older countries. They il
i've a magnificent temple that cost 100000 s
ID everything about it is fine. All the b,
continents have been made without ref
ence to cost, but to the elevation OF feel- g
9 produced by proper surroundings. =,
ended the Grand Chapter, also, and found OF
: hall of that body fitted up in the same az
lie as that WHICH was conspicuous in the al
and Lodge room. =,
What we call s'wOrk' is somewhat differ qi
!. and some OF the proceedings are differ vi
-. - W
, 'toln shoSo uau seeh East Vi the river w
e Grand Master, Marcus f. Mott, is a til
1tleman of high character and lawyer 70
ability, and to him 1 am indebted for "a
lrtesies. met several old men who had bo