Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-01-21
A PITIFUL TALE,
A North CarOIina WOmAn's Expert
enee in Texas.

A North CarOlinA WOman's Expert
enee in Texas.
Chattanooga Dispatch, Jan. 10th.l
Many families that have gone to Texas
with the hope of getting suddenly rich
have discovered hat they were far better
of al home among friends; aud they
soon begin working with all the strength
they can muster to make enough to take
them back to the place from whence
they came. During December it was
estimated that from 300 to 400 immi.
grants from Texas passed Little Rock,
Ark, daily. They come back in most
destitute condition, some By rail, some
in wagons and on foot, carrying what
little household goods they have along.
Sunday a Dispatch reporter, while
passing through the East Tennessee train
which was just about to leave, was ap-
pealed to by apoor woman, who had mis-.
taken him for the conductor, to carry her
and her child and niece as far as he could
for four dollars, the entire amount of her
money. She wanted to 90 to Knoxville.
Our reporter stopped sad looked at the
party. The woman was about thirty
years old, dressed very scantily for such
a cold day as was Sunday, but she said il
was her all. She was accompanied by
her daughter, a bright little girl about
four years old, and her niece, a pretty
aud bashful maiden Of fifteen. They
oil looked as if they had gone
through hardships, hunger and cold.
and as they huddled up to the
stove they presented a sad picture. OF
course they we're returning from Texas.
We had seen many from the same local.
ity looking as destitute. Our reporter.
who Of course felt insulted, Captain Par.
ker being the conductor, told the woman
be was not in charge Of the train but
was a newspaper reporter. well, il
you are q newspaper man." says she.
you should advise the people around
these parts who are talking Of going TO
Texas that they had better stay where
they are. | have been to Texas and foupd
it the best place in the world for hard
work, and no place for poor folks"
The womsn's name Is Mary Miller. In
February, 1876, she and her child left
Wautauga county, North Carolina. with
her father, mother, two sisters, brother
cousin and two %nieces, for Dallas county
Texas. AS soon as she sat foot in Dallas
county, her trouble, she says, began. She
had thirty cents when sho got there. and
it was as much as her people could do To
keep soul and body together. Two weeks
after arriving in Texas one of her sisters
got chills and fever and died. The
mother soon followed the daughter. the
father fingered short time when be died.
The cousin and a niece also we're buried
there. Mrs. Miller aud her niece. Mary
Brsnhills. then went to work to get
back 10 North Carolina. By their united
efforts, working in the fields ~"chopping
out cotton" they managed in q year aud
q half to save up SIS. There was a left
after paying their fare to Chattanooga.
The nearest point to their home is Ma
rion, Virginia; but Mrs. Miller said If she
reached Knoxville, which was eighty
miles from her old home, she thought
she could walk the distance in two weeks
She left a brother and sister, both mar.
ried, in Texas, ekiBg out an existence.
II they had the money they would be
glad to come back.
Such is life in Texas to the people
who 60 there without money.