The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1878-06-05
From Waggener.

Editor Register:
On the 18th Of January, 1878, at
West Columbia, / shipped on board
the steamer Phil. Morgan, bound for
Yicksburg, Mississippi; the crew
consisted Of Captain W. II. Sargent,
Engineers Summers, Pilot, Kinder
Fireman, McCune, Mate, Woods, to-
gether with the Captains wife, three
children, a German girl from Mason
City, Miss Irene Neale of Clifton,
who proved TO be in my estimation,
the belle Of Mississippi for beauty,
Having single crew, We run only
in daylight, which gave me q chance
TO see all that is to be seen; the wind
detained us some, and after passing
about sixty cities and towns, We
landed at Vicksburg, February 18th,
in good order and well conditioned.
Vicksburg claims a population Of
eighteen thousand and in descending
the Mississippi river, you have a
magnificent view of it as it stands
on elevated ground; it boasts of some
very fine churches and the finest
court house | think in the Union,
two foundries, cotton press, three
saw mills, and one oil mill, making
so barrels oil per day, from cotton
seed.
After reconnoitering a few days
about the city and making some
changes in hands, we loosed cable for
a trip two hundred and seventy.fve
miles up the Yazoo river and one Of
its tributaries, Talahatchie, twenty
five miles; we passed Yazoo City, one
hundred miles up, place of consid-
erable Importance with population
of five or six thousand, besides two
other little villages on same river
The Yazoo has one of the finest soils
for cotton in the Mississippi Valley.
1t requires about six or seven steam
boats, seven months in the year to
carry out the cotton and seed. was
informed by cotton raisers, that two
bales per acre could be raised, say
four hundred pound bales, worth on
the farm Mt present time, eight dol
lars per hundred, making sixty-four
dollars per acre, and you can rent
from sixty pounds to one hundred
pounds per acre, but as general
thing they make from bale and up,
to a bale and half per acre; and to
a casual observer the prospects is
very hattering for making money.
wood land being cheap, from 25 cts.
up to $500 dollars per acre, rich
alluvial soil, but there is two sides to
the question; out side of the towns,
school houses so far as my observa-
tions went, is many many miles
apart, churches none, society, where
you find a full Anglo-Saxon, good,
kind, hospitable, as1 ever met in any
country; but they are like churches
and school houses, scarce and far be-
tween; another drawback is leveeing
your land, say five feet high, to keep
out back-water, and in high water
you have to herd your stock on
mounds made by the Indians to
catch buffalo on, or make RATS and
put your stock on them and keep
them on. One gentleman told me
he had kept his on two months at
time. Another slight objection j
would have to emigrating to that
county,, would be the gnat, a small
fly that destroys the lives of hundreds
Of mules every year, by eating into
their nostrils and ears; but the eli
mate is delightful in winter, colds
and coughs none, tropical fruits in
great abundance and the finest fish
for the catching. Well Mr., Editor,
l have been in twelve States and
after looking at the advantages and
disadvantages of all the States l have
been in, have come to the conclu-
sion that Mason county, West Vir-
GINA, is the best location for the
man of wealth to enjoy life and
make money. All things considered,
soil, climate and health are equally
as good, or better for the poor labor
ing man and being OF the latter class
myself, l have come to the conclu-
sion to stay and not emigrate in my
declining years to worse place.
PETER DARNEL.