The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-11-22

TOWNS AND PosT-oFFICES.
The post-offices in Calcaslen are
Lake Charles, Rose Bluff and Phillips
Bluff, on the Calcasieu river; Niblett's
Bluff and Meadows Store on the Sa-
bine; and Sugar Town, Hickory Flat,
Dry Creek and The Bay, in northern
and northeastern Calcasieu. At Sugar
Town there are steam mills, for saving
lumber, ginning and pressing cotton,
grinding corn, and cleaning rice.
West Lake Charles, opposite Lake
Charles, and Bagdad, about mile
above West Lake Charles, both on the
west side of the Calcasieu river, are
flourishing settlements, with stores,
saw-mills, schools, etc.
cALoAsIEU PARISH,
is the largest in the State, being about
eighty miles from north to south, and
seventy miles from east to west, and
containing nearly six Thousand square
miles. The Mermentau river separates
it on the east from St. Landry parish,
and the Sabine river on the west from
Texas. while the Calcasieu river flows
nearly through its centre. 1t is thirty
five miles from Lake Charles, on the
Calcasieu river, to the Sabine, and a
little over forty miles from Lake Charles
to the Mermentau river. The country
east of the Calcasieu river is prairie,
and west of it pine woods. The pine
woods are scanned with a great number
of creeks, bordered with white oak,
pin oak, beech, magnolia, pine, gum,
blackberry, holly, and other trees. The
soil of the creek bottoms is good, and
settlers in the pine woods live chiefly
along these streams. The purest well
water abounds in the pine woods. The
prairies are chiefly used for grazing
purposes, with occasional small farms,
where, with very little labor, rice, su-
gar cane and sweet potatoes grow lux
uriantly. Excellent cotton, rice, and
Irish and sweet potato crops are
raised in the pine woods. Calcasieu is
the greatest country in the world for
rice, upland and lowland, and sweet
potatoes. Peaches Of the finest quality
are raised in the pine woods. Horses,
cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry do well
all over the parish. Game abounds in
the pine woods, bear, deer, turkeys,
and squirrels; the prairies abound with
prairie chickens and wild fowl of all
kinds, while the rivers, lakes and creeks,
are alive with trout, perch, mullett,
gaspego, buffalo, catfish, etc. At
Calcasieu Pass are found oysters, crabs,
shrimps and reddish.
The principal industries of Calcasieu
parish, so far, have been stock raising
and the lumber business. We have
heard native Texans say they have never
seen beef equal to that killed in our
markets at Lake Charles. The com
pletion Of the New Orleans and Texas
railroad, however, will open up new
and permanent departure in Calcasieu
from the old order of business, and with
the introduction of scientific farming
and fruit raising here We predict that
in a few years Calcasieu will become
as famous for its fruits and farms as ii
now is for its lumber and beeves.
All u. S. public lands in Calcasieu,
including hundred thousand acres
of valuable pine timbered lands, are
for sale at the u. S. Land Office at
New Orleans, at SLIPS per acre, and
are also subject to homestead entry in
tracts not exceeding 100 acres. In the
lumber business the mills pay for logs
from $3.50 to S6 per Thousand feet.
In the log business choppers get 90
cents per log and make from $3.50 to
$3.50 per day; raftsmen get 80 per day;
teamsters, $l.5o per day. The log
business on the Calcasieu and Sabine
rivers is chiefly confnedt 10 yellow pine;
ON the Mermentan, chiefly to rcd cy-
press.
Calcasieu has always been known as
the strongest democratic parish in Lou
isiana. 1T has nearly two thousand
registered voters, and has never yet
given one hundred votes for any state
or national republican ticket. 1t Is
emphatically a white mans parish, the
white voting population being about
1000, and the colored about 800. The
people of Calcasieu as class are hon
est, hard-working and law-abiding, and,
in the pine woods especially, manifest
a deep and general respect for religion
and religious services.
DO You want to have yourtaxesk kept
up or do you want them reduced to g
mills, less than half what you now pay,
less than one-fourth what you paid I'M
der Warmoth's reign? If You want