The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-11-08

Lumber TOT buiidlng purposes, vel
low pine, first quality, per thousand
feet, log through, rough, 80 to $3.50;
dressed ceiling, SO to SIP; dressed
weather boarding, sl5; dressed floor
ing, SIG. Cypress shingles, hand made,
$3.50 to S. per thousand.
Labor commands the following
prices: Carpenters, $3.50 to IS per
day; ship-wrights, S. per day; team
sters, hauling freight for merchants, so
cents per load; chief sawyers or fore
men in saw mills, S2.50to So per day;
ordinary laborers in saw mills, brick
yards, etc. per day, 81 with, and S1.50
without, board.
From thirty to sixty schooners are
engaged in carrying lumber from the
saw mills on Lake Charles and the Cal
casieu river to Galveston and other
Texas ports, and in bringing back
freight for our merchants and people
generally. The mercantile trade of
Lake Charles is chiefly with Galveston.
Three or four steam ting boats ply on
the Calcasieu river, towing schooners,
etc, and logs for the mills.
TOWNS AND PosT-oFFIoEs.
The post-offices in Calcasien are
Lake Charles, Rose Bluff and Phillips
Bluff, on the Cacasieu 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
furnishing settlements, with stores,
saw-mills, schools, etc.
cALCAsIEU 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 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, SUI
gar cane and sweet potatoes grow lux
Excellent cotton, rice, and
Irish and sweet potato crops are
raised in the pine woods. fCalcasieu 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 fCalcasieu
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