The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-05-24
THE BIGGEST COTTON PLANTER.
A Man Who Has Nineteen Plantations
and Grows 10000 Bales Annually.

Jackson (Nliss) Correspondence of the Chicag
: Tribune.
''Praps you don't know that I've bull
myself gravestone. Well, it's fact. Iv
put $17, 200 into it. 1 think it's pruden
for man to be his own administrator
l It's business. And I'm going to be m,
t own administrator. That's the reason Nv,
built my own gravestone for $4,000 cash
) before | died.n
The speaker was Edward Richardson
of Jackson, Mississippi.
THE MOST ACTIVE AND INFLUENTIAL BUS
r MESS MAN IN MISSISSIPPI,
if not in the South, He unused moment
and continued with chuckle:
''Did you ever hear what Tom Young
said about my. gravestone? Tom haC
taken an extra toddy, and he looked al
my statue-I.ha life-size statue on the
top of my gravestone-and he said, said
Tom, There's old Ned Richardson, by
heaven, with one eye on the penitentiary
and the other on the capitol"
Old Ned Richardson is constantly after
convict labor, and he is reported to be
the proprietor of the Legislature when he
wants to be, and his statue faces the cap
itol and penitentiary, as Tom Young said
it did.
Mr. Richardson lives in jackson, but he
has property interests all over the State
He owns nineteen plantations in the mar
velously rich river country above Vicks-
burg, including Washington and Issaque-
ma counties, and the Yazoo districts. He
has $4,000 acres under cultivation-15,0 900
of them in cotton. He raises about 10, 900
bales or 45,000,000 pounds of cotton an
nually. He has 5000 acres in corn and
oats for the support of his stock and his
people. And yet he has not land enough.
| Whenever planter is hard up, and wants
to sell his place for cash, he applies first to
old Ned Richardson, knowing that from
him he will get cash offer, though
low one. I heard Mr.. Richardson offer
the owner of plantation $4,000 cash for
| land which the owner valued at $4,000;
and, though the offer was at first refused, l
was under the impression that it would ul-
| timately Be accepted. Nor is Mr.. Richard
sons distinction derived only or solely from
his plantations. He controls the cotton
market to higher degree than any other
living man, He is
THE GOLD HUTCH OF NEW ORLEANS.
When he takes snuff, all the other brokers
sneeze As member of the first firm in
point of volume of business, he receives
and disposes of more than 100, 0C0 bales Of
cotton annually. He is the heaviest ex-
porter. He has constantly the largest sup>
plies on hand. For instance, when cotton
sold soon after the crop was marketed for
eight cents and fraction he kept back the
bulk of his crop. He has sold most of it
II and II cents He has still 1000 bales
l,oo1v ,rb iol, ho 70, raoliuh
l3 cents as cotton is advancing. ''If l
hadn't waited" said Mr. Richardson, 81
would have quit loser on the year. But I'll
make little something on last years crop;
and, if the indications for this year don't
fail, or if this exodus don't break up things,
1 ought to clear $50,00O to 100000 on
this year" Mr.. Richardson was not boast
ing. These statements were pried out
of him by questions on other points, His
shrewdness as a cotton dealer is evider ced, |
moreover, by the fact that, while he is SELL
ing at the highest price, he bought at the
lowest. A chief owner of the
COTTON AND wooLEN MILLS
at Wesson, Miss, in which he now runs
10000 spindles, and is now putting in 5000 |
more he has to buy 1900 or 400 bales of
cotton annually near the mills, when he
does not plant himself. All this was put
in at eight cents and a fraction per pound.
If 1t could be sold now, the profit on it
would be about $35, 900? This would make
it worth while to close the mills, but for
the throwing of the operatives out of EN-
ployment. 1t is not simple thing here,
where new hands would be hard to obtain,
to shut down work and let the operatives
go; and on this account Mr.. Richardson
,Ofo o. 70 !
all the hard times. He says, indeed that
THESE COTTON MILLS ARE PROFITABLE,
and'there is consequently no reason why
wages should be reduced. The mills re-
turn about 123 per cent. regularly on the
capital invested. The cotton they use is all
bought at the door, and costs usually two
and fraction less per pound than used in
At the ordinary price of
cotton last year, this would be difference
Of 25 per cent. in favor of the South. The
labor here is also cheaper, and wherever the
capital can be obtained at reasonable rates,
such enterprises, in the opinion of Mr..
are always bound to succeed. {
Their success would mean more, he be- ]
loves, than the success of few fortunate ]
individuals. 1t there were as many cotton
mills in Mississippi, in proportion to popu" l
alton as there are in Massachusetts, the T
abor problem would be solved. There
would be place to use labor which cannot :
low be employed in the field. Poor whites ;
md members of the negro family who are :
low burdens on the community would be
BREAD WINNERS. .
Mr.. Richardson cited n number of in |
tances of absolute paupers, white and col =
,red who had become Self>sustaining in his :
Mills, and asserted that 435 out of the $50 :
rployed therein, would have done nothing
or their own livelihood if they had not
,een offered these situations. \
1 asked why the mills were put at dis>
ance from the river apparently at an out
f-the-way place. The answer was that it
ras then ia the midst of a rich wool grow
ng section. The mills use 1,50O to /, 400 v
ales of wool, or GOO, 600 to 700, 900 pounds "
nd all the wool, as well as all the cotton, II
) brought to the door on wagons from the s.
country, Jeans, striped cot Z
Dns aud brown goods are the principal h
roducts of the mills. ri
Mr.. Richardson owns a cotton seed oil "
ill on the Mississippi, and has many ii
ther small irons in tile fire; but these only c.
o, as Col. Sellers says, for ''side invest al
rents, y to keep his money employed. He st
reputed to be worth from $4,000, 900 to NJ
G, 900, O0O and though he and his partner o,
t New Orleans have 81, 100000 already m
1vanced on the growing cotton crop, they III
ave still left more money than they know d,
ow TO employ. They are frightened away Ia
rom Government bonds-by the prospect W
{ only four per cent; but they are after W
ivsstments that will yield 10 to - per 81
emit II