Connecticut western news., 1879-02-12
ALetter from Texas.

EDITOR ws:-Thinking that perhaps some of your readers would like to hear from this part of the world, and having leisure this rainy day, will send you few notes from Texas.
 Spring has come with us. Fo1 the past week we have had weather similar to that of New England iu the latter part of April or first of May. The cold wave of the frat l of this month reached here, and caused as much. or more suffering than 1t did farther north for we arc not as well prepared for | cold weather. Snow fell to the depth of two or three inohee, and staid on the ground about ten days. It was good sleigh | ing for three days. Never has been such winter since Texas was settled says the oldest inhabitant." Our usual winter weather resembles yours of November. The Northerners to not Iastlessthan twelve nor unusually more than forty-eight hours: | one lasted a week since we have been ID the state. Have uo fault to find with the cii- mate. for it is a great improvement on old Connecticut, and the Spring and Autumn
 months are stjust lovely" Have picked | wild howers-purple verbenas-every month since I've been In the state Blue violets bloom from January to June. An derson county can., with truth: claim as great a variety of soils as any m the state.
 or United States for the m tier, from black | sticky, on the Trinity bottoms-w here the | fence raIls are said to have chills and fever | every August, to white sand that will not spTout white beans. The prevailing soil IS grey and red sandy. with some black sandy | on the creek bottom. Ehe past season has | been good one. all kinds of crops having finest kind, and cotton averaged one half a
 bale of Int to the acre. They tell of a bale to the acre, but that is one of the things
 have vet to see. AtEthe beginning of the
 season, cotton was ten cents per pound, but
 it has fallen an eight and sixteenth at M
 time, until now It is from i've and a half to
 seven cents for the best. Corn at gathar@ ing time was thirty cents per bushel, it hass
 rIsen since to fort, five. Sweet putatoe4 fifty cents, oats thirty to forty cents DOT dozen bundles, corn fodder two cents per
 bundle, pork in the carcass five cerrs per
 pound. beef in the quarter from three 70
 four cents per pound. turkles from seventy five cents to one dollar each, chlckens.
 twenty-five cents each, eRas t~enty-fye
 cents per dozen now, butt will soon cdnie down to ten, butter from fifteen to twenty
 cents per pound, Most of the Rroceries that
 we have to buy, are from ten to twenty per cent, higher here, than at the north. Good work mules are fifty dollars each.
 POnles from fifteen to forty dollars each,
 oxen forty dollars yoke, cows with young
 calf, fifteen dollars, hogs from two to three
 dollars head. Have hsd a letter from .
 friend asking my views of the politics of
 the South. 1 know very little of the work
 inRs of the old political machine, but sec
 nothing different bere in It's workings than
 in any other place that I've hved in. Tue
 candidate that has most money and tnt1u- ence, or friends with tue most, gets the ? place. The Freedmen vote for; the man
 that the boss does. If he wants them to. IT
 he does not interfere, they vote for tA0 man that their preacher tells them to, In
 one thing they are rather unjust to the
 'poor piRgar," they make him show hiS
 poll tax receipt before he can vote; whigh
 Is ali right enoughi but what is saute .fht
 the goose, should be sauce for the GahdefS ln my humble opIniOn. do not belieYA
 any were kept from the polls Tn Andefsd9
 pay thsir s tax. " He asks Sss Sre a the SEi,ss
 more sober, industrious and intelligent tl o, +h~ir oolGred brotheisP Nol both
 drink all the wnlskey that is Rooo TOT them. In the city of Palestine with less
 than 4.000 inhabitants, there are slxteen saloons and four dI uR stores, besides hve or SIX Groceries where they are not allowed
 to sell less than & quart. AR for'the fqs
 dustlious part, neither are, iatthough there
 are exceptions in both classes. tue blacks
 having the advantage. The white people
 are the more intelligent, for they can most | of them read and write, not one in dozen
 of the blacks can do either, but they send
 their children to school, and take mora interest m sehoos than tne white folks ot | this vlclnity. 's. 's Nt
 SIX young men are on trial now in Pales- | tine for shooting a mau, his wife, and an | infant ln the arms of the woman. Tho l Palestine papers have neither of tbem Riv- l en the particulars of the crime and have not seen 1t entioned in any other paper.
 This IS the way l hear the story: party | of young white nen went to a negro school l teachers House, and gave him whipping | for being too smart, and putlr g onh atrs, | said they would whID some of the smart
 ness out of him. Dr. Grayson knew who they were, at was the principle witness l in tn prosecution of the party, who were | heavily fined. Some three or four weeksra after, the doctor was called up in tl night, and as he went out of tue door, | down. HIs wife hearing the nose, fol | ed Dlm with ter three weeks old b8 | her arms, ard was shot by another
 from the concealed ruffians. Thd child lay h its dead mothers ar night, and died in few days. Thinky | was nothing of a political character affair. Ar. fHrayson was an old TesjdanI tue ccunty, came here before the war. aHs
 hls connection with the W whipping Bdsiness was in the interest of law and good order.
 The murder occurred last May, and excltes ment ra high tor few days, with talk of | tynching the prisoners. They have been confined in the jail at Austin all summer. | But thIs eplstle IS quite long enough, aud | III stop for you must be tired, MT. Editor, of dec phering my hyeroglyphlcs:
 Palestine Jan. 1879.