The Morehouse clarion., 1880-04-16
For the Clarion.
SHALL WE HAVE A RAILROAD !?

The time has now arrived when
the people of Morehouse must de-
eide this question for themselves.
Whether they will continue to pay
seventy-five cents to one dollar and
a half per hundred pounds to have
their products hauled off and their
supplies hauled in, bv the slow pro-
cess of ox-teams and dirt roads
and be subjected to all the expense
and delay dependent upon the late
and precarious navigation OF our
bayous or whether they will have
a road at their doors which will at
ford them at all times quick and
cheap transit to market, not only
for the great staples they now sell,
but also for hundreds of other
things which now rot and perish on
their hands and afford them no inl
come, remains for them to say. |
Whether our merchants will still |
continue to strain their credit to
carry enormous stocks sufficient to
supply their customers for six, nine
or twelve months, taking all the
chances of losses by disaster to
crops, by extra insurance, by high
freights, forcing them to demand
excessive prices to cover excessive
risks. Whether our planters will
continue, in their same old grooves,
to pay high freights and high prices
for all they consume, and to depend
solely upon such staples as can be
kept on hand for long time, to the
neglect of all the fruits, vegetables
and stock that can be raised so
beautifully and in such profusion,
almost without labor or expense.
Whether professional men, mechan-
les. laborers, and all other classes
of our people upon whom, as con-
SINNERS. the extra and needless cost
of our extravaganza methods Of OBJ
tanning miserably poor living,
fall in the end most heavily, prefer
to continue in the old course, rests
with themselves to determine.
The 'sseven years of famine
seem at last to- have come to an END
and the whole world has awakened
to the belief that ''seven years OF
plenty will ensue; and in nc
branch of human industry has there
been a greater revival than in rail-
roads. More railroad work, both
! in building new roads and in repair
ING old ones was accomplished dur
ing the year 1879 than in any pre-
yious year. Even Louisiana, whose
soil has heretofore seemed so fata
to railroads, has caught the infec'
ton and in short time the Nortf
1 Louisiana and Texas road will be
: completed. The Morgan road is
almost complete. The New Or
: leans and Shreveport road is being
: pushed rapidly forward. Before
s this day twelve months these three
|, will have cut the State asunde1
o with their iron hands only to blnt
J. her more firmly to her sister states
on either hand.
>. Will the people Of Morehous'
. sleep while all others are awake an'
y stirring? Let us see!
J. First, let us consider what vii
u be the benefit and advantage Of
y railroad. Some of these have beel
y limited at above. But the benefit
g to all, collectively and individually
are too patent to require enumera
ton; and they are too numerous t
u be set down in this paper. Not
To man, woman or child exists in on
a. borders so dull as not to know tina
= the snort of the ''iron horse" woul
III be the happy forerunner OF pros
v perity in our midst. Therefore W
" want railroad.
H. Secondly, is it within our mean
to build one
The cost of a narrow gage roa
at is about six thousand dollars and
Of standard gage about nine thousan
dollars per mile through such coul
&c try as ours. This estimate include
st engines and rolling stock, static
it houses and all necessary appurt
. q nances for road in complete rul
ming order. The distance fro
Monroe TO to the Arkansas line