Nebraska advertiser., 1880-12-23
SCENES IN THE SOUTH.
A Railroad Ride Through TIE nnessee
and n Visit Among the People ---SOme
Graphic Descriptions Of the Country
and PeopIe---Jaekson and Polk.


Correspondence II the Chicago Times.
A ride across western Tennessee, from
the Mississippi river to Nashville, on
cold day, viii shake the poetry out of
any man unless he be a long-haired
verse maker who has no poetry in him.
1t is the most dilapidated, heel-worn,
breechin-chafed spot it was ever my mis-
fortune to see in this country. And still
the hold-backs are taught, for, accord
ing to the best authoritieS-thOse who
live there-the place is still going down
hill.
| had always entertained the delusiOn
that John Underwood, who crawls I'M
der a woOd-pile and writes ''JnO." to
save the trouble of signing his full name,
was lazy, but compared with the aver
age western TenneSSeean he is perfect
beehive of industry. There is no dam
ger that these people will ever spell ma
ton with big n. If their ignorance is
not a sufficient embargo, the trouble of
writing a bigger letter than is utterly
necessary will prohibit.
THE PRINCIPAL INDUSTRY
of western Tennessee q judge all by the
local travellers on our train) is wishing.
Sometimes a man gets from one station
to another without wishing for anything,
but Oftener he wishes twice for every
thing. Wishing Is reduced to a science
| here ''Wish | had some tobaccy;"
wish the train run faster;;" ''Wish |
was hCme;" wish was home;" ''Wish
| | hadn't started" ''WiSh somebody
stir up the fire." and like sentences were
as common as begsars in the Holy Land
or greenbackers in bankruptcy; yet no
effort was made toward the realization
of these wishes. Everybody seemed to
be content with expressing his wants.
They reminded me of a bevy of hungry
children peering through bakers win
dow and wishing for things they have
no hope of getting.
One grizzly man in rags-almOst a
| grizzly bear-sat doubled up like II,
with his knees against the back of the
! seat before him, when he learned, too
late, that the Nashville d Chattanooga
railroad company has such implicit con-
| fidence in its conductors honesty that IT
| throws off a cent mile to those who
purchase tickets; he paid the conductor
and said he wished the railroads were in
HI. The conductor quietly suggested
that it would then be but matter of
short time when they would be-
gin to eternally torment him. "Waal,"
| said the Tennesseean without undue
modestv, 81 wish | wuz God Almighty
| about fifteen minutes, anyhow" He
/ didn't say what he would do, but / pre-
sumo he had in his mind some separate
place set apart for railroads.
Once in a while we passed little
! tumble-dOwn, neglected village, nearly
all of them backed by good enough
country-rich, red soil, amply watered
and well wOOded-but not farm could
be seen from the car. The towns aver
! aged three saloons to one church and no
] school house. The gates were off their
/ hinges, and even the doors. if there had
| ever been any to the houses, were gone.
| The fences seemed cyclone stricken, the
windows were away from home and
their holes not even boarded over or
| filled with rags. No, the rags were
wound around the people; and it was
not difficult to imagine they were sitting
| in these holes huddled about the brick
or stone fireplaces, that carry 90 per
cent of the heat up the chimney, and
wishing something perhaps wishing
they were dead and in some nice, warm
| place. Altogether it was cold ride
| through a desolate, cTeaking, moaning,
wishing country. 1t was almost as
pleasant as a stroll through mOOn-lit
graveyard with MISUNDERSTANDING
| goblin.