The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1881-07-19
DIXIE'S LAND.
A Graphic Description of q Part
Of the Sunny South-The New
Rich Region Of Tennessee.
MARTIN, Tenn, July 2.

mAnIAN, Acuu, July &.
The backwoods Of Dixie are not es
pecially inviting to q visitor, unless
he is seeking place to decay with q
comfortable but certain decline of en-.
ergy. This is a southern backwoods
region with all conceivable slowness
and stagnation. The town of about
six hundred human bodies has a saw
mill for centre, rows of country stores
for radii and residences back in the
woods for circumference. Logs. lum-
Der, old boxes, broken-down wagons,
hogs, weeds and mud holes adorn the
town common. And here is found in
all the beauty Of his full development
that unique example of inertness-a
southern country merchant. On the
portico of his $3.50 mercantile estab-
lishment he seats himself on q goods
box, slowly rolls his quid of tobacco
from right to left, produces his pocket
knife and begins bis days work of
whiting. He is proprietor, you
know, and does the talking, which is
the main business of the place and a
skinny bOy-a sort Of Uriah Hep
is ready to wait on the ten cent Gus
toner. He is the easiest man in the
world to interview, the hardest to get
an idea from-ex nihiIo nihil. You
see the countrymen come into town,
in sallow compilations and homespun
clothes, with a remark about the
weather and the desire to buy "plow
pint" plug of tobacco and "leetle
snuff for the old oman" Who could
blame a traveller. disguised with the
hotel Except the dining room) made
sad by the sight of such men and de-
pressed with the general languor, for
swearing in his wrath. that nothing
good can come out Of Nazareth
Just q mile from town in a beautiful
cottage that might match those.at
Long Branch, surrounded with acres
of native oaks and a paradise of lawn
q gentleman resides whose home is
more tasteful in all it appointments
than the houses Of the richest men in
st. Joseph. Well dressed, intelligent
children were playing in the piazza
the evening l called. A lady was
entertaining some Of her friends With
a selection from classical music OH an
instrument Of singularly sweet tone.
I found pictures that had been bought
in Europe, books in three languages /;
good books too. And everything was
arranged with the taste that indicates
not only wealth but culture; but the
gate swung on one hinge! The gen.
tleman I met-he was an old country
gentleman of the south; that sums
him up. We sat in the cool air on the
piazza and talked, talked, talked. He
would have talked all night. The
Tennessee debt, Conkling, JEFF Davis,
the negroes, newspapers, books, news
paper men. Che lived a season in Paris
with ''GathD, the comet, Calhoun.
the yellow fever, states rights, ex-
Gov. Phelps, the Mississippi river
old times come again here was man
who could talk, would talk and did
talk. I felt that he didn't have any
other business. And he talked we'll.
OF course he didn't finish, and he made
an engagement to talk to me the next
dav about the state debt, "when he
would have time to discuss it more
fullyw As if he had not already
given three hours to it.
have found out something about
West Tennessee section with an
interesting future. Until recently
these twenty seven counties Of Ten
nessee and Kentucky that lie between
the Tennessee and the Mississippi
rivers were owned by large land
holders, chiefly Virginians and Car.
,olinians, and it could not be bought
nor cultivated. The region, there
fore, is now for the first time really
open to settlement. Of course it is
1<the garden spot of the world" II
despair of ever seeing a place that
isn't. But it is as fertile as any part
of the great valley. Tobacco as |
good as Virginian, cotton as good as
Mississippian, corn as good as H.
linoisan, all grow here. But yet
there are thousands and thousands of
acres of timber-poplar and oak.
The lumberman is needed first of all. |
He is already beginning to appear.
They ship lumber from this region to
Kansas City and Leavenworth as
we'll as St. Louis. and even to Chi
caeo. Yet the lands here are not ad-
vertised, and only a few lumbermen
know anything Of the region, as pu-
snerous as the lines of railroad are
There is a steady but very slow i'm
migration, chiefly from the eastern
part of the state and from Virginia and
Nn.kL (so~ol:no Vn,, coo fAo rvonu