The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1881-05-27
TIE CAMDEN AND NEW ORLEANS
MAIL ROUTE.
IErom n. O. rcmocrat.l !


teenth instant quotes a paragraph from
a recent editorial in the Democrat OF,
| the Camden and New Orleans route
| in which we showed the importance
of that route TO the towns on the Qua
chita and to New Orleans-and then
unbosoms itself as follows:
| "Now for few plain facts. The
Camden and New Orleans contract is
for one "trip and half per week from
Camden, on the Ouachita river, to
| New Orleans. No mails by this route
are delivered to any postot1ice on the
| Mississippi river. All the posiottices
| on the Ouachi:a, except three, are sup
piled by stage and horseback moro eN-
peditiously and more frequently than
] they could be by steamboat. Conse-
quently very little mail is dispatched
| by steamer. The three postoflices that
have been supplied by the steamers
can be supplied more eXpeditiously ut
! a nominal sum. A large number OF
| the postof1ices on the Ouachita are sup
piled with Il daily mail by stage. III
short, the river mail is Il atirst- class
fraud. The $4,000 paid on this con-
tract is simply subsidy, and is in no
sense a benefit to the people. Ii docs
not secure mail service. Itdoes not pro-
mote commerce. The contract price is
simply absorbed by ring of contrac-
tors who have through the power of
the ring "eXpedited' the contract price
to sum twenty times greater than the
service is actually worth. 1t will not
escape notice that the government al
ready pays stages performing nearly
the whole Of this mail service for which
Il river contractor gets 3O,eoo.''
The trade Of the Ouacllita river is
not important to Memphis, and we
did not for an instant imagine that the |
convenience and interest of the people |
living on the Ouachita or OF our mer-
chants was matter of any consequence |
to the Nernphians or their peculiar !
press. The dense and inexcusable |
ignorance OF the facts displayed in the |
article quoted above calls for some re- |
buke, some notice at our hands. Mol
sane man imagined or assorted that
mails on this route We're delivered on
the Mississippi river; there is not a
single stage employed on the land
route-thc four offices, Troy, Trinity,
Harrisonburg and Columbia, being
supplied by :, mail rider or Il horse;
Marshall, Port Union, Ouachita City,
Alabama, Moro LAY, Champagnollc,
Miller's Blutf, New Port and French
Port, Troy and Trinity, Harrisonburg,
Columbia, Statfords, Enterprise,
Hogan's and Andalpsia, on the Qua
chita, are supplied by the boats, as
arc also Tooley's, New Era, Glade,
Flowery Mound, Tildcn, Lcsmore and
Security on Black rivers there are
just four Offices on the Ouachita served
by land, and except at Harrisonburg
and Trinity, the land mail is only sup
piled three times per week.
So far from being light, the mail SER
vice by steamer is very heavy, Cs-
pecially between New Orleans, Mon
roe and intervening points, and from
Monroe to Camden there is no service
any other service. The money paid
for this service is in no sense Il sub
sidy, but is direct benefit to Il large
and populous country, and to a great
city, having extended commercial re-
Iations with that country. The con-
tract price hts not been expedited a
single dollar.
Thus we find that the Avalanche, in
its statement of "facts," has misstatcd
every material fact, and has shown its
usual contempt for accuracy and fair
dealing. Possibly the Avalanche will
have all it can attend to in protecting
the mail facilities Of that city Ger
tainiv it could employ its columns and
writing on subjects about which it is
Extensively ignorant, and which con-
Germ the people Of New Orleans and of
the Ouachita valley.