Huntsville gazette., 1882-02-04
SOUTHERN GLEANINGS.

water. He answered, in effect, that. the
Board had done all it could to protec. low
lands, but much depends on thevigiiance of
the police juries of parishes ard the people
who live along the rivers. WRea the rivers
are low people become careless <nd act as If
there We're never any such thing as high
water. 1t is thus rice fumes are@cut, wagon
roads are allowed to break downthe levees,
places are worn by stock that, gosdown to the
river to dirk in word, there are so many
ways in .uss4aathe leyees may be damaged
sFFi;;tiout w blame attaching Ito anybody
that it is no wonder accidents occur and
damaging crevasses result. The Engineer
Board can only exercise a general supervis-
ion. But for her levees, Louisiana would
be to great extent 1lninhab6table. Vast
areas Of the richest lands would be
unreliable for cultivation, and would doubt
less be abandoned. A thorough leyee sys-
TEN with a sufficient fund to maintain ii
would accomplish great work. 1t would
be burdensome at first, but the burdens
would yearly decrease until finally the work
of maintenance would be comparatively
light.
European capitalists have been pur-
chasing vast tracts of Southern lands,duriM,
the past few weeks. Sir E. J. Reed, repre-
senting English investors, and DIR. Iacobus
Westheim, Of Amsterdam, Representing
Dutch, have just bought 1000, 0o0 acres in
Florida, while Phillips, Marshall 60 Co., OF
London, have bought 1880, 900 in Mississippi.
| Nearly half Of the latter are levee hands, sit
| uated in the Yazoo delta, and are fine cot
ton and timber lands. The obje ct in both
these purchases has been to colcmiZe and
cultivate the lands, and the effect can hardly
! fail to be felt in the future of these states
when the cultivators of the soil hayefto pay
their rents to English capitali sts.
| A bill has been introduced in the
| Legislature OF Mississippi to make prize.
| fighting penitentiary ofense.
Coal and iron have been discovered
in Mississippi.
Speaking of the educational needs
and progress of the South, Rev. DR.. Hast.
zell, of New Orleans, says: ''For 1889 there
has been an increase in.attendance in nearly
| all the States, among both white and col
| ored children. In some towns where for
two or three years local taxation for puhlic
schools had been voted down with Nira,
| now good schools are supported at public
exwense.'
A careful estimate of the acreage
sowed to wheat ii1 West Tennessee places
the area at fully rs per cent. greater than
the breadth OF land given to.tbe p,0duction
| oTThis cereal in 1881.
A rattiesnake measuring 15 inches in
diameter and II 1-2 feet in length, and hay.
ing u rattes, was killed in Natchez, Miss.
recently. When shot the snake had n LARGO
rabbit in its mouth.
One OF the objects of the coming con-
Fention of colored men at Macon, Ca. will
be to organize and hold a grand Southern
fair, at'which the products Of colored ren
will be exhibited.
Joseph De Silva, aged h, recently
arrested at New Orleans at the request of
the Cuban authorities Tor the abduction Of
Maria Durox, agsd 10, has been released.
The mother Of De Silva asserted that she
pad the parents of Maria $4,000, and the
extraeifson proceedings were brought to
enfeFce further payments.
A peculiar disease is said to be afflict-
fng people on the Rio Grande, near Browns
vlile, Texas. Apimple appears on the face,
the head swel's up, and in a short time
death ensues. 1t is said the disease in its
symptoms resembles the-old Asiatic plague.
1t is exceedingly fatal.
The corner stone of the new cotton
exchange building, northwest corner of Ca
rondelet and Greves streets, New Orleans,
was laid, Jan- Esd, in the presence of City,
State, and Federal officials, representatives
OF foreign governments and commercial in
stltutlons, and large concourse of citizens.
Gov. McEnery delivered the address.
Me. Kennedy, of Blount County,
Tenn.,iis eighty years old, has been mar
ried twice and has twenty-six children.
A two-inch carp put in pond near
Atlanta two years ago was caught few |
days since and weighed seven pounds.
a Macon, Ca, wife-beater entered |
the novel plea that when he thrashed his /
better half he was in somnambulistic state,
and not responsible. He got $500 or three
months in jail.
Mr.. James Williamson, aged seventy
siA was married at. HawkinsyiIe, Ca,
fewdays ago, to Mrs. Polly Burnham, aged
six9-six. The groom's son, who is fifty years
os, performed the ceremony.
E1ery city in the South has made
PROCESS during the last year.
Fire veins of marble have been discov-
cred i, Union County, Ark.
In Mississippi there are 10S, $40 horses,
115,00Omules and 1, 739, 900 hogs.
Nor grain has been sown in South
CarolirR this season than any other since
fhe wal
Seventeen thousand dollars worth of
sponge IN one pile was recently sold at Key
West, Horida.
Pensacola, Fla, has voted against re-
pudiatirg her ante -bellum debt, and re-
Gently paid $500, 200 of it.
The BAPTIST ministers Of Virginia are
endeavorngto marshal the cergymen of the
State in opposition to the bill now before the
Virginia Assembly granting relief to persons
who have fought dues. The law disquali-
ies them To hold offioa