Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-05-28
THE KANSAS ROAD
Now Under Construction Promises TO
Save Memphis from the Clutches
Of ST. Louis,
If Our own Merchants and Business
Men will Only Put their Shout
ders 90 the wheel.
From an Appeal Correspondent

From an Appeal Correspondent
MAMMOTH SPRING, ARK, May 20.-Some
time since had the pleasure OF discussing,
in a short letter, through the columns of
your paper, the common interest that existed
between Memphis and Arkansas. Since ex-
pressing my views on that subject, there has
been put into practice the conception OF
railroad connection between Memphis and
northeast Arkansas by means of the Kansas
City, Springfield and Memphis railroad
Being interested in whatever pertains to the
interest of Arkansas, the greatest State in the
Southwest, L feel equally interested in such
lines of communication as will bring her
more directly in contact with market
which is by natural and commercial laws
the place toward which trade in her special
product should gravitate. f s
ST. LOUIS Is AN ARTIFICIAL MARKET FOR
ga COTTON. F,-.'.
1t has been made so contrary TO the universal
rules which have determined the selection OF
particular points as the centers of trade for
the especial products of the respective sec
tions in which they are grown. Chicago is a
mart for wheat, because it is in a cereal.
growing district; Cincinnati for pork, being
in hog-raising section; Louisville, KY, and
Richmond, Va, for tobacco, because they are
in latitude where the leaf is grown; New
Orleans and Memphis, for cotton, because
they are In the particular belt given up al
most exclusively to the cultivation of the
heecy staple. In fact, we.might deduce the
general rule that no place is market for
any product which lies without the latitude
in which that special thing is produced. 1t
is true that Liverpool is the guiding market
for cotton, but it is so because it is the dis
tributing point for the supply of English
manufactures which create the demand.
But to return to my point. st. Louis has
nothing which can guarantee that ii will be
a good unvarying cotton center. So lar, 1t
has been forced market, and it needs only
a proper natural channel to divert the trade
to the point most consistent with natural law.
Recently there has been rapid, progressive
movement in regard to line of railroad
which will put Memphis in close connection
with eastern Arkansas, and the business in
terest which has heretofore been almost ex-
clusively in favor of St. Louis, will be partly
if not wholly changed to
THE BLUFF CITY,
with which it formerly held intimate rela-
tions. The survey OF the Kansas City,
Springfield and Memphis railroad, OF which
/ speak, has been fully determined upon; the
right of way has been cut out, and grading
begun all along the line, and the assistant
engineer informed me that it would be in
running order to West Plains, Mo-, which is
near the Arkansas line, by the 10Th Of Au-
gust 1t crosses the St. Louis and Iron
Mountain railroad at Walnut Ridge, about
eighty.hve miles from Memphis; and the
Knobel branch of the same road, and the
Parsmore narrow-gauge, not more than half
that distance. The main subject, however,
10 which / had intended to divert my OBJ
servations in my letter, is the resource In the
way of water power which Is developed by
this new road which comes into Memphis,
Here, in the northwestern part OF Fulton
county, Ark, Just eighty yards from the
Missouri line, there is situated a mammoth
spring, which furnishes water power uR-
equaled in the West. AS grand, natural
phenomenon, it is replete with interest, and
will weigh in the balance with Niagara, or
the Big Trees 1t Issues from q cavernous
rock at the foot of low, rocky ridge The
depth of the main hole is sixty nine and one
| half feet, the width thirty feet, and as the
stream flows off there are numerous little
springs bubbling up in its path, really
making the spring which i write about, $50
feet long and $50 wide. The cause OF this
immense flow of water is due TO the fact that
in Southern Missouri, which ID known as the
Sunk Lands, and evidently an extension of
what is known as the New Madrid region,
there are many springs which have no visible
outlet but disappear in limestone assures,
miniature canons, SO to speak, and the
various little streams commiDgle under
| ground and form
THIS HUGE SPRING,
| and the stream which flows from it is known
as Spring river. The temperature of the
water is about forty-eight degrees, Fahren-
| heit In it grows a cryptogamous aquatic
| plant, a kind of moss. 1t sometimes attsins
a length OF thirty feet, and your correspond
ent has seen COWS in the river, with their
| heads entirely under water, searching for
the nutritious plant. In years gone by il
was a famous haunt for deer. The country
/ around was, In the original United States
| survey, designated as high, rolling prairie,
but now a good growth OF blackjack and
sost.oak covers the entire section, yet the
| prairie grass still remains as an evidence OF
/ It's former nature, and furnishes excellent
grazing. Between the hills there are hne,
4 fertile little valleys. The volume of water
| that issues from this spring is nearly the
same the year round, the difference between
the minimum and maximum being only six
| inches for thirteen miles along the stream.
| In seventeen miles there is a fall OF one hum
dred and forty-foiIr feet, divided as follows.
| For the first four miles there ID fall Of
| forty-6ye feet, for the second four miles 3
fall of forty-two feet, for the third four mile,
fall of thirty-five feet, and for the last five
| miles distance of twenty-three feet. In
the last distance named there is an increase
in the volume by the addition Of the water