Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-01-29
BROWNSVILLE, TENN.



BROWNSVILLE, January 27-Rain and
mud. Business "stale, fiat and Improbable
A wagon loaded with cotton draws as much
attention Just now as would a circus van.
Where is that much-talked-of Preserve" cot
ton, and what's the matter with the country
anyway? Look at the dirt roads, my friend
do you think people who even want to trade,
and who have money to trade with much of il
tied up in old socks, you Know are coming
to town over such roads and through such
weather? Oh, no; they'll "shuck" corn,
mend plows and harness, and make up for
foul weather about the farm in many differ
ent ways; but "no town in their'n." The
farmer conforms to natures laws, in heat
and in cold in sunshine and rain. Merchants
in the towns round about may say to him !:
Come in and buy" but the average farmer
is not so green any more. Throwing huge
log on the fire, he seats himself In the split
bottomed rocker, adjusts his steel-rimmed
spectacles, and, unfolding an APPEAL fresh
from the mail, begins slow, boa constructor
like digestion of the market reports. See
him in his chair there; he is fool, is he?
LAY thy finger-thus," my friend; never
believe it. True, he is not up in all the
points of the future" game; but as TO the
condition OF the "spot" cotton market he knows
"a hawk from handsaw." Perhaps he finds
from the paper an upward tendency" in The
market. Here he looks out of the window
and sees the few bales still held in reserve
lying under the gin shed. OF his wife sitting
by be asks: Sue, how much sugar and
coffee have you on hand?n "Well, enough
TO run some time yet" "Ill be consound if
that cotton can't lie where it is them" says
the old man; Sits going to bring me twelve
cents before / haul it to town." And the old
man is right about il, too; he is as much en-
titled to study the cotton market as his mer-
chant--yes, or any other market Tor that.
But while this is SO, there is something else
the matter with the county, The crops
we're cut dreadfully short last harvest.
Many farmers ran out OF breadsfnfs
and meat before their cotton was ginned.
This forced them TO sell, in several instances,
every bale; so the amount of reserve cot
ton, If any, is necessarily small. As for the
negroes, hundreds of them, l am reliably in
formed, are on the verge OF starvation and
rags. Hundreds are living on either plain
hoe-cake or roasted yams, once day; and
that is putting it mild. But in spite of all
this, the people, white and black, look cheer
ful. and seem determined to pull through as
best they can. Considering the pinched con-
dition OF the blacks, il certainly speaks well
of them that they have thus far kept their
fingers Of the smokehouse locks of other pee-
ple. From what gather, numbers Of black
ield-hands have gone 60 Arkansas yet our
planters are confident of getting laborers
enough to till as much land a. they shoald,
and till it all the better, too. This is hasty
bird's-eye view I take Of the present status
i the country, OF which BroFDsville is thes
aub. Sk
THINGS ABOUT TOWN. - = = :,
The committee of FIVE appointed by the
Board of Trade to wait upon our creditors
ire % busy as bees. They viii take statis-
les as TO the present value of property here,
compared with its value when the debt was
made, and the state of our local trade. They
will, OF course, use facts and figures in order
hat the "true inwzrdness" of affairs may be
aid before each creditor. This, you see, J