Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-12-20
From the "!SU1111y SOttth.v

MONTGOMERY, Ala, Dec 15 1892
EDITOR REPUBLICAN:-If you were
here, just now, you would Judge that
something unusual was soon to happen.
From the sound of fre-crackers you
might think the Fourth Of July was near
at hand, but | hardly believe you would
know what to make of the nightly concert
Of horn-blowers This business started
very suddenly one quiet evening two or
three weeks ago. | supposed then it was
in honor Of some newly married couple
but find, now, that it is all because Christ
mas is coming. There is in the nature
of the colored race tinge of melancholy
but there are turns when they drive it all
away, and, out of very little, have
most thoroughly good time Christmas
is the day of all the year at the South.
In the old slavery times, at Christmas,
the slave was, practically, free. He could
then do anything he pleased and, even
now, whatever a colored map does at
Christmas time no arrests are made.
The children are making great calcula-
tioas for Christmas and we expect, with
out the snow and ice and among these
surroundings, still to have good time
We shall think of you at the North and
we send home most hearty wish for
Merry Christmas to you ALL The wealth
er is still very beautiful here. We have
an occasional bad day but for the most
part it ia warm and sunny. Ladies walk
the streets without wraps and gentlemen
are rarely seen in the middle Of the day
with an Overcoat on.
Business is very brisk, here, now. /
was to see Mr.. Burke, brother of Mr..
Burke, of Redwood, Wis. and himself
once Watertown boy, this week, and he
told me he expected to sell between now
and Christmas, mere than one hundred
dollars worth of goods daily. He deals
in ssfne glassware and crockery, He has
most splendid stock of goods and is one
of the prominent men of the city.
Business is remarkably coed here
throughout the year. We have one dry
goods firm whose sales amount to a million
| and a half dollars annually. The whole
sale trade of this city, mostly in planta-
ton supplies, will not fall far short of fif-
teen millions of dollars each year. You
would be surprised to zee the stacks of
bacon, in the stores, awaiting transpor-
tation by teams into the country. [ do
not wonder that pork is high.
The city has some very large founder
les and machine shops, including five
shops for the various railroads centering
here. The Montgomery mills turn out
about three hundred barrels of -four,
daily besides vast quantities of corn meal
and feed The cotton seed ell mills are
by far the most novel and interesting of
| all to a northernrman There are two
large oil mills in this city for the manu-
facture of the crude oil and one large re-
fnery. The crude oil mills employ about
two hundred men. They run night and
day and turn out, every "a hours, 70
barrels of oil and IS tons of cake or meal
In making the oil the seed is first hulled
ground into meal and cooked in steam
boilers It is then put into sacks O
about twenty-five pounds each, and sub
iected to pressure which removes thu
oil and leaves the meal hard and nicely
shaped cake. These cakes are pu
through mill and again reduced to meal
which finds a ready sale at twenty dollars
per ton. It is excellent for stock of every
description, and is said to be the bes
feed in the world for mich COWS. Vas
quantities of this meal are shipped Il
! New England and New York and grea
deal finds its way across the ocean Il
England and various parts of Europe
It is estimated that the cotton seed crol
of the south equals two hundred millions
of bushels annually It takes four bush
els of seed to make gallon of oil, thus