The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-04-23
DOWN SOUTH.
Through Kentucky and Tennessee Yaakes
enterprise felt Everywhere.
ad in q recent letter saws:

Il onoo. R4-'o $3.50 - - s
M Quad in a recent letter says:
1t is wonderful how the South is pick
/ ing up. The boom was slow in coming,
but it has spread over all the South and
| is visible in every route of travel. Farm
ers are cleaning. refeneing and putting
| up new buildings, villages are spreading
| out and towns and cities are pushing en-
terprises involving large sums and rush
ing all kinds of business. Every day
and they cheerfully admit 1.-THE sons
of the South are becoming more and
more imbued with Yankee push and rush,
and every day that same enterprise is
| showing beneficial results.
We in Michigan boast of our fright
smart small towns, but Kentucky and
Tennessee may do the same. Here in
this town of Erin, numbering 500 pop
ulation, and having big hotel, line
court house and plenty of stores, oae
could not have found five houses seven
years ago. Ten years ago it was a
country made up of hills, thickets, for
ests and swales, with only a few farms
worth working. A decade has worked
such earnings as would not be credited
if told of section in the North.
The border Southron has healed the
wounds of war, forgotten, that he once
owned slaves, ceased to repine over his
losses. and ispushing ahead with snap
to his eve that means business. Late
falls, short winters and early springs are
an offset in Tennessee, when wheat fails
to yield more than fifteen bushels to the
acre. The average in West Tennessee
is not over twenty, but it is good tobac-
co country, and oats, corn, barley and
other cereals do finely.
In Georgia and Virginia the farmers
are crazy about fertilizers, and the wisest
among them admit that they are stimu-
lating their lands to oVer-exertion. In
Western Tennessee guano is scarcely
sknown, and the farmers seem to be dead
set against even the use of compost
What small farmers around Detroit pay
fifty cents load for they were tumbling
into the river at Nashville the other day
to get rid of One may ride for hours
and fail. to see single field which has
been enriched with materials close at
hand and without cost. 1t does not seem
to be from laziaess or shiftlessness, but
farmers explain that they haven't been
in the habit of so doing. The lands
which now grow fifteen bushels of wheat
10 the acre only want to fall into the
hands of our Northern farmers to yield
thirty.
THE MAN OF COLOR.
Eastern Tennessee, as l found it a
wear ago, is brimful of lazy, shiftless
and vicious negroes. West Tennessee is
almost clear of them. They are not
seen loafing around the towns, are not so
often encountered on the highways, and
squatters are few and far between.
There are no more rigid ordinances
against themin this part of the State. but
they seem to be possessedof different
spirit and have the confidence and res
pectof the whites. Many own small farms.
wellstocked, and are pushing right ahead,
and others employed at day labor are
giving good satisfaction and earning an
honest living.
| want to give the colored man all pos
sible credit right here, for / know how
| shall find him further South. Once
beyond the State line and he will be
found roosting on the curb stones of every
town, asleep around every depot, and
an extortioner at every hotel.
COURT DAY IN TENNESSEE TOWN.
The Circuit Court opened as | arrived
here, although there was no special oc-
casion for it as far as my offense was
concerned. Court day in a Southern
town is a sort of Christmas and Fourth
of July rolled into one. The turkey is
left out, but the whisky is retained.
1t looks odd enough to see the clerk of
the court smoking a pipe as he jotted
down his notes, butt forgot him as saw
that three of the jurors. two of the law
yers and a witness were cacn pulling q
cigar, and a prisoner on trial for burg
larry hopefully looking for some one to
offer him one. Some of the spectators
felt it their bounden duty to remove their
hats, while others had no feeling in the
case. The only man | saw in the court
room who didn tehew plug tobacco and
try to spit six feet was IA lime man from
Stewart County, who excused himself
on the ground of dyspepsia and wanted
to know if / could lend him 8 drink of
whisky
But the big scene was ON the outside.
Two hundred farmers had come in on
horseback or by team to size up the
racket. They argued politics and got
mad. They discussed religion and dared
each otherto knock chip off the shout
der. They ssswapped" horses and mules
and threw in broken heads to make it
bargain. The celebrated Indian doc
tor" was on hand with his liver cure and
took in money as fast as he could pass
out the bottles. The minstrel show was
on hand ator an evening performance,
the man with the running mule won
three races, and these who could navi-~
gate when Rightcame were locked upon
as ''pizen mean" if they did not offer
hand to those who could not
A Northern farmer who wants good,
tiliable bands at fair valne. good water
and ready markets, should not overlook
Tennessee if he turns his face south
ward The winters are far milder than
ours, and the corn planting season is
over before we have shut our coal-stoves
or taken off our overcoats There are
many Northern men down here, some
in farming. others in business or rail
roading, and they all speak highly of
the climate and of the people around
them.
Country Editors.
The fact that an article has appeared
in one of the leading journals of the