National Republican., 1883-05-12
A City Built on q Hill That Cannot Be Hid,
and Don't Want 10 Be.
Its People Believe There Is Only One
Better Place on Earth or Elsewhere.
The Curious Business Tact Of People Who Raise
Cotton and Buy Everything Else.
Corn, Bacon, and Calico Come High, but
RevoIvers and whisky Are ChesRr
Specidl Letter.

by river and by rail. Take either and you
will be sorry you didn't go the other way.
Try them both, and you will be doubly sorry
that you had to go at all. Natchez is on a hill
or bluff. Bluffs are not uncommon along the
Mississippi river; in fact, the interior of the
country is lower than the river bank. The
marine policy of the river is to build up its
own banks and do as IL pleases generally.
Occasionally it prospects back in tho interior
some fifteen or twenty miles, and the outlying
lake has TO evaporate when the river falls.
Hence q hill along the rivera real bluff
some hundreds Of feet high, with no nonsense
about IL, but straight up and down hills
not to be regarded lightly in these parts On
lust such place Natchez is situated There is
a string of houses on what by courtesy we will
call the beach and this is Natchez-under-
the-Hill." Natchez proper is city that has
had three we'll marked epochs in its history;
HBefore the wah," time o. the wah," aud
"since the wah." 1t is an infinitely better
place than Now Orleans, although people
here could not be made 20 realize that. When
the native of the Mississippi valley dies he
thinks he will 90 to New Orleans, when the
New Orleanist dies he goes to "Paree," and
that is the end of all things.
Natchez has population of about 10000.
The census says between 1000 and 5000, but
Natchez doesn't concur in the figures. Did
you ever see city that did? Its curious
principle that makes people want to be bigger
than they are Stand n man up against the
wall and he will stretch himself while you
measure him, put him on the scales and ho
will try to swell himself while you weigh
him, and he likes to have people over osti-
mate his property, his importance, and every
thing about him. So we will forgive Natchez
on general principles.
Before the war Natchez was considerable of
place. IL did not have nearly as many peo-
pie living in it, and it had no railway then,
but it was the biggest place for hundred
miles around, and you could buy negro or
bale of cotton with equal facility here. In
fact this was good market for both, and
right royal times they had in the bad old
day, by the traditions now extant. Natchez
has several cotton mills, cotton seed oil mill !,
where they make your superhne olive oil, and
IL is in the heart of cotton country.
People in this part of Mississippi are clean
crazy on cotton. The butter on the table
comes from the north, the hams from tho
northern prairles, the potatoes from the north,
but cotton comes right out of the soil and
nothing else does. Give man and mule
and they will take to cotton as naturally as a
gander and goose to the pond. An Uncle
Remus, a mule, and bale of cotton, are as in
timately associated and as inseparable as n
cigar, cane and department clerk on the
avenue after o'clock p. m.
Put a cotton seed in the ground and scratch
anywhere near it with hoe and in due time
IL blossoms and cottons.
This is about the way business is done in
this country The merchant buys his goods
at New Orleans or ST. Louis on next years
"crap" of cotton. He sells to the planter
Oh the coming crop, and when IL comes the
planter takes tho whole business to the store
and settles up. Then he gets next year;
bacon, corn meal and calico on cotton futures
1t is like tho Irish method of raising q pig,
and when it gets big enough to kill the land
lord takes it "forninst the rint," and this
process repeated is called life.
If tits believed that it is profitable l would
be glad to see the man who is fairly inde'
pendent of the store-not that such do exist
but they are very rare exceptions. The only
man who can make money down here is the
Yankee country storekeeper. He can cheat
the "man and brother" In the weight and
measure of his corn meal and bacon, charge
him two prices for it, discount the weight Of
the cotton bale, add to the sum total in the
book, and subtract from the change, and the
"nigger" never knows it. The only COM
pensation lies in the fact that when the river
gets over the bank fairly and in earnest the
cotton cannot be hauled up to the store on
the past account, while the storekeeper is
hauled up by the wholesale merchant.
Another nice adjustment Of accounts lis
sometimes resorted to by the small planter
when he hauls his cotton to another land
ing and ships it to New Orleans, getting his
supplies direct, while "de sto" will always
have something coming to it from him.
If we accept the view that the state or sec.
tion which produces the most of what is re-
quired for consumption is the nearest compe
tency then Mississippi must vary her ragricul'
ture or continue in debt to the store. The
chances are that she will not change There
is nothing harder to be divorced from than
the usages of generations. 1t Is not likely
that the northern man will come down here
as a farmer. He would be great fool If he
did under the present circumstances.
1t Is but Just to say that at present there Ii
nothing in the political atmosphere to make
1t unpleasant for u stranger. On tho Other
hand, have no doubt that in the larger
towns and cities hearty welcome would be
accorded the newcomer. But the same old
rut, the looseness of twist in everything, the
lack of snap and got up, make the Mississippi
region not the best place to bring out man
Whore negroes are cheap and plenty no white
man is going TO hurry himself
The most of the field work is done by
negroes, and they seem by nature better
adapted to it than the white man. Much
property is to be found among the whites a,
well as the blacks. Here and there is man
with large sum of money, but the average
wealth is very small. In any community
where tho rich grow richer and the poo
poorer no material progress can be made.
Natche1 has one bank, which, by the Law
of demand and supply, seems to cover the
monetary wants of the place. few day
ago the writer was IN an interior town where
a bank had secured legislation allowing IL +,
charge 10 per cent. on its loans. Ten pei
cent is the legal rate, As no legitimate
business can stand 10 per cent, how abou
that condition of things which calls for Is
A native who had the experience stated tC
me that on 800 the interest on the discount
brought IL up TO about II per cent Think
OF northern farmer having farm worth
5000 dollars paying $3.50 interest, annually
to his nearest bank A high per cent indi'
Gates bad security, and poor security means
poor everything else. How long Mississpp
can stand 1t is simply a question of time
The bank referred to is owned by men who
live in a state further north.
Every now and then the newspapers Of thit
section get OFF buncombe on the prospects o.
the erection gilmore cotton mills in the south
and the general tone of the press is TO the ef
feet that all New England will go Ithe wall
1t is true that tho mills should be where thu
raw material is grown, but it Is also true tina
as things, financial and otherwise, so in thi
section they will be long time coming, anC
still truer that IL the south had all the mill
for the manufacture of cotton goods, the gen
eral prosperity of tho whole country wOulC
be advanced as long as there is west anC
northwest to sell goods to.
However, as remarked editorially in
Vicksburg paper of recent date, ii bacon, corr
meal, Calico and other luxuries are higl
priced, these Objectionable features are ofise
by the indisputable fact that whisky may b
had from 5 TO 10 cents per drink, and re
yOlver may be purchased for 81. No peOpl
oan ba wholly Without amusemant will