Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-09-13
POTATOES HAVE DONE II.
A Tribute TO the Small Farmers
Of Shelby County.


seattle wv yoming Territory Herald.
just prior TO the outbreak of the
civil war, no city in the South or
Southwest seemed to be advancing
with more rapid or more certain strides
toward metropolitan hopors and di.
mansions than Memphis, Tenn, The
population numbered between 10000
and 10000, and the shipment Of cotton
had assumed proportions OF exlraordi
nary importance. The close of the
war found Memphis impoverished her
people disheartened by the s~trangeness
and newness of the environments. and
a long period OF torpor and ipaction
followed, Two terrible epidemics of
yellow fever added to the discouraging
circumstances by which the people
we're surrounded; peculation in Office
was added to the general demoraliza-
ton, and finally to make matters worse
and at tie same time save, il possible,
something from the wreck and give
those who remained a chance for recu.
peration, the Legislature OF the State
OF Tennessee suspended the corporate
functions Of the city and made il a
mere taxing district"
The epidemic Of 1873 reused the
men who chung to the fortunes of the
seemingly doomed town, which has an
unsurpassably beautiful site. and IL a
natural distributing point for an i'm.
mense area Of unsurpassably produc-
tive lands, to the realization Of the fact
that something must be done if the
city was to be saved from extine-
ton.
The first step resolved upon,was the
sanitation Of the city. Memphis, with
extraordinary natural facilities for
drainage, had, for thirty years been a
prOverbially filthy city, with no drain
age or sewerage worth speaking Of
For three years past it has boosted Of
an almost perfect sewerage, and has
been noted as a healthy city. Its
property, however, has not increased
In proportion to its natural advantages
until quite recently. This year there
seems 10 be wonderful change in all
OF its circumstances for the better.
Picking up a copy Of the San
Francisco Examiner the other day
We noticed a letter from a Mem,
phian TO a friend in San Francisco.
copied by permission. The writer
dwelt glowingly and lovingly upon his
old home, boosted of a sewerage sys-
tenn equal to that of Paris, spoke oil
Of houses in process Of
erection, Of reyiving industries and
tiourishing trades, and just as we were
wondering how the writer in the TX
amlner was going TO account for this
pleasing transformation in our early
home u eyes lighted on the canton
OF this article, Potatoes Did It,"
There was no riddle in this an.
nouncement to US. We did not need
read what followed to teach us that
the people Of West Tennessee had
awakened to a knowledge of the fact
that the true elements of wealth, u
progress and prosperity lay in the soil
while they possessed cheap and
practically unremuuerated labor, they
had taxed beyond its strength for the
production OF one staple. But that
the reader hereof may know how "po-
did it" We may here state that
the Memphis letter writer jubilantly
chronicles the fact that the people Of
section have pulled of their coats
aud rolled up their sleeves, and gone
into the business Of raising vegetables
Tor the Northern markets, and beef,
pork, mutton, cheese and butter for
own uses and the uses Of others
who want to buy. The foolish distaste
Tor labor aud the natural sloth Of the
5outherner, Of one locality at least,
thank God, the outgrowth and penalty
oi that accursed system Of human
bondage which the civil war destroyed,
have given way to a realization Of the
Iaets in the case and the acceptance Of
.he inevitable. Let this policy be
adhered TO aud the emigration from
.he South won't amount TO much. Il
will become the most fertile. product
ye and prosperous section Of our COM
non country.
Seven years Of our life we're spent
m a vegetable garden noar Memphis. i
We arc prepared 10 say that while the
priDg season is not 80 carly here as