St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-05-22
Letter from the West about the
South.

w lOh a.
Dear CdledORiGR Il have thought
that ii letter from dweller in the
northwest, from one born and brought
up in old Caledonia county, about what
he saw and learned while on recent
trip to that part of the sunny south
where the Creole dwells and the mag
nolia. cypress and alligator flourish,
might he of interest to your readers.
| shall write of the things saw, rs
they appeared to me, without trying
to he mathematically correct.
Our party left here on the 18th OF
April We stopped over one day in
st. Lonis This city contains many
places of interest and is great, con
servative and solid. She has not the
hurry, push and vim that Chicago has,
but new buildings and public improve
ments are going forward on all sides.
She is surrounded by productive
country, and her five hundred thousand
people will doubtless swell to IL million
during the next twenty five years.
In twenty four hours from st. Louis
the trees were all leaved out, and
peach, plum, and cherry trees covered
with blossoms. In the next twenty
-four hours, we were approaching Oul
destination, the Crescent city, where
we found the forests almost Liter ally
in bloom. The magnolia, the pride
and glory of the Towering trees, with
its large white blossoms, all decked in
snowy whiteness, dazzled us with it,
beauty, and filled the air with its
perfume.
Here for the first time we beheld
that long, gray Spanish moss, peculiar
to the far South, hanging i'll profusion
in graceful pendant streamers, four ol
five feet long, from the branches of the
trees. 1t gives to the trees very old
look, as if their heads had prematurely
turned gray, and to US feelings of sad
| ness and meditation. The scene was
! one of rare enchantment and beauty
and the transition from Il land just
| waking from the winters sleep to this
| land of soft air, sunshine, fruit and
flowers, makes us for time feel that
we are in some fairy land and almost
look for nymphs and naiads to greet
and welcome us.
| For many miles before reaching New
Orleans, we passed through cypress
swamps, interspersed with palmettOe'
and other semi-tropical plants, hardly
knowing whether we are on land Ol
water, the two being SO intimately
blended | was informed that the rail
road was built by means of dredg'
boats dredging ont the soft mud from
the swamp and depositing it on thu
side for the road bed. Thus canal il
formed along the line of the road
which becomes the home of the ALI
gator, lizard, turtle and water snake
The country we passed from Cair'
to New Orleans, looks poor, especially
throughout the length of the state q
Mississippi. We see no grass in thi
state that northern man could desig
nate by that name. In some place
there is "a sickly covering of the groun,
with few weeds and a little Bermud
grass. There is no sod to keep tn
land from washing away, and the plan
tatious are quilted, torn and washed b.
the heavy rains, and present in man
places pictures of ruin and desolatiOr
Imagine Vermont without a sod. Mis-
sissippi is not very hilly. 1t is almos
as level as Iowa and Illinois, yet til
soil is of that peculiar clayey cbaraC
ter, that it washes and runs ava,
Hence the rows of corn and cotton al
wound around every little rise of Ian
, to prevent this washing. We saw 4
straight rows of corn or cotton, and
looked strange to us. have come
believe, that the sod is the permanel
wealth of country, and any sta
4. where grass can not be grown, will b
come, and must always remain, pO,
j. country.
!, In Mississippi the colOred people pr
z dominate over the whites, in a rat
of I35 blacks tO 100 whites. Fro
- 1870 to 1890 the blacks gained upC
the white population. In 1870 Il
u ratio was l26 blacks to 100 whites.
n Ill =,