The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-03-26
ARP IN THE WEST.
Tho 9slp From Now orloans to zexas.


passed through the cane growing region
of Louisiana, the land ofssugar, rich
sweet and desulate. Negroea aud mules
| and scrub horses and dirty, diuRy shan.
| ties along the line. The places where
the sugar planters used to live are there,
The ruins of old mausiOuu Get back in
untrimmed groves. and the housesof the
nld slaves near by uuoccupied and tumb.
ling To the ground. Hardly o white man
10 TO be seen between the atatiana, but
when the stations are reached We see the
smoke stack OF a sugar mill and some
few signs of civilization aHd comfort. I
wac told that their vast sugar plantations
have all changed hands, aud now belong
10 northern men who had mortgages ou
them for money lnaned before the war.
all they can do with then. IL to lease or
rent to negroes, for the climate ia not iu.
Siting to the Southern whites, and they
will not 20 there. Texas is not far away,
.ud has II better name. I crossed tue
Sabine River for the FIRST time and f,un.'
myself upon the soil of this wonderful
State. l passed through Houston 10 the
tight. and on TO Waco, which acco ding
- Waco people, is the center Of Texas
and the world. An old Georgian esid
20 me, il you viii draw circle within u
hundred miles RI :ius arouad Waco, you
will have the flu st territory in Texas or
IN the globe. n man at Fort Worth
said abnut the same thing about eliat
own, and Denison man declared that
Denison WA the head center. l find
chat every man is for his Immediate sec.
tion, aud all are for Texas. They fight
Aud fusa over free grass and wire cuttiog
and foreign monupU!ies, but they are all
for Texas. Well, it 10 wonderful
country. Whena Georgia farmer owns
forty or 6ity acres of rich bottom land
10 some creek or river, be feels like q
King, and his neighbors are envioue of
MIN, but here you are never out of sight
1T better land than that. AS your train
moves along there Ii q bnundless strip OF
it on either side aud hardly tree or
fence or house IL to be seen. 1t is all
IN cultivation or in pasture. aaw o
mouse away of, dari little house with
shedroom and stove pipe sticking ou:
OF the roof and was told that was where
the owner or the renter Of 1000 acreo
lived. There are no inviting country
homes, no painted horres. no fences or
ornaments, no good barns. no nothing
much, but land and scrub horses and
poor cattle. Every man Of pretensions
" ambition aeens TO live in the town.
There Gro NO groves 10 build in the
country and they can't wait for shade
trees to grow, and 40 they live on as they
begun when they irst bought or settled
IN primitive simplic,ty-this is the case
But their farmero make world of stuff
to sell. I met man at va % who came
rom Floyd County Bixteen years ago
N ina tx~,a
0urth nothing thero but one old wagon
aud o yoke Of Steers--I have bought
many load of wood from him when he
Gaa poor back woods boy and I always
felt sorry for him, for he looked pititul
and overvorked. That boy managed to
get here with his young wife, and rented
and few miles from Waco. He now
'wns l,400 acres of good land aud has
got to be rich from farming and stock
raisiug. He has daughter ct college
and l was Informed paid taxes on $42,-
700. He worked hard, very hard to
make the first thousand dollars, aud after
that he had no trouble; my opinion is
that if he had stayed iu Georgia he
would have been hauling wood now.
rhe reason is plain. lu Georgia he and
nis wife would have wanted to live in u
decent home and wear decent clothes and
Seep up with the neighbors in appear
Auce, and when their kinfolks come to
see them they must put up the.best they
could get, and 30 they kept on q strain
all the time. Out here they lived in
shanty and could eat With their fingers
aud 60 bareiootsd half the tune and
dress in cheap clcthing and there were
no kinfolks or II snr ueighbor, aud besides
the land was better aud there was more
nf it, aud the cattle increased aud cost
'luthing 10 feed thsm Winter or Summer.
fhis Floyd Cuunty boy told me he sold
:'u0 head Of hugs and 200 head of beef
cattle Ia Waco lait Christmas and hs had
as many mora at home to sell now. ]
saw the Montgomery boys st Fort Worth.
Ono Of them stays out on the prsrte 800
miles further west aud has $500 head Of
cattle. He il 100 miles from o railruad
aud lives In dug out, and sees nobody
but cowb"ys all the year round. But he
is getting rich from the increase of bis
cattle and says just as soon IN he gets
rich he is goiug to marry and settle
down. Maybe he viii, but doubt it,
for be will never know when he j. rich
and my observation ID that IL young
Of life is upon him he 10 not apt to marry
at all. A man can travel around and
roit and zee ten Thousand girls aud keep
fooling along until he don't care much
II about marrying any one for fear she will
be in his wvy aud bOther him when be
wants u 60 anywhere. Those travelling
drummefs don't marry. Not ono in ever
tSn will ever marry unless they can run
away with or capture sone rich girl.
After few yeayo Of drumming they look
upon the cars a. their hotel, their home
and they are never ea,isfied unless they
sre changing their base. IF I was q girl
don't think would marry drummer
for know he would be hankering to
leave me before the honeymoon was
over. like the drummers. I meet
them everywhere and they ara civil aud
courteous and aggressive 10 business, but
am sorry Tor them, they have q hard
lifs-a life that wesns them from all the
endearments Of home and female society.
I am sorry for their mothers aud sisters
and can almost hear them saying with o
sigh, II wonder where William 10 to.
night and what tho poor boy 10 doing" !"
Tsere are dozen OF lhem at my hotel
n night and they Ara all huay yritips
10 lers to their employees and. footing uD
thy days work. In the morning they
will bs gone axa another dozen will take
their Etaees.
said that saw no pleasant inviting
country humes in middle Texas, no white
house with green blinds and broad
varanda with vines runDiug up the