The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-04-02

They sell more reapers and mowers and
big plows here in one town than they do
in all Georgia. One firm in Sherman
sold 700 northern wagons last year.
Everything here is on a grand scale.
Society is yet in an unsettled state; there
are no sharp lines drawn; to use Texas
expression, one man is as good as another
if he keeps his nose clean. Everybody
works and nobody is ashamed of it.
Wealth makes no invideous distinctions.
A beautiful and lovely girl where | am
staying who is of one of the best families
of Kentucky, is in training for business
at commercial college. She is learning
bookkeeping and expects to pursue it
fora livelihood, and the college has many
others. You will see nice, well-raised
ladies clerking in the stores, and when
there is party or wedding they are
not left out in the list of invited guests.
1t is free and easy country; sort of
60 as you please and do as you please
people. 1 made little trip up in the
Indian Nation among the Choctaws and
Chickasaws. 1 found quiet little town,
with about 1000 inhabitants, most of
them akin to Indians, and many of the
white people from Georgia. A very
intelligent Baptist minister, who has
been living there thirty-six years, told
me all about things, and informed me
that no white man could occupy any
lands in the nation unless he had a
license to trade or had inter-married
with the Indians. He showed me his
own house and grounds, and when /
asked him bow he acquired the right, to
my great surprise be answered: "Why,
married an Indian!" Twas astonished,
for he did not look like he had an Indian
wife. He had children and grandchil.
dren, and they impressed me with their
fine forms and beautiful eyes and hair.
Ny landlord was an old Georgian, and
his educated Indian wife was splendid
specimen of a wife and mother. The
children were we'll mannered and smart
and handsome.
Another gentleman told me he was
teaching a school at one of the missions.
He was an elderly gentleman, and they
called him doctor, and as he was very
communicative I ven,ured to ask him if
the grandchildren of these inter marri-
ages of whites with Indians we're healthy
and vigorous. He smiled at me and
said: "Well, yes, think so-mine are."
Shortly afterwards his Indian wife came
into the store and I was introduced. So
found myself in the cautious state, and
did not press such delicate questions.
That night the Rev. DR.. Wright called
on me. He is full-blooded Choctaw-
a Presbyterian minister of gentle man.
ners and fine intelligence. If l was
young man and couldent find an Anglo.
Saxon to please me at home, | think |
could be easily persuaded to mate with
one of his daughters, especially if there
was a fire area of splendid land and
cattle ranch close by and she had the
title or was the heir expectant. l like
these Indians, and it seems to me there
is yet hope for the race. We are too apt
TO Judge the race by the Comanchees and
other brutal tribes, and from our child
hood we have coupled them with masa-
cres of women and children, but reckon
we would have done the same under
similar persecution. But here are the
Cherokees, and Greeks, and Choctaws,
and Chickasaws in this territory and they
all live in good comfortable houses, and
have schools, and churches, and many OF
them would ornament any society how
ever cultivated. There are no distilleries
in the nation, no saloons, no gambling
houses and when disturber of the pub.
lie peace intrudes himself there he is
promptly suppressed and expelled.
They have better government to-day
than any in the States. When q white
man wants to be trader in any of their
towns he has got to get a recommends
ton from ten leading citizens, and then
his petition goes to the Governor or chief,
aud if it is approval by him it is sent to
Washington city to be approved by the
secretary of the interior. After he trades
awhile and gets established there ne
marries an Indian maiden and can take
up as much land as he can tend and
mile all around it for grazing purposes.
All these trading men get rich in few
years, aud most Of them marry Indians,
or half-breeds, and are happy. But,
after all, 1 wouldn't advise any man who
has passed the meridian of life to break
up and move TO Texas, unless his chill
drcn had moved there before him.
Folks are like rabbits, and when the
hounds of trouble get after them can fly
for awhile, but they long to twlne their
course homeward to the scenes of their
youth. don't think could give up the
mountains and valleys and gushing
streams of north Georgia for even the
rich plains of Texas am afraid to
make the venture. I like the country
and the people and the climate, but |
like old Georgia better. We are slow,
but we are sure. But if | was young
man, without wife, and didn't hanker
after one, think I should settle down
somewhere in the West in some new
railroad town and grow up with it. If a
young man dident have but just enought,
money to gel there, the "acclimation"
woulient hurt him. The trouble with
our Georgia boys and girls, is that they
attach entirely too much Importance to
the exactions of society. They marry
and 90 into some business on little means
and live on strain and keep poor and
keep proud and can't move away and
can't hardly stay at home. Society is
their dead weight 1t is not so over here
They can live in dug-out and be re-
spectacle. They can sew for living or
teach school or sell vegetables or fruits
and lose no caste, and in this respect
Texas is for ahead Of Georgia.
BILL ARP.