Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-02-11
Frem Cairo to the Hot Springs.

| left Cairo week ago this morning
before daylight. The train is taken
across the river by ferry transfer.
For the first fifteen miles the road is
| across the river bottom, which is very
heavily timbered. Farther on is wide
cypress swamp, which is said to be q
paradise for duck hunters, but was now
frozen up. The whole region from
Cairo to Brinkley, 1873 miles, except
about fifteen miles on each side of
Jonesboro, thriving town, is almost
an unbroken forest. All the stations
on the road are saw-mills. Brinkley is
q new town of about 1000 inhabitants
which has apparently been built up by
| the lumber business. Here, after stay
ing one night, we take the Memphis &
Little Rock road. This road is in the
hands of receiver and is very poorly
kept up. Occasionally train runs
| through a rotten trestle and then there
are broken necks or limbs to be paid
for. The road is unfenced and the de-
pots are full of notices of stock killed
All this has tendency still further to
impeverish the road. The portion from
the White river to Little Rock was
built before the war, principally on
Fremont's money. The road was one
of the bad speculations which dissipated
the magnificent fortune which Fremont
obtained from the Mariposa grant. The
Unexpectedly and unprecedently slow
development of the state is the probable
reason of this roads being financial
failure.
Between White river and Arkansas
are three large prairies, separated by
heavy belts of timber The soil of
these prairies is said to be inferior to
that of the timbered regions, and |
think it is so, as | have been there in
sumter and the corn is plainly inferior
to that in the timber. But the prairie
is valuable for hay. crossed it in the
summer of 1868 and it was a lively
scene, dotted with moving machines
and hay-presses putting up hay for the
army.
spent the afternoon and evening in
Little Rock. l don't think there is
another city in the United States having
10000 inhabitants SO lacking in side
walks except on the main business
streets, and with sidewalks on those
streets SO shabby and dilapidated OF
these business streets there are two
West Markham and Center-on which
there is good sprinkling of three-story
blocks for perhaps a quarter of mile
in length. The rest of the town is
mostly of cheap wooden structures.
Rows of tenement houses, from five to
fifteen in number, one story and all
alike, are numerous.
AT night, under the very ample pro-
tecting wing eff Opie Reade, | attended
bbc iucdtlb' II 10 Studliti budu tue Dl
Louis threatres but much brighter and
prettier The piece was East Lynne
and the principal character taken by
Rita O'Neill, said to be rising htar.
The play is from Mrs. Woods hSs9eAbe
story of the same nane-full of raseally
lords and prosy lawyers. The tragedy
is of that dreary kind which makes me
| very tired but the enthusiasm of the
audience, composed largely of soldiers
in the balcony and "coons' and boys
in the gallery, was something eniven-
ing. Then there was something ludic-
rous in the way the principal characters
talked to each others backs. / wonder
if it really is the style in English high
life for one always to turn his or her
back squarely on the person who is adj
dressing him or her.
At midnight again took the tram
and before daylight was taking a nap
at Hot Springs Some time ago gave
! y lCddNiS u ShcNCu III iItS DitEt, Dut
it was very hasty one, and / shall, in
another letter, give more detailed ac-
count
! AS the weather is a universal topic il
not an interesting one, shall say some
thing about it on my trip. At st. Louis
the weather was below zero during my
whole stay. At Cairo it was milder but
not thawing. The ground was covered
with snow and the Mississippi frozen
up-a very unusual event. The Ohio
was running thick with ice, In north
ern Arkansas there was light snow,
but at Little Rock there was a genuine
thunder shower At Hot Springs, the
last week in January has been very
much like the first week in April in
Wisconsin. C. n. HoLFoRD.
Hot Springs, Ark, Feb. l, 1886.