The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-12-20
RETROSPECT and Prospect,

the soil. To begin with, the winter
months at the opening of the year,
were cold and wet, and what was
worse, this cold, rainy weather ex-
tended far intet the Spring, retarding
every kind of farm work, killing the
fruit, dwarfing and Gripping the young
crops and adding difficulty and extra
labor at the husbandman's every step.
When bclated Spring did come like a
tardy maiden robcd in green, with
grateful sunbeams playing about her
advancing footsteps, gladdening ma
ture with her radiant presence, she
was followed all too soon by parching
drOuth and the scOrching rays of a
summers sun, and the young crops,
on which rested the fOndest hopes of
the toiling farmer, began before their
time to wither and fail and joyful
prospects gave place to disap-
pointment and gloom. Still later
came the great August storm which
for a whole night and day dashed in
fury and wasted the fields of their al
ready too meager store of cotton and
corn, and the farmer sadly realized
that Il crop already too short, was to
he made shorter still. 1t was then
hoped that the stop crop" and a late
fall would perchance redeem to great
extent the loss to cotton by drOuth
and storm, but in many localities the
army worm came and devoured the
''tOp-crop" before it had matured, the
grass worms in many ncighbOrhoods
ate up even the hay crop, and disap-
pointed hopes were again the portion
of the husbandmen and those who
looked to him for fields with laughing
havests. One of the latest, brightest,
dryest, most beautiful autumns ever
seen in this sunny Southland for
gathering cotton crop, found the
farmer with little cotton to gather.
Meanwhile the grasping and merciless
Bagging Trust had quietly laid its
plans and set its trap to rob him of
even part of that which was left by
the drOuth and the storm and the
worms, and as if cOnspiring with this
soulless combination, the great money
ed kings of the world have combined
to exaggerate the quantity of the
staple raised and keep down the price
until the bulk of the crop is out of the
producers hands. Thanks only to
God and the sweet potato and sugar
cane crops many good, handwriting
people are saved from portion IN the
poor house.
And as the farmer has Jared, SO are
all faring who are dependent upon
him for their prosperity, for when You
touch the farmer in an agricultural
country like Mississippi, you touch all
classes.
Again, this has been memorable
year to Mississippians i'll that it has
marked IN unusual era of crime and
bloodshed Assassinations and muir
ders and lynchings and arson
have followed thick and fast
upon each others heels, and
in some instances even the temple
of justice has been outraged and the
Executive power of the State given
rather to the encouragement than the
suppression of crime. A State debt
of n million dollars piled up during
the present administration is drawing
interest so fast one can almost hear it
rustic, and that in conjunction with
the fact-not generally known-that
the total assessed valuation of proper
ty, with all our bOastcd progress as Il
State, is less than when Ames was
driven out dozen years ago.
A dark chapter and gloomy pic
ture, you say. Yes, but we want to
add in conclusion, let us not be dis
couraged. Let us rather thank God
that it is no worse with us than it is
and take courage. Let us in the spir
it of Jacob, as we stand at the lat
ter end of the old year, about to step
upon the threshold of the new, sing
"Hcre we raise our Ebenezer,
Hither by Thy help we've come"
But for the mercy of a Divine Provi-
dence, it might have been worse with
us than it is. There might have been
no cotton and corn-no hog and homi
ny-raised at all-nOt even a potato
and cane crop. The yellow fever
which scared nearly every one to death
might have proved dreadful reality,
Nd throughout our long and frostless
fall, has claimed its thouands of vic
tins and disOrganized all business
relations South of the Ohio river
to the present time. But for Frank
Burkitt and few others like him in
the last Legislature, our State debt
might have been piled higher than it
is. There might have been few
more bloody assassinations and few
more murderers pardoned, and Henry
Il erna CHAN might have haan elected