Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-11-07


squirrel abound. sweet potatoes grow
to an enormous size; not like what are
shipped to our region of country.
saw some SO large that one potato
would be sufficient for whole family
The cotton fields look beautiful wher
the bowls are filled with snowy cotton
| saw acres and acres of it and was SC
interested in it that / went into field
and picked with a crowd; 1 had the
pleasure of being told by Southern
lady that [ was a fright smart" picker
They picked in sacks six feet long
having strap which is suspended from
the neck and sooulders and let drae
then pick with both hands. 1t is then
weighed, then sent to be ginned, which
consists of separating the seed from the
cotton and sends it out in one snowy
mass ready to be baled. 1t takes six
teen hundred pounds before it is
ginned to make a-bale, after it is glnned
there are but 500 of which every bale
consists. Two bales to an acre is con-
sideded very fine crop. Using the
words of the Southerner 1t was selling
at one bit per pound. Sweet potatoes
sell at 90 cents a bushel and Irish pota-
toes 500.
The climate is very nice and pleasant
especially mornings and evenings but
about noon it is next to impossible to
go out into the sun it is SO burning hot.
Chills and fever are very bad at times
and assure you it does not add to a
persons beauty to have either. l saw
people after having chill turn perfect
ly yellow, apparently without much
life. After the fever is broken they
seem to crave for something to eat and
it generally happens that he projects
himself outside of too much hence the
result is chills again. Congestive chills
are fatal; A person does not last over
fifteen minutes when taken with one.
AS soon as | reached the south
became very hoarse and remained so
while [ stayed.
The water is not as good as it is here.
1t is salty as brine in some parts.
People do not have to worry about
wood for winter use, for they can 90
out any day and pick up what is
needed. The houses in the country
are not as air tight as here and the
people do not require such furniture.
Their furniture is of the simplest kind
constructed by their own mechanical
genius. To all young gentlemen read
ers of this paper | would say if you
contemplate keeping house on small
scale, go south.
1t indeed looked strange to me to see
the women both white and colored
coming out of thas woods anywhere
riding mules. They ride up to a bush
of anv kind, alight, hitch the animal
and 60 into store or house as the case
might be. Wagons and buggies are not
used much for men and women white
and blacks ride horseback. Mustangs
are used great deal
A kind of fruit grows all through the
woods called persimmon. 1t is about
as large as wild crab apple, is of a
yellowish color when ripe and contains
six seeds us large as a hubbard squash
seed. When green or partly ripe they
ought not to be eaten for they will
pucker your mouth up so you cannot
say peaches. Along the bavon there
are beautiful peach orchards. The
genuine Southerner has no windows in
his house, but instead has II sort of
transom in the sides which can be
opened or shut at leisure. | often
heard of dipping snuff, but never knew
exactly what was meant by the
expression, and for the sake of enlight-
ening my northern friends who NAV not
be heap more 'peart' than was,
will endeayor to make it plain. Every
colored woman and every white south
ern woman young, old and middle-aged
dipped snuff. They took stick trife
larger than tooth pick, and after chew
ing one end SO that it resembles a small
brush, they dip it into the snuff bottle
and then rub said brush around their
teeth three or four times and still keep
it in their mouths after the manner of
cigar. A woman had just gone through
with alike performance, while L, like
the Rook, looked on and wondered and
thought poor thing" She asked why
1 did not dip snuff and [ readily ans
wered, because / know better" One
great trouble with northern people
going south IS this; everything there
is different from what it is here and
they eat too much. | was not thus
afflicted for [ never had buzz saw
appetite.
The northern and eastern parts of
Arkansas are very beautiful and more
healthful up on the mountains. Little
Rock may well be called the City of
Roses. Pine Bluff is city of about
25,000 inhabitants and goodly number
are blacks. At any rate they have
considerable white in their eyes
"shoah." The soil is sort of clay and
in rainy weather is very sticky. In
some cotton fields / saw cotton not less
than six feet high, while in other fields
it is not over two feet. The cotton gin
is a novelty IN itself. Eli Whitney the
inventor must have been real genius.
The part where the cotton is first put
in is composed of a great many small
saws so composed that the cotton is
separated from the seed in a fright
smart manner.