The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-12-19
THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
Bill Arps Misguided Conception of It's To-
biography.
Atlanta Constitution.
The valley of the Mississippi !


The valley of the Mississippi
have been thinking all my life that it
was valley sure euough-that you could
see it for miles and miles, and that ever
and anon the raging waters overleaped
their banks aud overaowed this valley and
destroyed the cattle and washed away the
houses and barns, and even the people
who were too careless or too helpless to
get away. For week / have been up
and down on this Mississippi Valley
railroad as it 10 called, but / haven't yet
seen the valley. I have been in sight of
the great river, and have seen large
tracts of bottom land, but a.great deal of
the country is round and rolling and the
towns are generally on high land. and
nobody ever hears of an overflow that
does much damage. We thought that it
was rather dangerous to stay out here
long ct time for we might get cut off
aud be hemmed in and surrounded and
have to send out dove and wait for the
waters to be assuaged. But I don't see
very much difference between our country
and this except in the black land and the
big trees. don't see any difference in
the people except there are more natives
here and less mixture. The old confed's
seem as thick over here in west Tennes-
see as if death had never thinned them
out. They have reunion every year,
and say they can blow horn and rally a
thousand or two most any time. l meet
them everywhere and they are still talk
ing about the war and are
FULL OF HISTORY AND ANECDoTE.
1t is astonishing how far one good war
auecdote will travel, and how much en-
joynent it gives as it goes. They told
me things out here that I have been
hearing for twenty years, but I never lei
on. When I ventured to tell some that I
thought we're pretty good and had never
got away from home, / found that they
knew it all and could locate it exactly. I
was riding around with some new made
friends, and as we skirted some timber
lands that seemed to be low and watery,
1 said "that land overfows does it not?"
"Oh, yes. that's Tom Mabry's hog bottom.
Tom is keen, shrewd land trader, and is
always looking out for strangers. One
day Michigander came along and was
inquiring for some bodies of good land
that he could put some money iu, and
Tom got hold of him pretty soon. Every
thing was dry then, for it hadent rained
in good while. Tom rode him around
that bottom that in flood times gets ten
feet under water, and the water mark was
on the trees everywhere, and got higher
and higher the further you went into the
forest. Along the edge the mark was
only about a foot and half high, and
was sorter muddy from the mark down.
The stranger seemed pretty green about
such things and asked Tom what made
these dirty places at the base of the trees.
"Hogs, hogs" said Tom. "rhey get in
the wallows about and about, and then
rub the mud off against the trees" They
rode on further, and the stranger observ-
ed that the marks got higher, and called
Toms attention to it. "oh, yes," said
Tom, "there are some awful big hogs in
this timber. I've seen EN- three feet
high" The stranger seem satisfied, and
they rode on until they had to Gloss q
still lower place and
TOM TALKED RAPIDLY
to divert attention, but still the Michi.
gander discovered the dirty places as high
up as horses back and all of such uni
form height that suddenly he took in the
situation, and when they started home
Tom asked him what he thought of the
land. WELL" said he, "my friend, I
believe l don't care to invest any money
in that land just now but I am stock
raiser and ifyou will get me up thous-
and or SO Of those high back hogs I think
we can trade" 1t got out on Tom,
and that's why we call it his hog bottom.
I find these people concerned about the
negro-not troubled Or alarmed, but con.
cerned. They all look upon Georgia as
progressive State, leader in Shaping
things and solving things, and they fre.
quently ask me how the negro is doing
and behaving, and what are we going to
do with him. They say hei is doing very
we'll here outside of the towns, but in the
towns they get hold of some northern
literature, and are getting more insolent
and aggressive, and it takes more Of the
sidewalk to do them than it used to-.
There are no colored cars on these rail-
roads and I have seen big, rusty rascals
in fine car and their dirty boots cooked
up on the back of a seat in front of them.
A lady has no protection against their
company except she pays for seat in the
sleeper. But they do not travel as much
as they do in Georgia. The negro's worst
enemy is the poor white mantle man
who works in the lumber business or in
the field for daily wages, and the man
who has TO rent land and work it himself.
He feels that the negro is in his way, and
he is. While at the hotel in Clinton, a
prosperous Kentucky town, I listened to
the drummers
TALK ABOUT THE NEGROES.
Most ofthese drummers were from the
north. They were sociable, pleasant gen.
tlemen, and have convictions and dare to
express them. A Chicago man said: 81
have travelled all over the South, and
like your people; but I tell you you will
never catch up until you get rid Of the
negro. He is your dead weight. You