Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-01-17
His Experience in the Center of the
Cotton Belt-Ris Visit to the Cradle
and the Grave OF the COnfed-
eracy-The Birmingham
Tragedy.
Bill Sees Great Many Things That
Escaped the Observation of the
Ordinary Traveller.
Once & Week.

/ child.
| Here we went over, Mr.. Riley and I, 20
see the large press SQUAT the daylight out
| of bale of cotton. The old-fashioned
ootton-squssler, which worked like cider
/ press, is only utilized at present for
home use. It puts $40 bale of cotton
| down to about the sizs of an upright
piano or telling bed. Then 1t is broug hit
| TO town, where g large athletic p-ess of
more modern mechanism shuts it up to
| one-fourth its former s ze, while nimble
| fingers read just the hoop-iron wrappers.
| The old fashioned press is operated by
a mule, supported bv a colored man,
whose whole life is shoreless calm and
| whose system is satured with rest. The
mule walks around the press and the
negro remains stationary. 1t is the orr
gin of what has been since called the
walk around.
The upright of the press is a larges crew,
which, as it revulves. brings the relent-
| less jaws of the machine closer and
| closer together. Six bands of hoop-iron
| are then wrapped around it, and it is
| ready for market. Most ali the cotton
| planters of Alabama are engaged in rais-
| Ing crop to pay for the grub and good
clothes of t.e pr ss. They do not appear
| to enjoy it, but they have formed that
habit, and they can not overcome it now.
1t is one of the drawbacks of cotton
planting that the planter gets his goods
on credit at enormous prices, and then
gives the crop TO the merchant at the
end of the season. In this way he is real
ly only kind of hired man for the one
who furnishes him with supplies. He lis
wearing out the soil and barely keeping
of ciothes. That Is the reason his gate
hangs by one hinge and the winds sigh
| through the yertsbr@ of his horse and
carriage. That is the reason Why you
de- not smell new paint around his pre-
misses, and The carpets On his floors are
never hung on the line to be chastised.
To day we visited the new State House,
he cradle and the grave of the confed-
eracy. Here for the first year the rebel.
lion rolled up its sleeves aud prepared
for the future, and here j. fferson Davis
stood and addressed tbs people whose
warfare had bsen waged in vain. I stood
| on the spot where he stood to address the
people, near a big white pillar and COM
manding view of the beautiful street.
In my minds e3eI could see him there
with white hair and tbeard as he recalled
the past. He does not understand yet
that he made mistake, but thinks, like
Mr.. Cleveland, that he was not defeated.
It was principle that got a black eye.
It is pleasant TO look upon things in that
way. [ often wish I could do SO. One
| tins was kicked through the side of
corral 10 the far West by mule whose
bunion L was treating at the time, and if
[ GOULD have felt that there was nothing
| personal about it, ana that it was Just
simply the defeat of great primer pie,
| instead OF feeling, as 1 did, that normal
school building had fallan on me, it
| would have beer worth $1,000 TO me. Bat
[ can not reason things out calmly when
in pain.
Birmingham is the most remarkable
city in the south. It is more like a
booming mining town than anything else,
| and looks like Leadvilla in the flush times
When we rode into the city it was re-
Laarkable Transformation from the old
| style of Alabama lows. Red mOuthed
| furnaces yawned like sleepy giants, and
painted the scmber sky gaudy crimson
with their hot breath. Busy people
| mig ht have been seen here and there,
| going somewhere instead of waiting pa
| tiently for somebody TO walk around
them or looking Teproachfully at stran-
| gers who seemed to be the slaves to bus
| lness habits.
Birmingham 10 a young Kansas City,
| aud has city lots stakeo out go far west,
and Kansas City has so many extending
| east, that there is really only narrow
strip of ground between the two towns,
| and it is being rapidly bought up. A
nov railroad connects the two Young
! giants, and few choice lots In either
| place will be good investment for those
who have hecome weary OF putting their
money into Canadian tourists.
Birmingham reminds me so forcibly of
| a booming mining town that I remarked
to Mr.. Riley, as We got off the train, that
all we needed to carry out the similarity
was an Earnest lynchi1g party. In less
than twenty-four hours crowd of 5000
people made party call at the jail for
| the purpose of extending the neck of
gentleman named Halves, but after twenty
people bad been killed and wounded by
the officers they retreated. Several
strangers who had never seen man
lynched, and wanted to &c able to scare
| their children with the story when they
got home by telling about it, went to OBJ
serve the ENTERTAINMENT, returning later
on by way of the undertaker's store.
Mr.. HAYES was man who had an earn
est nature and large red elm club, with
which he ever and anon attracted the at
tention of his wife when he wanted to
| communicate q disagreeable truth TO her.
But be would most always feel real sorry
about 1t afterwards, and one time after he
had broker two OF his wife's ribs in this
way he told her he could see that he had
perhaps been hasty and given her need
less pain, and he believed that he had bet
ter divide up his attention between her
and another woman, SO that one of them
could recover while he gently rebuked the
other.
SO ne married another woman, and this
created personal feeling between the
two, for no true wife can bear to know
| that her souls idol is lavishipg his kicks
on another. Night after night the first
wife would sit u all alore counting the
tagging hours, all the time knoWiDg full
well that her rival was getting all the
large blue welts over the back which had
in the happy past been hers and hers
alone. They had two little girls, which
Mr. HAYES was in the habit of kissing in
public and kicking across the freside &C.
casionaIly, and SO waen little May wa
Was found last week lying dead on she
shore of East Lake, Mr.. HAYES was
place in jail. While we were in Birm
iDgham the citizens of the town dragged
the lake and found the first Mrs. HAYES
at the bottom with large quantity of
railroad icon attached to her. That was
partly what created feeling against Mr..