The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-05-20
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
Nav Is. 1890.

The PROGRESSIVE FARMER, DuI IoI0t
grams call me direct to Washington.
Hence | am compelled to scrlbole
down some thoughts as best l may as
lam spinning and whirling along at
the rate of forty miles per hour. Our
party-nearly FIVE hundred-reached
Fort Worth on Tuesday. We saw
something of the largeness of Texas
and heard much more Everything
is conducted on a big scale. The
farms are big, the houses are big, the
herds of stock are big, the provinces
are big, and every man, woman and
child talks big. Fort Worth is a
rushing, progressive town, fine and
large-sized buildings. The First Bap-
fist Church is a beautiful edihce OF
gray granite stone and cost sixty
thousand dollars. The,oat and wheat
o in that section are failures and
the prospect for corn and cotton very
gloomy, owing to long continued
rains. The Convention was able, dig
ni6ed and harmonious. It was a
powerful body, Intellectually, and
was marked by a high cast of spiritu-
atty. The body will meet in Biz
mingham, Ala, next year.
H WILD WASTE OF wATERs.
Our train of twelve cars contained
many up-country folk from u State
who had never seen the great Missis
sippi. At Vicksburg we were pushed
out on a trestle and track which were
completely submerged for a quarter
of a mile to reach the great ferry.
boat which carried us to the western
bank. We were told that the river
was then 48 feet above the ordinary
water level. 1t looked a little strange
ly to see the negro women and chill
dren sitting on boxes on the porches
of their houses fishing, but through
that mighty waste of waters for
seventy miles before us, there were
stranger sights awaiting US. The
railroad bed had been constructed
originally of the porous, alluvial soil
and buried as it had been for over
two months in water and traYersed
daily by long, heavy trains, it was
but little better than mush. For long
distances we travelled about three
miles per hour. We passed through
one of Richardson's great farms and
that of the Ashley syndicate, contain.
ing 10000 acres. 1t was here that
large fields, containing thousands of
acres, looked like permanent, natural
lakes whose surface was unbroken
save by the deserted farm and negro
houses, standing sometimes midway
their doors in the mighty deluge.
Snakes, white cranes and an occasion
al alligator were the only living things
to be seen.
THE NORTH CAROLINA EXODUSTER AND
HIS HAPPY HOME.
[ saw several North Carolina me-
groes out on what those people call
"the hills" The negroes and all the
stock that could be saved were trans
ported to land along the railroad,
where, from the looks of both, they
are living on scanty rations. l talked
to an old nan from CASTOR county
who went there in February, 1889. He
stated that he and his wife and grand.
child made twenty bales of cotton last
year. "YOu are making money,
then" | said. "No, sir" said he, 81
come out in debt" care there
many North Carolina negroes in this
section ?" l inquired. Eyes, sir,
about 5000, l hear" l said, "sup.
pose a man should come after them,
would they go back ?" "God bless
your life, dat dey would and shout
for de chance dat is, dey would 90
eff dey could, but de man what come
after 'em he would never go back, he
would be shot quick as a snake.
One black nan came down here
from up de road and got some of 'em
off, but dey shot him and killed him
"WeI," said |, "a negro is a negro
down here, is he ?" "You bet your
life he is. Why, boss, it amt muffin
to take a niger up and whip him
wuss dan dey did in slavery times"
"Well, uncle" 1 said, "your people
at home think you are all happy and
are doing we'll out here and they want
to come, what must l tell them that
you have to say about it ?" The old
ragged fellow stepped up close to the
car-step and said, in a suppressed
tone: Boss, you tell 'em l say for
Gods sake don't come to dis country,
stay right whar dey is" and shaking
his head, said: Muffin but trouble,
trouble fur de niger here" care
you going back to North Carolina ?'
L asked, dat 1 is, dat is eff I ever
get any money. I'm gwine to work
and get enough to start wild and go
as long as dat will last and den I will
stop and work for more and l hope
to get back dat way" For seventy
long, weary miles we saw nothing
scarcely but a wild, desoIate waste Of
waters, and for several miles near
Shreveport, we could see no track OF