The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-03-28

AAgnoliAs.-Graves
q Sens Kansas
Soldiers,
sto.
Leaving Nashville at s o'clock in
the evening. q driving snow storm
alas for the Sunny Southland the
rapidly gathering darkness gave N but
poor opportunity to observe the
character Of the country through which
we were passing. Steep, wooded hills,
dark ravines, occasional small clear.
ings.-that 10 the general impression
left on our minds - we sped south.
ward. Interesting only because We
remembered that all this ground had
been fought over, frat one army and
then the other attacking and retreat
ing. 1t was dark when We passed the
field Of the battle of franklin, but we
were able to catch outlines Of the
school house which stands on the spot
where the old mill stood when the
fight was fought. After that there
was no further attempt to see any.
thing outside, but pretty lively tariff
talk 10 the smoking box of the sleeper,
with au ante-bellum planter for an.
tagonist and q Birmingham iron
founder for ally. This latter, by the
MAN nee tha man -ho -. ;nyantad
process by which he thinks the cost
of steel rails can be brought down to
about 81 . ton. There was q good
deal of talk In the papers about it a
year or so ago, and 1t was reported
then that Senator Plumb and some
other Kansas men were interested in
the matter. Nothing has been heard
of 1t lately though, and I inquired
about 1t with considerable curiosity.
The gentleman explained that the
plant established to carry out bis
theories had proven too small, and that
while the practicability of his patent.
ed process had been demonstrated, the
economic result hoped for had not
been obtained. A new and larger
plant 10 In process of construction and
with this he hopes to mske good his
most sanguine promises.
-.
The next morning found US deep
in the "piney woods" of middle Ala.
bama. Yellow pines, slender and
straight and tall, growing out of a
yellow soil, here and there . saw mill.
ard at long intervals a log cabin with
few rasor-back hogs and q COW or
two and some tow headed children In
the vicinity,-fhat was all there was
to see. No sign Of any attempt at
farming, which was not surprising as
the soil did not look, to Kansas eyes,
AZ II 1t would raise weeds. And as a
matter Of fact 1t will not raise enough
of anything to pay for cultivation
without fertilizing,-except, Of course,
pine tees, which seem to take pride
In aourishing where everything else
fails. The few people the country sus.
tains get their living from the forests,
taking turpentine, and its residue,
resin, from the trees a. long a. they
will stand the drain. then saving
them into lumber. A "turpentine or.
chard" 10 usually considered to be
about II, 900 trees, and 1t 10 worked"
- follows: One man "slashes" the
tree, cutting two deep gashes that
cross like the letter K. Two men fol-
low him and "cup" the trees, cutting
q deep notch directly below the SLASH
20 to catch and hold the sap. They
are followed, 1t the end of . week by
two more men who take the gum from
the cups, put it into buckets, then into
barrels which are in turn hauled to
the refinery. This sort Of routine ia
kept up during the entire season, the
men going over the orchard about once
each week. After four or i've years of
such treatment the trees die, but DOT
before they have yielded the owner q
net profit of $4,000 or $4,000. In
most cases, was informed, the fur.
peDtine men own the land upon which
they operate. But poaching on the
Government preserves is not entirely
unheard of.
-.
q u, Ia fnx nvwy
and then, if SO pretentions . name
may be given to q half dozen shanties
thanking . saw mill and the railroad
station. "Perdido," We noticed to be
the name of one particularly forlorn
little hamlet. "Loet," the name
means. II I have not forgotten all my
Spanish, and surely no human sbid-
ing place was ever more fittingly
named. As We looked upon it's few,
half-built huts, huddled together in
the gray lonesomeness of a misty,
March morning, and then out into the
iuterminable reaches of silent and
empty forests that walled it in, we
could not but think that he was indeed
lost who was doomed to call such q
place home.
As we get farther .outh the country
seems to at pretty accurately the de.
sciiption the Biographies used to give
OF the earth's surface, one fourth land
and thres.fouriLs water. There are
numerous rivers, broad, dark, sluggish