Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-11-27
LETTER FROM ARKANSAS.
Heber. Clebatrne Co. 4.

| est to some OF your readers. i viii
tell them short story: r
Some of my friends sent me copy
of the MONITOR of Oct. %, in which
was booked for Missouri for this win
ter. was there about that time, but
have since journeyed several hundred
miles farther south, and am now in
| Cleburne Co., Ark. On my way stop
| ped few days at the Worlds Fair,
thence journsyed southwark to st.
| Louis. My next move was twelve
hours ride 600 miles, over the Iron
Mountain r. r., to Kensett, Arkan-
sas. Leaving the railroad, took a
stage and rode about forty miles into
| the "wild erness," over rocks and
| stumps, through mud and water, where
a Vermonter would not drive a good
team for fear of killing his horses,
smashing his carriage and breaking
his own neck; and If ever get out of
| here shall have to go over it again.
There is one redeeming feature here
| over which the natives have no con-
troll, that is the climate. If they did
control it, they would set it back fifty
years or more, for they are more
than that behind the Eastern states i'm
| all their habits and ideas. Cotton and
corn are their principal crops, with
| sweet potatoes, pork and possums,
which are their Injuries, and a little
sorghum or cane molasses. Most of
their cooking is done over an open
Gun in, ctn ~
end of the house, outside, but open
into the kitchen.
A large number of the houses are
made of logs and are very small.
There are hundreds of families in this
state, living in places where YER
monter wo uld not put good horse or
COW. But these people are not alto
gether bad. They are hospitable, and
generous even TO fault, and would
divide their last loaf with a stranger
if he didn't say anything against the
democratic party or their pet hobbies,
which can be summed up in these few
words: "Leave us alone and let us do
as we please, and d negro any
way" A prominent man told me that
if negro should marry a white wo-
man, or white man a negress, they
would be lynched within twenty four
hours. He asked me if had come to
this state to stay. / answered, "no-
stree, unless lightning strikes me be-
fore | can get out, or break my neck
riding over these horrid roads" They
must knock the horns off from good
many of their pet hobbies and sand
paper down a good many of their
rough and uncivilized ideas before
they can get Northern capital or
brains to come in and develop their
mines or their country. There were
seven murders committed in one
county in this state in six months af-
ter April 10, 1898, and only one of the
murderers punished The laws are
all right, but when a negro is the vic
tim, the law is never enforced, and
VIII en- a negro is even suspected of
misdemeanor, they do not stop to in
quire if he is guilty, but lynch him at
once. The natives here will tell you
to your face that if there is anything
they hate it is temperance republic
an.
Cotton is usually picked here three
times over, a few weeks between
each picking. A good hand will pick
one hundred to two hundred lbs. per
day, sometimes more. This is taken
to gin, which is a sort of threshing
machine which separates the seed
fy~NY til,
nice fluffy state. This goes immedi-
ately into the press where it is made
into bales of about 500 lbs. each, talk
ing about 800 as it is picked to mako
a bale, and gives you about thirty
bushels of seed which is worth from
ID to II cts. per bushel. Cotton is
selling here for IA cts. per pound in
the bale. 1t is worth a little more
when freighted TO the railroad with
mules, horses and oxen, a distance
of forty miles over q worse road than
you ever saw team driven. 1t is only
starvation prices from first I'd last.
You may ask why they raise it. The
answer is simple, and yet of vast inn
portance TO the people here. 1t is the
only crop of any amount they can
raise that will sell for money. Cows
can be bought for from So to 81; eggs
s cts per dozen; sweet potatoes 25 cts,
per busnel; venison, % cents for a
quarter of a fair sized deer; beef
steak, cts. per pound but you can
not sell any of these to any extent for
money.
A large portion of tho state is COW