The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-02-25
TIE MISSISSIPPI DELTA.
A Rich Section of Country That Is Rapid
RelApsing Into Barbarian


A Rich Section of Country That Is Rapidly
RelApsing Into Barbarian.
~ want to assert that the mouth OF
the Mississippi river is the most won
drous place as we'll as the widest and
least known place in this world" says
Joaquin Miller. "And yet fifty years
ago 1t was full of ships. 1t is safe to
say that the better half, if not the big
ger half, of San Francisco was original
ly settled by people who came to uS
through the mouth of the mighty river.
To this day our bootmakers are tho
best this side of Paris. know several
ladies and gentlemen of New York, OLD
San Franciscans, who still have ther
footwear made here by our French cre-
ole boot-makers.
"Our cooks are the best this side "
Paris; that is, so long as we employ the
original creole French cooks or the1
descendants, our free lunch liberality--
but let's get along. | only wanted to
say that we owe lot to New Orleans.
And now New Orleans is being dumped
upon and literally drowned year after
year. / want to turn on the lime lighy
once more and lay the responsibility
where it belongs. 1t is a big thing to
make a new state. There is lot OF
noise and bang and patriotism and poll
tics about it; the new senators, the new
seats of government, and all that; but
it is bigger thing and better thing tS
save an old state than to make new one
"If / were Louisiana l would send up
the Mississippi to the worlds fair at
the other end of the river miniature
plaster case, or, at least, a picture OF
the fearful crevasse which tore its way
through plantations to the gulf from
above New Orleans and sucked down
it's throat the very ship which the gov,
ernment sent to inspect and report;
would send q map of the broken levees,
diSes, drowning cities, deserted planta.
tons, all the desolation, indeed, that
this destruction of forests and dumping
of debris has wrought, and l would
send the bill of costs, and send nothing
else, say nothing else. l think this
appeal would go straight to the good,
honest American heart, and help it t,
set things right in those drowning
states down the great river.
But enough of this sad subject II
is not my place to elaborate. only
wanted to set down the idea; it is the
privilege of the south to do as they
please with it. And now let us &c
down the mouth of the river to "Barra
Land" or Barren Land, as it was called
Of old, and the kingdom of Cervantes'
Sancho Panza. Strange how little the
great men of the old world knew OF
this. In one of his plays Shakespeare
speaks of ships from Mexico; in another
he means to mention the Bermudas
Burns speaks of Newfoundland dog as:
'Whelped in a country far abroad
Where boatmcn gang to fish for cod
And Byron gets in whole lot about
Daniel Boone, besides laying some nasty
sins at our door; but as rule we have
been ignored.
''rhe soil along the river bank is SO
rich that weeds, woods vines, trench
close and hard on the heels of the plow-
man. A plantation will almost perish
from the earth, as it were, by few
years of abandonment And so it is
chat you see miles and miles on either
side-parishes on top of parishes, in
fact-fast RETURNS to barbarism, drag
ging the blacks b. thousands down to
below the level OF )rutes with them, as
you descend from New Orleans toward
the mouth of the mighty river, nearly
100 miles from tie beautiful Crescent
city All, the superstition of these poor
blacks.
You see hundreds of little white
houses, old quarters, and all tenant.
less now, save one or two on each plan.
tation. Cheap sugar and high wages
rs compared with old times of slavery
but then the enormous cost of keeping
up the levees and above all, the con.
tinual peril of life and property all the
time, with a mile of swift muddy water
sweeping seaward high above your
head-these things are making desert
of the richest lands on earth. We are
gaining ground in the west, but we are
losing ground in the south, the great,
silent south.
"Of course the world, we, civilization,
will turn back to this wondrous region
some day, when we have settled the
west, for the mouth of the mightiest
river on the globe is a fact. 1t is the
mouth by which this young nation was
nourished in it's younger days and we
cannot ignore it in the end, however
willing we may be to do so now. Agar
l say to these drowning states and
cities: Send your broken dilles, dams
and leeves, your drowning cities the
cost, the increased cost of keeping the
rarest and richest part of the globe
above water-send the details of the
damage and the bill to Chicago for the
worlds fair. You, the drowned out
Latins, send these to the rich and large
hearted Saxons at the other end of the
mighty river, where they are to cele.
brate the deeds of the great Latin dis
coverer, and send nothing else. Why,
you are being drowned almost in sight
of st. Kit San Francisco Call.
DANCING ON IAE GREEN