The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-01-27
TOLD FOR THE TRUTH
WILL HUBBARD HERMAN MEETS A
YOUNG MlssisslPPlAN.
Facts and Perhaps Few Fancics-Nicks-
burg ~ ~ Was and Is Saved by n Dream.
impress Of the Heavy Hand Of Time.
Tho Vicksburg of To-day.

Especial Corrospondencc.l
VfcKsBURG, Miss, Jan. 1.-The scenery
Of the Mississippi river between Cairo and
the gulf is nothing but a monotonous wall
of green, save where it is relieved by the
spires and housetops of city, town or vii
lage.
It is nearly 20 years since l first sailed
down its turbid waters on my way to this
city. I had made the acquaintance of n
typical young Mississippian on the boat
and found him n very agreeable companion.
When within half dozen miles Of here he
pointed to n bit of land that jutted out
from the main shore on the right and re-
marked:
"See that little peninsula yonder, with it's
three cypresses intertwned with Spanish
mossf"
"Yes"
"Well, never see that spur of land with
out thinking of the time when | saw it first.
A cousin of mine and | were ON our way to
New Orleans. We were mere schoolboys,
neither of us over II. and were off on a va
cation froiic. We were out on deck to-
gether as the boat went drifting by that
spur, when suddenly--though the day was
very sultry-both my cousin and began to
shiver, and | cried out, oh, how deathly
cold amP
so am I, said my cousin, dropping into
n seat with a face as white as u snowflake.
Itwas n singular feeling that possessed us,
but it soon passed away.
"Well, our vacationin New Orleans drew
to close, and we prepared to return home.
"'When does the boat leave, Halp /
queried of my cousin.
"'We are not going home by the boat,
he replied.
~ 81 4 4
"'No matter he answered. wen go
back by rail-
81 won't ] replied testify. 4 have river
passage and purpose using it, at the same
time opening my wallet to look at my ticket.
at was missing, and, what was worse,
hadn't money enough to pay my way home.
Hal saw my dilemma. I'll tell you what
I'll do, Dick he said. If you'll return with
me by rail, I'll pay your way was COM
PEELED perforce to surrender, and by rail we
returned.
well, the next day the papers recorded
terrible steamboat explosion ON the Mis-.
sissippi at the very place where Hal and |
had felt so strangely, and it was the very
boat on which we were to have taken
passage! Hardly a passenger escaped death
in its most dreadful form.
~ handed the paper to Hal. 4 knew it
would happen he said 4 dreamed it in
all its details, and knowing you would
only laugh at me if told you my dream
crept out of bed and stole your ticket while
you slept. Here it is and he handed me
the ticket"
AS my friend concluded his story our
boat touched the Nicksburg wharf, and we
walked up the steep street to the main
thoroughfare Nearly 90 years have filed
] Al. 81. Ia
than it was in that far day, and its appear
ance has under. one no pcrceptible change.
In the meantime cities have sprung into
existence all over the north and south,
hamlets have put on metropolitan frills,
and hardly "a town between the two sea.
boards that hasn't felt the touch of progress.
Why, then, has Nicksburg stood still
through all these years? | think the reason
can be traced to the fact that its shipping
facilities have been in large measure
ruined by the recession of the river Once
| it had one Of the best ports on the Father
Of Waters Today it has no port at all for
steamboats, of a heavy draft mean none
within Il distance OF less than three miles
Vicksburg is lovely ii not lively city,
however. 1t is embowered in semitropic
fol.age-the matchless magnolia being con-
spicuous by reason of its glossy leaves and
its great sweet, radiant blossoms. Flowers
are everywhere-in the garden plots of the
| poor, in the lawns of the rich, trailing down
from terraces and reaching up TO the Chin
ney tops of almost every home And, oh,
such flowersl
The most salient feature of Vicksburg in
point of architecture is its courthouse. 1t
is large, strikingly elegant ediiice and
stands many feet above the sidewalk on Il
IA 4 I4f Il
| to defy the destructive touch of time, for it
stood there when the thunder guns of the
Federals were bombarding the city, and
marks of the flying bombs can be seen in
places upon its walls, but it is as substan-
tial building today as it was in the year
that it was built and bids fair to grace the
I green plateau for "a century to come
| strClled ont toward the Federal Gene
terry. The road fora part of the way wound
between high banks of earth, and in these
banks We're the caves which the people of
Vicksburg dug dtIing the red, terrific siege
J of their city way back in 1868 and in which
they resided, maintaining life the while by
feeding on mule meat These caves are the
haunts of tramps today and are Uttered
with whisky bottles, sardine cans and other
emblems of tramphood.
| said that the Nicksburg of 20 years ago
is the Nicksburg of today, that it has
known no change in the sweep forward of
the years, but, alas! it has known the uni
versal change that comes to every commu-
nifty on our swinging star, for the young
men met in that far time are men of mid.
die years today, and many of the elderly
people who welcomed me with kindly
handclasp then have passed beyond the
uncontinented sea into the unknown and
unknowable sphere.
have met many representative citizens
while here, lawyers, journalists, poets and
others, and | am rather staggered TO find
that many of them are pronounced Theos-
Ophists. ! hardly looked for any members
of that mystic cult in a community bearing
the stad, conservative, orthodox reputation
of Vicksburg, but here they are, and they
represent much of the brains, scholarship
/ and worth of the city.
The Nicksburgers are a very bospitable
people, and saw no evidence of that polit-
ical intolerance with which they are ac-
cused. They are cheerful withal, though
they have passed through war pestilence
and famine, and they are an American peo-
pie, few foreigners being found within their
gates-for we can hardly regard the blacks
as foreigners, though belonging to a race
that is Numerically different from our
own. These blacks swarm everywhere and
constitute more than half the population.
Last Sunday l went for Il stroll up Wash
ington street, the principal thoroughfare of
the city, and by actual count was asked
1903 times If would "have shine" aud
every one who thus saluted me was youth
of African lineage, and every one of them
must have seen that my shoes had been
BACKED less than an hour before.
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