Birmingham age-herald., 1894-10-14
SHE LOVES ALABAMA.
A Lady From the Northwest Finds Her Alabama Homo Much
 More to Her Taste.


 Alabalra that is attracting such general interest just now, the AGE. HERALD pub fishes the subjoined letter from Mrs. M. C. Arter, a lady who moved to Alabama from Nebraska about year ago and established home. Mai F. Y. Anderson, land com missioner of the Queen and Crescent sys- tenn, hearing of her progress, asked her to write her views about the relative condi- tions in the home of her adoption and In the west, which she has done, addressing her letter to the Southern States Magazine, which journal is now publishing the testl- mony of northern and western settlers who have taken up their residence in the south. Mrs. Arter' 8 letter is particularly interest- ing as showing how much more pleased women are with the south than with the. bleak northwest. The newspapers often contain letters from men, giving testimon3 7 from their standpoint as to the superiority of the south, and now we have the test1- mony of an intelligent lady, giving the at tractlons of the south from woman's point of view. .,sss,sss.,f ts
 MRS. ARTER's LETTER. @
 Having had nine years experience in the west, in the north central portion of Ne- braska, the year past spent in north Ala bama has seemed like an oasis to desert traveller. Not that the west is wholly de-l void of good clements. The soil of the prairies is ofttitnes rlch Ind deep. and the ploughman rejoices in long, straight fur rows; but when his grain IS tender, just glinting the field with green and the terrible sand storm sweeps up from the; sand hills tearing it from the ground or brrying it out otsight, his joy IS turned to sorrow He knows his crop oi small grain is doomed. But with a brave heart he says it is not too late for corn, and with planter or lister puts gina the corn. It grows rap- idly, and his hopes are raised as he sees thc tassels wavin g. and watches the broaden- ing blades. aAnxiousiy he scans the signs for rain as the tender leaves begin to curl, but often instead of the hoped for rain the hot winds come sweeping up, blighting both corn and hope, as be sees his second crop destroyed. iPerhaps the hot winds have not come, and he'sees the ears well formed, promising ga abundant harvest, down with wind and hail and his broad field is laid low, bruised and broken like his heart. .5 ssesfta st
 With q family to, provide for, he gathers to struggle with the long, cold winter ap- preaching. The wood is perhaps four, eight, ten or more miles away, growing along the streams that. often must be forded amid treacherous quicksands to reach it. He is lucky if he finds govern supply-although liable to being called to account for stealing government timber. He gets his load, but on. getting back finds the flour or meal barrel empty, and sends the children out to gather up ''buffalo chipsD with which to make fire, and next morning he haulsshis load to the nearest town to sell it and procure bread.
 His home is but rough lumber shanty, hauled often times long distance, and has cost him, at the lumber yard, from SIS to e2 per thousand.s He has cut the sod from the bottom land, with which 1t is enclosed perhaps on the sidesIo keep out the pierc- ing blasts when ths mercury has sunk to 10 or 25 degrees, perhaps, below zero.
 The northern prairie, with it's rich soil sunshine and in some portions sparkling material for founding the new home. Not a stone, not tree on the new comers' quarter section-- sod. ;s
 When hear complaint of the hard labor of clearing the timber to make way for the. home here, my thought is, what blessing there is somethinR to chop, ; and the sound of the Woodman's 's ax is music to my ear. 1t means logs for walls and lumber for floor and roof easily obtained. Where the for- ests are the saw mill soon finds Its way fireplace, with its broad hearthstono, soon warms and cheers the new home. There is no scarcity of fuel; pile 1t thigh and rejolcs in the glowing wafhnth and hghll
 My moot painful emotion in establishing my homo here has been from the necessity of burning so much of the timber on the land where it grew. I thought of the many little prairighomes hers hearls would De cheered by the possession Of one single pile of the logs that must be sacrificed. Their ashes seemed, too, but poor return to mother earth for the richness, and beauty of her creation. Some laugh at my groves left here and there and the row of trees by the highway, but may the. time never come when the mountains and Valleys of the fair south will be .wantonly stripped of their forests and thus their fountains of life made dry.
 Though it. is less than one, year since I began my new home, and the season has an extent not known before iri forty years If the ssoldest inha bitant" is to Le relied upon, still we are. rejoicing in the fulluess, of our stores. Corn. cotton, sweet pota- toes, millet, sorghum, various forage