The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-01-27
GAVE AnorNps N ARkANsAs.
Bullet Proof Turtles and Big Catfish
Of the Cuachffn.


/ On-the-Ouachita-R River. Ark. Jan IA
] Throughout the cattle ranges of the north
west the tenderfoot from Arkansas. who
throws his lot among the -punchers. is
sure 10 have TO take rather more than his
shar, of jokes and rough usage. So thor
oughly IS this fact understood in the graz
3 ing country that the green-horn from Ar
/ kansas who strikes out for the ranges Of
I Colorado and Wyoming does not betray
10 his newly made acquaintance on the
I frontier the name Of his native state. but
/ keeps the place Of his birth very much
/ in the dark. There IS story often told on
the plains that shows how the man from
/ Arkansas is rated r. the COW -punchers.
[ II is 10 the effect that the foreman OF a
I big ranch near Cheyenne. having engaged
I = tenderfoor 10 work for him. asked him
I where ho was from. Receiving no answer
from the youth the foreman began TO in
/ tcrrogate him in this fashion.
Are YOU from Missouri"
Are you from Kansas"
NO"
Are you from fer east?"
No"
Then where in thunder do YOU hail
FROM shouted the foreman. at the same
time aiming his shooting iron in the direc-
ton of the stranger.
swell" replied the tenderfoot. I'm
from Arkansaw. Now. damn you. Taught"
II any one wants TO find excuse for
the man from Arkansas all ne has got
10 do IS to look at the country. After
turning his back upon the pleasures and
eXcitements OF Hot Springs-for which. by
the way, the native ArkaGsan is not re-
sponsible-and having passed hurriedly
through Little Rock, which is an attrac-
tive and prosperous looking town IL is a
good idea for the tourist who has too high
an opinion of the state to go Summing
the word suits the case-among the wilds
of Southern Arkansas. With companion
of an equally adventurous disposition. and
stimulated into unwonted energy by TWEEN
ty-one baths at Hot Springs the writer
left the train on the ST. Louis, Iron Noun
tain and Southern railroad at Camden.
and boarded one of the freight boats that
travel the Ouechita river between New or
lens on the south and every landing for
which they have a consignment on the
north. These boats carry no freight for
points on the Mississippi They leave that
stream at a little place known as Red
River landing, where. in series of bayous
the Ouachita river joins the Mississippi.
The trip down the Ouacnita river from
Ouachita county in Arkansas, of which
Camden is the county seat, TO Ouachita
parish in northern Louisiana affords a
sufficient explanation that the people of
the lar west like to have their little joke
/ about Arkansas For miles on either side
| of the river the low marshy land stretch
es away into the distance, scarcely higher
| than the river itself. Here ana there IS
| a little forest, the trunks of the trees
| submerged in mud and stagnant water.
| The few house that mark little villages
| like Ouachita City, Log Town and Charlie
/ V. are for the most part frame boxes
| raised aloft on four poles after the man.
| ner adopted by the New York farmers to
| keep their granaries out of reach Of the
| rats. This plan is followed as a protection
| against the spring floods The cabins
| along the banks of the river are Wretcned
! looking novels, inhabited by negroes, or
| by what are known throughout the cotton
! country as poor white trash. The valleys
| of the rivers of Arkansas are known as
| the bottoms, and the soil is rich and
/ fertile. Maize and cotton are grown in
/ abundance, but the people, if those in the
/ Ouachita can be taken as specimens, are
/ unambitious and unthrifty. The negroes,
! both sexes of whom work on the planta-
! tions, receive their pay, for the most part,
/ in molases and tobacco and at the end
| of the season. are in debt 10 their en-
ployers.
1t is the wildness of the country that
makes a trip an interesting one. Even at
which abound in the tropics and through
out the lowlands of Southern Arkansas
and Louisiana could scarcely fail to arouse
the cnthusiams of the sportsman. The
bayous formed by the widening of the
river from time to time are fairly alive
with lizards and many varieties of
snakes :, he most striking thing is the
vast number Of turtles. on every side at
midday one can see hundreds of them in
the stagnant pools near the banks, float
ing at the surface with their black necks
extended as far as possible from their
| shells. Occasionally the boat would pass
a floating log or a piece Of drift wood on
which turtles were occupying every avail
able inch of space. and some Of them were
/ even perched on the backs of others for
/ lack of other quarters, A shot fired at
one of these turtle fotillas would cause a
quick and awkward scramble of the ami
mails over and under one another, as they
FASTENED to slide off into the water.
f Several shots fired at them failed to kill
a single turtle, although they were such
! big fellows that almost any amateur
marksman would have had little diff1-
Guilty in hitting them. The captain of the
/ boat laughed al the attempt to kill one,
/ and told in an odd, drawing way an an
4 ecdote regarding the inVulnerability of
/ Ouachita river turtle. On one of his trips
! he was accompanied by an English gen
/ tleman who boarded the boat at New
U orleans. ] MS sportsman Carried q IlIte
. of large calibre, which he brought on deck
for the express purpose of shooting a huge
turtle after having failed to even
brighten It with SHOTS from his breech-
loading rifle.
.''Twant no use, though sad the
steamboat man. you can't kill a Va
shita futile wild a gun. The bullet het the
futile on the shell and bounded up into
a pawpaw tree overhangin' the bank
and killed a sandhiH crane. If one of those
Washita tuttles should get struck by
lghtnin he'd just run out his neck and
say Come in like as if he thought
somebody was a-knockin."
Another inhabitant of the Ousch!ta
D is the monster catfish. which has the rep
/ utation of attaining the length Of eighteen
! feet, according TO the captain, who says
I the boat once ran into one where the
/ Tensas river empties into the Ouachita.
Judging from personal observat tons of
I several huge catfish, fifteen feet may be
4 chopped off the captains fish without in
/ terfer.ng with the rear fins of his tail.
/ On account of the discomforts and
/ hardships to be met with the region has
/ been stunned by sportsmen, and it is