Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-01-31

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many hogs, niggers and mules run
ming at large, AZ at New Madrid. and
from that place down. one sees them
at nearly every turn In the river.
The labor seems to he done by the
negro. with whites as Overseers.
Business il carried on entirely by the
whites. The river from New Madrid
to Memphis has numerous smaller
streHms ruuping into it, with low
banks and no Ievees, so the adjoining
country IL overfiowed each season.
The houses, barns and Outbuildings,
with few exceptions are built ON
stills or pillng. The water ut peri
DDS ia two feet deep In the town III
New Madrid. people communicating
with each others places by means Of
boats. This place IL now fully IL Or
20 feet above the river. We fight
shy Of the river towns, between that
place and Memphis, as smallpox 10
prevalent. Its victims are mostly
negroes. Memphis, pest house con-
tains $50 cases of the dread disease,
8 Of whom are white. Memphis is Il
fairly good city and well situated on
a high bank IN the bend oi the river.
The current in the center of the rivel
il very swift and forms an eddy Oh
the Memphis side which forces water
back up along the shore at pretty
good rate. Between these two Op-
pOsite currents and where they come
in contact with each other are nu-
merOus whirlpoCls. where many
boats whirl about and tip over. At
Memphis in 1862 occurred u naval
engagement In which the COniederate
ilotilla was entirely destroyed.
after which the Union forces took
possession Of the city. The people
are busy and active, this being quite
Il distributing point, with enormous
cotton sheds where the cotton IL
stored and pressed for shipping.
Its country's crops seem to be sweet
potatoes and cotton. The sweet
potatoes are of numberless varieties.
The plant il propogated by means
of slips. or sprouts, from the pOta-
toes; later in the season cuttings are
planted also with good results. The
culture is simple and inexpensive and
the yield enOrmHus-frOm two to
five hundred bushels per acre.
1t ia u curious fact that the potato
most approved In the north-a dry
or mealy variety-is not ut all liked
by most sOutherners, who prefer a
soft sugary potato. The farmers
and gardeners. are mostly cOlOred.
Memphis business men and officials
are all white and me silly southern
men. although there are Il few
nOrtherners. But these are mostly
in lines where they have no COM
petition with the sOutherner. Even
the great Standard Oil company has
to come in tor it's share Of this med
icine and assumes In many instances
another name in order to he some
" here on footing with it's COM
petition. lice Brothers" of Memphis
Il lvertise as anti-Standard OH and
sell the larger part OF oil in the
country tributary and along the
Missis sippi. They do an enormous
business-the larger part on the
strength of their name Lee" al
though, II I am reliably informed,
they are no relation to "Robert E., !"
but great many people look upon
them as direct descendants OF the
general. One old fellow who served
an a nurse IN some southern hospital
during the war described some OF the
plantations i'll the south rs worked
and cared for during slavery and
told of th"ir destruction and the
freedom of the blacks with tears
chasing each other down his cheek.
The river traffic at this point is
something immense. Steamers
make it a coaling and supply place.
The railroads find powerful rivals
in these through river steamers,
which ply the Mississippi and it's
tributaries in every direction, and
support a numerous class Of EN-
ployes. We meet every day. large
steamers with barges (sOmetimes to
the amount of eight and ten) in tow
that make trips at regular intervals
between the extreme navigable
points on the river. There are also
numerous floating barges, manned
by from five to six men, each,
(swinging lnrge oars hung on
piyOts) bearing apples, cider and
other produce from the Ohio and
Tennessee. At Memphis we saw
three large barges containing Mime
sofa onions and potatoes. While at
this place we had the pleasure of
witnessing a municipal election
one mfn shot in the leg-another
shot through the hat-a pretty fair
sized riot, and yet they term it a