Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1896-05-21
A RACY LETTER.
what Lafc Smith Saw, and What Fix
Pointers arc Doing in Georgia.

telling how found things along the
railroad in the southern part of Iowa.
1t is a fine looking farming country, but
most OF the houses are very small and
look as though they had seen at least
fifty hard winters. The farmers had
done scarcely no blowing up to April
20, when passed through there. Be
tween st. Joe and Kansas City is a still
nicer farming country with the addi-
ton Of fruit which was just commenc-
to blossom. From Kansas city to Fort
Scott the road runs through the east
ern part of Kansas. Here l saw tho
best kept farms and orchards of any
section during my journey. Corn was
nearly all up here, and the fruit trees
had passed the blooming stage. stop
ped over night at Willow Springs, Mo, ,
and also at West Planes, Mo. Here
staid all night with Mr.. James Lilley
who has nice farm six miles north of
town. He has an orchard Of 60 acres,
IS of which is Ben Davis apples. He
has peaches, pears, plums, black rasp-
berries, strawberries, grapes--all in
large quantities. This is rolling
country covered with hard wood and
small stone. | saw near here one orch
ard of 1900 acres. My next stop was at
Mammoth Springs, Ark. This is the
largest spring in the world. 1t covers
a space nearly as large as that incircled
by the race course at the Elk Point
fair grounds. The spring is seventy feet
deep and from its mouth flows IA stream
larger than the Big Sioux. Next
dropped down southeast toward Mem
phis. Tenn, and from Black Rock to
within % miles of Memphis is a cOntin-
nal swamp. asked a white man at one
station if the people had the ague there,
and he said, ''yass We does, right smart
too. and malarial fever to. sab" The
water in these swamps has dark black
walnut color that nearly gave me a
chill 70 look ut il.
see my letter il going to be too long
so will skip over Memphis, Birming-
ham, Montgomery, and other places:
bu, assure you did not miss them.
| arri, cd here Sunday the 18th The
first person that met, whom ! knew,
was Curley Harrington. He looks us
fat aud saucy MS he did in the north.
lie. is improving his five acre tract
The Triton railroad cuts off fifteen feet
from one corner OF his tract This
road now runs int, this city.
The next Elk Pointers that | met
were my father and hrother-in-law, A.
B. and w. G. Burdick. My fathcr-in-
law has been quite sick for the last two
weeks, but is getting all right again.
Will Burdick is dispensing teas and
cotfees among the people here and is
doing quite IA thriving business; he also
prescribes for an occasional "cracker''
Ia =, IN, FIJI
lions, AS the following will show:
There is an old ''crackcr" here who
does not know how many nigyers he
has killed. He is under bonds now for
the murder of the sheriff of this count '
he had an old Niger and family who
rented small piece of land of him.
Last fall he had this old niger arrest
I'd and put in Jail on a charge of theft.
While the old man was in Jail he goes
to his house and binds the hands and
feet Of the entire family and gives them
:. severe whipping. Then with his
hired men he loads up the niggers en-
tire crop and takes 1t home. Our Ed
johnson bs.led the niger Out of jail,
the citizens here called a meeting and
selected w. G.. Burdick to deliver their
views on his past and future conduct
w. c. Il. went to the house of this
cracker" and told him that from his
symptoms he would not live very long
unless he underwent a radical change
in his mode Of living. Will farther
told him that he bad Il receipt for his
particular ease and he would admins
ter il ut the first false motion he mace,
viz, cold lead in three on. chunks which
he kept with him in unlimited quaint
ties. He then left the Cracker with
quite favorable impression of the
''yank.'
My stepfather, Edward Taubert. has
a nice garden. He has MELONS in bios
som, has 1850 sweet potato plants out
that look nice; he has a nice lot of pear
and peach trees, and II fine lot of grapes.
but it has been loo dry here this spring
for small garden stuff.
George Haver has IA neat place and n
good garden for new ground. Mr.. and
Mrs. Haver are not feeling very we'll a,
This writing Miss Nettic does not
have the asthma here, ana is getting
fat.
Mr.. Ed. johnson is night watch in a
saw, shingle and planning mill that is
located on Il tract that adjoins his. only
the railroad runs between them Ed
gets $l.25 per night, and it is steady
job.
NOak Johnson's family Is sickly here,
consequently they are thinking serious
~ of returning to the north, again.
Tom Wilson has started to build a
nice residence of the latest northern
style. There are buildings going up all
oyer; five and ten acre tracts are clear
cd and being cleared all over the colo
ny. The first passenger depot is near
ly completed and it is dandy, to-all
modern c0nveniences. When "a person
gets off of a train here his smelling as
we'll as seeing senses are agreeably met,
SO Mike the old rookery of depot at
Elk Point where a person gets off a
train and the first thing that meets his
eyes are three hog and cattle pens
right under his nose: next he gets the
smell from the accumulation from stock
that have been kept in these pens for
the last fifteen years. (Wooley west,-
we'll ! should say!)
have taken in the surrounding
here pretty thoroughly. The
land is poor, compared with Dakota.
Corn goes eight bushels tn the acre on