Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1899-05-04
Letter from Earl Hsrris

NEW ORLEANS, Apri! "a, 1899 THE
days journey from Vickshurg Nv Ne,
Orleans is one brim full of Interest
Tor the majority of the distance 20,
pass through swamp land, on each
side the sluggish waters stretchin,
away into the cypress swsmps, occas
ionly to relieve the monotory, one sees
an alligator stretched along on falle'
tree basking in the sun. AS the trair
thunders past. he drops off into the
water, with a splash.
On most every tree grows moss OF
q most peculi species, this moss
grows in the form of long pendulum
and swings to and fro in the breeze.
Until recently, or the last few years
this moss has been considered worth
less, but now it Is In great demand.
being used in mpholstering in place of
hair. This swamp is not absolutely
continuous being occasionly broken by
q tract of high land. Here, man and
nature have battled for supremacy OF
the land, but, after years of hard work
man (or to be exact, the mans negroes)
has driven nature back into the
swamp, cutting off the trees and shrub
cry, and where once grew wild vines
etc., now grows cotton or corn. A
cotton plantation is something exceed
ing unique to the eye of northerner
The negro quarters, the small cabins
for the storage of the cotton, and ths
overseers houses are all painted, or
rather whitewashed, stretched away
until finally one loses sight them by the
reappearing of the swamp verdure.
Slowly, but none the less surely, corn
and other cereals, now almost ex
clusively grown in the north, are re-
placing cotton, and where formerly
could be seen fields of cotton, now IN
many places corn is growing. There
Is little OF no money In cotton, unless
planter raises it on tremendous
scale, something which great ma
jority of southerners are unable to do
owing to their lack of land. Under
favorable climate conditions an acre
of ground will produce half bale of
cotton. A bale being worth from $40
to $25, out of this planter must de-
duct his labor, the negroes getting SO
cents hundred for picking it. The
negro who raised 1t get half the crop.
the state levies tax of one dollar on
each bale Of cotton produced, for
levee purposes. These, which l have
given are only few expenses attend
ing cotton production, so you can
readily see thst when the dnal settle.
ment comes the planter has very little
profit left. II, in successful seasons
q northern farmer emily RECEIVED twelve
dollars and q half per acre for his
farming, the tax sales would be in.
creased exceedingly.
The northern born and raised mar
who comes into this country to reside
gives the south wrong impression, as
the old, but true adaRe. % rolling
stone" etc. The man who comes into
.hss country from the north to live is
usually q man who ~ "suo 1o"u.e
and is attracted here by the clima..
When he first arrives down here. he
Is just going to raise sheol. He will
show the lazy sohtherner what rea,
hustle is. Soon, the ennui producing
climate gets its clutches on him and he
is q conner. After living here a
couple of years he is lazier even than
the southerner.
What a great host of men there
must have been lighting in the con.
federafe army. History says there
was somewhere in the neighborhood of
eight hundred thousand wearing the
gray ,butthis is surely mistake. When
mean horse, I say horse, not boss,
when wish to remark about the
present climate conditions, l use q
certain prefix and then cay warm, not
VAN. The southerner soon notices
this, and soon we are conversinp.
and learn that he was "msjah.
sah," in the confederate army" /
have met at least twenty. five men, and
without single exception, during the
"unpleasantness of theTsixties" as they
say, every man served either in the
capacity of "cspun," "majah" or
"connel." In this ratio it would re-.
quire all the men in the United States
and the Philippin Islands to supply
the companies.
AS yet know comparatively nothing
OF New Orleans. Owing to the ex-
treme heat l have not taken in many
of the sights. But one thing do
know, and that is, to use English las
she is writ, the city stinks. Immagine
the entire sewerage of a city whose
population is over 100000, floating
along the side of the street, in place of
under the ground. The streets. with
few exceptions, are narrow, and built
in lsbrynth, which apparently was
laid out with special reference to the
bewilderment of the northern tender.
foot. Earl.
NEW ORLEANS. April Goth, 1899
Speaking from figurstive as we'll as q
literal standpoint, New Orleans is