Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-11-29
MurrayVille, I'LL.

Whipped! Cleaned out horse, foot,
and dragOoui-all but our county tick
ct and we lost one man on that. Cause:
Party moved too slow. Couldn't read
the handwriting on the wall-could
not comprehend or formulate the re-
forms to-day called for and so got left.
When called upon for a speech to the
County Central Committee in July
your writer bluntly told his auditors
that he could have written a better
platform than that adopted at Kansas
City and yet have used but five words:
Tax no product of labor" Brief as
such a platform would have been, it
would have covered every issue we
made, and would have enabled us to
pose as the advocates of the only kind
of protection to American labor that
really protects. II the Democratic
party cannot go forward it must go to
the devil. Such a Democratic party
as Hill, Whitney, and Dickinson would
have would only serve the plutocrats.
If we are afraid of standing for the
people as against the plutocrats neith-
or our country nor the civilization of
to-day has any use for US; and in writ
ing platforms the nor concise we are
the better; for .swe can unite many on
one or a few things, and hut few on
many things"
Since my last TO the REGISTER l have
been south to the gulf of Mexico, look
ing for a location in the pine woods of
Alabama. 1t is quite probable that if
the REGISTER comes to my table till
Christmas it will have to be addressed
to Fairhope, Ala.
We left st. Louis at s p. NJ, October
10th, and daylight overlook US at
Humboldt, Tenn. From that point to
Fruitdale, 80 miles north of Mobile, it
looked as though half the land that
was cleaned had gone to old-ield;
while nearly all that still under culti-
walton was farmed in a miserably clip
shod way. Of course a railroad train
is a poor point to look at a country
from; but as the lands along a line are
held at a higher price than those at a
distance from it one would hardly look
better farming away from the railroad
than that seen close to it. The prairie
country of Mississippi which the Mo-
bile and Ohio passes, is as pretty a g
any country in Illinois, and in at least
one place, where northern energy has
been employed, it showed to advantage.
Nicely fenced, we'll cultivated fields,
with good stock in pastures, pretty
homes, steel windmills. and good roads
but in most places the bucks,
wenches. and ~pickauinies were afeld
waiting on de white ladies" in misera-
BILE half crops of cotton; while thier
ramshackle bungalows, set hig-
gledy-piggledy everywhere. The mig
ger had lost his commercial value, and
the orderly rows of whitewashed quar-
tiers had passed with his value as a
chattel. Usage, or Bots dare, hedges
had gone wild and were, sometimes,
feet wide. Several public
roads seemed to be blocked by sprouts
from the hedges at their sides. 1t
looked like a dying land.
At Mobile we were disappointed.
We saw but few ships, and these most
ly few the Norwegian flag. There
was one Italian bark, but not a vessel
of the largest maritime nation In the
the English; nor did our own
flag appear except upon the revenue
cutters, which are built to discourage
and not to encourage commerce. Mo-
bile bay is shallow, and a ship channel
has to be dredged a great part of the
way to the Gulf. Our school maps
give a wrong impressions; for Mobile
q on the river rather than on the bay.
Opposite is a swamp, fifteen or twenty
niles wide. that once was open water
40 doubt, but has been filed by the
Alabama, Tombigby. and Mobile rivers
Is the open bay is still filing.
The piney woods of u gulf coast
ire poor aud the timber is being de-
or culled out at q great rate.
Much of it is damaged by '.boxing"
or turpentine and resin. The range
s good, and industry meets its reward
IN the land; but it must be constantly
ertilized. A valuble native clover
comes spontaneously after the virgin
cd is broken. Splendid peaches, |