The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1902-05-22
A FEW OBSERVATIONS.
Dallas, Texas, May u 1902.

EDITORS MARIETTA JOURNAL
Thinking perhaps your readers
would enjoy some news from the
seat of the General Conference, /
send few lines.
On May 5, at o'clock p. m. in
company with Col. w. r. Power,
| left Marietta fer Dallas, Texas,
to attend the meeting of the Gen
eral Conference of the M. E.
Church, South. In Atlanta we
joined large party of delegates
from Virginia, Tennessee, South.
and North Carolina and Georgia,
We bought tickets over the South,
ern road by the way Of Birming-
ham, Shreveport and Greenville.
We were promised the best Of ac-
commodatlon and the quickest
possible landing at the place of
destination, but the promises
were not fulfilled. Without suffi-
cient sleeping car Accommodations,
with nothing to eat and only two
stops in the two days trip, with
but little water on the cars, and
continual delays along the way,
until we we're twelve hours be-
hind schedule time, the trip was
anything but pleasant III these re-
spects. But Methodist preachers
know how to make the best of cir
cumstances, and even turn I'M
favorable conditions and surround
ings into means of enjoyment.
So we laughed over our discom-.
forts, joked about our depriva-
tions and had a fine time.
The great Mississippi bottoms
and swamps interested us much,
but l do not think they would be
very attractive to our seeking
home.
At Nicksburg, we crossed the
Mississippi river, the train being
run onto steamboat and carried
across. 1t was an interesting
sight TO some of us. who had never
seen the like before.
l had heard much of Texas in
the past, of its plains, and etc. ),
but the half had never been told,
and | was in no wise prepared for
what | saw. The great rolling
plains, the green fields of grass,
the heads of fine cattle, and the
waving corn, now knee high, were
beautiful beyond description. At
some place | think it would be
easy to count from four to five
hundred houses from the top of
the train, and that not in a town,
so level is the country. At places
where the railroad runs through
shallow cuts the soil SCENE to be
from four to six feet deep, and as
black as coal. The cultivation
of the crops is nearly all done
with the pillow, the hoe only be-
ing used to thin cotton and one
man can tend seventy-fve acres
of land. But one man cannot
gather it. Trees are very scarce
and the few seen are very low. A
man told me he hauled his stove
wood twelve miles. The water is
poor, and Is is hard for one from
North Georgia to drink it.
This is a great state, but | en-
not yet ready to exchange the red
hills of Georgia for the black
waxey lands of Texas.
The General Conference is hard
at work, but is hampered very
much in the transaction of other
business by the overwhelming i'm
portance attached to the now ia
nous war claim" This hangs
like pail over the Conference.
it is uppermost in every mind.
and every motion is watched and
considered with reference to its
possible bearing on this subject.
How ii will be disposed of none
can tell as yet, and but few dare
to even guess.
Many of the leading men of the
Southern aud Northern Metho-
dist church are here, and will be
heard during the session. Frater-
nal delegates from England and
Canada are also present, and will
be heard before the Conference
closes. Yours Truly.
S. B. LEDBETTER.