The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1902-05-23
Another Letter on Texas.

MIR. EDITOR:--AS | have not seen
anything from this part of the county
in great while | decided to rive
you n few lines.
Farmers are about don" plantin.
save some of their bottom land.
They have only tolerably good stands
of cotton. Late planting and red
lands are poor stands. Mt much
small grain planted and what there is
is not promising.
We are needing good rnin in this
section, have only had some little
showers in some time.
There is not much sickness in this
community.
Miss Mamie Kelly has the fever.
She has been sick FIVE or six weeks.
She is somewha: better now. No
other serious sickne ess that know Of
Ifyou will give me space in your
paper | will tell something of my tri,.
to Dallas, Texas. 1 hope you and
your readers will bear with me as
will try to give some scattering re-
marks of my trip as | did not take
any notes.
l boarded the train at Union on
Saturday, April 10Th, for Dallas.
There was not Union man on the
train that was going to Texas. When
| arrived at Spartanburg I met some
Cherokee men On their way to Dallas
but soon found that none of them
went the route that my ticket called
for, so decided to stop over at
Gainesville, Ga, Saturday night and
wait for the Sunday train and see if
L could get with some one that 1
knew, but when the train came there
were only two on board that l knew,
Mr.. James Graham and son. They
also were going different route.
Mr.. Graham said when he got to At
lanta he would try to get their tickets
changed so we could 60 together, but
when we arrived in Atlanta my train
was ready to move out 80 We had to
part. My train moved on toward
New Orleans, a long drive. This
was about 7 p. M, so / passed through
that country mostly in the night.
We arrived in New Orleans the next
day sometime in the evening. We
did not stop in the old crescent
city long so | did not get to see much
of the city. We changed cars here,
50 our train was soon on the large
boat across the Mississippi. We
went now for long drive to Dallas
of nearly six hundred miles. This is
the Texas Il Pacific r. r. do not
know the population of any of the
towns on this line as did not inquire.
Soon after we left New Orleans We
struck the sugar plantations for con-
siderable distance. The railroad runs
near the Mississippi river. On
both sides of the railroad you can
see one sugur plantation after another
for many miles. They look like
small cotton mill buildings. Tho
land is as level as yard and rich as
it can be. You can see from 25 to
40 mules on the plantations, two to
four hitched to the plow, harrow or
cultivator as it may be. The corn was
just coming up to half leg high. I did
not see many rice plantations. All
the sugar plantations were drained
by bitches about thirty or forty yards
apart. The rows are perfectly
straight.
Now and then we crossed creek or
small river, and for some distance it
is swampy and large cane brakes
where there are plenty of hears. One
gentleman told me that they killed
forty in one season. There are also
wolf and panthers in those swamps.
We made poor time until we
reached Marshall as it is not good
road bed, but from Marshall to Dal-
las we made fairly good time.
We passed Long View Junction,
about 80 miles, after leaving Mar
shall as we'll as I can remember.
Grand Saline is IS miles from DIAL
las. Here is the Texas big salt
works right on the railroad. They
told me that they bored 160 feet and
struck a salt bed, bored on a00 feet
and never got through the bed. They
say it is ga per cent. salt. They
just merely dry it and it Is ready for
use. :" =
We pulled into Dallas Tuesday