The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1904-03-18

self if it is spot in which she would
like to live. She evidently has enough
of the New England 'tgrit'' to succeed
almost anywhere. Another interest
ing member of our family during those
days was a woman Of refinement and
culture, who was returning from her
childhood home in New Bedford,
Mass, where she had been to accom-
pany her aged mother, who had visited
her in her own home in Berkeley, Cal.
She had lived in Santa Barbara about
20 years, but had moved to Berkeley
to educate the family of six children.
A company Of men and women of good
sense can spend eat many pleasant
hours during trip like ours.
The Southern railway connecting
Washington with New Orleans, for
the greater part of the distance runs
within $50 miles or so of the Atlantic
coast, cuts across the northwest corner
of Florida, and then along the coast of
the Gulf states to New Orleans, 1870
miles distant by rail from New York.
Saturday, our first day out from Wash
ington, we ran as far as Atlanta, Ga.
reaching there just as the electric
lights were blazing forth. The coun-
try through which we passed was quite
uniform in texture and quality, but
nothing like as productive as farther
in the interior. When cropping had
been done, corn and cotton ware the
staple crops. Invariably the corn
stalks of last years growth showed the
custom to be-one kernel in a place,
two feet apart or more in the row, and
the rows about three feet apart.
Stalks were not saved, only the leaves
and husks stripped off for fodder, the
bare stalks to be burned in the spring.
The cotton stalks left standing from
the last years crop were too much
dwarfed to have produced more than
medium crop, and showed the &eanness
of an impoverished soil. But there
was abundant evidence of coming re-
vival of better agriculture, in the many
large and up-to-date cotton factories
recently erected especially in both
North and South Carolina. In many
instances large villages had been laid
out with great care and regularity, land
hundreds of houses already built to
accommodate busy population that
is bound to develop around these new
and great industries that are to do so
much toward restoring that border
south land to greater fertility and pro-
ductiveness. Night closed in on us
at Atlanta, and still we were speeding
along as we were sleeping, while the
sleepless eye of the engineer was peer
ing through the darkness and his firm
grip was on the throttle. Daylight
found us in southern Georgia, where,
passing through endless belts of pine
timber, we saw steam saw-mills cut
ting the timber for our Northern mar
ket. AS we crossed Mobile bay, the
country grew more marshy and deeply
lndented with bayous, and we peered
our eyes hither and yon to get a
glimpse of alligators, which some were
sure they saw, while others declared
it to be nothing but floating logs half
out of water. We passed many large
groves of pines that had been boxed,
as it is called, to gather the gum for
turpentine. One novel feature to
those unaccustomed to travel along
the Gulf coast, especially Mississippi,
is the long hanging moss that covers
the forest trees and dropping almost to
the ground. We arrived at New Or
leans about noon on Sunday, four or
five hours behind time, when we had
been assured we were to have several
hours for sightseeing, but which, be-
cause Of delays, we were deprived of,
and our long train of vestibuled cars
were run onto barge to be transferred
across the Father of Waters.
Redlands, CAL,
March 8, 1904.
When we left our home for our trip
it was not our intention to be upon the
road on Sunday, but delays in starting
seemed to make it necessary, and Sun
day morning found us on the train
nearing New Orleans. So much be-
hind time were we that our conductor
feared we would have to lie over until
Monday, but our train was hurried on
to the barge, and heavy tugs towed us
across the Mississippi, where mon