The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1907-02-22
FROM A FORMER RESIDENT OF YALE.

Paragould, Ark Feb. IL, o.
Editor Yale ExpOsitor
With your permission | will address
my friends Through the familiar pages
of The Exposition. As | look through
the local items can scarcely realize
that you are in the depths OF north
ern winter. with slippery, snowy side
walk and the mercury lowering near
or below the zero mark. while the air is
cold enough to almost take ones breath
away.
We have had the lovelest weather
here, with the exception of q few days
when we had "A light fall of snow, just
enough To cover the pretty green lawns
with mantle of white for few hours.
There has been more rain, | am told,
than is usual at this time of the year.
The low lands are somewhat OverilOwn,
as there is not much artificial drainage
in this part of the south. The crops
are raised with very little work, and
the climate is adapted TO the growth of
vegetation with little eXertion. Nearly
all the flowers we cultivate north, grow
by the roadside here The cinnamon
vine, HIBISCUS and the sacred passion
flower may be seen almost anywhere.
The roses are budding to bloom again,
and the stately pine and majestic mag
nolia are clad i'm their everlasting
green.
1t seems pity TO spend lifetime in
cold uncomfortable climate while
there is so much beauty and sunshine
elsewhere. There is large percentage
of northern people here. They contri-
butte the industrial and manufacturing
part of the element. The oldtime
southern people who have recovered
from the ravages of the war seem to
have settled down to u life of leisure.
The climate superinduces Incidence,
and they seem TO take TO it, SO To speak,
naturally.
The old time "befo de wah' darkies
and mammies and aunties have become
almost obsolete. / am told that any
surviving ones are pensioned by their
masters or families of their former
owners. The present generation is the
product of northern reconstruction.
They are ungovernable i'm their ignor-
ance and vice and only Southern people
know how to deal with them.
Paragould, a pretty little city nesting
on a ridge of Arkansas hills, was
struck by cyclone OH the Sth of De
cember. Ii is rather late to refer to it,
but as passed through it, | will not
easily forget it. The day had been eX-
ceedingly warm, and about eight o'clock
i'm the evening downpour of rain pre-
coded the appearance of a funnel-shaped
cloud of lower position. These seemed
to concentrate their forces with cir
cular motion, each moment becoming
moro active, oscillating and rolling
with indescribable force until they
broke in their fury upon the doomed
city, wrecking many of the princely
business houses and residences, tOgeth-
er with the tower and belfry of the
beautiful Methodist church.
This was a magnificent edifice built
IN the most approved architectural style
the decorations of which cost eleven
hundred dollars, representing Cheru-
bins, one on each side of the pulpit, to-
gether with the Shechinah on the wall
of the chancel The walls are badly
cracked and it will take a vast amount
of money for repairs. One of the pa
pers here says that Paragould is true
western town, and it had to sport a
storm to be up-to-date.
Fearing / have taken too much of
your valuable space, will now close.
NJ. ii. TAYLOR.