Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1908-05-17

and sent nome, lne pio'o o'"'
all over Alabama with A. j. SMITH
and Mobile expected To
be eaten up alive, but the blue EEL
lows only rode into town and got
= few drinks of milk. and some corn
none saluted the good old men ana
women who were there ana fode
away without cVn kicking up inc
dust, and to this day the people OF
Mobile will tell you that Yankee
soldier is gentleman and schoi-
ar. sah.' and !, little shrimp OF
22-year-old boy, on a mule, was one
of the gentlemen and scholars
sab" and ! have never been near
the place since, and that was forty
four years ago, and J. came back
here an old gentleman, fiat as pig,
and looked around for the old Bat
tie House where an old man gave
me a bucket of milk. Well, II
had as any dollars as ! have rld-
den miles through old Alabama, in
the war days, ] could buy house
and lot. On the way down here
from Montgomery, J. passed the
scene where ] stole hundred-dot-
lar horse, and turned loose on the
nlantation two-hundred dollar
mule, but l never got off the car to
collect the hundred dollars differ
ence from the planter, because
knew he had gun; so | looked
out of the car window and tried TO
look innocent and pious, and as ht-
tie like horse thief as possible,
though it did seem to me as though
the passengers suspected that |
needed watching.
am astonished to see that Ala
bama has not, within the last forty
years, developed more population
and material resources. Land oD
each side of the railroad for hum
dreds of miles is unoccupied, and
the same woods of small jack pine
with an occuasional tree big enough
for a saw log, is seen everywhere,
with few good houses away from
The larEe towns. land apparently
no considerable number OF new set
tiers on the rich soil that is going
to waste. have asked several
leading citizens why they did not
try to induce people from the North,
East and West, and from Europe,
to settle in the state and make 1t
blossom and / am told they do
hope TO get people into the state,
but that too many citizens believe
that Alabama is good enough for
Alabamians, and they don't care
very much whether people come or
not. and if families do come into
the state to live, they are not look
ed upon with much favor if they
do their own work. The idea bred
into the native is that negroes and
mules are made to work, and that
a white man and a horse are too
good to work. that it makes them
tired. A good horse should not
haul pillow. but be ridden or driven
by white man. So the white for
mer who comes 20 the state and
gets up at daylight and digs, is Of
ter looked upon as bad example,
If his children work in the garden
or milk the CONS, they are not con-
sidered so very desirable as neigh
bors, and the old planter with a
thousand acres Of ground and plen~
W of negroes to dc the work, would
revolt to see his son get we'll &C
Win Vic vi q
man who tills the soil. ] know that
IN 1864 nearly every soldier who
got we'll acquainted with Old Ala
bama. looked upon the state as a
sort Of heaven that he wanted tc
live IN after the war was over, and
many plans were We're made 10 set
tie here and there. bay small
farm and have all kinds of fruit
flowers and crops of all kinds. where
a man could live like a king anG
enjoy every month of the year. Bu1
! do not find them here Every
acre OF Alabama is good for some
thing and the woods should be full
Of grazing cattle and there should
be butter and cheese factories a
every crocsroai. but from Birming
ham to Mobile saw less cattle thar
I would see on the farms between
Milwaukee and Madison, 81 miles
and the cattle did see We're scraw