Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-01-06


trip was to visit the daughter of Mr.
w. M. Whitesides, Mrs. F. c. White
sides at Chicota, the family of Rev. W..
A. M. Plaxco at Brighton, Tennessee,
and incidentally to take a little vaca-
ton and see some of the great west
ern country.
Speaking of the trip yesterday MI
Jeff d. Whitesides said that the party
went from TeXarkana to Paris, ahu
from Paris to Chicota. They remalne-
at the home of Mrs. Whitesides TWO
days and two nights ana came pack
home over pretty much the same gen.
eral route that they went, stopping
while with Rev. w. A. M. Plaxco, az
, Brighton, and finding him well on the
way to recovery from his recent severe
attack of blood poisoning.
I'VE did not enjoy the trip as mucl.
as we might have done under otner
circumstances, said Mr.. Whitesides:
1T has been raining out in the Reo
River country ever since last Septem
! ber The people say they only hao
about three weeks or falrly soo~
weather in which to gather the crops,
and II was still raining on US all the
time we were there. They nave no
roads out that way. There are hve
miles of gravel road out from Paris
toward Chicota that is first class; but
the remaining ten miles Is over
sticky black mud that Is simply nor
rible. 1t is the same way all over the
country. They use wagons altogether.
and the mud cakes between the spo.-
until the wheels become a solid mass;
| Horses and mules are able to traVei
only a few miles until they are COM
|
being able to walk along these roads
at this season Of the year is concern
ed, he simply cannot do 1t.
in the section we visited they don
farm anything much but cotton, corn
and alfalfa. Their alfalfa is fine ane
so is their corn; but I could not see
that their cotton was any better than
was ours at home. They had a better
| and larger weed; but not so much
fruit However, you know they do
not fertilize. as they do not work as
| hard as we do.
"They are not fixed up out in that
country as we are. They have no such
things as barns and sheds to shelter
| their stock, vehicles and implements.
| The stock is kept exposed In enclo-
sures, and wagons and the like stand
out in the weather. The mules and
horses are fed in troughs out in the
open. People out there say their stock
| does better that way.
"One thing I noticed that interested
me very much was a great village OF
people in tents, and when we asked
| the people we were visiting about II,
they explained that these were the
cotton pickers. They come down from
Oklahoma and the mountains in the
spring to chop out cotton and again In
| the fall to pick cotton. Each FAMILY
has its own wagon, most OF them one
horse wagons. They bring along tents,
bedding, cooking utensils and the like.
and set up camp from which they
do their work, taking up the cotton
country section by section. The wet
weather having come on them this
year about the time they were through
picking or a little before, they were
unable to get away and are still there.
II saw quite lot Of corn In the
fields too. In most cases the renters
get ten rows Of corn and leave the
landlord five rows. Generally the rem
ters have gathered their own corn,
and that which is still in the fields be-
longs to the landlords. -.
Il saw one piece Of land out there,
said Mr.. Whitesides, that would have
made me envious II they had other
things to go with it-schools, churches,
social advantages and the like. 1t was
about one and half miles wide, five
miles long, as level as a floor and as
rich as cream. With land like that 1t
would seem that a man ought to be
able to raise almost anything and as
much Of it as he could want"
All the members Of the party en-
joyed the trip immensely except for
the wet weather; but, none Of them
were sufficiently impressed during
their stay to want to make Texas their
hnrpa