Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-10-24

ence. II had gathered the idea some.
how from somewhere that there was
great deal more wealth and pros.
perity down in the Alabama and Miss
issippi country than there was up this
Fway. I had pictured in my mind as
lining the railroad, q succession ,oi
palatial country homes SUCH as you
read about in the old time novels, and
although was prepared to see great
fields that had once produced immense
quantities Of cotton now devoted tc
| corn, hay, velvet beans, peanuts, and
the like, still, my imagination insisted
on demanding spacious white two
story houses with rows of columns
along their wide piazzas. But 1 was
disappointed and surprised. From time
to time, while rolling through the low
lying fiat lands, saw a stately old
mansion that had no doubt seen DAYS
of importance in the past, as rule
the houses, barns and surroundings
down that way do not begin to com.
pare favorably with the farm improve
ments in this country. And I had
thought that the people had about
quit planting cotton; but not so. All
along the railroad in Alabama and
Mississippi you still see great cotton
fields just the same as in this country;
only they are not white like our fields.
They are green mostly, with only a
white speck here and there. The
farmer had planted and cultivated;
but before the cotton has begun to
open the boil weevil had settled down
anu cleaned things up completely. You
are soon oppressed with a sense of
the childlike foolishness of people who
although they have lost crop after
crop, persist in keeping up what they
used to do, possibly in the vain hope
that maybe things would get right
again, only to see all their work go for
nothing. OF course. there are many
people down that way who have ap-
preciated the situation and turned to
other crops but not nearly all of them.
AS for New Orleans, found it a won
derfully interesting place to visit; bur
don't think ! would like to live
there, not for long. All my earliest i'm
pressions of New Orleans, were sug-
gestive Of unsanitary conditions that
bred yellow fever and other diseases
and of kind of second fiddle cotton
exchange. OF course was aware that
yellow fever has at last been stamped
out, at least for the present; but /
war hardly surprised to find the old
city so clean, pleasant and generally
inviting. You know it is commonly
understood that New Orleans is lower
than the bed of the Mississippi river.
do not know whether 1t Is or not;
but / noticed that wherever they were
making excavations for buildings
water was rising from depth of two
or three feet and they had TO keep
pumps working to get rid of. it. But
also / noticed that concrete had work.
ed a great change. Now they have dry
Easements and dry lower stories gen.
orally through the use Of concrete.
The remains of old time cysterns, now
dry. are to be seen, and there is a
splendid water system, one OF the
best in the world, that is supplied
from Lake Pontchartrain. There Is
no discount on sanitation now. Gen.
orally the more important buildings are
two, three and four stories, and but
few Of them are higher though there
is at least one eleven story sky
scraper in the city. The old st.
Charles hotel fills a city block with
stores all around it, and it may be
entered from all sides. There is no
prohibition down there either. You
can buy any kind of liquor you call
for and beer seems to be as common
and as plentiful as it has ever been
anywhere. The people, especially
those who had to do with us of the
cotton conference. were delightfully."-
courteous and hospitable. and wheth-
er any of us got anything else out Of
it or not, all of us had a great time.