Year: 1875

habtants say the~e are unaucstionably '
the dulIcst times that have visited our
village within their recollection. which
by the way. il A remarkable ex.m,le ol
the wonderful expre~iyenes. Of the .u.
Pcrlative form Of the objective dull and
a huge COAX on the times. And this
leads me to say something Of our coun.
try and our people. I have not taken
the pains TO make even an approxim ste
estimate, but ! do not suppose that more
than third or fourth of the area of our
country is under cultivation, the remain.
der Except necessary woodland attached
to farms) being an almost unbroken will
derness, and for the most part 80 hilly,
rocky, or otherwise broken or 80 irrctriev-
ably poor as to be impracticablc or undc-
sirable forordinary agricultural purposes.
Yet those poor, hilly, broken lands are
said 10 contain vast amount OF mineral
wealth. The timber forests now grow
ing upon them are the most superb the
Imagination can conceive, yet unfortu-
natcly they are at present only valuable
as cooneries. The water power of our
country is capable of driving the
machinery of the whole world with some
power to spare.


A few of our farms are naturally POOR
and unproductiyc. and. perhaps, incapa-
BILE of being fertilized by any mean now
known. Other. naturally good. have
been almost hopslessly ruined by bad
cultivation and bad management. But
our farms generally are fertile and in a
high state of cultivation. -improvemeut
and repair. No set Of people are more
comfortably situated or live better than
the farmers of Wayne County, and no
section of country has more varied
natural resources and elements Of in
dependent prosperity than this. Stock
raising has always been sort of speciality
with our leading farmers. They raise an
abundance Of good stock Of all kinds, and
pay attention to blood and pedigree only
80 far as is necessary to promote or ad-
vance the intriasic worth of their stock.
There is a smart sprinkle of emulation
among them as to the quality and con-
dition of their stock, but that feeling is
not carried to extremes. The fact that
one Of them happens to own finer bull
than his neighbors rarely ever makes any
difference in his. social relations with
them. Wayne County is also noted for
its stock traders. During the stock trad
ing seasons they (like Wolford's cavalry
during the war may be met with almost
anywhere ON the continent.


As for the people at large Of our
county. I think 1 nav without impro-
priety say that there is to be found
among them as much general intelligence,
regard for law and order, general good
will, neighborly kindness, charity, libef-
alitv. generosity and warm hearted hos
pitality. and as little stuck-up pride,
arrogance ,ostentation, selfishness, avarice
and disposition to overreach or oppress
as anywhere in the wide world. But
with all these good qualities they would,
if weighed in the balance, "be found
wanting" in few important particulars.
Perhaps they will give it up without be-
ing weighed, that they are grievously
wanting in public spirit. We need
turnpike road from Monticello to Somer-
set or Point Isabel. Pulaski has time and
again proposed to meet us at the county
line, which would leave only fourteen
miles for us to build. The advantages OF
the road would be immeasurably greater
to us than TO Pulaski, yet our peoplehave
taken no step toward building H. ana
seem to feel but little interest IN 'ne SUD
ject. We also need good Court House,
with public Officers In 1t, and hre PROOF
vaults for public papers and records
Our county is out OF DEBT, ana mas eign'
or ten thousand dollars IN cash ana con
vertibie real estate. iet our County
Court Is seriously talking oi patching up
a lot OF Old rat traps Tor a court House
and public oihces. The people VIII never
regret IL pu' once u 'ney S""e' ''e
County Court to squander their money
In that way.


Our town needs local option law
rigidly enforced. Some of our present
crop Of young men from nine to twenty
one are in danger of becoming dissiPated
if they continue 10 spend all their time
in grog shops for the next six years as
they have done for six years past. 1t is
said that some of them are beginning to
manifest a slight degree of irrcgularity
in their habits even now.


Our town also needs a good school.
Several things are necessary to render a
school successful here. In the first place,
parents must make up their minds that
their children need education, and in the
second place, that they must have il
whether they want il or not. They