198 



GLKAXINGS rX HKK OULTUHK 



Mau. 



dime— good, too, both of them, and many 

 other tilings in proportion. Very nice 

 oysters are only 25 cts. a dish, and you have 

 a nice little table to eat on. After your re- 

 past is over, this little table is just tfte thing 

 for taking notes, as Ernest is demonstrating, 

 while we glide along smoothly at 40 miles 

 per hour. I enjoy it, any way. If all the 

 roads are as well managed as the Louisville 

 & Nashville, I don't see why anybody should 

 complain. 



We do not see horses and wagons ?,t the 

 hitching-posts at the stations we pass. We 

 see rows of horses ; but in place of the wag- 

 ons, only saddles. The roads are so rocky 

 and hilly is one reason, I presume. 



12 o'docl-.—lt troubles me to see so many 

 men standing about in the stores— in fact, all 

 along the way. with their hands in their 

 pockets. It lias been a rainy morning. I 

 know ; but even during a rainy day, ought 

 our American people to be wasting precious 

 hours of broad daylight with their hands in 

 their pockets? I'am afraid there are many 

 thousands throughout our land in this same 

 attitude ; but I feel very sure tliey are not 

 happy in so doing. Don't give away to 

 such 'weaknesses, boys; do something, if it 

 in a rainy day. Improve yom- homes, im- 

 prove your minds, and give a lift in raising 

 humanity by raising yourself. 



For some little time back I have been 

 wcMidering why farmers ha\'e alhnved a pe- 

 culiar weed to "grow to such an extent; and 

 now it dawns upon my understanding that 

 it is the dried and blackened stalks and ])ods 

 of the cotton-plant. 8o we are really gazing 

 on cotton-tields for the flrst time. The cot- 

 ton-presses are equally a curiosity, and I 

 had been wondering for some time why 

 there were so many funny-looking " cider- 

 mills." 



1 p. M.— As we strike Alabama the rocks 

 disappear, and with them the hills. The 

 landscape seems to be a sort of swamp of 

 evergreens. Xow and then are expanses of 

 water aroimd the tree-trunks. 



4 o'clock p. M.— A mountain stream comes 

 dashing down among the rocks, which now 

 seem to be more wild and suggestive than at 

 any time before on our trip. In order to 

 reach the high land, the track as it starts up 

 from the swamps endeavors to follow the 

 mountain stream, so to speak. Xow dash- 

 ing, the stream winds a hundred different 

 ways as it i)lunges through the ravines. As 

 the lorumotive can not well do this it crosses 

 and reciusses, taking cuts through hills and 

 across ravines in a way that makes its 

 ascent most exhilarating and bewildering. 

 From the way the engine i)ulTs and labors 

 over about S miles of track, it would seem 

 we must have ascended (piite a lu'ight. leav- 

 ing the fogs of the valley below. Ueautiful 

 little pines and other evergreens, with the 

 fresh nK)untain air, make it a scene wonder- 

 fully fascinating. 



Yesterday I felt a longing to see babbling 

 brooks. To-day the longing has been satis- 

 fied, if it ever was in my life, l^rooks are 

 everywhere pouring down the hillsides from 

 cliff to cliff, rushing and spattering the sides 

 of the track, whether we are on tlie moun- 

 tain or in the valley. This is pretty well 



down in the State of Alabama. Eushing 

 torrents are everywhere. 



Just here the train stopped a few minutes, 

 and we jumped off' to witness better the 

 grandeur of this mountain scenery. A boy 

 with a pitcher was singing out. •' Here is 

 your nice red sulphur-si)iing water, only 

 nickel a glass." We handed him a nickel, 

 and were quite willing to take his word that 

 it was the •" genuine simon pure,-' even if 

 we didn't take more than a small swallow 

 apiece. This is near Blount Springs, a famous 

 watering-place. 



In the 9(/(;/i/.— I happened to wake up as 

 the train stopped, and I heard the tree- 

 toads. Before it was quite daylight we were 

 in the turpentine woods. After leaving 

 Montgomery we ?aw gardens with peas in 

 blossom, and other vegetables correspond- 

 ingly far along. Canebrakes just now are 

 j an interesting sight. It is the same thing 

 the boys use for fish-poles, and the smaller 

 ones were formerly used for reed pipe-stems. 

 On the low grounds the trees are beautifully 

 I draped with Spanish moss, which waves 

 gracefully under the inliuence of the light 

 I breeze. Miles upon miles of Alabama" is 

 j wild land, apparently of no u.se to any one. 

 The low lands that produce such luxuriance 

 of canebrake and tall grasses, it seems to me 

 might give wonderful crops of almost every 

 thing, if reclaimed from the water seen ev- 

 erywhere. 



i The soil through all the South has a 



queer reddish cast. In some parts of Ala- 



I bama it is a bright brick red. and in others 



i a brilliant > ellow. The babbling brooks 



! that follow almost everywhere beside the 



1 track and across the country. ])artake large- 



1 ly of the color of the soil. ( )ne of these said 



brooks I was so enthusiastic over. Avashed 



out a part of the track last night, and throws 



us into Xew Orleans half a day late. 



As we approach the suburbs of any great 

 city, we as a rule expect to see a gradual im- 

 provement in the surroundings, residences, 

 farming lands, gardens, etc.; but the sub- 

 urbs to Xew Orleans, however, seem to be 

 an exception. The wateiy wastes give place 

 to a sort of swam]>, composed of bushes and 

 small trees. Little canals run out from the 

 railroad track into these bushes, which puz- 

 zled me for a while until I saw negroes 

 inishing large flat - bottomed boats along 

 these canals. The boats were filled witli 

 1 wood. Firewood has got to be so high in 

 price that they split oif the sides of stumps, 

 cut up bushes, and pick up every thing for 

 I fuel. With the mild balmy air, and the 

 grass starting everywhere, I expected to see 

 beautiful market gardens ; but if there were 

 any, they were not along the railroad. In 

 the street-ears running out to the Exposi- 

 tion, I saw cabbages and some other vegeta- 

 bles. Most of tiie gaidening seems to be 

 done by hand. Horses and cultivators were 

 nowhere visible; and as a whole, the gar- 

 dens in no way com])are(l with those in the 

 suburlis of our Xorthern cities. The soil is 

 rich and light, but the workmen, so far as I 

 observed, did every thing with a spade- 

 digging up the ground, cultivating, getting 

 out weeds, etc.. all with the one tool. 

 To be continued. 



