V2\) 



happen that the traveler feels very much disappointed on finding 

 out, upon inquiry, that he has Long ned the embryo town 



which has entire' d his notice. 



Near Marion there are springs whose water is slightly ealybeate, 

 but the place itself presents nothing of interest. I crossed Bayou 

 Loutre at Cherry Ridge ou a bridge, and proceeded from there to 

 Farmerville, the parish site of Union. There are some places on 

 this road well cultivated in cotton and corn, and provided with 

 lling houses of a neat and comfortable appearance. 



Farmerville is a small village, well laid out, and a spirit of im- 

 provement seems to be prevalent among its citizen-. It is a mile 

 and a half from Bayou d'Arbonne, which is navigable by small 

 steamboats, connecting with the Ouachita liver at Trenton. At the 

 time of my visit it happened that there were two lunatics confined 

 in jail, which could not be accommodated in the State Lunatic 

 tnd that otherwise peaceable town was exposed 

 to the incessant outcries and the strange and uncouth noises of men 

 who are not accountable and whose action can not be controlled, 

 and this nuisance had to be endured because the State has not 

 erected a building sufficiently large to receive all that may be so un- 

 fortunate as to lose their reason. 



From Farmerville I traveled to Spearsville. a small place pleas- 

 antly situated, with two stores, a meeting house and a school house. 

 The country in the neighborhood is perhaps the best cotton pro- 

 ducing region of Union parish. 



The road from here to Homer is in a much better condition than 

 any road that I had traveled in the hill country, but the settlements 

 are still poor until within nine or ten miles of town, where the 

 plantations are cultivated by hired freedmen and the houses are well 

 built and neatly painted. 



Claiborne is one of the best populated and one of the most flour- 

 ishing parishes in the northern part of the State. The planters are 

 thrifty and enterprising, and belong to the better class of Georgia] >. 

 horn the parish was originally settled. They are mostly Bap- 

 tists, but the Methodists have lately swelled their numbers con- 

 siderably. 



I was I i.at the Claiborne lands are more productive than 



those of Union. Such a conclusion could not be reached from mere 



