The New York Herald Newspaper, September 6, 1875, Page 4

4 GRANT'S. WAR GAME. ——-——- The Outrages on the Texan- Mexican Border. AN EX-MARSHAL SPEAKS How the Negroes Are Protected and the Whites Neglected, BAD ADVISER. Shall We Have a War with Mexico P GRANT’S Lose Braen, Sept. 4, 1 The recent action of the government with regard to the frontier troubles in Texas proves that the President {a aware of the necessity of doing something for the protection of our territory from imyasion, although it is ident that be intends to choose his own time for bringing matters to un issue with Mexico. Many cir- Cumstances tend to give plausibility to the conjecture that « war with Mexico is the card that will be played by President Grant in his third term game, to win the Qomination from the republican conveution, Tho out- rages that have been committed on the soil of Texas by the organized band of Mexican brigauds are kno’ the administration, and the Mexican government would long since have been calied to wccount for its failure to suforce its laws and to bring the robbers and murdeters n to to justice if there had not been some motive for, post- | poning the day of reckoning, The best informed citizens of Texas declare their conviction that the raids will never cease until the Mexicans have been taught a Jesson they will not soon forget, or until the country has been placed under a strong government friendly to and supported by the United States, They regard war as inevitable, as the only means of securing peace, be- tause the Mexicans themselves would rather ight the “Gringos” than not MKXICO NOT AVERSE TO WAR. It isa common thing to hear Mexicans declare that they are adifferent people now from those who were whipped by the Americans in the last war between the | two countries. Since then, they say, Mexico has beaten the picked troops of Austria and France, and cannot now be conquered by Yankees. Lerdo, while a good Chief Justice and a useful cabinet adviser, is aweak Executive, and since he has given himself up to political ambition is less scrupulous than he formerly was as to the means by which he accom- Plighes his objects, He may desire peace and a quiet re-election, but he has those around him who would be glad to promote a war with the United Stutes for their , own selfish and corrupt purposes. He would gladly stop the frontier outrages if he could, bat he wants the po- litical support of the robber Cortina and fears to offend dim. It seems unlikely, therefore, that a war can be avoided whenever the United States government gets Feady to call Mexico to account for the lawless acts of ber citizens on the frontier. When that time, already too long delayed, is to arrive President Grant will endeator to decide, unless Texas should resolve to pre- cipitate the issue by making reprisals and punishing the invaders of her soil. A war, or the immediate dan- ger of a war, ubout the time of the assembling of the Republican National Convention would certainly create whe “exigency” which, according to President Grant's letter, might make him willing to be a candidate for a third term and render his re-election desirable, TOM OCHILTREE ON THE SITUATION, Ex-United States Marshal Tom Ochiltree, whose district covered the Mexican frontier, and who is entirely familiar with all matters re- lating to Texas and Mexico, expresses some views on the subject of the outrages to which the Texans have been subjected which ure intereresting And important at this time. His attention having been talled to the Heratp statement in regard to the fron- tier troubles aud the object of the President in with- holding from the citizens of Texas that protection to which they are entitled, he corroborated all that had been told vy others of the extent and aggravated char- acter of the outrages. His general views are set forth in the following conversation :— —$—=—- So | valuable as commander-in-chi ‘NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1875—TRIPLE SHEET. States territory. His bands of thieves, under his per- sonal direction, invaded Texas at different points, | parnea ranchos, murdered rancheros, ‘and stole | and drove off into Mexico hundreds of thousands of the cattle belonging to American citizens. On some occas! Nucves Kiver. You know that the Mexicans ignore the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, that the Nueces is their proper boundary line, During last winter a body of them came within a few miles of Corpus Christi and murdered the Postmaster and his | whole family, Unfortunately the only cavalry on duty | iu that section were negroes, who were utterly ineffl- | Gent, The State government appealed tm vain for aid. Somehow there Was uo protection. i THR LNACTION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. | @ Did the general government pass over the outrage unnoticed ¢ Major OctuLrmes—No steps were taken to obtain | redress, Thad a Deputy Marshal, named McAuelly, | once a Confederate soldier, full of pluck and hard sense. | Governor Coke gave him a company of rangers, aud 1 | authorized him to summon a posse ax large as he | chose in addition to keep the peace—that is, to whip | out these robbers, He had not been on the Rio Grande | | came to you in time to show somewhat of the condition | a week before he caught a gang of Cortinas in flagrante | delictu running off with 1,000 bead of cattle. He at- tacked them, followed them oma run for ten or fiiteen miles, killed every maw of them and recovered all the cattle, I believe if he had suf fleient he could maintain order there how stantly on the alert for the raiders, 1 understand he is now under orders from the United States officers com, manding im that quarter, I learn that the negro regi- ment of cavalry lately on duty there has been trans- ferred to New Mexico and a white regiment ordered to the frontier in its place, But if tify regiments are sent there it will do no good, unless they be allowed to detend the country. PROTECTION YOR THE NEGRO—NONE YOR THE WHITE CITIZEN, Q You have read Governor Coke's recent letter to the President, I presume? Major Ocuitteex—Yes. stolen toree I have read the letter of ns these scoundrels have advanced as far as the | and cling to the idea | He ts as cautious as he is brave, and is con- | | The fuct that over 25,000 negroes have emigrated from CONDITION. OP GEORGIA cvnmeneciieentipeonbeieliae What the State Has Last by Emigration. PROFITABLENESS OF MANUFACTURES, The Small Farmers Her Most Prosperous Class. ALVINE, To rox Eorror oF THk HxRaLi You printed the other day a letter of mine on Geor- gia affairs which had been long delayed on the way, but . J. Sept. 4, 1875, of the State whose white people have been alarmed by Tumors of an intended negro insurrection, It looks as though unscrupulous men in both parties were very | reudy to take advantage of such an affair and to “make | political capftal out of it;” fortunately, in this case, the authorities and the people of both colors have acted very circumspectly. The negroes in Georgia have, as my previous letter showed, some, but slight and les sSening, cavses for dissatisfaction; the fact that they will pay taxes on over $7,000,000 this year, all acquired since 1866, and by a class notoriously unthrifty, shows that they have suffered no serious wrong or injustice. the State shows also that they know how to better their condition, But their dissatisfaction does not arise from Wrongs; fer the whites also are dissatisfied, and an | | equal number of them have removed to other States, — Governor Coke in response to Secretary Belknap’s | | threat to withdraw the United States troops from Texas ‘DLecause of the arrest by the civil authorities of three | negro cavalrymen, 1 thought the Governor showed a | little too much acerbity; but Iam glad he did it, Such a despatch could only have emanated from the same | Source as that which indorsed Sheridan’s course in | Louisiana, The idea of stripping a whole people of defence against robbers and marauders simply be- cause of the arrest of three negro thieves who happen to be soldiers, and their trial by a State Court! A most singular state of affairs! While United States Marshal I had the power of @ pro-consul. T could summon the whole United States forces in my district and all the State militia besides as a posse comi- tatus to protect a negro from attack by a white citizen, Yet hundreds of white citizens were every day being despoiled and murdered without my being able to litt a finger to protect and aid them, BAD FAITH OF THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT. Q Do you think that the Mexican government will interfere with Cortina’s robberies * Major OcmteEE—No. I do uot believe in the sin- cerity of the Mexican government regarding the arrest | of Cortina, He yielded too gracefully to the summons. He was as powerful at Matamoros as was Roderick Dhu on his native heather against the Fitz James, He could have thrashed out the troops that pretended to arrest him in half an hour, He could have held that section of Mexico against the whole Mexicau afmy until he had exacted his terms if he had been so disposed, Rest assured that his arrest is only atub thrown to the whale. No sane man on the border believes that Cor- tina will be punished. His property has not been con- fiscated. He is living in quiet splendor at the City of Mexico, his family having joined him there. His bands still light up the frontier with the burned ranchos of Texans and sell the hides of Texas cattle at Bagdad | and Matamoros. WHAT WILL THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DO? Q Do you not think the United States government must soon interpose ? fr Major OcmuutReE—I believe that this Mexican ques tion has assumed such proportions that the United States government must give it prompt attention, It may, as you say in the Hegaup, be held in reserve for the next Presidential campaign, though I do not myself believe that the President would so palter with a great national question involving the lives and property | of American citizens. I most unhesitatingly say that in the event of serious complications with Mexico I would vote for General Grant for a third term. He is the greatest soldier of the age, and would be in- and I believe if he had @ You think, Major Ochiltree, that the stories of the | been properly informed and advised he would have sup- Mexican outrages have not been exaggerated ? Major OcmirrEx—Well, all persons who suffer aro apt to color their sufferings somewhat highly. But the truth is bad enough, without any exaggeration at all, You of the East cannot appreciate the qxtent and enor- mity of these periodical raids on Texas. I imagine that band of insurgents in Herzegovina than is given to the descent of Mexican marauders upon the Texas frontier lands. And yet this mode of pillage and warfare, Wwaugurated by Juan Cortina almost as far back as 1 can remember, has become Shronic, and you might say as incurable, as were the descents of the Scotch roughriders of old in their annual visitations to neighbors. Cortina first arose to celebrity about 1857 or 1858, at which time he boldly galloped into the Brownsville, in broad daylight, murdered the jailer and guards of the city prison, and liberated a number of his retainers, who were incarcerated for cattle stealing and murder. This act put him without the pale of the law, and be became thenceforward a pronounced highwayman sud thief. The civil authorities being unable to cope with him, a special expedition was organized by the as their border | ¥ of | cal rascalities, pressed this nuisance long since. President Grant has been sadly imposed upon by designing men from Texas, His own impulses are generally right, In the fight for the Governorship in Texas, between Coke and Davis, he | | very justly decided that Coke by simply having 50,000 | majority was entitled to the place, ‘although Davis was Much more attention is directed to the operation of a | entreating him to order the United States Marshal to prop him in the séit with bayonets. My refusal to sustain this idiotic and infamous assumption of | | Davis’ was the cause of my suspension from office, ‘The Davis and Baker faction demanded my official head because I would not prostitute my office to their parti- san behest, They came up to the President with a batch of lies and slanders, supplemented by the asser- tion that I was not sound—that is, that I would not trample on justice, law and order to sustain their politi« They nominated the ex-Chief Justice of the State in my place, a very good man; but, to place myself right, I determined to defeat his confirmation by the Senate, I showed the President petitions signed by the |, Whole Bar of my county asking my retention, and by all the great merchants, bankers and business men. But it was of no avail against a political combination. I went on to the Senate, however, and after three months? snen Governor of Texas and sent after him. | deliberation and having the unanimous support of the This expedition was defeated and routed by | lawyers and leading litigants in my courts, I defeated Cortina, afd his success so emboldeued him | my opponents and was reinstated in office on the 4th of that he increased his depredations until he | March. I then tendered my resignation. I believe, became the terror of the frontier. Shortly after, I believe during Sam Houston’s administration, another tampaign was organized with State troops, under Colonel John J. Ford (old Rip), « celebrated Texan tanger. This force, in conjunction with a battalion of Cnited States troops under Mujor (now General) Heintzel- man, frst humbled the elated robber. defeated and his forces scattered. A price was placed upon his head by General Houston, After the occupa- tion of Mexico by the French and Austrian troops in support of Maximilian’s Empire, Juarez was a fugitive from Mexica, with his headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, oot holding a foot of Mexican At this stage Cortina emerged from his tem. porary lurking places in the Sierra Madro Mountains and commenced a vigorous and oftec tive warfare against the imperial troops. He com- menced with a few hundreds of his old retainers, all bold desperadoes, inured to hardship and danger, and was almost immediately successful. Indeed his preda tory style of living, his utter disregard of danger, the lightness and rapidity of his movements, subsistin he did, entirely on the country he happened to be 1, enabled him todo terrible execution in the imperial Tanks and thousands soon flocked to his standard. You might really say that to the determination, courage and sudacity of Juan Cortina, more than to anything else, the people of Mexico to-day owe their liberty. It wus for this reason that President Juarez overlooked his many crimes against law, order and society and gave him the commission of General in the Mexican liberal ermy. He was badly as COMTINA, TIT LIBERATOR OF MEXICO. Q You think, then, that Cortina is patriotic and true to his own government? Major OcuttRe®—Yes; Cortina Monk of Mexico; without him Juarez would never have been Inaugurated and the House of Austria would to- fay be ruling in Mexico, It was owing to these valu- thle services that Cortina was, ufter the establishment of the Republic, given the command of the Texas frontier, It was imagined that the distinction and wouith achioved by iu lim a legitimate war fighting for bis coustry; had allured bir from bis old, bad ways. But the dog had to return to bis vomit, He made application to the Texas Legislature to bave the ban of outlawry removed fron him, but unsuccessfully. For the past fow years be bas been all-powerful aud almost independent of the con- tral Mexican government. fle bas overturned the Btate government of Tamaulipas and the city govern ment of Matamoros a dozen times, He bas had gov- ernors, mayors and gonorals shot ja the Grand Plaza of His Matamoros to get up an appetite for breakfast, igh stylo of living somewhat crippling bis war carn: | all territory. | was the General | | with all due modesty, that I quit office the most popular federal official in the South since the war with except the politicians. All the newspapers apd best citizens congratulated me upen the administration of my office in the interests of Justice, law and good government, Shortly after Presi- dent Grant’s action in the coptested Governorship in Texas he was immensely popular, After bis subsequent action, however, iu trymg to revive the Brooks régime in Arkansas, he Jost all the prestige he bad gained in the former case, HOW TO KREP MEXICO OX H¥R GOOD MRIAVIOR. Q Do you think a war, with the inevitable result, the punishment of Mexico, would produce permanent peace? Major Ocurrmee—I do not believe we shall ever have lasting peace with Mexico until we change the line, We must have the Sierra Ande mountains; we ought to bave an outlet on the Gulf boundary of California for one of the arms of the great Texas Pacific Railroad, ‘The average Mexican religiously believes he can beat the Gringos (they ail Americans Gringos or Yankees). ‘You will dud a diferent set to fight from that of 1846, Since then we ha become mured to war; we have lowered the pride of the conquerors of Sebastopol, of Algeria and Magenta; we lave driven out of the coun- try the white coats of the bousting Austrians, and we just want a chance once more at the boasting Gringos."? T believe Phil Sheridan could whip Mexico with 60,000 mixed Union and Confederate veterans. I would like | to command the advance guard of Texan cavalry, al- though I should want stayers if 1 encountered Cortina, They say, | REMARKABLE ESCAPE. One of the curiosities at the Passaic Falls is a crevice in the rocks, caused by some convulsion of nature, The bottom is about six inches or so wide and runs up about eighty feet to the top, Where its width is about three feet, It 1s about 100 yards in length, On Friday afternoon Mr, L. H. Kingsbery, President of the Ded ham (Mass.) Bank, was walking about the groands with his little three-year-old grandson, Preston Ro: Hof Mr. E. K. Rose, of Paterson, when suddenly the litle boy disupy After some time he found that he had fallen down the crevice, When first discovered the voy was not all the way to the botton; but by lis straggling he soon work mself down, How to ex v him became a grave questio ut after some 4 sim boy was found and induced to climb down the end of the rocks and enter the crevice by working Himeel! sideways toward where the boy was located. After long and tedious efforts the boy was reached, and he was got out the same way, the two working them- selves along edgeways. Singular to say, with the ex- ception of « few bruises about the head, the lad was un- jujured, The distance he fell into the wedge-shaped poo Was about eighty feet, It is considered one of exceptions to this general description; and lest I should | sissippi, and parties of whom I frequently spoke with | suffered from two bad laws wh hurrowest escapes that ever ocuurred at the Passaic | ings, be reinaugurated bis old incursions into United | Fails The chief difficulty in Georgia is that it is an old State, with worn lands, whose near neighbors, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, invite its people to come and take possession of new and fertile soils, where they need no manures, and can get greater returns for their labor. Georgia and North Carolina differ from the other Southern States [ have seen in this, that much of their Jand is thin and worn, and will not produce a crop, even in the cotton region, without the use of expensive manures, This, of course, makes cotton planting less remunerative than it isin the rich bottom lands of Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. Moreover, judg- ing from appearances, I should say that even in the old times, before the war, Georgia must have been a less wealthy State than those west of it. The landowners | in the middle belt of the State do not call themselves planters, but farmers, and in general through the cotton raising region there are fewer of such evidences of wealth as one meets with in Alabama, Louisiana, or even Mississippi. It seemed to me that the iandowers, whether they called themselves plant- ers or farmers, are 4s a class less enterprising, less prosperous, more generally in debt, and if I may say it without offence, less inteiligent than the same class in the other States I have named; less expert managers, and less capable of adapting themselves to a new sys- tem of labor. There are, of course, many individual | | | | be misunderstood I will adg here that some of the most intelligent, capable and liberal spirited planters I have met in the South I found in Georgia and native Goor gians, FMIGRATION FROM GRORGIA. One evidence of a general lack of prosperity in this State I came upon even before I entered Georgia is the considerable number of emigrants, of both colors, who are leaving the State for Arkansas, Texas and Mis- at railroad stations, Georgia has lost in this way since the conclusion of the war, I have reason to think, ‘at least 50,000 people, half of each color. The fact is that Georgia, though it is still essentially | an agricultural State, has ijs greatest future as 4 manu- | facturing region, It has agreat deal of valuable water power; also coul, iron and other mineral wealth; it has agreat deal of land better fitted for small farms and varied agriculture than for cither cotton or corn, and it | has ready to the hands of manufacturing capitalists & numerous population of “poor whites,” whose daughters make excellent factory operators, and to whom | the offer of this species of labor isa real rise inthe | scale of civilization. The cotton planters are not, as a class, either wealthy or prosperous; but the few cotton | factories are, even in this day of general depression, | very remunerative; the iron and coal works are in a | good condition, and the farmers of Northern Georgia are | said to be doing well in all respects. prised by the unbroken prosperity of the cotton mills in Georgia. The Augusta mills have paid a yearly dividend of not less than twenty per cent since 1865, and the stock is quoted at 168 to-day, and none is for sale. The product is 275,000 yards per week. The Eagle and Phoenix mills of Columbus, built since the war, with a capital of $1,000,000 and 25,000 spindles, have paid an average dividend of over eighteen per cent, and have a considerable surplus. No stock can be bought. The Graniteville cotton —_ mills, which lie in South Carolina, just across the border line of Georgia, were not fairly started until 1867; and since then, 1am told, have paid off a debt of $75,000, increased their capacity from 15,000 to 23,000 spindles, built over forty houses for operatives; and have meantime paid an average dividend of over twelve per cent, But all these mills have done a much more important work beside; for all of them give employ- ment to the girls and women of the poor white class, to whom such labor is, as I have said, a real and very im- portant step in civilization. They make excellent opera- tives, I am told, and the factory life not only improves their own condition in a remarkable degree but adds greatly to the comfort of their parents; and is, per- haps, the only means of redeeming this large popula- tion from a somewhat abject and degraded condition. COTTON FACTORIES PROSPEROUS. I think I can see that the cotton manufacturer has several important advantages in this State over his rivals in the Northern States. He needs no such solid and costly dwelliigs for the workpeople; land is still cheap; lumber for building is cheap; fuel ‘s unusually cheap; the operative class is, I suspect, more manage- | able and more easily made intelligent than the rude, | imported labor now used in the North; food is and | must long remain cheaper; the mildness of the winter | is certainly an advantage, and there is an air of comfort and contentment about these Southern factories which je very pleasing, The operatives are usually very nicely lodged in cottages aud are evidently happy and pleased with their life, It is among the factory workers and the small farm- ers of Georgia that we find the chief prosperity of the State, Here there is little or no debt; money cir- culates rapidly; improvements are seen, and there is patient, hopeful labor, thrift and enterprise, which affectw, a# it seems to me, the whole population, I heard here and there of instances of poor young me- chanics working steadily and earnestly, in a New Eng- land way, at their trades, making labor respectable, ac- cumulating property and taking honorable places in their communitics; and some such men talked to me of their past and their future, of the hopeful change which the extinetion of slavery had produced in the prospects of their class, in language which showed me that there is a new-born hope of better things in the poor white people of the State, BAD Lawa, When you strike the cotton region affairs are not so | prosperous or happy. In the first place, the cotton | mers and planters—the largo landowners, less ener- getic than the population I have spoken of above—have | ch fostered their lack of | business capacity and love of ease, ‘The Homestead law | reserves to a landowner a homestead of the | value of $8,000 in gold, exempting this from | seizure by creditors. To this was added, | 1 believe, $1,000 worth of personal property. | Of course, in an agricultural region, so large an exemp- | tion can be easily made to cover a very considerable | awmount of property, To this was added alien law— fortunately repealed by the Legislature which enabled the planter to borrow on or mort- gage his unplanted crop; the factor who furnished him | tools, manures, food and clothing having, by this law, the first claim on the crop, Of course he also secured the handling of it. I have seen the evil operation ot such # law in Louisiana in the slavery times, and in the Sandwich Islands more recently, It is ruimous, tor it | offers w prize to incapacity and unthrift, enables men vo undertake planting with iuwudicient capital, and de- Yanges the whole industry. 1n Georgia the Homestead law last dowbtless increased the evils of the Lien law; | | cept what they had consumed during the year. | Virginia and West I have been sur- | J, | mean to say | Support and between the two it resulted that the planters fell over head and ears in debt. were regularly a year or more behindband, and if the crop—which is more preearious in this State than im some others—failed or fell short the factor took all, and the laborers, employed to a great extent on wages, often lost all their pay, ex- 1 do hot doubt that in some cases such loss and wrong fell upon the negro laborer through the recklessness or dis- honesty of the planter, but I am satisfied also that much oftener the planter would have honestly paid if was the he could, and that he, as well as his workman victim of abad business system and of his lack ital and of business thrift, It wus one of the ine | Of the reorganization of labor on a new basis in a State where the culture of cotton is less cortainly remunera- tive than in more fertite regions, ‘To show you how the lien law worked, here is a statement made to me by a planter of the charges which he had known to be paid for advances mado by a fac- tor, He instanced to me the case of @ planter who required from his factor a loan or advance of $5,000 to make his crop. For this he paid one per cent per month, to which I was assured seven per ceut per annum was sometimes. added, making really uine- teen per cent. Then the arrangement was that the fuctor should buy all the planter’s supplies for him, and for this service he charged bim two and a half per cent, aud billed the goods to him at “tame prices,’? which added eight or ten per cent to their cost, Then the factor sold the planter’s crop, and charged for this two and a half per cent again, I should not have believed such a system possible, had I not seen precisely the same thing regularly done by the sugar planters in the Sandwich Islands two or three years ago, Of course, no business except the slave trade gould bear such a drain, Some planters | complained to me that they could never get advances from the banks, who preferred to lend to the factors, but this will hardly surprise any business man, The proilts were great enough for the bunk and the factors to divide, One of thg natural resuits of this system has been discontent among the negroes—the laborers, who often lost their wages, At least 25,000 of them have left the State; and this emigration, which last year already began to alarm the planters, has not ceased. It has been increased by other causes, of which I will by and by speak; but I am satisfed, from conversation with leading colored men, that the lack of prosperity here and the well founded belief that they could do better elsewhere has been one of its main causes, REPEAL OF THE I2EN LAW. ‘The repeal of thé Lien law has, of course, left the poor and improvident among the planters without credit, and they are naturally in poor spirits, But they will pres- ently see that it is their salvation. Already they are planting more corn than ever before. They see that to | raise bread and meat enough for their laborers will keep them out of the hands of the factors. More corn will be harvested in the cotton region of Georgia this year than in any year since the war, Ihave given this statement of the industrial con- dition of Georgia because it is certain that many of the | incidents of Georgia society grow mainly out of the fact that the State, and particularly the planting region, is far less prosperous than the cotton region of Arkan- sas, Louisiana or Mississippi; and is so mainly for the reasons I have given—the poverty of the soil, the precariousness of the crop in the fur southern counties, where it is peculiarly exposed to the attacks of insects, and the poverty and unthrift of the planters. That you may not think I have overstated this lack of prosperity, 1 give you here some figures from 4 mercantile report, which I find in a Georgia journal, The business failures in the State amounted i the last six months to the great sum of $2,956,215, This is agreater loss by far than is reported from any other Southern State; greater even than in South Carolina, as the following figures show. In fact Georgia’s liabilities are double those of almost any other Southern State, and more than ten times those of Arkansas :— $523,090 211,000 Mississippi .. North Carolina, South Caroli Tennessee..... Texas...... Total...... $10,766,000 The liabilities of Georgia amount to nearly one-third of the liabilities of the twelve States—the liabilities of Georgia and South Carolina together amount to nearly half the liabilities of the entire South. Gedrgia com- pares as follows with other larger and wealthier Now you must remember that, unlike Ohio, Indiana or Missouri, Georgia is almost entirely an agricultural State, and that her factories and other purely business enterprises have been almost without exception prosperous, These figures show the condition mainly of the planting interest and of those businesses in- timately related to it, CHARLES NORDHOFF, POLITICAL NOTES. ‘The Ohio republicans three yeafs ago carried the State for President by over 30,000 majority, while the repub- lican candidate for Governor was elected by only 12,000 majority. Two years ago, er one year after the repub- lican victory, the democrats carried everything in the State. Since th@ republicans have made an issue witn the democrats on the Know Nothing issue, and since Governor Allen has made himself ridiculous on the stump, @ partial reparation of republican defeat is ex- pected, Many hope for a slight republican victory—and even men like Thurman have lost heart, Senator Newton Booth, of California, has dehvered a speech im which he shows his position in regard to ex- Confederate officers in Congress. He said in concluding his speech ;-— But they tell us a great many rebel generals have been elected w the next Congress, Why should they not bef When the government atmnestied them did it We restore your rights, but you shall enjoy them? When they take their in Congress it will be with an oath to the constitution of the United States, I do not believe that the men who are willing to dic for their conyictions will be most ready to perjure them- selves for place. Parties are but necessary evils, There are great moments ina nation’s life when the times should rise above them. Why may not the trae spirit of the people have way? This ix the centennial year, Let it be a “year of jubilee.” Before us is a grand out. look of history, Who shall estimate the pow population of this country at the close of the ury now dawning if we, the people, are equal to the diye opportunity’ Who knows what trials may await us, what temptations imay beset? Let us challenge destiny as one people. never seats permanent—a union of hearts, Let the true feeling of the hour find genuine expression unrestrained; and re- construction will come—not by legal cnaetment, not by force bills or writs of | but in the hearts of the pec ple, like the dawning of day, like the breath of th morning, like the Spirit of the Lord. The Augusta (Gu.) Constitutionalist gives Jefferson A great many of them | Lot ux have the only union which can be | | two year I reckon. IN THE SOUTH BAY. Life Among the Long Island Fishermen. Dredgers, Clammers, Oystermen, Purse Net- ters and Sheepsheaders. — An Old Salt’s Story of the Sea and Its Treasures. Up the waters steerin’ he boats are thick and thrang; Aboon the bass Sheree bearin’, ‘They'll shoot thelr nets ere lang, ‘The morn, like siller glancin’, ‘They'll haul them hun’ to Nun’; Syne doon the water dancin’ ‘Come hame wi’ sixty cran. In tax Gaaav Sopre Bay, I, 1} Sept. 3, 1875, Fifty miles of white and yellow sand in a long stretch eastward to Montauk Point and westward to Far Rock- away. Above me, pointing to the stars, the Fire Island light, with an eye that blazes and revolves over the North Atlantic always, Without, and only separated by half a mile of sand dunes, covered with ragged grass and made musical by the cicad and the bullfrog, I can hear from my windows the Cyclopean thunders of the ravenous and roaring ocean, whose teeth are eating into the beach day by day. Within the Great South Bay, forty miles long and eight or tou in width, covered with snowy sails, close reeted, whose waters are full of fish, clams, oysters and mussels, and whose tones can be heard in their incessant breaking and plashing on the lonely shore, But few New Yorkers know anything of this Great South Bay, with the exception of those who stagnate on its borders in search of hunting and fishing. In the dreary days of the Northern winter it is frozen over, but not very firmly, as the tides from the numerous in- lets that pierce the ridges of sand are certain to break the ice, But at this me of the year to scan its sur- face and watch the hundreds of pleasure and fishing bouts skimming to and fro or rocking in the waves ts un idyllic picture and encourages reverie and a desire | for “sweet nothing to do.” THE HOME OF THE FISHERMEN, Ifind that this Great South Bay during my stay on its borders is, more than any sheet of water in the State of New York, the home of the hardy fishermen. | Talk- ing with them and learning their idiosyncrasies, their angularities, their habits and their superstitions—for they are full of the latter—I may say that they stand alome—these bay men, as they choose to be called, a title by which they aro flattered and are very proud of, Inside of this sheltered bay all sorts of fish may be found, excepting the bluelish, which is caught in rather scant quantities, a ish which loves the open sea, Down below on the beach a little child is at play filling a soda water bottle with sand, which here assumes very often in long streaks on the beach a purplish hue, owing to the immense quantities of seaweed that Is torn from the bed of the bay by storms, and which otherwise loosens its grip on sand and mire when its season of growth has passed, to give place to the coming crop of young seaweed. Hero isthe home of the hard-shell clam, best of all for the well flavored chowder, and in the bay are also found that prince of oysters, the Blue Point, which has just done spawning, as it always does approaching the month of September, What hardworking fellows these fisher- | men are, tobe sure! Awaking an hour before daybreak at Sayville, the other morning, I saw half a dozen of them inas many small boats, with ground lines slung out, already at work in their venture for sheepsheal, Not a voice was to be heard over the waters, every man being tuo closely occupied by his avocation, and the only in- termission amoug them is for a pull at a Bourbon or apple jack bottle, which they generally have at their fovt, alongside of their bait and tackle, in the bottom of the bouts. And what queer-shaped boats they ure! Long and not very wide, double-enders, being sharp at both ends, and having narrow slats nailed all along the sides, as well as in the bottom of the boat, SPINNING A YARN, One of the best specimens of the bay men that I have met with since my stay among the sand and billows I met a few days singe betweon Conklin’s and Lux’s at Fire Island, It will be remembered that for some time past the weather has been quite cold, and it has been correspondingly rough “outside,” as the fishermen call the ocean after passing through any of the numerous inlets that dot these long sandy beaches hereabouts, and therefore the bay men refused unanimously to go into blue water after bluetish or any other fish. As a cousequence, a large number of them I found lying at anchor within the Great South Bay, whose waters for that matter have been rough cuough to satisfy any rea- sonable Jandsman for several days, “Yes, sir, I’ve bin a bay fisherman and boy for thirty- Why, Lord bless you, sir, I've bin fishin’ and knockin’ around on this ere coast since I was so high (here the speaker indicated his size at the time by placing his right hand flat in the air about twelve incies above the sand), and it was about that time that I first commenced to read the New York Heratp, My! what apot o’ money that paper must have, to be sure! They do say that the Henan could buy up all of Long Island and still be able to pay the boys every week, Just come down to my boat, Dve bin buyin’ a boat, me and a mate of mine. I reckon she’s worth about $300, and I suppose I'm boss of the craft.” The speaker was the very image of Peggoty, whom Dickens drew with such amaster hand. He wore trousers that at first I thought were made of un- tanned leather, but I afterward discovered to be a sort of coarse canvas, turned by the wind, weather and salt brine to the color of saffron, Tn a moonish, round face shone a pair of blue, saucer-like eyes glistening with good feeling, and the face itself, which had con- siderable intelligence and aguteness marked in it, was fringed all round with a pair of bushy, reddish blonde whiskers, We walked down the little wavering, frail and rickety dock, which was overarched with branches of trees whose buds and leaves were faded to a russet hue, until we came to the end, where a number of fish- ing boats were tied up. Below in the clear water at the bottom of the bay, and looking down, I could see the clams in their white and flaky shells enjoying their undisturbed repose. Afar off, over the rolling aud tumbling waves of the bay, I saw the white house fronts and clustering small timber about them, the sult meadows, with the fleeey clouds hanging above over the villages of Islip, Babylon, Belleport and | other surroundimg towns, and to the south, with an Davis a friendiy warning not to accept invitations to | speak anywhere in the North after the great moral vi tory he has wou through the stupidity of the Illinois | politicians, Italso warns him that he will be sought for as an object of curiosity und that he will commit himself on political questions. But, by all meaus, let Mr. Davis earn his fees as any other lecturer docs, and if he can instruct us in the North upon the Southern | problem let him do so. He may become an apostle of reconciliation, a Saul of Tarsus, Missouri's new constitution provides that the Legisla- ture shall not have adjourned sessions, and that after seventy days of @ session each member shall lose a dol- Jar a day from bis pay. Hon, Alexander H, Rico, paper morchant and formerly member of Congress, continues to be the most promi- nent candidate for the republican gubernatorial nomina- tion in Massachusetts, | Henry Wiison has received from the Richmond Whig the name of “that energetic invalid.” ‘The Worcester Spy 8 tn favor of Charles Francis | | Adams as the democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts, Secretary of War Belknap being called upon at Mel- ena, Montana, for some remarks, sal “I may say that I more fully appreciate your needs than before I came, You need a railroad, you need your water com- tmunications improved, you heed more troops. you need strengthening and sustaining in every way that the general goverument can do it; aud since I have seen und estimated the great resources of your Territory | and how well worthy they ure of development, l assure | you that, av far ae 1 may be able, 1 will wadeavor to vid iu that development.” opening that lod to the sounding sea, Oak Island and the flag floating from the staff of the Olympic Club, ON HOARD OF THE FUNNY MARY. We stepped on board of as funny a craft as I ever saw, being pretty near as broad us she was long and having a very roundish, oval shape at the bow, The old man took me down in the cockpit, which had a of objects strewed around—coils of rope, pieces of iron for use at sea, pulley blocks, an old lacking brush and many other articles that were not any proof that the vessel was in commission or ready for work, Forward, in the caboose, we crept, and once inside I had time to look aroynd me, having barely room to sit up. There were a couple of benches that ran around the side of the vessel, on which were spread rough brown blankets, and a little further forward was & small stove, of a barrel shape, having one lid and being about one foot and a half high, with a short pipe running through the caboose roof, under the boom, It was a regular Dutch galhot, the whole thing, in its fash. jon and appointments, Lp one corner, on to rubbish, was along, flat iron pan for fish, and the gravy from the last sw ed to its bottom surface, confused mass ing Meats or ulent fry was An old salt down the beach, whom I had met the day previous. told me that the boat bad no name, but that she was to be called the “Funny Mary.” A barometer and thermometer joined in one frame hung from the caboose root, but I did not see any boat-lamp, although there was a small rusty anchor lying In a corner for use in shallow water, Tor an un- usual thing, the craft Was a keel boat and not a centre board boat, and I saw no other fishing smack im these waters that did not have a centre board. erman, however, sat down and ranged himself for con- versation, took outa paper of chewing tobacco and placed a quid im his dexter Jaw, after which he spun his yarn, In the nieantime I had taken @ seat om the brown blanket, TUR LIPE OV & BAY MAX, “J ao Ofty-one years of ago,” droned the old dshor- of aheap of | ‘The old tish- | $$ man as ‘ne rolied his quid in his jaw, “ana, as ¥ told you before, I bin nigh on to thirty-two years of age in the bay. Lam aship carpenter by trade, but somehow or another I took to this kind 0’ life quite naterel Yes, sir, nigh onto thirty-two years of age I bin in it, Long time, ain’t it?” Another roll of the quid in the right | Jaw, and a look at his feet, which were encased in an ‘open pair of carpet slippers, but had no stockings to shroud them from view, “I want to ask you something about the bay men and their lives and habits—can’t you tell me something about them T asked, “Why, certain, Put me in tho witness box and I'll tell you everything I know; but, you see, you must cross-question mea kind a hard, so as to get it all out, Iam something of a doctor myself, Thero’s a bottle wot's got fourteen kinds of roots in itand that’s my kind of medicine—d'ye see? There's fourteen kinds of roots init, What d’ye think of that? Would you believe it now? You wouldn’t, would you?” “Yes, I really would,” I answered; “but how about the bay men?” “Oh! yes, sir, yes. About the bay men, is it? Yes, of course, Well, I'm a part of the story, I’spose. My name is Lewis Gordon; from Brookhaven, Suffolls county, I be. I'mabay man, 1 be. We come from Brookhaveu, Centre Moriches, Sayville, Belleport, Islip, Amityville, Patchogue, Quogue and all overthis bay, and it runs clear to Rockaway. See! There's blu tishing here sometimes in the bay, and there’s cod fish ing in winter time—very good cod fishing, too, I tel you. Then all these smacks that you see around here, they go a-fishing for oysters, mussels, sheepshead; they are a little scarce around now. Aman caught one i ano mackerel the other day and he felt quite proud It. FISHING FOR FACTS. “Are there many boats smashed in this bay fishing?” “Well, yes, sure. There’s nigh on to 1,200 smacks and large sloops in the bay in the business. See! Well, now, there's as many as 4,000 men and boys that’s gol to man them and make their living that way. Some of the small and old boats ain’t worth more t $100 ta $300 apiece, N. this 'ere one that we sit in,” look- ing around with a glance of pride, “is worth about $300, | although I ain't ot the bill of sale yet; but I'll git it, and she’s got to have a name to have a bill of sale for her, Oh, bless your soul! I'll give you all the facts that you want, only cross-examine me close. Think you are ina soph 2 you. Ever bin in a coort, now? Shaugh! Yes? hev I bin there, too. You are right—anybody wants law can have all they want of it, That’s so, But when I’m in it I stick to ft lke a bull- dog. I’m in it now, and if 1 win I get a nice little bit of property, I tell you.”" : Here the old man pulled out some very mysterious looking objects in the shape of small, solid india rub- ber balls with wooden funnels attached, and also a num- ber of barometers on the same piece of wood, to which a very decent kind of thermometer was fastened, I gazed with awe upon all this preparation, and between the rockfug of the boat, the heat of the sun in the close- eribbed space and his mysterious production of the above named articles I was not a lite puzzled. “PURSE NETTING,’? “Them’s for curing near-sightedness and them’s for | Dhnduess. They are $6 50a pair, and the barometer ja $250. I’m agent for thom (pene and I sell them everywhere I kip. Yes, sir; I’m now suring Mr. inson, down to our place, and [tell you Pil fetch him after twenty-seven years’’ (exultantly). “But,” suid I, “how is it about the bay men?” The old salt, whom [ began to think by this time must be xort of a floating cye and ear infirmary, put away his ‘tore, capt? as he called them, into a bag, and re- suined : “Yes, sir; the bay men. Open your book again and | question me bard, jest as if you had me in coort—that's what I like, and I can’t tell you any lies d’ye see? Well, now, some of these boats is worth as high as $000apicce, and 'd’ye see those two sloops over there with top- masts—them black boats ?—well, they are what we call ‘purse netters;’ they are worth in the neighborhood of 2,000 apicce—leastwayss that’s what they cost, about, J believe. You don’t know what ‘purse netting? is, do you? No¥ Well, I'litell you, They go out fishing for inenhaden or bunkers. Some people down to Keyport calls them ‘bunkers.’ 1 s’pose menhaden is the Indian name; [don’t know if it is though. Thore’s four teh | factories around here for boiling menhaden down into oil—I mean, there's four around Fire Island, and there's lots more of them bordering on the bay. After they git | the oil out they sell the bones to the farmers for guano, to fertilize the ground with, and it’s a good tertihzer, All this seaweed that you see in aud around the bay is a good fertilizer too, ‘They take it from the water and spread it, dump it on the land, and if it was not for the seaweed, I tell you, sir, that the farmers wround here would be in a pretty fight Oa sometimes, And they dry a good deal of it and bleach it white on the meadows ‘and make mattresses of it ‘The seaweed sells for from fifty cents to a dollar a load, | and they take it in dump carts and pall the spray out, and then, you see, you have of it a load on the farm in atwinkling. A good many of the sloops go outside catching fish in the Atlantic when it ain’t too rough. | You may laugh at the shape of this boat. She is the only keel bout I know of all over the bay, because there is so much shallow water in the bay that they have got to have centre boards, and when a boat's going agrouud they jist upcentre board and there she is all right. Bus this ’ere boat will live anywhere that a seagull lives, if she is an old one.” GETTING “How do the purse netters divide their profits ?’” “Well, you sce, here is the fish factories. Do you se@ that white sloop there, alongside of the black purse nottery Yes? She is’ what they call a ‘carraway ;? the purse netter catches the fish and the carrawu) takes ‘eni off to the factory. ‘There’s two men to eac! ‘curraway.’ The men that catch the fish don’t own a bit of their bouts, The fish factories furnish the boat aud tackle and canvas, and When there isa catch the men get two-thirds of it, and the fish factory keeps the other third of it for furnishing tacklo and boat fish all over, and there’s factories at Shelter Is! Greenport and other places onthe north shore, There’! factories down to the other end of the island, and at Barren Island. The boats come in every night after their cruise, and Ihave seen them getting menhadeo down New York Bay, around Staten Island, T was former- ly master of the sloop yacht Bonita, and she was 0 fast and won so many races that they had to rule her out, 1 have sven # catch of 300,000 menhaden in one haul by one sloop, and they fetch from $2 to $3.a thousand. & purse net is generally about 100 fathoms im length, or 600 feet, and is about 80 feet in depth. ‘That will cost $500, and it is made of the best knit twine. They make the twine down in Baltimore, and they are called purseaets because they are made like purses, I s'pose, tished with the first purse net that was ever tished with in the State of New York down to Jamesport, L. L, in the year 1832, and it was made by Tuttle & Petty. I'm telling you the truth, y, long time ago, whe Mr. Matsell, who used to be’ Chief of Police in yo city, came down to Centro Moriches to hunt and he used to board ut Centre Moriches at Mr, Patterson's, he used to send for me always to go with him, THE SUKLL FISH QUESTION, “When they catch mussels here in the bay they gem erally sell thom to fertilize farms at tive cents a bushel, They ain’t much good for anything else that I know of, although | s’pose some people likes to eat them pickle: | or biled, ‘The hard clams they get in the bay are sold | by the men that dredge for them in small boats at $2 ta | $30 thousand, They are first class for chowder and | the like, but of course they are bigger and different eat- | ing trom the Little Neck clams. But we finest oysters iu the world in this bay, su Blue Point and all other oysters aro away behind old Blue Pomt, I tell you. (Here the old fellow became quite enthusiastic and his eye gleamed.) The time for planting the Blue Point oysters is any time between the 16th of June and the Ith of September. Why, sir, in my town of Brookhaven every fumily is allowed four acres of an oyster bed for every boy child in the family, but the girls dowt get na show, Whoever sends tish or oysters to market has to pay the freight himself, These boats that have men clamuuing or fishing or oystering generally. m $5 to $10aday. A good many of the tishermen have smnall furms, and thoy raise garden truck and vegeta bles when they ain’t out fishing. I have a farm mysell in Suifolk county and [ raise vegetables and spuds, do, T have got a good deal of cauliflower, aud one big year I raised $600 out of oue acre of cauliflower when it was searee. Whatdo you think of that? I sent it to Mr. Duryea iu the New York market. There has been” az high as got for one acre of caulifowe: An sere of tomatoes among the fishermen f the acre; L mean early tomatoes, of course, ‘Then the livhermen sometimes get 100 to 150 bushels of potatoes outof anacre, Then l consider myself pretty big oa cabbages. [have raised 3,600 head of cabbage on an acre, and [ s'pose they fetched about seven cents @ head, So you see that between fishing and farming @ bay man isn’t likely to starve anyway.” “T have heard,’ I said to the old man, who was now ly atthe end of his story of the bay men, “that Ware alike all the world over, no matter what they speak, and that they marry among ther. and have local superstitions, and that they eat How’ do you account for ne fis Jang sel¥ and drink alike every where, that’ T asked, ‘THEIR HAMITS AND LIVES. “Well,’’ said the old salt as his tanned cheek swelled up, “Idon’t know nothing about that. The bay mam marries the gal that he falls in love with, just as you would I s’pose, As for their superstitions, I suppose there is a good man. rien that don’t want to go to sea on Friday, or pif way on Friday, or to marry on Fri- day, but then that’s neither here nor there. J never saw a fisherman in the ba asked him where he was going to ish, that would ou, and T never saw a bay inan that would tell you how many fish was in big catch, and [ suppose they are like other people when you ask them about their own business, they will tell youa he to threw you off But there ain't nobody that'll risk his life quicker for a stranger or be more hospitable than a fisherman, to my think: ing, and they have got pretty bara “work 1 toll They are up by daybreak and under | way betore you folks in the city think of getting out of your bed, aud in wll _ kinds of weather they have to make adollar, The canvas that a purse netter or fishing smack must have i a mainsail and jib, topsar and jib topsail, und they ure generally, 1 s'poxe—] mea the ‘purse netters’—about lifteen tons burden, ‘There ts some only from three to eight tons. They have pretty tair grub, T reckon, when they go out lor ¢ cruise; potutoes—always) spuds, and sometimes a Tut RAL Chat rier ourbon a good deal and Wkin’ to lager becatise ali these ere spiriious hquors are sich awiw pizen that ¢ an't stand them auy longer.’ Here [ bade the old weather beaten tls! day, and left hin sitting in his boat looking with prida at her worm-caten sides and qucer model, und I heard ie me voice singing outas I walked the sand3;— *Auy juformation that you Want, allers gind, you kadw. But vxamine me close, joat like in coor ant an a good * | | | |