Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1884 — THE SOUTH. [ARTICLE]

THE SOUTH.

A Northern Resident Gives His Impressions of the Country—lndustrial Enterprises —Mineral and Agricultural Resources. (From Our Special Correspondent.) For several years past the tide of emigration has been to the west ' Westward ho! has been the watchword. The advice of Horace Greely has been faithfully applied. The building of new railroads to the Pacific coast has been a motive power in pushing the home seekers toward the setting sun. Other portions of the Union, especially ihe South,have been passed by in the eager haste of the multitude to locate upon the treeless and trackless west ern plains. Even the rigor of the Dakota climat-% the certainty of six months winter have not served to deter people from the westward course, or cause them to pause and inquire if there were not a country nearer home, close to good markets, favored with short and mil-d winters, and long, cool summers.

This tendency of emigration has been due to the existence of slavery in the South, before the war, and the turbulent condition of. society since. It has also been given an impetus by thousands of flaming circulars flaunted to the breeze at every railroad station, announcing to seekers of new homes the golden opportunities of! the Vest. No device that the ingenuity of the American nature could conjure has been passed by that might aid in! iducing people to go west. The, south has beeL advertised but j little. Scourgod by war, beat ! en at every point, deprived of home and property, the sentiment for a time in some por-; tions of the-country was to re- ■ pel northern settlers and nor-' them progressiveness. Witnessing the rapid development of the north, othe southern people have seen the folly of such a command are receding from their hostile attitude toward those who would settle in their midst, giving ready encouragement-to.all who will come. In this respect a great change has been wrought in the southern mind within a few years; and the encouragement given to new settlers has resulted in a remarkable development of the (mineral, manufacturing, and agricultural resources of the south, Numerous cotton anills, iron furnaces, and other anechanical industries have been recently « established, especially in Ten- ' nessee: and notably at Rockv wood, Dayton, (Chatanooga, >and Knoxville in East Tenne s--see. These are rapidly growing into cities. Here the factory has Ibeen built beside tthe farm: and the farmer is provided with a market at hindoor.— •Good prices are paacbfor his products at home. As regards the natural resources for manufacturing purposes, capital has decided that they exist here peannanear%. The agricultural resources also are being developed, ana the large returns for laborand capital expended in this direction are beginning to dawn in the minds of those in search of farming lands.— Especially is this true of the Cumberland plateau, a strip of country of fifty miles *n width, extending across the State from north to south, and having an elevation of 2,008 feet above tide water. Here is a favored region, consisting of a sandstone formation; its soil a clayey loam, moderately mixed with sand; containing springs of pure freestone water, many of them of acknowledged medicinal virtue: an atmosphere entirely free from malaria, it is a peculiarly healthful region. Of this portion of Tennessee, its agricultural and mineral resources, I will tell you in another letter.

SNIKROC.

Howard Springs, Tenn., Dec, 6, 1 884.

Friday evening was the sev-enty-fifth anniversary of the Hon. Ur. G, N. Fitch, of Logansport’ and the medical association of that city, of which he is presider t, gave a banmet in his honor at the Murdoch hotel, and presented him withagold-heaaed cane,properly engraved