Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1885 — THE SOUTH. [ARTICLE]

THE SOUTH.

REPORTS concerning the whole. South, from Virginia to Texas, show that the prospects for the crops and: the outlook for business in that section are remarkably good. Not only is the acreage of the cotton, com, and tobacco crops the largest on record, but the reports are almost unanimous in stating that the yield of thesecrops, as well as the smaller crops,excepting wheat, will greatly exceed the best crops ever before produced. It is also shown that the crops have been made at a lower cost, than in any preceding year, and the liens on crops for money advanced to the farmers is much less than heretofore.... Stimulated by the unprecedented crops, business is already : showing decided improvement, and the prospects throughout the South for fall and winter trade are reported as unusually good. In the organization of railroad and manufacturing enterprises there is great activity, and the outlook for industrial interests is particuly promising.... By a collision on a coal railroad near Charlestown, W. Va., four men were killed and several others injured. A band of disguised men entered the city of Dalton, Ga., and, proceeding to a house of ill-repute, dragged seven occu--pants from their beds and administered fifty lashes to each. They afterward caught Tom Carver, a noted thief, and beat him to . death, winding up by ordering several persons to leave the place immediately, on pain of similar punishment.. The Sheriff of Reeves County, Texas, John Morris by name, while on a spree used his revolver freely. An attempt was made so arrest him, and during the fracas the Sheriff was killed, after having shot one man dead and seriously wounded another. During a severe storm near New Orleans, five men who had sought refuge under a tree .were struck by lightning and instantly killed. A son of one of the victims was fatally injured. The storm was general throughout Southern Louisiana, and inflicted mnch damage upon the rice crop. Considerable loss of rife and property bv lightning is reported from different parts of the country.... Afire at Texarkana, Ark., destroyed the Arlington Hotel, the telephone office, the poutoffice, the Pacific and Southern Express offices, and the Western Union Telegraph office. Two squares on the Arkansas side were also destroyed. The loss is estimated at $150,000. Erasmus J. Shepherd was arrested at Laredo. Tex., charged with complicity with Aufdemprte in the thefts from .the SubTreasury at New Orleans. Thirty-seven hundred dollars of the stolen money was found on his person.