The Aegis & Intelligencer

Letter from the West.
Pilot Grove, Missouri, Jan. 21, 1881.

This is a fine country and Missouri is destined to be among the first States in the Union. The lands are rich and productive, and grass grows luxuriantly without any coaxing in the shape of expensive fertilizers and manures. Stock of all kinds grow without any attention from their lazy owners; for I must say that the laziness of the native Missourian is terrible indeed. The wonder is how they can keep out of the poor house. But the stock will increase and the feed will grow in spite of them. They let the stock run in the fields and eat the provender where it stands. Cattle, sheep and hogs are as high here as they are in the east. Grain of all kinds is cheaper here than there. The most of the farmers thresh their wheat out of the shocks to save the trouble of stacking it, and take whatever price it will bring at the time. There is always a time, however, when wheat will bring a dollar a bushel here, and the thrifty farmers stack their grain and wait for that time.

There are some fine houses out here, but the majority of them are fearfully and wonderfully made. As a general thing everything is just as unhandy as possible. The great drawback to this country is the water, which at this time is alarmingly scarce. Many persons have to haul water for miles for their cattle and hogs. The seasons here are either excessively dry or immoderately wet. There is no medium. We have had three dry seasons in succession, which causes the great scarcity of water.

We had a fine wheat crop this season, but the corn crop was light, owing to the ravages of the chinch bug. They are always bad in dry seasons, but the first wet season will clear the country of them for several seasons. The weather has been severely cold—every one says the coldest experienced for many years, and the people being so poorly fixed to stand cold weather, it goes very hard with them. Three persons froze to death near this place last week. One of them, an old colored woman, froze to death in her bed. Her husband went to get help, and froze to death in the snow. A white man froze to death the same night, and two brakemen came into Sedalia on the cars, frozen to death. So you may imagine that it is cool. It is amusing to see the sleighs. How the Bel Air boys would snow-ball them! An old sled with two mules to draw it, and often nothing but a rope halter on their heads and no bits in their mouths. All the bells they have are in the sleigh, so we are never annoyed by the jingling of the bells.

Everybody rides out here, and if they are only going fifty yards they will chase a horse over a sixty acre field fifty times but what they will ride. There are no carriages out here but wagons (Irish,) except in the towns and villages. There is generally a nice little village at every railroad depot.

Pilot Grove is a nice little town. It has four or five stores and a first-class and well filled boarding-school for young ladies and gentlemen. It is taught by Prof. Johnson, one of the most exquisitely polite gentlemen you ever met. He has five or six assistant teachers, and a very serious time trying to keep the young ladies from speaking to or even thinking of the young gentlemen.

This is without doubt a good place for industrious people with small means. There is an abundance of small fruit, wild and domestic. We have fine peaches and plums in abundance. There is a plum grove in this place and there were wagon loads of them on the bushes.

J. J. H.