Vermont Watchman And State Journal

Mr. Epiron—A description of one of the small country towns of the South, would be almost a literal description of another, so nearly alike are they in all their features. In most of the new counties in the States of Alabama and Georgia, there is but one town of any note, viz, the county site: the location for the towns is selected near the centre of the county, if possible on a high piece of ground, far from swamps or stagnant water: the ground is cleared of the larger trees, while the smaller are left standing. A square is formed in the centre by the crossing of four streets, generally running N. & S. E. & W. including between them some 6 or 8 acres; in the centre of this square stands the Court house; and the town is built on the streets facing the square and on those running from the corners. Many of the towns are built with considerable taste: the best houses having a beautiful colonade of pillars in front, while nearly all have a piazza next the street. The public houses, stores, shops, &c. are clustered around the square, while the dwelling houses are more remote, covering every little eminence, and frequently embowered in the primeval forest. Many of the more beautiful residences are built far back from the street, with a large yard in front, filled with trees and shrubbery. In some instances the sidewalks are shaded with trees, but the planting of trees is too much neglected, and the heat of summer is rendered doubly severe by the reflection of the sun from the almost transparent sand. The Court house is, usually a large and commodious brick building, erected with much good judgment, and taste, and speaks well for the public spirit and the royalty of the counties, and I must say, while viewing these convenient places for the administration of Justice, I have blushed for the parsimony of some of our N. E. Counties, which allow themselves to be outdone in public spirit, by a piney woods County of the South with not one-fifth of their wealth, and hold their Courts, year after year, in a leaky rickety old house—erected, for aught the present generation knows, by their Antediluvian progenitors, and certainly when "the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." In one instance, I saw, during an important trial, the Hon. Court driven from the bench, in one of these sheds of justice, by a slight thunder shower.

Among the towns, of which, the above is a concise description, may be mentioned Decature, De Kalb Co. Marietta, Cobb Co. Newnan Caweta Co., and La Grange, Troup Co., Ga., and Lafayette, Chambers Co., and Tuskagee, Macon Co. Ala.—

The city of Columbus, Ga., stands at the head of steam-boat navigation on the Chattahoochee, about 300 miles from the Gulf, and is the largest and most important town in Western Georgia. The town lies on the east side of the river. (which is here the boundary between Georgia and Alabama,) on a plain considerably elevated above high water. The town is regularly laid out; the principal streets running N. & S. parallel with the river, and crossed by others running E. & W. throwing the whole town into regular squares. The streets are broad, and the buildings generally low, being usually only two stories in height: the sidewalks of the principal streets are paved with brick. Broad street, the second street from the river, is the principal place for business in the town. Here in the Fall and Winter may be seen hundreds of cotton wagons of all shapes and sizes, drawn by horses, mules and oxen, completely filling the street for its whole length, and giving it a peculiar and lively appearance. Large and expensive ware-houses have been erected for the storage of cotton and other goods, built of brick and considered fire proof. In the northern and eastern parts of the town, are some large and elegant private dwellings, some of which would do honor to Boston or New York.

Columbus is one of the most beautiful and thriving towns in the whole South; in 1840 it contained only about 3,100 inhabitants, but in size and in the amount of its business, it is fully equal to Concord N. H. A very large amount of goods are sold here, and at an advance of at least 50 per cent, on almost all articles, and a much greater advance on the finer articles, from the New York prices. There is, however, much competition in every branch of business, and goods are beginning to be obtained at reasonable rates. Some fifty buildings are now in progress of erection; several of them are extensive brick edifices, three stories in height, the lower stories designed for store rooms and the upper ones for dwellings. These buildings command almost any rent, which the owner sees fit to ask for them. A long covered bridge spans the Chattahoochee, near the foot of the falls, at the lower end of the town, connecting the city with Girard, Alabama. Below it the river is still and moves on in its placid course towards the gulf of Mexico, bearing on its bosom the wealth of the interior, while above it foams and tumbles in its rocky bed. The falls, which terminate at Columbus, are some 12 or 15 miles in length, passing through a wild, broken, and rocky region. These falls afford peculiar facilities for manufacturing. and why in the Southern people understand more fully their own interest, and can draw a few millions of capital from agriculture, a manufacturing town will grow up here, equal to any on the continent of America. Two cotton factories are now in progress here, and several have been begun: those in operation manufacture cotton yarn and the coarser kinds of cloth— Nothing like a company of capitalists has yet been formed, and no system of manufacturing devised; those erected were done by individual efforts, or by small companies with limited capitals. Maj. J. Howard, of Columbus, the principal owner of the Columbus factory, deserves much praise for his persevering efforts to introduce manufacturing in the South. In the summer of 1844 he visited the manufacturers and capitalists of New England to induce them to assist in establishing factories at Columbus, but met with but little success. Columbus is not considered so good a cotton market as Macon, owing to its situation so far in the interior, and depending upon the navigation of the river to carry it off. The Chattahoochee is navigable to Columbus, in ordinary high water, for all classes of steam boats, running on the river; but so little rain has fallen during the last year, that boats have not run since early in the Spring, until the present month, and the merchants have been obliged to bring their goods in wagons from boats lying down the river or across the country from Macon.

The drouth, the present summer, has been severe in nearly all the South. The winter was warm and pleasant, with no rain, except occasional thunder showers, the spring opened about the first of March and from that time until September, we had no general rain, except a moderate one the 20th of May. The corn crop was ruined before the first of July, but the planters had hopes for the cotton, till the continued dry and hot weather of July and August blasted them. The drouth seems to be most severe in the middle sections of the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama. In some Counties in South Carolina and Georgia it is said that a public contribution will be made to supply the inhabitants, and hundreds of families are leaving for the upper parts of Georgia and Alabama, where the prospect is less gloomy. We have no much speculation about the present cotton crop—it was the opinion of good judges, some two months since, that there could not be more than a third of the last year's crop made in the States of Georgia and Alabama. But notwithstanding the low price of cotton, a large amount was planted, and I should not be surprised, if the crop in the two states mentioned, should come up to fully two thirds of the immense crop of 1844; if so, the crop in the country will amount to 2,400,000 bales,— add to this the last year's crop, remaining unsold and we have at least 3,000,000 of bales in the market. Since the rains in the fore part of Sept cotton has grown finely, and the fields are, even now covered with blossoms. If the frost holds off a few weeks longer, the present bolls will open, and make an inferior kind of cotton.

The weather is quite cool, but we have had no frost. Yours,
M.