18 Sep 1881 The Atlanta Constitution p. 5
THE AVERAGE INHABITANT OF DALLAS AROUSED.
Bill Arp Meanders into Paulding County, and Checks His Reins in Dallas, Where He Catches the Spirit of the Times, and Takes an Interest in the Question of Railroad Development.
Charles Henry Smith - AKA Bill Arp
Written for The Constitution. DALLAS, September 17.-- I've seen bigger towns than this town, where the population was more thicker, more denser, as Cobe says. A man told me before I got here that I could tell the town when I got to it by a wide place in the road, but I found several stores, and some nice dwelling houses, and plenty of flowers, and a good court-house, and a brick jail with nobody in it, and that's a mighty good recommendation for any people. Paulding has a voting population of 1,500 whites and 300 negroes, and Judge Underwood gets through his court business in three or four days at a session. Bartow and Floyd have got about twice as many people, and brag about their high civilization and refinement, and it takes twelve weeks in a year to keep up with the court business in each county, and the like of that is what shakes my faith in the morality of big towns and cities, and wealth and an overdose of education. I like these primitive old-fashioned, hard-working county people because they are honest. I want 'em all to be able to read and write, but I wouldn't send 'em to college if I could. Now and then you may find one who would profit by it, but in nine cases out of ten it spoils the boy and a good citizen is list to the state. I've seen the ignorance of our country people slurred at by northern newspapers, but I'm not ashamed of 'em. I'm willing always to put 'em side by side with their masses in everything that constitutes good citizens. The difference between us is they have got one standard and we have got another. How to make money is theirs- “get money, get money; put money in thy purse honestly if thou canst, but at all events, get money,” as Iago said. Solomon says, “rejoice in thy labor and do good in thy life, for all else is vanity;” and Ben Franklin never said a truer thing than that idleness is the parent of all crime. So when I see these humble farmers at work in the field I'm not afraid to take shelter under their roof. If my horse gets sick they will doctor him. If my buggy breaks down they will mend it. Constant industry is the salvation of a man. He rejoices in his labor and has no inclination to steal or cheat or take the high cut to fortune. I found the good people of Dallas all jubilant and serene; a hundred souls made happy by the prospect of a railroad coming to their town. For weeks they have labored and entreated and reasoned with the magnates; for weeks they have lived in a state of alternate hope and fear, for the New Hope line was the shortest, and that left them out in the cold. Punkin vine and Raccoon creeks meandered through rough ravines and wild mountain gorges, and the surveyors hunted in vain for an easy route. Line after line was run, and at the last it was rumored that Dallas was doomed and then the people were sad and town lots were offered at twenty-five dollars with no bidders, and old Father Foot said he was too old to move, and should stand by the flag, and the preacher fixed up a consoling sermon for next day's service, and his text was, “Blessed are they who expect little, for they shall not be disappointed,” and Braswell indefatigable, irresponsible Braswell, who [illegible] of Rockmart, had pulled off his coat and rolled up his sleeves and put on his seven leagued boots and piloted the surveyors into a thousand thickets, and up muscadine vines and down into dens and caverns, hunting for a way from Dallas to Rockmart. Oh, Braswell, where was he?
Henry Braswell
There was the Braswell line and the Jones line and the Spinks line and the wild turkey line and the red fox line and the various other lines ranging from two hundred to a thousand feet grade per mile, and I saw a drawing of one of “em which went through a tunnel and immediately crossed a bridge five hundred feet high slanting upwards and ending in the mouth of another tunnel, and a mule was pulling the engine and there was a man on the mule with a thrash pole ten feet ling, for you see the boys have to work up at night all the ground they have gone over by day and send it to Mr. Sample's headquarters, who has to decide which line is the best.
About 2 o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday a cloud of dust was seen rising afar off on the Powder Springs road and soon the form of a horse and buggy and a man driving furiously was seen and his driving was like the driving of Jehu, and his horse was all in a sweat of perspiration, and his whip was work off to the handle, and it was Ragsdale- Ragsdale, the mail man, and his face was all aglow and his eyes shone like crystals as he opened his mouth and spoke and shouted, they are coming by Dallas. The railroad is coming by Dallas. Hurrah for Dallas, it's all settled. I heard the letter read, the things happened, the bullgine is a coming shore. When he had given all the particulars and convinced the doubting, some of 'em cut the pigeon wing, and some turned a summerset, and some run 'round the court-house, and some threw up their hats and kicked 'em afar off as they came down, and hollered “All Hail Columbia, Happy Land.” and the married men hurried home to tell their wives, and the boys run all about town blowing like a locomotive toot, toot, to-oo-oot, pish, ish, ish and shouting, “All aboard. Go to the Foot house, sir; carry your baggage, sir; buy a CONSTITUTION, sir.”
Dr. Thomas Jackson Foster
But Braswell, where was he? In due time he put in an appearance, but nobody knew where he came from. Going up to Dr. Foster he said solemnly: “Did you say you would take six thousand dollars for your farm- railroad or no railroad.” “Yes,” said the doctor. Quietly pulling out a roll of money as big as your arm he handed it over to him and said “count it and make me a deed” and then, and not till then were all doubts removed and the railroad question considered settled.
Dallas is the high and dry center of a good deal of space, and as Judge Underwood remarked Paulding is the best county in the state to the looks of it. They have got very good crops and their cotton is moving to market rapidly. Most of their farmers will make corn enough to do 'em and a little to spare and it wouldn't be a bad idea for a man who is bad off at home to take up winter quarters there on the line of the railroad. He could get plenty to do and work for his teams, for it will be lively times along the line this winter. Commodore McKeehney has got a wagon load of money and is going to scatter it, and if out people don't get their share it will be their own fault. The people of this country have been lonesome for a long time. Some of 'em never saw a bullgine, and so the Marietta folks thought they would educate 'em to it by degrees, and they sent two young men over to Powder Springs on bicycles, and as they came rolling down the street, the noiseless things slipped up on a mule with a man on it, and the glitter of the silver spokes a whirling around scared the animal and left the man on the ground, and he followed 'em up for a fight, and they apologized in most respectful language, but tool on powerful and said that the next time they come a runnin' of their durned old spinning wheel along side of his mule, he'd be dogond if he didn't gewhallop the spizirenktum out of 'em. Thinks I to myself if a little bicycle is going to upset a feller that way, what will they do when the locomotive comes thundering along, and tooting a horn that shake the air for a mile. But it will all work out right in the long run, and as Mr. Shakespeare says, all's well that ends well.
Bill Arp.
[Photos: Charles H. Smith (aka Bill Arp), Dr. TJ. Foster, Henry Braswell, Dallas Depot.]
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