Newspapers, Adair County KY: The Adair County News 08-Dec-1897 Submitted By: Laura Frost Wright Submission Date: 03-May-2000 A Spicey Letter. New York, 30-Nov-1897. Editor News: On November 1 I left home for Texas. I arrived there O.K. and found all Kentuckians in good shape and money plenty with nothing to complain of except the price of cotton which is only 4 1/2 to 5 cents. I sold all my real and personal property at satisfactory prices: Cattle $15.25 per head, horses $7.50 to $90.00, Jacks $50.00 to $75.00, jennetts $25.00 to $35.00, corn 38 cents, wheat 95 cents, oats and alfalfa $8 per ton, cotton 5 cents, land $8.40 an acre. I returned home in time for Thanksgiving, my daughter with me. Mr. HUNTER, her husband, will come later on. Friends WILMORE and ROWE have kept the wires hot on my track for the last two weeks, urging me to come to New York and so here I am, somewhat disfigured but still in the ring. New York is a larger town than Gradyville but the people are not near so sociable - they don't even speak to me in passing. I had a delightful trip through old Virginia. The mountains and valleys of that dear old state are simply grand to behold. In my imagination I could see the land and country of my forefathers who emigrated to Kentucky from Virginia about 100 years ago. No doubt I saw many of my relatives along the way; still, the relationship being very distant, I did not recognise any of them for certain (As Tom NEAT would say). At Washington, I called at the White House to see my friend, Billie McKINLEY but as it was not his day to see one-suspender drummers, I did not get in so I just took a stroll through the yard and was satisfied. I did not see GROVER, either; guess he was at Buzzard Bay, as usual, with his boy baby or shooting ducks. Baltimore and Philadelphia I did not see as it was night and we were running fully sixty miles per hour. I found the boys anxiously awaiting my arrival on the Jersey City side with an Italian and his grind-organ instead of a brass band. Of course, you know we are all full of scales, but my opinion is that if we rub up against these slick Yankees much, we will get some of them rubbed off. WILMORE seems to be one of them and in every way equal to the task and we are depending largely upon his ability to hold our own with them - and he may hold us too, before the thing is over with. ROWE leans on his large silver-headed cane just as calmly here as he did about PAULL Bros. corner. In fact, I think he is stuck on this village anyhow, he having been here three or four weeks and in no hurry to get home. The only thing that seems to mar his pleasure, or make him sad is expenses. He said he has had nothing here but a bad cold and an expensive appetite and, if you know Billie you know that he does not delight in giving his money away, and it cost more to live here at the Hoffman House than at Jamestown - lodging after midnight $1.50 and meals in proportion to appetite. It is now 11 o'clock P.M. and WILMORE and ROWE are out taking what they call dinner. I claimed to be sick to save a dollar and did not go out thinking it would not be long till breakfast. We don't have suppers here at all. I think we will do this town in about three more days and then Mr. ROWE and myself will return quietly home to sell hats and hardware for at least another season, trusting the merchants will all hold their orders for us. The prices may be higher than usual, still you can afford to pay more to men who have been to New York. Mr. WILMORE, while he is known here as the Southern Yankee, does not forget his old Kentucky home and believes it to be the best place on earth, and says he may have to return some day to the old home farm to plow when we are through with this scale business. Billie will go back to Russell County, or rather he prefers the eastern portion of Metcalf. As for me, I will still continue in the son-in law business. I read three numbers of your spicey sheet in Texas and would like to have a copy sent to my father at Gradyville, also mister I will say in conclusion that we hope soon to see our scales on the market and no other scale in use except the American Computing Scale. Truly Yours, J. Cager YATES *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. Commercial entities must ask for and receive permission from submittor before downloading. ***********************************************************************