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Growth of the laundry business.

I continued the laundry work, in connection with that at the hotel, until 1874.  I had been in the Plankinton House then six years and a half.  The laundry business had increased to such an extent that my wife could not manage it all alone.  I, therefore, gave up my position at the hotel, and went into the laundry work on a somewhat larger scale than that upon which we had been conducting it.  We were still doing business at 216 Grand avenue, and there we remained until 1876; when we removed to more commodious quarters at 713 on the avenue.  But we remained there only a few mouths, when we removed to 134 Fourth street in the rear.  The establishment here was fitted up with all modern appliances; but I was not so successful as I anticipated.  My losses were heavy; and though the facilities for doing the work were much better than those which we had before possessed, the location was not so accessible or inviting.  We, therefore, went back to our former location at 713 on the avenue.

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Employed as A nurse.

Not long after this, Dr. Douglas, a prominent physician of the city at that time, was in failing health, and, wishing a nurse, I was recommended to him for this service by a friend.  I served the doctor in this capacity every night for three months.  I then went with him to McComb, a village in southern Mississippi, which had been, in the days of slavery, a somewhat famous resort, but which had lost its prestige, and entered upon a general decline; the hotel and all its surroundings presenting the appearance of general dilapidation.  I remained here with the doctor for two weeks—­until they succeeded in getting another person to care for him.  I then took a run down to New Orleans.

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A trip south.

On this southern trip I had the opportunity of observing the condition of the country through which we passed.  Many of the farms seemed neglected, the houses dilapidated, or abandoned, the fields either uncultivated and overgrown with bushes, or the crops struggling with grass and weeds for the mastery, and presenting but little promise of a paying harvest.  In some places the bushes and other undergrowth were fifteen feet high, and the landscape was peculiar and by no means inviting.  I could remember the appearance of the cotton farms in slavery days; but how changed were things I now saw!  They did not look at all like those which I had been accustomed to see.  Everything was dismal and uninviting.  The entire country passed through in Mississippi looked like a wilderness.  This deterioration was the natural result of the devastating war which had swept the country, and to the industrial revolution which followed and to which affairs had not been adjusted.