New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-05-25
TEXAS COEKEsPOH

AUSTIN, May 20.
On nv arrival at Galveston the hearty
and energetic editor of the Bulletin, Mr..
Whilden, gave me useful information about
the routes in Texas, for which here record
my thanks. The Bulletin is paper con-
ducted on the Greeley plan independent
moral ground without subsection to party
discipline Yet it is identified with the Re-
publican party, in whose ranks 1t has done
good service.
The railway between Galveston and Hous-
| ton is managed in, a loose way, and with but
little civihty to travellers, hence many go by
the boat. At Houston there is better ho-
tel than any at New Orleans--the Hutchins
House. 1t is generally conceded that pecu-
liar talent is required to keep hotel and
the proprietor of this one Is certainly en-
dOwed in this way.
At Houston had the pleasure Of making
the acquaintance Of Colonel Gillespie, of
the Union, and of his amiable assistant,
whose name just now escapes me. There
is no mask about the Union-it is proudly,
avowedly and truculently Radical, and its
editor at all times invites discussion and at
tack
From Houston, the Texas Central Rail
way is built, and running as far north as
Calvert, with branch from Hampstead to
BRENNAN, where it is to be extended to
Austin. This road, under the able presi-
dency Of Mr. W. +. Baker, is being pushed
forward with alacrity. By the first of July
it will be built from BRENNAN to Burton
fourteen miles. At present there is thirty
to forty hours staging over a bad road,
which involves two nights loss Of sleep, to
get to Austin. With the exception Of about
twenty miles, the road from Houston to
Austin lies through fine farming country
of rich black soil, containing crops of corn
and cotton in excellent condition. The
corn especially has gotten a fair start and
will turn out well. The cotton would per-
haps be better with little rain. Improved
lands through this section of country may
be bought from ten to twenty dollars per
acre. 1t is chiefly rolling prairie, skirted
with timber. There is also fiat prairie used
for grazing, through which this route passes
counties Harris, Washington, Bastrop and
Travis.
BRENNAN, the present terminus of the
railway, is habited in part by people who
follow the end Of the road. A stampede is,
therefore, anticipated when it shall have
been extended to Burton. Brennan is a
miserable place, with miserable hotel, and
its inhabitants tell you complacently, without
vince Of the inward monitor, that it is a
pretty place, and the proprietor of the hotel
l. i,,ga, hoe " broad
as if it were Roman feast, and points to
his buggy beds with royal gesture as If
doing the honors OF palace.
The traveller leaves Brennan at eight or
nine in the evening in the stage. and after
nights incessant humping arrives IN the
morning at Lagrange, where he. meets his
enemies, greasy hog and soggy corn bread.
set out on a solled-no, dirty table
cloth. Faint and hungry, he leaves
nntil he arrives at the house OF one Jones
for dinner. Jones, in dirty flannel shirt.
with barred aud hairy arms, thrusts forward
his hog and corn energeticaliy before the
nauseated traveller, as If he were putting
the last daintieS of the season under his
nose. The perspiring Jones takes his money,
for all the world, as if he had given an
equivalent for it, and the humping is re-
sumed until the house of Mrs. Nash is
reached, on whose head the traveller calls
down blessings, for good Mrs. Nash gives
him something to eat on a clean table cloth.
Dumping resumed, and about four or five
in the morning the weary traveller reaches
Austin, where he is dumped out in a dam
aged condition, from which he does not
recover for several days.
The road to Jordan is considered hard;
the writer has been there, and he assures
you it is strewn with flowers compared with
this thorny way from Brennan to Austin.
Here in Austin the principal topic is rail
ways, and the members of the Legislature
are already besieged by lobby people for
liberal charters. r.