The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-07-17
A New Southwestern Town.
What n Visitor to Denison says of the
Place.

son, the new Texas town, six hundred
and twenty-one miles southwest of st.
Louis, it was hard to realize, says a cor
respondent, that only four months be-
fore our visit the site of the thriving
town was almost wilderness, and that
not building of any kind had ever
been erected there. For all around us
was Babel-a wild rush of business,
glory in affairs, an unbounded delight
in mere labor, which ut once oppressed
and appalled, us. The slightest indica-
ton of progress was pointed out as a
gigantic foreshadowing of the future
pre-eminence of Denison over the other
cities of the universe. "There are from
$500 to 5000 people here now," said
one gentleman to us ; "how's that for
four months =? That'll make some Of
the incredulous folks take their frame
houses off from the rollers r'-an ex-
preston intended to open up a startling
prospect for the future solidity of Deni-
son.. And, indeed, all these enthusias-
tic pioneers of new civilization were
justified IN their seemingly wild prophe-
cies of greatness. Northern Texas, un-
der the beneficent influences of railroad
pioneering, is assuming a prominence
until within the last five years. AS soon
as the railway had crossed tine Red
river, stream of immigration, which
the most sanguine had not hoped for,
set in. The Northwest seemed to have
moved en- mdsse. The tracts of fertile,
black-wax land, which literally needed
but to be tickled with the plow to smile
harvest, were rapidly taken up, and
Denison sprang into existence as the
chief town of the newly developed re-
gion. Four months before our visit the
town was organized, and since that time
the Denison Town Company had sold
100000 worth of building lots. The
town began its future with two rail
roads, which had not cost it a dollar
coming to it at either extremity in a
county which does not owe cent, and
at the outlet of one of the most fertile
farming regions in the world. 1t was
| indeed like magic, the building of Deni-
son. All the lumber for the houses was
brought hundreds of miles, there being
none suitable in the vicinity and car
loads of timber were changed into rough,
but commodius business establishments
! in twinkling. 1t was exceedingly re-
markable, also, that in community
| one-half of which was undoubtedly made
up of professional ruffians, terminus
| gamblers, and the offscourings of socie-
| ty, and where there was not yet a regu-
| larly organized government, there was
not more of terrorism. Every third
building in the place was drinking
saloon with gambling appurtenances,
filled after nightfall with a depraved
adventurous crowd, whose profanity was
rPAllinn-. whose aspect was hideous.
| In vulgar bestiallty or language, IN the
pure delight Of parading the incarnate
word under the mask of profane indie
cency, the rufian as there manifest had
no equal. The carrying of firearms con-
cealed is so expressly forbidden by the
| laws of Texas at present, that shooting
rarely occurs, and there is no more dan
! ger to the life or limb of the traveller
| than there may be incurred on Broad
way, n. Y. Robberies were, of course,
of frequent occurrence in the gambling
hells, and doubtless are still but in the
primitive hotels, where the passengers
awaited transfer by stage to Sherman,
and where they were packed three Oh
four together in beds in thinly board
ed room, through whose cracks rain
might fall and dust blow, they We're as
safe from robbery or outrage MS in any
frst-class hotel. Rough men abounded,
and would, without doubt, have knocked
any one upon the head who went alone
unarmed, late at night, into theil
clutches.
The business men of Denison are
stern, self-reliant and confident. They
have a thorough belief in Northern
Texas intend to tame its wildness, and
make it one of the gardens of the world
The Kansas and Missouri, and Illinois
and Western New York character crops
out everywhere in Denison, and is the
chief reliance Of the town. The aborig
inal Texan looks on, and admires the
energy displayed. There is something
sublimely impudent, charmingly pro-
voking, in the manner in which he dis
appears from work and the street wheI
a cold "Norther" comes on in the COO
defiant way in which he forces others tC
work for him, and the utter surprise ht
manifests when he is accused of dron
ing. Yet this same man can leap to the
level of hero when his rights are as
sailed can battle San Jacinto plai1
with his best blood can stand at al
| AldllO DIGdSJWOlhS unGll plelCSu ~,
an hundred wounds, and can ride at tho
head of brigade into the very gates o
death without losing one iota of hi
magnificent irmness.
But the Northern Texan population
is rapidly assimilating in many respect
with the newcomers, and there is NJ
longer any vestige of the antique ostra
cism which made Texan regard
stranger as an inferior being. Neithe
is it safe in a new town like Denison t,
Judge man, as we are forced to do il
large cities, by his outer garb and man
pers. The huge hulking fellow witt
one cheek distended with tobacco, ant
with his clothes all so disposed tina
they seem to have been thrown upol
him, will answer you with all the cour
tesy and grace of high-bred gentle
man, and will show a consideration TO
your opinions and your remarks whicI
you do not always receive from the citi
zens of cities. The roughness is of tn
exterior only, and he who contents him
self with passing glance will not pene
trate the shell.
The earnestness of the new town, tn
almost religious quality of its ambition
was amusing as well as inspiring. Ever
one talked in exaggerated figures th
rise in land was fictitious the estimate
of immigration were overdrawn; tn
probabilities" were certainly elastic
but there was such hope Many me
! who had only been in Texas year c
two had already enriched themselves
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