The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-04-22

4
| class of residences on the ranches, and are
| also the kind almost universally to be founC
In the Mexican part of the towns. These
1 huts or jaekels are constructed by planting
| posts in the ground at proper distances fol
| toe size OF the building required, 10 these
horizontal poles are lsshed two or three
4 feet apart, with one also on top of the posts
to these straight poles, or cane reeds pro
cured in the river bottoms. are dashed wish
raw hide thongs, and then the inside and
outside are thickly daubed or plsstered witt
mud until solid wall is formed; the top j:
thatched with grass, the dirt door ii
smoothed off, a raw hide or barrel stays
door is hung as the entrance, and the rancho
of the border Texan" is ready for occu-
pancy. This kind of dwelling is the home
of probably five-sixths of the inhabitants o.
these "border countless" These PEG
pie live in condition of poverty
| aud dirt not dreamed of by the people o.
tie older states; they are unaccustomed tc
the refinement, luxuries, or even the com.
mon style of living in the more cultured
portions of the states their wants are few
and simple, and they feel wealthy when
these simple wants are satisfied. Beef, cot
fee. corn bread and beans are the priucI pal
diet, the beef being so strongly seasoned in
cooking, with peculiar red or Mexican
pepper, that is - too hot for a Christian pal
ste." rhe bread of the Mexican portion OF
the population (which largely preponder-
atesl is usually made by grinding
CORN BETWEEN TWO FLAT STONES,
mixing the meal so made with cold water
without salt, and baking on hot stone or
flat piece of iron. A good cup of coffee is
the delight of the ranchsro, and he will
sacrifice all else to obtain it. In agriculture
they are more primitive, if possible than in
their style of living. 1t is no common
thing to see them blowing with the prong
of a forked tree, one prong pointed with
iron after the manner of the Jews two thou
sand years ago. In yoking up
their oxen the common or Yankee
ox-yoke and bows are ignored; the
animals are hitched or yoked together by
placing a straight stick on the animals
heads directly behind the horns, and LASH
ing il with raw-hide thongs; raw hide thongs
also doing duty as chains by which to draw
the loads. The means of conveyance are
huge carts with pOnderous huge wheels, and
fellOes, being wrapped with raw-hide thongs
which. put on green, dry, and answer the
place ofiron tires. Six to twelve oxen are
attached to one of these unwieldy vehicles
one barrel of flour or its weight in other
things being usually considered a load
for each yoke OF oxen. From the mouth Of
the Rio Grsnde to Carlo, in Zapata county,
distance of 240 miles by the travelled route
your correspondent, there is nothing TO
recommend the country for settlement
either genial climate, its agricultural pro
ducts, or its society. From low, fiat plain
on the gulf, as YOU proceed northward. the
country becomes more broken, barren and
inhospitable; immense
FIELDS or CHAPPERELL AND PRICKLY PEAR
line the road for miles. The country is dry
and unfit for either stock raising or farming
successfully. For this entire distance trav-
eled there is not, from the Texas side of the
river, single tributary of any kind into
the Rio Grsnde, not rivulet. spring, or
brook to welcome the thirsty, dusty
traveller; and III this whole distance we saw
but one well, aud the water in that was so
strongly impregnated with sulphur that il
was unfit to drink. The water for drinking
purposes is obtained and secured in cisterns
during the rainy season, or is pro.
cured from the muddy Rio Grsnde Tat
taken from the river is obtained by filling
tight barrel, plugging up the buDg, and then
hltcning mule or yoke of oxen to it with
rawhlde ropes, by gudgeons fixed in strong
bars across the end; the barrel revolving
like common field roller as il follows the
team. Many families in Brownsville are
supplied in this way by Mexicans (bsrrel-
leros), whose sole occupation is that OF water
vender. These men fill their water barrel
in the river, then draw it alter them through
the streets by a thong passing over the
shoulders and under each arm and topped
on to gudgeons secured in the ends of the
barrel; as they trudge along the street
their barrel of water rolls along after
them, revolving like garden roller. This
immense unwateled region is vast dry
parched plain, swept over during the sum-
mer by hot scOrching blasts, and visited
during the winter by terrific rain storms
and chilling nOrtheastsrners, which cut 10
the bone. Many people are under the i'm
preston that this is in the great stock
region OF Texas. This is a mistake. TIE
region of country between the Rio Grande
and Nueces rivers is the poorest in the state
for stock raising, the great stock region OF
the state being east and northeast of the
Nueces river. stretching away toward
ne territory of the Indian nation. AS be-
fore said,
THIS REGION Is TOO DRY
for successful and profitable stock raising.
Land here is cheap, even to almost giving
it away. A few days SINCE / had lying be-
fore me Brownsville paper in which large
was Offering land for sale in
Cameron county, within few miles of
the chief county and city OF all
this region, in tracts OF from 900 to 10000
acres, for 10 cents per acre, and yet he did
not appear to find purchasers at this NOM
inal figure. 1t IS now claimed in some
quarters that the people inhabiting
the region described above have been |
robbed by Mexican freebooters to the |
extent of $50 000, 900, and that D 600 of the in
habitants nave been murdered. A commits |
sion on the part OF the United States has re-
Gently visited this region to take testimony |
in regard TO losses. This committee have |
by some remarkable figuring reported losses
ranging from $50, 600, 600 TO $50 100000. Now |
does il seem possible that strip of country |
only % 900 inhabitants and lit |
lie over IS ,OOO 600 worth of property could |
lose in few years 5000 of its population |
and $500 1000 of It's property? Most |
Of these depredations are said |
10 have been committed since 1870. II this |
Is true, how could that region stand |
such drain and not be |
" molly stripped The fact il, this enormous
claim is an enormous humbug, trumped up |
by designing men as pretext for grabbing |
some OF the territory of Mexico. Ii IS
Job, and the pretense OF $50, COO, 900 |
n luudara1 from % OD0 DeODla is 81 m0nstrOus