davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08
Fuel AND GAS.

The pre-eminent necessity for q
cheap railway that freight rates may
be the least possible will be confessed
when we reflect that fuel must become
costly at an early day in the capital.
Cedar forests along neighboriDg
mountain sides now yield an abun-
dance of tirewood, but the demand
outgrows sources Of supply, and
though we have nine months of sum-
ner and sea breezes through the year,
yet manufactures can hardly flourish
where fuel is costly, and the poor Will
hardly be gathered about a city in
which comfort costs more, and more
must be expended in lighting the
streets and homes of the people with
coal gas than their toll can pay. There
fore We have sought persistently to
arouse the people in beh .ii Of cheap
railway III the direction of the coal
fields in Northwestern Texas. Cheap
Illuminating processes are as indis-
pensable as Mather'S s. Chandler's
waterwOrks to the city's growth, anL
while present gas rates are as low as
possible, in view of the remoteness OF
sources Of coal supply, and while gas,
even now, is cheaper in view of safety
and comfort and cleanliness than oil
or candles, yet the reduction in cost is
as earnestly sought by :he company as
by consumers. But we only pro-
posed to tell our readers how England
was annoyed when, ut the close
of the last century, as it is stated,
WILLIAM Murdock discovered the
of combustible air or gas. So little
was the invention understood and be-
leved in by those who had not seen it
in use that even great and wise men
laughed at the idea. "How could
there be light without a wick2" said
member of parliament when the sub
ject was brought before the house.
Even Sir Humphrey Davy ridlculed
the idea of lighting the towns by gas
and asked one of the proprietors if
they meant to take the dome of St.
Paurs for gas meter. Sir Walter
Scott, too, made himself merry over
the IDEA of illuminating London by
smoke, though he was glad enough,
not 50 long after, to make his own
house at Abbo,sford light and cheer
full on winter nights by the use of that
very smoke. When the House of Com
mons was lighted by gas the architect
imagined that the gas ran on fire
through the pipes, and he therefore
insisted on their beng placed several |
inches from the wall, for fear of the |
building taking fire; and members |
might be observed carefully touching |
the pipes with their gloved hands, and |
wondering why they did not feel warm. |
The first shop lighted in London by |
the new method was Mr.. Ackermann's, |
! n the Strand, in 1919; and one lady !
of rank was SO delighted with the brI- |
liancy of the gas lamp on the counter |
that she asked to be allowed to take it |
home in her carriage. Mr.. Murdock |
VAS, however, too busy with other u
suits to continue to study the use of
gas, and though he was undoubtedly
the first to apply it to practical pur,
poses, many Others laid claim to the |
honor, and other people quickly reaped
the benefit Of bis cleverness and inge
uulty. In this he shared the genera,
fate of inventors.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08
PRESIDENT CHANTS CONDUCT
AND PANE.

It is singular, but trIe, that the
President and Senator Conkling have
concurred and co-operated without the
shadow of turning for the past eight
years, and now the policy of the Presi-
dent in opposition to that of Morton
AMI Sherman, ais approved without
stint by the wisest and best men of
the whole country. Very certainly,
white we have been led now and then
to suspect the genuineness of the Pres
idents patriotism, and have con-
demned his alleged partisanship most
violently and earnestly, it is possible,
in view of his present conduct that
his motives have been unjustly aspersed.
he is . soldier, and has the modes of
thinking and acting peculiar to his
class; but in view of recent develop
menis, and Of his acts a. juncture
when q Caesar would follow Morton
while Grant has preceded CoDklins in
approval of the pending adjustment
scheme we must confess that the
President's conduct at the close of his
career crowns his name with more bril-
liant luster than that won BY his grand
est achievements a. = soldier. The
pending compromise, without the Pres
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

AT the present rate of progress IN
wealth and population, Texas, in 1880,
will stand next to New York, Illinois,
Pennsylvania and Ohio in wealth and
population, surpassed by these four
States alone. The voice of the grow
ing commonwealth will soon be potent
in shaping cabinets and determining
the action of Congress, and if, as re-
Gently threatened, Interstate war su-
pervene, We will have the capacity, is
olated as we are, to take care of our
selves. When the Sherman Register
cogitates seriously about these facts it
will abandon its purpose to create the
State of Tom Scott.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

ANOTHER effort, we are told, will lie
made tomorrow to get the Texas and
Pacific bill before the House under the
two-thirds rule. The friends of the
bill say they have enough votes prom
ised to secure this, as many members
are willing to give the matter hear
ing while they do not yield their op,
position to it. Should 1t become GER
tain that there is no possibility of get
ting the measure up in the House this
session, an effort, which it is though
will be successful, will be made to get
it through the Senate, and then it can
be taken up by taking it from the
Speakers table by majority vote.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

whisky flowing through it, and the
other its Jordan of hcalth-giviug wa
ter, the contrast in morals, progress,
Intelligence and happiness and the
pretty farms AID bright homes of the
cne, and filth and rags and poverty and
wTetchedness of che other, will induce
the Courier to confess hell and heaven
are no further asunder than the whisky
accursed town, and that abode of civ
ilization and industry which whisky
never invaded.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08
THE BARK HEPEisS.

We have had occasion to assert the
very truths contained N what is here
said by the Pittsburg (Texas) Magnet
which, eondemnlDg the unreasonIng
violence Of zea!ots, declares that these
advoca'es of temperance, instead of ap-
pealing to reason, aSsail whisky sellers
with violent vituperation as though
they were responsible for appalling
calamities that follow in the train OF
alcohol. We have no disposition to
become apologists for this class,ef our
fellow citizens, but 1t Is right that the
devil have his due. The friends of
temperance should remember that the
liquor dealer has the same legal right,
as the law exists, to pursue his traffic rs
merchants or mechanics their avoca-
tlons-that he is as honest, as benevo-
lent, as public-splritCd as other men.
Accident brought him into his business,
and though his capital be invested IN
it, his conscience and his judgment
condemn it, and he would gladly lie
out of it. This last statement is veri-
fled by the conduct of a saloon-keeper
in Daingerfeld. This man not only
voted for prohibition, but labored zeal
ously to induce others to follow his ex-
ample. If he had cared for money
only he would have voted to uphold
the liquor traffic, for be was thriving
by it. But he thought of his own
family and the families of his neigh
bors endangered by intemperance. He
resolved to put temptation out of their
way and exhibited high degree of
moral courage in rising above selfish
ness and standing up for the right.
He deserves success in whatever bust
ness he undertakes, and so good an ex-
ample will not be lost, and the policy
of prohibition will soon prevail
throughout our State.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08
THE RIVAL TOWNS.

The Athens-Tyler Courier thinks that
when one county excludes and another
adjacent admits whisky there will re-
suit splendid opportunities FOR dis
crlminatian between neighborhoods
and towns IN 5uJine,S poiat of view. :"
The Courier does not tell winch dis
tIict viii be !he glinrr, that which
expels OF that which embraces whisky.
We are told tina; the tax upon whisky
in Austin, paid To the several govern
ments, from Grants down to the mud
sill municipality, amounts to about
$50, 600 per annum. THIS is all that is
made GU; of whisky, and all this is dead
loss To morals, health and business
prosperity. 1t is paid out in promo
ting ruin. II is fine imposed in re
preston of irrcpressible vice. The
city government takes its share and the
county court sppropriates tie fines and
Gorfcitur,s and taxes 1t imposes, and
never thinks, when counting these few
dollars, how infinite the sum tn, y
cost the people in bailiffs and const l.
bles and in justices and recorders
aud district courts. The four govern
ments, city, county, State and Fe iek'l,
receive the miserable sum of $50 b00
per annum in taxes from whisky, while
any single murder case costs the peo-
pie of this county u greater sum. No
drunken rough is arrested ON the
streets and consigned to prison tina,
the toiling, sober people do mot pay
out in his behalf from ten to fifty dol
lars. Nominally, he ''works it OUT
on the strests, but the city treasury
pays for his labor and bread and for
his imprisonment; and the fees of the
various officers, from mayor down
TO turnkey, are paid in dollars
wrested from taxpayers by whisky.
We might dispense with half the ma
ehinery and agents OF local govern
ment if youth aud age were not con-
stantly tempted to drunkenness by
dram shops; and if the difference sup
posed by the Courier supervene, as the
consequence of the expulsion OF
whisky from one neighborhood and Its
protection in another. the profits arc
plainly with those who suppress the
retail whisky trade. But the question
is one that can hardly be argued from
the standpoint Of dollars and cents.
The cost OF government and the neces-
sity ter it are born of whisky. II
breeds bankruptcy, and thus litigation,
and costly courts are born of il, and,
generating wee and depravity and
madness that are handed down to pos.
terity, it builds aud fills mad houses
and fills the streets with hungry women
ard children, aud is the architect OF
our poor-houses and jsils. II the
Courier win SEQ to it that two commu-
mites. side BY side. are organized, the
one having its Syx Of maddening
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08
WHEN the Twelfth LEGISLATURE sat

WHEN the Twelfth Legislature sat
in this city there was q member who,
in goI2g from his hotel to the House,
was never nearer the Capitol than the
drinking saloon nearest the seat of leg
islation. Others of that and subse-
quent law-making bodies have been
constantly incapacitated for tasks as
signed by constituencies by induce
ments to drink thrust In their faces at
every point along the Avenue. II Aus
tin ever lose the Capitol it will be be-
cause the morals of the city render it
an unfit sssembly-place for lawgivcrs.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

THE PIttsburg Magpet says that il
the use of intoxicating liquer is right
let every man make, buy, sell and
drink according to his own ''swcet
will," just as he docs his butter and
biscuit. But if the use of Intoxicating
liquor is wreng, lift Injuries the health,
destroys the happiness, causes poverty,
shame and ruin. then let 1t be pro-
hibited. Then let every man who
loves his fellow, or even his own fami-
ly, rise up against it and destroy the
common enemy of mankind. All good
men will take the side of right against
wrong and will strive to promote the
real welfare of humanity.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

MAST has picture in Harper,
Weekly which would make an anchor
ite laugh. Watterson, of the Courier
Journal, is represented as making a
speech to Washington mob, and 100,
900 Kentuckians are summoned TO
Washington on the fourteenth of Feb
ruary. A poker deck of cards are
slipping from each sleeve. and on q
stool behind and above Watterson is
Murat Halstead, Of the Cincinnati Com
mersial in the act of pouring pitcher
Of water upon what Nast calls Hal
Fire -Waters-son'sp head.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

THE same Wilson, raider and rob-
Der, who burned the cotton mills at
Columbus, Georgia, also burned the
magnificent library Of the old Univer-
sity of Alabama. 1t was foul shame,
and the government of the United
States should be abhorred until the
once famed Rotunda and Pantheon at
Tuscaloosa is rebuilt: and the library
restored. The old Frencbman who
was librarian, devoted to books as to
learned men that he loved, resisted to
the last and frightened away the squad
order. But it was renewed, and the
deed at last was done.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08
--------=-------
HOPEFUL INDICATIONS.

The returns of the exports and i'm
ports of the United States for the
month Of December last continue to
show an increasing balance of trade in
favor of this country. The excess OF
exports over imports for the entire
year of 1876 will reach nearly $170,-
000,00 When it is considered that
for years previous to 1878 the imports
of the nation exceeded the exports by
nearly 800, 10000 per annum, the
change to $40, 900, 600 of excess of
exports over imports is the most re-
markable Commercial revolution in the
history of any nation within the same
period.
The statistical report to which we
have referred is very interesting, as
showing the extent to which goods of
home manufacture have supplanted
those of British production. Dur
ing the year 1876, as compared
with the year previous, the quantity of
cotton goods imported from Great
Britain has fallen off e-third; the
value of imported millinery is but half
as great; the value of imported cut
lery has diminished two-fifths; the
number of tons of iron is fifty per
cent. less; the importation of linen
goods has fallen off Fourth, and
that OF woolen nearly one-half. The
decrease of Importation is made up by
an increased use of American goods,
and indicates that the American work
man is now able to compete with the
foreign manufacturer.
The acceptance of the Joint commit
tee by Congress gives hopeful ussu-
rance that the presidential problem
will be solved in manner which will
meet the approval of all citlz ms who
prefer country to party. The most
critical point is already passed, and af-
ter the middle of February we may
confidently look for Il prosperous busi-
ness season with whicl TO begin the
second centennial of the great republic.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

BURNET trades almost exclusively
with Round Rock, and Austin is for
gotten. The Bulletin says that the
trouble is the villainous cedarbrake
road between Burnet and Austin.
That cedarbrake will make trades
people break, crush property values
and lessen rent rates. But Austin i.
partially aroused, and we are much in
cliped to believe that the people of
the city, if now called on, would
furnish enough money, with the land
and money the farmers would sub
scribe, to build the proposed exten-
sion of Houses Houston narrow
Gauge towards Lampasas and Brown
wood, which Austin needs more than
all else. This mustang railway wonl1
cost hardly more than good turn
pike and not only compel Mr.. House
to come hlther, but force Commodore
Morgan to,extend his Cuero and Indian
ola road to Austin. Thus Austin
would have four routes to the sea, and
these competing would SO reduce the
cost of goods in the capital that the
whole of northwestern Texas would
trade here. Moreover this concentra-
tion here of southern roads would
draw to this point by resistless force
a branch of Mr.. Tom Scott's Texas Pa
cific even as the Red River and Rio
Grande and the road from Kansas City
to Denison would seek an exit to the
Gulf through Austin. These are great
results to flow from the proper expen-
diture of 500, 900 on a narrow gauge
road, directed to the northwest, bnt
these are the sure consequences of such
action by the people and merchants of
Austin; and while they are devlslng
plans to save the trade of villages
almost within the shadow of Mount
Bonnell they will never rise to the
dignity of the occasion or exhibit a
proper spirit of enterprise and intelli-
gence till they have provided for the
construction of twenty-five miles of
the northern narrow gauge.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

DIR. SEARS, the grand old man who
administers wisely and justly the Pea
body fund, is seventy-four years of
age. His head is as clear as bell
and his step as firm and eye as bright
and intellect as vigorous as fifty years
ago. Such are results of a virtuous,
temperate life, and now his old age is
devoted to the most responsible and
bencticcnt task ever entrusted 10 one
of our race.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

exactly. That is Just Whist we pro-
posed to be, according to our best
lights, whether coincident with party
lines or not, and the last place we shall
go to for our ethics is the party organ.
Ii, IS the negro preacher said, there
are only two Paths-one leading 10 hell
aud the other to damaation- right
there we take to the woods. We be-
ljeve, too, that out of the thickest
woods the truth and the right Will fad
their way into the open daylight. They
live, while parties die. Ii Hayes shall
be Inaugurated, We shall NOT forget his
counting in. II Tilden shall be lnau-
gurated, we shall not forget his watch
cry of reform. Oar motives will De
declared 10y the organs. Tins viii!
also declare them.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

Whatever result the congressional
Chinese commission may have upon the
immigration question, it has establish
cd pretty conclusively tha. our knowl-
edge OF China and the Chinese Is very
little more accurate and definite than
our knowledge Of the moon. In the
first place, the erroneous mistake was
made throughout the session Of refer
ring to 'the Chinese" as one perfectly
similar and homogeneous people, sem-
Piles of which might be picked out
everywhere and compared, without the
least danger that they would differ. Il
Is true that few or none OF the white
witnesses had ever been in the interior
Of China, but still there are books ex-
tant which convey accurate descrip-
tions Of large portions of the empire.
and even those who had perused n.
Liable Huc's entertaining volumes
should have known better than TO talk
so loosely about q population Of four
hundred millions. The truth, and It
is really truth which requires 20 bo
spprehended, is that the Chinese mas
ses do not exist in either slavery OF
peonsge; that the Chinese government
is not despotic-at least after the mag
ner of European despotism that China
has Tor several centuries enjoyed what
we recognize as ''the liberty Of the
press" that the Chinese differ quite ~
much in various provinces as the peo-
pic OF Europe or America; that they
are not, as is almost universally imHg-
lBed, bound down with letters OF ira
ditIonal observance; that, on the con-
trary, they are as prone 70 change a.
any other people; that their religion is
not ancient As the hills, but compaFa-
lively new; that they do not worship
Idols; that they are not passionately
addicted TO emigrating; and that they
have not The least intention Of swallow
ing up the American people or Of APP
propriatIpg this continent. The con-
verse Of all these truths the congress
sional commission must, We fear, have
gathered from the evidences adduced
before IL, and since the most energetic
witnesses were precisely those whose
ignorance OF the whole matter was
most phenomenal. much of the testi-
mony was Of peculiar, not 70 say Of
comic character. We are not preparcdn r
70 assert that the Chinese igaorsncs q
American character and iraHta
at all less profound. kns6
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08
WHILE New York is moving for the

WHILE New York is moving for the
repeal of all usury laws whatever, that
trade in money may be as free as in cot
ton or horses, the Tennessee Legisla-
ture is about to repeal the law author
izing individuals to make any trade
they please, if mere than ten per cent.
be not exacted. The compulsory six
per cent. law is to be substituted. The
opposition say that all the money to
lend in Tennessee will be seat to New
NOrly
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

WELLS, of returning board infamy,
is exceeding sick. The development
of his knaveries is progressive and he
should die. The greed for gold of the
wretched knave ungratified and he in
famous-surely he will die. He pro-
posed to give Louisiana to Tilden for
an unnamed sum greater than half a
million, but Tilden's adherents refused
to buy. What sum he received from
Chandler is not known.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

TIE Hebrews desert PARIS and Lon
don, seeking permanent homes in Pal
estine. y liberal government is to be
established there, and railway con-
struction progresses and Jerusalem
may become, even in our time, a great
commercial capi al. Egypt has been
revolutionized and redeemed within
the memory OF living men, and the
task to be accomplished by Roths-
child and Nontetiore is not half that
in magnitude achieved by the two
latest rulers of Egypt.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08
No. 20

Mr.. J. F. II. CLAIBORNE, a journal
ist of Hancock county, Mississippi, is
writing history of the State, which
will embrace the epochS: First, the
early settlement and occupation by the
French and Spanisrds, etc; second,
the territorial period under the United
States government; third, the pe.iod
embracing the time~from its admission
us State TO its secession from the
Union; fourth, the period from its
secession to the last election Of Grant
US President of the United States.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

JUDGE STRONG, of Pennsylvania, is q
Republican; Clifford, of Maine, is \
Democrat; Miller, Of Iowa, is q Repub-
lican; Field, of CAlifornis, 5 Demo
crat; the fifth judge, Bradley, is Of
New Jersey and 3 Republican These
are the men who viii give Us presi-
dent. As partisAns, majority are Re
pabIicans; as judges and citizens, they
are honest and great men. and what
ever their action. the country viii ap-
nrore it. 4
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

THE Galveston Cicilidn devotes a
column to the discussion OF old fogy-
ism. The theme does not admit of it.
1t is too plain case. Its existence
and force are seen IN every town and
city and hamlet of Texas, and if Gal
weston suffer at its hands, where the
new, in numbers, so outstrip the fixed
and venerable, what shall be said of
interior towns IN which every change
is deemed ruinous and each concession
to the demands of the age cowardly.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

A ST. Louis court hes decided that
the rule generally in vogue among gas
and water companies, to make new
occupant of house pay any gas or
water bill by a dcfaultIng predecessor
in occupancy, as a condition precedent
to obtaining light or water. is illegal.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-08

THE Apalanchs tells US that Gin Ar
kansas, as In Tennessee, there are too
many sheep and too few dogs. So in
both States the law taxing dogs and
protecting sheep is to be repealed. We
must encourage Fido and Towser.
Never mind the sheep. Mutton and
wool can be bought in the North at
fancy prices" Another fact is to be
observed that Towser and Fido vote
more and oftener than the sheep, and
make infinitely more noise on election
days, and sparing the dogs pulls the
wool over Cuffee's eyes and out OF the
country's markets. All the dema-
gogues will speedily begin to howl i'll
Texas for the repeal of the dog law.