davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15
THE TRAMPS AND SUFFRAGE
In AND OUT OF AUSTIN.

The people of New York city ask
the Legislature to give the so, 900 idle,
starving laborers with their idle, starv-
ing, half-clad 200, 900 wives and Gill
dren, employment and bread. We
think it frightiul that few thousand
'tramps" lr"m the East have entered
Texas to ravsge our towns and harass
our wives and Chi dren. The evil is
intolerable, and vagrant laws, which
have been imperative because of the
sanctity of Sambo in Grants eyes, will
now be vigorously enforced. Properly
enough Mayor Wheeler iHstructs the
police, and the sheriff, his deputies, to
arrest all vsgsbonds and idlers and un-
known, unemployed people, white or
black. The mayor and the sheriff, and
the police and constables and deputies,
have a fine field for usefulness pre-
sented. The nice young men pirouet-
ting in these balmy days of glowing
sunshine IN front of bar rooms awaiting
the advent of some innocent blest
with nickels enough to ''treat"-
even the occupation of these hand
some, well-dressed people is en-
dangered by this decree of
those in authority. The police and
sheriffs say they will be no respecters
of persons. They are not alone vagrants
who wander from house to house levy
ing contributions in bread and money
and old clothes upon timid women.
The fancy tipplers of the town, who are
enabled by the careful preservation of
the airs and dress of respectsbility to
inveigle others into bar-rooms and cap
ture lunches and drinks as vsgrants do
the sppendages of clothes lines and
old hats and boots-these fancy gentle
men Of elegant leisure must be made to
show how they live. The law makes
no distinction between the ragged and
seedy and the sleek and oily. There is
no confessed sristocracy among va
grants, and the sherlffs and police
will soon have their hands full.
The law is wisely conceived
and should be vigorously executed.
But suppose the mayors and sheriffs
reelection or defeat must occur next
week or next month. Would such or
ders emanate from these leaders of the
peoplel The ball0t-box, we greatly fear,
would yawn too hungrily for the votes
of vice and stupidity, and therefore
this devotion to public interest mzy be
only painful spasm of devotion to
public order and security and decency.
II an election were at hand we would
see soup houses established, free
lunches multiplied and the lsborers-
so called-paid by the city and en-
ployed on bridges aud streets would
become countless. Just now, howev.
er, there Is no nsed for colored OF
white voters, a. such, and the vagrani
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

UNTIL our dispatches OF last night
were received there was nothing be-
fore US and may not be when they come
tonight indicative of the character of
the decision to be made by the cleo
toral commission and nothing to show
how soon a decision will be reached !;
but the leading Democrats are cheerful
and confident. Iti generally conceded
that, upon strictly legal issues, the
Democrats haye a stronger case in
Florida than in Louisiana; Dut the
Louisiana case is the stronger since, as
we are advised, the commission will go
Den1nd the roturne, and ascertain what
by the vote cast, was the will and de-
termination of the people.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15
STRANGE BUT TRUE.

A correspondent of the English Ne
chdnic insists that musical sounds slim
ulate the growth of plants. He gives
an instance in point. In a barren sec
tion of Portugal he built small con-
servatory and endeavOred to cultivate
roses and other flowers under shelter,
but, in spite of his precautions and in
dustry, they did not fl ,urish. One day
he took a harmonium into the green
house and played for several hours.
The practice he maintained for several
months, and was surprised to see a
gradual but rapid recovery of health
ON the part of his plants. He attrib-
utes their improvement to the influ-
ence of music, and Hnfolds the theory
that the singing of birds is conducive to
vegetable life. Even here in Austin it
is asserted that house plants grow most
vigorously and bloom most beautifully
in homes in which tasteful m1sic Is
ever heard. Not only is this asserted,
but the opinion obtains that the shape
and conformation of childrens' features
and their expression is affected by deli
cious melody to which they have been
accustomed to listen from the hour of
their birth. The contemplation of
pretty pictures gives expression and
sweetness and beauty to the eyes and
mouth, even as it moulds the character
and adjusts the taste to choicest models.
Books, hardly more than these adjuncts
of intelligent modes of living, define
the character in childhood Of men and
women, and painting and music and
poetry are of infinitely greater practi-
csl value than most people imagine.
Laws and forces of light are as little
comprehended, practically, as those OF
sound and vision. 1t has been long
known that blue rays of light had pc
culIarly invigorating effects upon the
growth of plants, and recently the al
formation of blue and white panes OF
glass in hot house roofs has been used
not only to give extraordinary vigor to
vegetable growth, but to animal vital
lty. The philosophy of the fact is not
understood, but the fact seems to Re as
stated, and nervous diseases and rheu.
matism are said, by high authority,
to be certainly cured by blue rays ol
light. There is species of "blus
ruin" more commonly operative in Aus
tin, but Gen. Pleasanton, an old army
officer, has devoted many years to ex'
periments in which blue rays of light
are made to perform wonderful trans
formations in animal and vegetable
growth and life. But we only proposed
20 commend to our readers love ol
the beautiful in art, in music, IN paint
ing and poetry, and in achieving this
purpose have sought to show that phys
ical as well as intellectual charm:
spring from tastes and habits which
should be studiously promoted and cul
tivated in every household Of the cap
ital.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

THE news ~ which the Galveston
Meas, of the seventh INST, publishes af-
fecting matters of which Governor Hub
bard has the disposal is to be correct
ed. Ward, Dewey & Co. do not,
as alleged, "hold on indefinitely" On
the contrary they go out at a definite
fixed date, and the State gets its money
and pays out nothing, and is secured
by an indubitable bond against all
losses. Advertisements for other les
sees will soon appear in the newspa-
pers and the l0'oeSt and best bidders
will secure the unwielGly prize.
The contractors on Oyster and Caney
creeks will be forced to make perfect
their navlgability. Comply with the
law and contract they must.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

THE Fort Worth Democrat is exceed
iRgly anxious that the best men, and
those most deeply interested in pro-
noting the city's future, should be
chosen to hold local offices, and yet
the Democrat, seeing that there is but
one mode of assuring this result, dares
not designate and approve it. Why
not say at once that nobody should
vote in q municipal or property cleo
ton unless he be interested in the
property and taxation of the place2
He should either own or hold property
for a term of months or years. The
State and its courts protect the indi-
vidual in all his personal rights and
freedom, the town affects taxation and
property alone, aud tramps and no.
madic blacks should not, as now, pol
lutte the ballot-boxes of towns and
cities of Texas.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

act may be remorselessly and properly
executed. These peculiar facts are not
peculiar to Austin. The same law of
demagogism and ot Rutabagaism op-
crates everywhere in Texas, and We
do not propose to criticlse harshly
those in authority whose paths of duty
are defined for them by the organic
law of the commonwealth. II Is only
demonstrated that every conceivable
public calamity springs from this uni
versatility of the night of suffrage.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

THE Bonham Ne1os is always IN dead
earnest and, whether right or wrong,
is honest. 1t now says of the Texas and
Pacific Railroad scheme that "by the
pending bill, the Texas and Pacific, is
to be consolidated with the Atlantic
and Pacific; the two roads are to form
junction near the southeast corner of
New Mexico; and the projected line,
instead of pouring the stream of trans
continental trade and traffic into the
States and cities of the South, will op.
crate for the aggrandizement of St.
Louis and Philadelphia - becoming
virtually an extension of the Pennsyl-
vania railway, the most gigantic rail-
road corporation on the continent"
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

THE pious Plttsburg Magnet knows
what it is to be magnetized by wo-
man, and therefore it says that if the
women were allowed to vote they
would make short work with the whis-
ky business. But while they cannot
vote they can exert an untold intiu-
ence on those who can vote. They are
the power behind the throne. Men
boast of being lords of creation, yet
they generally yield to the gentle, yet
resistless, allurements of woman. Let
them understand their power and use
lt-put drink out of the reach of hus-
bands, sons, brothers and beaux. Now
is the time for them to secure an un-
bounded blessing.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15
COL. FRANK JOHNSON.

The appearance Col. Francis ".
johnson in our city for the last few
days revives in the minds of the few
veterans of the old Republic who still
survive recollections of the old time.
He came TO what is now Texas in 1896;
was appointed principal surveyor for
Austin and Williams's colony, and to
the Office of alcaIde in 1881; judge of
the first justana in 1881, and commits
sioner to extend titles in DaWitt's COL
ony in 1885. About this time the
clouds of war began to overspread the
land, and Col. Johnson repair, d under
Burleson, with band of gallant men,
to Bexar. He commanded, in Decem-
Der, 1885, the second division of vol
unteers, a forlorn hope, which entered
Bexar under Milan. For four days
and nights, fighting from house to
house, with not over three hundred
men, he contended with from between
twelve and fifteen hundred Mexican
troops commanded by Gen. Cos. For
three days the combltAnts under Johr-
son and Milan did not number over
two hundred and fifty men. On the
morning of the fourth day Gen. Burle
son sent about fifty men to reinforce
them. On the fourth day Gen. Cos sur
rendered, on terms of surrender agreed
on by Col. johnson and Capt. Swisher,
who were appointed by Gen. Burleson
to arrange the terms of capitulation.
Milan was killed in the assault on the
Vevimenda House, then occupied by
Johnson, and which Milan had just en-
tered when he was killed. Col. Frank
Johnson, though over seventy years
old, is still as straight as an Indian,
and as he walks with head erect still
looks every inch a soldier. No man
living or dead entered the service of
the infant Republic with more unset
fish patriotism than Col. johnson, and
lis exalted services entitle him to the
gratitude of those who now enjoy the
fruits of his early struggles and sacri-
fees. Long may he live, honOred and
respected by all.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

Our readers will remember the door
keeper of the Georgia Legislature, of
whom we were telling some time ago.
This same irrepressible gentleman has
been reelected even for the third term.
He printed, when candidate, card
on winch was recited the story told by
the STATESMAN Of the late Judge Cone,
and we have before Us a copy of this
card which, addressed 20 members of
the House, says;
Mr.. Jefferson's questions for testing
the merits of q candidate have been
superseded, as to the Office of door.
keeper, by three questions suggested
by distinguished jurist and legislator
Of Georgia, the late Judge Cone-viz: /:
HAS he ever soea q door keptl Has
he ever kept doorf Has be ever read
a book on doorkeeping1" bad the
hon9r TO answer them all affirmatively
two years ago, and was elected.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

GEORGETOWN, in Williamson coun-
ty, now that whisky and retail whisky
shops are extinct, becomes the choic-
est place in Texas for the education of
boys and girls, and certainly the choic-
eet town in which to rear them. The
place viii grow rapidly in population
and wealth, and those that go thithez
will be of the very best class of peo-
pie, and those that leave for Hesrne or
Rockdale, that they may have access
to whisky, will not stop till they get
to Huntsville. Their lips will be
'dewy," mOistened with whisky, and
handouts and stone walls will keep
watch and ward" over them.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

THE Democrat would have the
county court of Tarrant postpone ac-
tion on whisky prohibition till other
counties and towns have tried it. It's
no new thipg-Kentucky, New Jersey
and many States have such law, and
its beneficent operation is everywhere
confessed. AS in Fort Worth, so 1t
happens in many districts of States
that have such a code, there are
whisky-headed msjoriues. Paducah,
Kentucky, has twice voted down pro-
hibition, while little town, Mayfeld,
twenty miles away, has adopted and
enforced it. PAducah sells al the
whisky consumed by the tipplers of a
wide district, and yet its newspapers
starve or die, and the place prospers
not at all. 1t drinks its whole wealth
once in each ten years, and it is the
same town it was when first swallowed.
Towns and villages in its vicinity,
having none of its natural advantages,
have prospered and grown rich, while
PAducah, at the point of confluence of
three great rivers, the Ohio and Ten
nessee, and that other Of whisky,
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

THE Rockdale Messenger says it has
not exulted in the triumph of whisky
in Milan county, but that it would
gladly see the maddenlng beverage
thrust beyond the States confines. 1t
says further that "if law could be
framed which would effectually pre-
vent its importation into the State, We
would be among the first and most
vigorous in urging its adoption. But
when it comes to passing law which
does not suppress the use of whisky,
but merely transfers the dram shops
from one side OF the county line to the
other, thus taking away from the
county a considerable portion of its
trade without furnishing any recon-
pense or accomplishing any good what
ever, we will oppose it on the same
ground that we would oppose law re-
quiring our people to go to Calvert to
buy their grocerIt s, and to Hearne to
sch their cotton. THIS is the plain,
common-sense view of the local option
question"
1t is the plain, common nonsense of
the question. If we can drive whisky
out Of Travis county we will accom-
plish for the people of this city and
county just what the Messenger would
do for the State, and if we cxpel
whisky consumers with whisky shops
from the county, sober, Christian farm
ers and merchants will seek homes here
for the very reason that sots depart.
We will gladly witness consequences
of prohibition which the Messenger
contemplates with honest horror. 1t
would gladly expel whisky from
Texas; failing in this, why not exile it
from Milan? The county is broad
enough for State, and broad enough
to attract 10, 900 hardworking. honest,
intelligent farmers for each 500 whisky
consumers who will go to Hearne for
drinks. The reasoning of the Messen-
ger is faulty. 1t would do for Texas
what it will not for Milan. 1t would
expel whisky from the State, and will
not from its county. 1t would degrade
and destroy Pits own home and have
murder and madness rampant in Rock
dale because it cannot drive the cause
from the commonwealth. But when
the effect is seen in Travis, when leg
islatures are no longer drunken and
the cost of governing this county is
lessened, as it will be to an incalculable
extent, then the Messenger, dreaming
of the possible blessedness of Texas
and again Erooding over the woes of
Milan, will not, like the sow that was
washed, return to its wallow.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15
MODERN GREATNESS.

The New York Herald, in comparing
the great men of this the tertiary pc
Rod of the Republic with those that
shaped the couutry's thoughts and des-
TIMES before the "deluge," claims the
Intellectual equality of Conkling and
Evarts with Clay and Webster The
Herald even declares that the modern
s atesmen are superior in ''tsste and
culture" to Clay and Calhoun. What
ever may be said of Webs;er's simple
majesty and the sublime poetry with
which his resistless logic was adorned,
like an ivy-clad pyramid of stone, he
has found no counterpart in any age or
in America or Europe. lis singular
fact that to the extent that they were
poets, Goldsmith and Webster are
closely sssimilated, even as they were
perhaps personally somew hat alike.
But the country Will hardly assent to
the Herdld's assertions. COIkling is
not the equal of Clay as an actor or as
prophetic statesman. Clay's Amer
lean system" has wrought its purposes,
as he predicted thIrty-tive years ago,
while his partisan foemep Pre-
nounced his reasoning false and
his theories idle vagaries of an impul-
nj
No man has dreamed of the possibility
of erecting such monument of words
for himself as that which Webster
reared when he welcomed Lafayette
and laid the cornerstone of Bunker
Hill Monument, and that, as lasting
and imposing, of his own immortality.
People naturally reverence the old and
cherish memories of the lllustrious
dead, and may exaggerate their virtues
and the splendor of their deeds; but
asserting to this weakness of our ma
ture, it is only necessary to turn to
Webster's simple, msjestic, faultleSs
orations and then to Conkling's in
genious and violent declamation to
discover the difference between majesty
and grandeur, and nervous force and
logical acumen and rhetorical beauty.
These last virtues constitute the sum
and substance of effectiveness IN Conk-
ling's harangues, while Webster was i'm
posing and grand, and great even as
his logic was resistless and his rhetoric
of peerless beauty and simplicity.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15
DiCKERING DOCTORS.

1t Is alleged that drug stores, under
the local option law, will supplant
dramshops. The druggist, If he sell
whisky, save when prescribed by a
regular physician, will be sadly victim
lied and hardly repeat the ofense.
Moreover. the doctor making the pre-
scription must be licensed, examined
and enrolled physician. These gentle
men are not averse to money-makiDg,
and if they perj1re Misunderstanding
prescriptions to an appetite rather than
a disease It the receiver must pay for
the prescrip ption as well as for the whis-
Ky. The process is thus very costly and
dangerous and especially to druggists,
and doctors. In fact, under the local
option law, there is no help for tiff
people must drink, they must drink
at home. Each confirmed whisky
guzzler must keep his jug in his own
closet. He will certainly drink infin-
itely less than now and what he drinks
will cost him less, and thus the COM
munity will be enriched, or, he will
drink infinitely more, staying at home
aud nursing the jug very faithfully. In
the latter case the community is the
gamer because the existence of con-
firmed sot is curtailed. Meanwhile the
unconteminated youths and men of the
country will no more be seduced and
corrupted by the wiles of whisky. The
clinking glasses, the blushing wine,
the fascinating mint" in which
human woes are coined in glIttering
tear-drops, the gilded walls and
splendid mirrors-all these will be
hidden from the enraptured vision of
youth and age by the hand of prohibi-
ton. The good to be achieved affects
those who have not become depraved,
and for whom these drug stores, how
ever corruptly owned and managed, and
however corrupt the doctors may be
have no dangerous charms. Though
drunkards may now and tEen be
slaughtered, they will never be manu-
iactured in drug stores, and we are of
those having faith in the honor of the
medical profession. Its members can
not prescribe whisky when disease does
not demand it, and the bOasted code
of ethics is something more than fa-
BILE, and especially that enactment
which makes prescription bring a
fee.
But these assertions of the ineffi-
cheney of the law and of its incapacity
for tasks it undertakes are simply ''as-
sertions." They signify nothing.
The local option act of Texas con
talns the provisions of codes of other
States where the law has been opera
tive for years, as in New Jersey and
Kentucky, and they are very ignorant
of progressive facts in morals and in
telligence who have not learned that
the prohibition of the retail trade in
whisky is the prohibition of more than
half the crimes and vices that make
governments costly, policemen and
sheriffs numerous and jails and courts
the curses and burdens of the COM
monwealth.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

SEATS in New York and Brooklyn
theaters, as in Beecher's church, are
empty, and shows are failures every
where, as here in Texas. If the prices
of admission be not reduced, the peo-
pie cannot indulge a taste even for
amusements as legitimate as those pre-
sented at Plymouth Church. Fifty
cents for a PLAIN seat in a plain coun-
try theater, in which the only capital
invested is seen in bare walls and rude
galleries. is quite enough, and certain
~ as much as people will pay. Wheth-
er the times are not too tight even for
this modest expenditure remains to be
seen
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

SHANNON aud Nolin, tradesmen o!
u'ton, quarreled about hide. The
one had pistol concealed about his
person, and in sudden anger kills his
man. He also sends three children to
poverty and helplessness and degrade
ton, and their mother to insanity and
the graveyard. Such are deeds of peo-
pie who swing about the street cor
ners and bar rooms of Austin freig hted
with weapons and whisky.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

GEN. STEELE explained III q state
ment made to the Galveston Neics the
reasons why Capt. McNelly was left
ont of the late reorganization of the
State force. The Captains health had
become too precarious for his retention
in the service, and the certificate of
his physician is produced as evidence
of this Fact. In cons, quence of dis
eased lungs he had been unable, for
months, to perform field duty, and
Capt. Hall, young man in the prime
of manhood and thoroughly fitted for
the service, takes his place.
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

THE Louisville (Ky.,) Eoeaing Neics
says cheap land in Texas is attracting
emigration. Several parties have al
ready started from the mining districts
in our own State. The fertile soil
and genial climate of the Gulf States
offer rich rewards to the industrious
settler. In t me, it may be well to
amend Horace Greeley's famous advice,
and say, young man, go South"
The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-02-15

HOWEVER earnestly the constituents
of Congressman Mills may have favored
the reference Of the presidential ques.
ton to the commission, il this body
become partisan, its members each
voting as partisan, Mr.. Mills will be
deemed the wisesc of our representa-
tives, and though in a minority, he
will be the strongest among the peo-
Pile. They will condemn this high
court by approving the man who for
saw its weaknesses.