The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1877-07-13


/ have not been long In your mo.
beautiful city, and but few months 4
the great empire and most noble stat
OF Texas and from what have seen. ID
travelling over IL and the short STAY
have made at various points, lee
constrained 10 say o great deal In il
um#o You have % fine climate ma,
rich. fertile soil, aud every olemen
OF health wealth and prosperity, nm,
with You Providence seems To bay,
spared no pains in giving You of tb,
bounties Of bis hands, But these hay,
been so thoroughly advertised in oven
way possible within the last -four wears
that ! consider il as supcr1uous /,
reitemto them here. And while / am
here TO investigate, not only for myself
but for many others IN the north and
east, whose minds and hearts are turn
ed towards this country by the many
glowing accounts that reach them i'm
various ways, not onlydeemit my duty
TO my friends 10 describe things exactly
as lind them, but consider II not out of
place totoll your good-natured and hos.
pitable people what my observations
lead me TO think of them as we'll ms the
country.
Fools take delight in aattery but
wise men glory in them who show them
their faults plainly" have no doubt
your country, like Others, has its draw.
backs and inlirmities and that these
can be neutrali2ed and SO blended with
the good 10y iudicious management, so
as to prove rather blessing than a
curse. But what / now wish to allude
is your laws and their execution and
tendency towarde civilization and final
prosperity.
For if the laws of state are so
shaped or executed by wicked. unwise
and Indifferent minded men (who creep
into power 50 easily under our present
cheap franchise system) rs to encour-
age vice and rascality, the good people
oil such II state or community will find
all their efforts to induce a thrifty class
of emigrants to come or remain with
them OF no avail,
shall not allude directly to what
! consider the shortsighted economy Of
the good people of Dallas, who lately
voted out their free school. have no
doubt the masses will be shortly awaken !
to the importance of education, for
universal education must 60 hand in
hand with universal suffrage And, no
doubt, their late rejection of the free
school was more Of n sin Of omission
than commission, which needs only
another opportunity to be fully atoned
for. For surely no city whose PEOPLE
have ever been alive to every other in
tercst can long afford to neglect the
means of education,
But what ! most particularly almde
to is this; According to n law of your
state (and that even a part Of her CON-
stitution) an individual is authorized to
steal all he can be trusted with, if he
only provides good place to hide or
store it away, say small tract of land
of two hundred acres or less, and call it
a homestead. This Homestead" bui-
ness, not only in Texas, but in Other
states prevails to an alarming extern,
and how any state can expect to MAIN
tain her credit or good name as n state,
with such q licensed system Of fraud on
her state books, is more than can
having had several inter
views with the advocates OF exemption
avs in their various forms, haYe often
elt amused at the grounds and argu-
nents they assume in their favor
One says that the intention OF the
aw is good, but unworthy men do take
advantage of them. Another says he
S opposed TO allowing innocent women
md children to suffer because of the
management Of the father.
mother, that it is only calculated to
mb tho ravages of hungry creditors.
10 the first advocate ! would say that
thieves and rascals are always
inst and the only ones to take adyan>
age of laws that are not founded upon
ustice and equity. To the second, |
would ask if it would not be better for
he people Of the state to provide for
he wants OF such ".innocents % by con- I
or even by appropriations,
han to compel the coniiding
reditor to surrender his interest
n n way that is calculated to destroy
IL the confidence that ought to exist
,etween men? And can the state eX,
,ect to diminish the number, or learn
Ter people to be frugal when she ais
ows such practices, and awards man
farm or homestead, and even tami-
V, who deserves nothing2
To the third | answer: Who has a
light, or who may be expected to be
hungry, if the man who divides his sub
tance with his neighbour and accepts
lis promise to pay in the future is not.
This exemption and homestead "bus-
Tess is filling your country with dts
honesty and fraud, more dangerous to
he public than all the thieves, robbers
md cut-throats that ever infested it,
Ihey make fraud and rascality respecN
ible, even the very poor man who new
II owned homestead learns to repudi-
tie debts and contracts by such exams
lies.
If Col. A. can own farm and 60
Jack on his sacred promise, why should
he hesitate2 L,
| do not think that Shylock' should
,e allowed to take his pound of flesh,
However might think Antonio de'
erved punishment for making such a
oolish bond But the one thousand
lucats were his, which he no doubt
would have got had he not been so
Without any relief from
and appraisement, homestead
" exemption laws a promise to pay
vas sacred thing in Rome, even
hough it was made to a jew,
A great finarcier once remarked that
he credit of any state was questionable
hat would allow its citizens to repudi>
tie their debts. For said he, IF she
,llows her citizens to do it under any
,retext whatever, she will do it herself
when she feels so inclined" Fortu
l. T. latH IN FFNFI