The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-04-07
The Promised Land!--The
Eden Of America.
Like Paradise of old, Eter.
nal Sunshine Reigns
and Flowers Bios
SONS Forever!
San Antonio, and the old Cath.
Ollie Missions.
Texas the Poor Mans Home and
the Rich Mans Paradise.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Mar. 90, 1877.
Shakespeare says:
"There are more things in heaven and earth
| Horatio,
Than thou has dreamed OF in thy philosophy"
And nowhere beneath the sun can the truth
of this be more beautifully illustrated than
here IN the great state of Texas; which to all
appearance must be
"THE PROMISED LAND
we read about in scripture, that land lover
flowing with milk and honey" where eternal
sunshine reigns.
SO far as l am able to judge there are few
exaggerations in the statements that have
been made regarding the state, AMI no Ian.
guage can be too highly colored, that attempts
to describe the wonderful fertility and beauty
OF the country.
Before | begin my description of what |
saw and learned regarding this great section,
must say that entered Texas with strong
prejudice existing IN my mind against the
state and its people. | expected to find II a
wild, desolate region, inhabited only by a
crude, lawless class, whose ways and modes
OF living were more like roaming bands OF!
savages than those Of civilized people; where
every man. woman and child carried a gun,
and the revolver settled all disputes. But
never was an individual more happily disap-
pointed; and instead OF being prejudiced, |
am now perfectly infatuated with the coun
try, its grandeur and Its climate!
1t is an old saying, that the ID is not so
black as he's painted" So the people Of Tex.
as, | find, are as peaceful, h0n0rdbIe and law
abiding as those who dwell amidst New Eng.
lands verdant hills, or IN countries that have
been for centuries enjoying the fruits of civil
lization. Perhaps society" does not flour
ish here in all that "style and grandeur"
which characterizes the people at the Hub"
the city of churches" or the Gay Broad
way" or we may not find that extravaganza,
or "agony of fashion" which founders about
at Long Branch, Cape May or Saratoga, dur
Ing the summer months; but we do find a
class of people, who, though peculiar In some
respects, are the representatives OF that class,
which makes the bone and sinew OF nation,
who in a short time make cities where forests
lrown, and whose industry makes our eoun.
Try what 1t is!
You will find in Texas people from all parts
Of the Union; from every nation and every
cline; from nearly every city between the
Atlantic and the Pacific; from Cult to Cult,
md from Minnesota's icy mountains, TO
Floridas coral shore;' and all lmbued with
more or less of those virtues which level for
,sts, make prairles bloom like flower gardens,
md change boundless wastes into tlourishIng
cities and towns.
To say that the scenery of Texas is magnif-
,ently grand and wonderfully beautiful,
would not be dong the thing justice 1t is
simply immense; and nothing in the way OF
omance that the eye could wish Tor or the
leart desire, but can be grahfied here, Og
THE PRAIRIEs
" Texas, William Cullen Bryant said, They
ire the gardens of the desert, the unshorn
ields, boundless and beautiful for which the
peech of England has no name" | must
gree with the poet IN his comparison when
he says the prairies of Illinois are no more to
&c compared to those of Texas, than "pud.
middle" to IN ocean, " 1t is difficult vet
beautiful, to understand the encircling vast
less when one first beholds them They
stretch away in an airy undulation, as lfI
he ocean IN its greatest swell stood still with
Ill its rounded pillows. Clouds in majestic
grandeur now and then sweep over them like
Letting shadows, and 10 the eye, the swelling
surface of this boundless expapse fluctuates
md glides along rs though ii chased the sun.
~ ridges"
Balmy breezes from the sunny south that
Dyed among the palm trees of Mexico, and
hose which kiss the limpid brooks and
streams OF the Pacific coast as well as the
delicious winds that toss the flame like flow.
,rs on the plains, have never famed, in all
heir hayward wanderings, a country more
fascinating and beautiful than
Texas
Nothing can be more charming, more
lovely than this country. 1t is
vast panorama of mountains and streams,
rolling plains and dusky forests, deep valleys
md shady parks, through which sunbeams
stray in cleaning beauty, with an atmosphere
so soft and balmy, that Paradise itself could
give us nothing better. | know of no spot
On the face OF tins broad land, nor place,
more attractive than this. There are perhaps,
In other states and in other lands, more lofty
towering heavenwards, more wild
and ma este streams rushing on TO the ocean,
and sky as blue, and an atmosphere just as
but here eternal spring-tIme
seems TO abide for nearly all the year, and
The country is carpeted with green and gem.
med with blossoms of brilliant hues; many
oil which have never seen outside of Texas
on ms subject OF flowers, IL would require
mlghtler pen than | can WELD 10 do IL jus.
tice. l have seen and admired the flowers of
The Snnny.South, inhaled .he fragrant orange
blossoms OF Florida, and went into ecsiacIes
at The sight Of blossoming Magnolias, Pal
mettos and others, but they seem like apple
blossoms, compared 10 those find in Texas.
No conception can be formed OF their lux.
urisnt brillianey, ard can I.hardly believe
my own eyes, as gCze on the country before
and hflU1I n a. ri