New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-05-31
TEXAS AS 1T is.
VII.
IN THE COTTON COUNTRY.

REGION-CENTRAL 1EAAS As A fltLp fNN
NORTHERN NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. AND
POLITICAL DRAWBACKS.
uRowA SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRBUSEl
WACO. Texas.-Mv route from Austin was 10y the
International and Great Northern Railroad to
Hearne and thence by the Texas Central and what
is called the Waco Tap "a branch road is expressivey
termed u tap in Texas to this place. The ]. and
g. Y. Is the product of the consolidation of two
roads-the International which traverses the State
diaConaly from Longview the Texas Paclhc
near Marshall to Austin, and the Great Northern,
which reaches ont a long arm from Palestine down
to Houston. The original plan OF the
International was to run clear across to the Rio
Grande and connect at Laredo with line to the
City of Mexico thus justifying its name and open
ing communication with the heart of the sister Re-
public: but the hard times came and stopped the
enterprise before it was half achieved. There is
talk of pushing the road on to San Antonio this
year, distance from Austin of about eighty miles;
but it viii be long time before it will be built TO
the Rio Grande. Sooner or later, however, IL will
be completed and it VIII then be what its enterprs
ing projectors were ambitious to make it-a line of
great commercial and military importance. The
road was built with capital furnished princi-
pally by three prominent citizens of New
York, William Walter Phelps, Marshall O.
Roberts and William Z. Dodge. If they have
received no return for the heavy sums
they invested in il, they have the salts
faction Of knowing that they have done work Of
incalculable value toward the development Of
Texas. Unfortunately for the prosperity Of the
road it traverscs region that consists for the most
part of pine barrens and scrub-Oak forests, where
the soil is too thin TO pay for clearing and culi-
waiting. Lumber is almost the only local freight
the country Affords but the opening of the pneries
by the railroad has been of great benefit to al the
plain region of the State HARVEST as San Antonio
by supplying. at reasonable prices this article Of
prime necessity In the settlement of new country.
FROM AUSTIN TO WACO.
For the first hours ride from Austin the country is
fertile and well settled then great stretch Of
prairie on which two or three raw little villages are
struggling into lfe further eastward there is little
besides scrubby forests, with here and there
a forlOrn clearing. Along tine valleys of
the streams unseen from the railroad, there
is some good cotton land lying in streaks in
the forest and this Is no doubt what supports the
towns of Taylor and ROckdale, which for all one
can see passing have sufficient cause for their
evident prosperity. At Hearne the International
crosses the Central Road. To tell the plain truth
about Hearne 1t is deestable place. The business
streets are full of hog-wallOw and rubbish, and
lined by wretched wooden shanties, and there is but
a single house which the eye rests with the
slightest pleasure. ragged, stunted forest closes
in on all sides, so that cannot turn TO the land
scape for relief from the ugliness OF the
roundmgs Of mean little buildings, dirty streets and
railroad workshops. The town lives on the railroad
and on the trade of the negroes who inhabt the big
plantations on the Brazos bottoms a few miles
away. Going nOrthward on the Central one passes
Calvert clean, bright town of perhaps $500
Inhabitants and comes into fertile region of
rolling prairies with deep black soil which extends
for 200 miles TO the northern border of the State.
This black belt has a breadth of about hundred
miles and is much the finest portion of Texas. 1t
Is the best cotton country in the whole South. Here
the planter, without spending dollar for ferti-
lizers, can realize. year after year. the Southern
farmers beau ideal of bale to the acre. The stalk
grows taller and larger than have seen anywhere
else save in the Mississippi bottoms, and the yield is
so large that the picking is done very careessy the
last bos that open not being picked at all. The fields
are still lecked with lint and look as If snow-akes
had fallen on them, although the last picking was
finished nearly two months ago. On the poorer lands
of the old Cotton States never sees such waste
fulness the fields are gone over as long as bag
can be filed from the late-cpenmg bolls There
every pound is precious; here hundreds of pounds
are ploughed under without thought of their
value.
Along the Waco Tap, which runs northwestward
forty-fve miles from BremOnd, the country is mag
nifcent. Part is rolling prairie with occasional
patches of oak forest and part IS level bottom land
lying along the BrazOs River Although it Is not
new country in the Texas sense of newness it is
very thinly settled, and little cabins of Imprinted
boards give frequent proofs of recent accessons to
the farming population. The immigrant has great
advantage here in not needing much OF
house to begin with The Winter climate is
so mild that any sort Of a structure thick enough
to keep out wind and rain fulfls the absolute ne
cessities Of a dwelling; indeed, some people
manage with tent for the first year. Snow is sell
dom seen. and water rarely freezes oftener than
three or four times in the of the Winter More
protection is really needed from the heat in sum
lner than from the cold in Winter and the wonder
is how the people stand six months brOiingn these
little pine boxes set out in the bare fields Rarely
DO the farm-hOuses have a particle of shade.
house with young trees growing near by, a bit of
door yard and vegetable garden, is a rarity, and is
pretty sure to belong to a Northern settler The
Southern farmer does not enough for trult and
vegetables to 90 TO the trouble of raising them he
lives on corn bread aud bacon, and MS whole
thought is to raise as much cotton as possible.
THE ATHENS OF TEXAS"
II is little disappointing to come to Waco eX-
pectlng 10 hnd nOnJer Town anu oe sou uo"H III
a busy little city of 1900 inhabitants, provided
with churches schools, daily papers and substan-
tial brick blocks and bearing few signs of youth
fitness. save in activity and ambition. The place
is a great cotton mart and depot of supplies for
hundred miles stretch of sparsely settled country,
1t was place of importance at an early day, beng
on the overland trail 70 San Antonio and Mexico,
and having a river navi gable portion of the year.
but il was not until the railroads were opened
about four years ago that it began to put on city
airs Now 1t Is called the metropolis of Central
Texas. and aspIres TO great things IN the future.
think il has nearly got its growth, however. The
ferior towns of about $1,000 inhabitants
at long intervals in the South, but they