The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-01-13
TEXAS NEWS.


and popular commotions are most fire.
quent occupy much larger space in the
pages of history than those when the
National prosperity is greatest. So, too,
in the news which reaches us from the
border States. Those acts of lawlessness
which furnish sensations to the news
papers of the country occupy much
greater place in the daily bulletins than
the quiet triumphs of labor, pluck, and
industry and energy that go to convert
the wilderness and the solitude into the
attractive houses and cultivated villages
of prosperous communities.
For example, our Texas dispatches for
months past come almost daily with an
account of the hanging of a horse
thief by mob, the shooting OF one
gambler by another, the outrage or
murder of some citizen at some
remote ranch, and SO on indefinitely,
with scarcely variation except as to
locality or a choice of the weapon used
Now a murder or lynching will do
well enough for headline now and
then as a sensation, but we want our
readers to understand that, notwith-
standing these accounts of lawlessness,
Texas is great State, greater than any
two or even ten of the older States of
the Union, its laws are wise and just,
and as fully protective of the rights of
its citizens as those Of any in the United
States. In most Of the cities and towns
stringent local option laws as to the
sales Of liquors exist and can at any
time be enforced at the will of the
inhabitants; its Sunday laws are as
pronounced and stringent as those in
Connecticut and Maryland and its citi-
zens are as law-abiding. But Texas with
her 274,000 square miles of territory and
a population not probably exceeding a
million andia half, has wide reaches of
unoccupied land, scattered villages and
isolated ranches. Mexican greasers and
vagabond Indians infect its southwestern
border, and the riff raft of frontier life
floats frequently from the Western Ter
ritories into the ragged edge Of its ad-
vancing settlements. 1t is Of
course natural that murders and
murderous affairs should occasionally
occur, but it is absurd to suppose
that nothing else occurs but horse steal
ing, highway robbery, murders and
lynchings in so wide an expense of
country. In the interest of newspaper
publishers and newspaper readers gener-
ally, we take the liberty of saying that
we should like more effort to supply
news that will give better idea Of the
resources, Improvements, population,
schools, mineralogy, geology, soil and
other information such as is desired by
the thousands of farmers and mechanics
who are emigrating to that great State in
yearly increasing numbers.
In 1865, or at the close Of the war,
there were but six railroads in Texas
with only $50 miles in actual operation.
Now, there are 26 different lines, 20 stan
dard and 6 narrow-gauge, with 1856
miles of road running in the State, and
the contract has been signed at Phila-
delphia for the immediate completion of
the Texas Pacific line from Fort Worth
westward to connect with the road build
ing eastward from Santiago, California.
We should like the news gatherers of
Texas to give us news of matters
such as these. Emigrants both
foreign and domestic are pouring into
the State in constantly increasing
numbers. We should gladly publish the
actual statistics. The cotton crops of
Texas, according to estimates founded
upon the number of bales actually car
ried by the railways and transportation
companies of the State, amounted last
year to 951 ,093 bales, or a value at $40
per bale Of $38, ,O43,7 ,72O. We should like