The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-03-11
TIE TEXAS TRUNK LINZ.

In the Texas Trunk Line railroad and are
anxious TO know Of ia prospects and It's sur
roundinga, We consider the road 10 DO In
good and salo hands and on sound basis 1t
Ia a fact pretty generally known that Il was
but recently chartered under the general In
corporation act OF the State, and that
all Of tho operations Of the company
are Of late date. Dr. j. q. Graves
il President Of tho road. lie
ia a capitalist from New England OF large
means, and interested In banking, In In
surance, and in ralroad building. The fact
that he IA president Of tho road gives II
character and standing in tho financial circles
Of the country and is a guarantee that the
road will bc built Connected with Dr.
Graves In this enterprise Of the gentleman
from abroad are ID. Il, Sortwell, President
Of the First National bank Of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, who h also President and
owner Of the Wells River " Montpelier mil-
road In Vermont, and DR.. j. +, Ely, Of Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, gentleman who has had
many years experience 10 raIlroad build
Ing, In which business no has ac-
quirod mems. He is Mt present
In this city and expects shortly his brother
from Ohio who is m extensive manufacturer,
able to command large capital, There is no
question but what the enterprise is in the
hands Of gentlemen who have both money
and energy to build and who are alive to the
importance Of It's speedy construction. They
are practical sensible business men who
know how TO make ono dollar earn another
and they clearly soc that railroad
from Dallas TO that section Of the
State where the long-leaied pine
Is Of such luxuriant growth, and where broad
acres of cypress only await the woodlands
axe, must be a paying road. Having the
means at their command to build the road,
they propose to do it, knowing that it will be
n paying Investment, II Is merely question
of dollars and cents, merely the putting out
of money at interest; merely the providing
Of place Cor idle capital, that it may be
earning something. The ultimate destination
of the rood Is Sabine Pass, and the sooner it
reaches that point, the further
it reaches in that direction, the better will it
DO for It's exchequer. This fact Is appreciated
BY tho directory and stock holders, and,
therefore, they propose to push matters.
Dirt was broken yesterday, and the work on
this grand enterprise has commenced not to
cease until twenty miles are graded, bridged,
tho iron put down and the cars running. We
say not to cease until this is done, because
under the general incorporation act, we
believe five miles must be in
order, and twenty miles
graded to secure al charter privileges. Prac-
tically, the work is not TO cease until the
region of the long-leated pine is reached, and
virtually it is not to cease until the headlights
of the engines are at night time reelected
upon the bounding waves Of the Mexican
gulf at Sabine .Pass. DR.. Graves, the Presi.
dent of the company when he raised the
arst shovel OF dirt said to the party assembled
to witness it Gentlemen, we break ground
for the Texas Trunk Line and turning
the shovel over to General W. L. Cabell,
Vice President of the road, he remarked
General Cabell, command you to contin-
ne this work until you reach Sabine Pass.
Turning to a map of the State and tracing
the proposed route of this road we see that
tho first objective point is Athens, the county
site of Henderson county. 1t will pass
through kaufman, one of the richest coun-
ties in the State, and through Henderson, a
county not so fertile in soil yet splendidly
timbered and watered, and populated by
an industrious and thrifty people. From
Athens the road will take one of two routes,
crossing tho International railroad either at
Palestine. in Anderson county, or at Jack
sonvlle, in Cherokee county. The quality
Of country through which the road will pass
by either of these routes is the same Its ar
able land, easy of cultivation, generous in
its yield of field products, magniicently tim
bered and splendidly watered. From which
ever point at which it may strike
the International road, 1t will
head towards Sabine Pass. Before it
reaches the International road it enters
pine region, but it doe, not begin to pene-
trste the famed long-leafed heart pine coun-
try until after it crosses the International,
and every foot it progresses then the deeper
does it enter that broad sweep Of pine lands,
worth more to Texas than the silver mines of
Colorado are to that State, than the goll
mines of the Pacific slope were to California.
If the road should go by Jacksonville in pref.
erenco to Palestine, it will, in Cherokee
enter the iron belt of the State. There
the iron ore is so abundant that in hundreds
of places 1t crops out on the surface of the
earth, and in the hills at the depth ortwo or
three feet it lays in countless tons. This
iron ore has been tested and is pronounced
by competent judges to be ofthe same quality
as the famous gray ore OF England. The
iron interests of the State are dormant.
49,, .ool .ho touob 80 oo,;ta1