San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1881-06-16
Eli Perkins on Texas.
[Eli Perkins letter in tilobe'prmocrat. ]

coming into the state TO build rail'
roads, with 10000 fresh laborers en-
gagged on new tracks, with ten miles
of new railroad being completed every
day, and with the ground loaded
with splendid crops from Denison to
the Rio Grandef s.e'l 20 -fi 1
Four roads are building over u
mile day each. 1 refer to the
l. Corpus Christi, San Diego and
Rio Grande, which is Palmer u Sui
livan's Marrow Gaage outlet from
Laredo to the Gulf of Mexico. .i
2. The Texas and St Louis Mar
row Guage, which is the Southern
link to connect Cairo, ILL.,. with Lare-
do. This road is now finished from
Texarkana to within q few miles OF
Waco, in tho center of the State. Six
hundred men are at work between
TeXarkana and Cairo, and within
eighteen months the Southern end
will land in Laredo to connect the
Palmer-Sullivan system with st. Lou
is. From Cairo you have the st. L..
and Cape Short Line, now running,
land the same system, under thename
Of the Toledo. st. Louis and Western,
lis finished from Toledo to Kokomo,
Ind, and 1000 men at work between
Kokomo anG st. Lcuis. This narrow
guage system will be an actual fact
from Toledo to st. Louis, to Cairo,
from Cairo to laredo, and from La
redo to the City of Mexico and Ma
zatiun, on the Pacific Ocean, within
two years. The Palmer-Sullivan peo-
plo have 10000 men engaged Oh it
in Mexico, and when the system is
! finished there it's only outlet into the
United States is by Laredo, Cairo and
st. Louis. cy dT
3. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa
Fe is already running from Calves
ton to Waco, and building over mile
y day towards Fort Worth. This
road is Galveston road, owned by
Galveston men, bonds worth 11S, and
it will build straight through to San
ta Fe, N. NJ. Tn. line from Waco to
Fort Worth, which will be finished
this fell, IS only y branch. 1t runs all
the way from Galveston, through the
finest country on earth. You can sit
in the cars as you come up along the
Brazor River, and count the al!igators
in the river, see the trees loaded with
Spanish mass, and see the black, fat
prairie covered with corn and cotton.
4. The Texas d; Pacific, which you
know all about and which is marching
right on to III Paso at the rate OF u
miie day. t.'a
Steel rails for all the roads in Tex
as, OF n any of them, are being landed
from England at Galveston and Cor
pus Cnrlsti. The Palmer-Sullivan
Company are getting theirs at Corpus
Christi, from which place they are run
up to Laredo and over into Mexico.
These steel rails; 1 am told costabout
Sl5, including freight and duty. OF
course, when going into Mexico no
duty is required. They go through
Texas in bond. The wharves at
Galveston are loaded with steel rails.
There are acres of them piled as high
as your head. For return freight to
England the ship takes cattle, oil cake,
cotton and cotton seed oil. In many
instances the steel rails are taken in
small steamboats, or barges fifty miles
north to Houston, which like Phila-
delphia, is ali inland port. Houston
is one of the most tlousishing and
weaithiest cities in Texas. That city
is the mother Of almost al the great
railroads in Texas. The great Hous
ton & Texas Central was born and is
now owned in Houston.
Six years ago found people irri-
eating west OF San Antonio. They
pointed to the irrigating canals built
by the Spaniards 130 years ago, and
said, awe have to-" Now lind the
country from Austin to San Antonio
lolded with splendid crops without
irrigation. Tue>great German set
tlement about New Braunfs!s cont ils
many vineyards The gnpes a-e
fine, large, and lucious. L at spicn-
did ripe peaches n week ago ont OF
Banker Dockwood's orchard in San
antonio. raised without irrigation.
believe the rain belt has gone
west 10 the 100th parallel, which is
on the Rio Grande, and that whole
grazing country west Of San Antonio.
will soon be fenced up in into farms.
Certainly never saw crops more
GouriaL:ng Than they are around San
Antonio this yoIr. The oat crop will
be phenomenal, There are many
feds which viii pro1uce over l0J
BUSHELS per acre.
There are records bore whore one
hundred and twenty five bushels Of
oats have been produced t. the acre.
You my look upon ta.s - What the
newspaparscill an '-5.i Perkins story,
bat. Ike many Of L.s stories. tlougnt
to be a little steep al first Jnvestiga
iion generally veresss taem- In fact
In perl.us dat h.rs lin q write
an Cd stereotype csst-irOn iotser OF
plaGtuies Issolly tweniy I've bash
- 81 oats O. tae acre, trees t,Hriy-
I've feet IN d.a.sster. gzs wells sPErt-
.ny fsvcus- two feet II The ar, aad
l.ga;.1sg Ilke . PlrDetuI oaHnca- Ct a
safe b.Eldl1.g three tlCusan1 --li.os
q railroads. iisai vs-sll sake yJur In
&c Il up enoagH % -y-sis . letter
I: Is Texas mas sizl-a .zzn p ti-ss
tine.