The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-10-01
A Dalusin,,.

From descriptions we have lately noticed In
the papers, 1t would seem that the advantages
OF Texas and the Elysan surroundings of some
Eastern people who have gone there are not all
what they have been painted, or half what
most OF the woud-be emigrants TO that State
fondly inagine them TO be.-IBoston Herald.
You are right, brother; they are not.
The Eastern tenderfoot has an magma
ton sometimes of vast area, and when
he turns it loose on Texas and uses it as
a substitute for the hard facts, the sta
tisGcs, and reliable information he
woald get if he subscribed to Teas
SittingS, and when he allows it to fill
the prairies of Texas with buffalo, the
rivers with crocodiles, the trees with
cocoa nuts, bananas and goOseberries,
and the cities with desperadoes, he is
liable, when he comes 10 visit us, TO
have some pet illusion of his youth shat
tered, so that he can never use it again.
Among the decisions that the natives
of the Eastern States suffer from, one Of
the most painful is the belief that the
Mexicans and Spaniards, who in large
numbers inhabit San Antonio and
Western Texas, are distinguished and
romantic foreigners, descendants OF
Cortez and Montezuma. They picture
the Mexican as a naagnifco hidatgo sort
of cross between an Archduke and a
Raiah. They get their ideas of his per-
sonal appearance from books and
operas. In the books he is represented
in a crouching aud desperate attitude,
with a mantilla over his left shoulder
! and stilleto in his right hand, waiting
around the corner for the party who
has supplanted him in the affections OF
the fair Senorita Manuela Dolores Car
lota de los tres Palacios, and he looks as
| if he might be a half brother to the
italian brigand, who wears twenty
cent ostrich plume in his hat and lives
in cave On the stage the Spaniard is
the same gaudy. basso-profundo sort Of
Il grandee, only he doesn't wear his
cloak, keeps his dagger concealed
| somewhere about the back of his neck,
and tWangs on a guitar in a melancholy
and dyspeptic key. This embroidered
jacket and acknowledgements sort Of
! Spaniard is what the tenderfoot, who
comes from the East for his health
reckons ON seeing in San antonio and
| Austin, and he expects TO IND HIM pos
inc in dramatic attitudes at the street
corners and in the amphitheatre where
the bull fights are conducted. But he
does not see him, for the lasC Of that
brand of Mexican left Texas manyyeaT
ago.
This is what he does see-Senor jose
Maria de Todos los Santos NiRgunC
el Hijo dc un Fusil- representative
Texas Mexican, resting himself by sit
ting on his heels, who does this moro
COZ comfort than effect. and whose gar
rnents are more ragged than picturesque
"a lazy greaser. who makes misera
ole living by peddling tamales and chit
con carne during the day. and by steal.
ing stove wood at night
Then the searcher after health amC
the picturesque files away an illusion
that he has carried about with him fol
probably more than a quarter of cen
fury. He then writes letter TO NJ
Eastern paper, in whic; he states thai
the "Elysian surroundings and things
in Texas, are not exactly what they haC
| 1cen tainted. - TcrGS SsjiRGS.