The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-08-03
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A De1nqien

from descriptions we have lately noticea In
the papers, it would seem that the advantages
OF Texas aud the EiySian surroundings of some
Eastern people who have gone there are not all
Whht tney have been painted, or half what
most OF the would-be eTnigrants to that State
fondiy Imagine them to be.-LBoston Herald.
You are right, brother; they are not
The Eastern tende1foot has an magma
ton sometimes of vast area, and when
he turns it loose on Texas and uses it as
substitute for the hard facts, the sta
tistics, and reliable information he
would get if he subscribed to TeTaS
SJtings, 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 to visit us, to
nave 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 nlagaifco hiaalgo SOFT
Of cross between an Archduke and o
Raiah. They get their ideas of his per-
sonal appearance from books and
operas. In the books he is represented
in crodching and desperate attitude,
with 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 a twenty
cent ostrich plume in his hat and lives
in a cave. On the stage the Spaniard is
the same gaudy, basso-profundo sort of
a grandee, only he doesn't wear his
cloak, keeps his dagger concealed
somewhere about the back of his neck,
and tWangs on guitar in a melancholy
and dyspeptic key. This embroidered
jacket and buttOned-up-the-side sort Of
Spaniard is what the tenderfoOt, who
comes from the East for his health,
lONhOlio vi NtClli9 III A2tlll LAlllOHlO anu
Austin, and he expects to find him pos
ing 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 las5 Of that
brand of Mexican left Texas many years
ago.
This is what he does see-Senor Jose
Maria de Todos los Santos Ninguno
ell Hijo de I'm Fusil-a representative
Texas Mexican, resting himself by sit
ting on his heels, who does this more
tor comfort than effect, and whose gar
ments are more ragged than picturesque
"a lazy greaser, who makes misera-
ole living by peddling tanales and chill
con ca5He during the day, and by steal
ing stove wood at night
Then the searcher after health and
the picturesque files away an illusion
that he has carried about with him foI
probably more than quarter of cen,
| fury. He then writes letter to ar
Eastern paper, in which he states that
the ''Elysian surroundings" and things
in Texas, are not exactly what they haC
been painted. -TcraS SUlings