Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-12-24
OUR AUSTIN LETTER.
Rise and Progress Of the Fence-Cn'u"s
Mania in Texas.
co0st,tut,onality of the Fifty-Ccnt Law
Problems of the Future.
A Tale of Tewksbury-Col. Britton ah'
his Ncgro.Skin Gripsack'
Robemiaus in the State Insane Asylum
-Idiotic Instinct.

special correspondence oftho Gazette
Austin, December 25,-oeveihi
ago, as special reporter ior Vie
q AzI-rrE, | visited the section III
Northwest Texas where ience,out.ins
had it's inception, and gave to the pun
lie the first detailed account Oh the
outrages. their causes and prospective
results. Professedly staid and SOBER
Journals pronounced that report sef'sa-
tional, and scoiled at the iuea Oh Or
ganI2,d lawlessness.whi threatened
10 oyerrun the state. They could not
unde stand the terrible power OF sociai
malaria, and soothed themselves anu
readers with the severest CEN
sures for imaginative re-
ports. Others who told OF
peace and harmony that prevailed
among the people, and attributed the
evil then i'm embryo to an insignih-
cant class ,fore,elling itsispeedy demise,
were accredited and the matter
dropned as unworthy of special notice
The developments wrought within
the last five months fully justify every
prediction which journalistic critics,
Voluntarily blind, so caustically, de,
nounced as sensationalism. In blood
and devastation that letter has been
vindicated; for every word IL CON
tanned "A mile of fence has been de-
stroyed, onG the injury to properly
values and interests of the state has
reached far beyond the limit of that
estimate. Those who thus refused to
entertain the possibility OF fence
cutting resulting in great social aSi-
taticn, NAV be reckoned to-day ms the
indirect medium of its perpetuatlon.
Had all good people and the press
united in denouncing fence-cuttlng at
its commencement, it would have
been indeed most arrant folly to write
as / wrote then. But unfortunately
the danger wal toyed and tondled,
represented as chimera Of sensational,
journalism, and tolerated, if not
condoned as protest against indiNid-
ual injustice. Instead of recognizing
in it the elements of social cyclone,
critics whose own inertness can never
appreciate activity, whether criminal
or commercial, adjudged it Il passing
breeze, revengeful impulse in Isolated
cases, and not at all infectious. These
same carping critics are to day AN OBJ
stacle in the settlement of the question.
They persistently refuse to understand
it, and erring again in their diagno SIS
OF the case, would repeat their deleter-
ious dose to the patient by fixing the
responsibility incorrectly, and in di-
verse other ways. Fence-cutting is
but the effect of II popular passion UNI
checked; like some ravaging disease.
slight precaution might have stayed
its inroads, but apathetic treatment
merely invited its progress. If the
great accountant of fate were but in
duced to reveal the page where deep
dyed entries tell the history of a state
disgraced upon the debit side, OBJ
scured by the shade of shame, these
mighty liabilities would he ascribed to
misdirected public sentiment.
TALK ABOUT TALK.
The era of destruction has developsd
ses,ing at least the merit OF novelty
One which owns it's paternity in Il
gentleman whose position has caused
him to give the subject much consider
alton, SO startled me that / mention il
as an evidence of what radical thoughts
engage the peoples minds. Said he:
"The whole policy of landowner
ship is wrong. The title to every acre
should be vested in the state, anG
leased by it to its citizens
Thus monopoly of the sol
by individuals would lie made
impossible, and the poorest could OBJ
tain all the land they could utilize"
veutured to suggest that such ;
system would unsettle society and give
| ir n trausitory character
| "Not SOL said he, 81 would least
the land for term as long as one coult
| desire aud permit no competitive ap
plications. Only there should be Il re
striction of the amount which any ont
person might control. This woulC
break up mouopolies, give everybod,
an equal chance to make n living an,
do away with taXation."
/ must confess that the mere PROPOSE
ton to upset all existing ideas will
regard to individual rights quite con
fused and noDplussed me. What ar
we coming to- anyway? There seem
TO be more than one shortcut opening
up TO land monopoly in Texas.
a CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION.
The GAZETTE unearthed the formi
dable array of opinion against tn
constitutionality of what is popularl.
termed the "iifty-cent law,n undo
which the public lands were PLACED
upon the market by the Legislature
Whatever be the merits of the case
there is no doubt that the suprem
court will have nice question Of di.
tlnctions to decide, and the publ
must content itself Us patiently as pos
sible upon the rack of anxiety unit
that decision Is rendered IL woul
seem quite enough that the contrc
of Texas lands was in dispute, but {
unsettle their ownership Is to aggrt
vate matters TO an extent almost III
endurable. However, it Is always bes
To come to Il prompt understanding n
To what Is involved in questio
affecting the public veal Such
policy might have prevented Il vas
deal of trouble in the fence-cuttin
business. IL the act providing for tn
. sale of public lands is unconstitutiona
I then the sales of all school lands sine
! 1876 has been unconstitutional, Thos
! who are firmest In contendin
4 for the constitutionality {
, the first, concede this. TIL
a very question, or one closely related /
= 1t, was recently decided IN the 81
!. preme court, and ii raled that schon
lands We're included in the term "put
: lie lands" thus leaving no doubt o
this score. A pretty Kettle of fish
0 thus presented for the appetites q
r landowners in Texas. Its perhap
: n fair assumption 10 say that one-hal
! Of them hold titles given by the stat
= since 1876. TO narrow down thei
: acreage 10 $50 acres would be
! step so overwhelming tina
, many would abandon all upo
RI i'Nnitise Ma l.,rfra1 ~
aiAly auics AZ Texas Is u Nu,y snu.,
plot no ambitious gentleman woul
deslgnate less for his private cemetery