The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-03-27
Austin Needs.

IN a few years with one OF the nneSC
state houses in the country; seat OF
q state university backed by the reve-
nues of over two million acres of
land; as city of fine churches and
advantages for all classes
of the people; with the healthy acces-
series of a genial climate, "a few
northers excepted) and an elevation
that should command the most thor
ough drainage; with residence sites
to suit the most fastidious and even
romantic taste; with already a num-
Der of lordly mansions; with her
grand asylums for the homeless and
helpless; with enterprising merchants |
doing a successful business in almost
every branch of the trade; some
of them even of metropolitan
pretensions; with ice houses, and mills
and mill facilities; with gas works and
electric lights, to fling a noontide
splendor over the city; with artists,
teachers, doctors and lawyers OF high
reputation; with the refined society OF
beautiful and accomplished ladies',
whose bright eyes rain benignant in
fluence in so many of the enterprises
of life; with surrounding OF lovely
landscape, from prairie to river, from
Mount Bonnell to the Happy Valley
that lies like garden of Eden, in fer
tility and loneliness, on the Colo ado:
with the SURPRISING beauty OF Bar
tons Springs, near by, to charm the
visitor; with river that might be
made to afford an abundant supply OF
water and water power for so many
purposes; with rich prairies stretching
away to the northward; with high ia
BILE lands overlooking US from the
south; with gently undulated
sections, creek cut plateauX
and lightly timbered lands to the east
of US; with hills rising almost to
mountains to the west and northwest,
which may some day be utilized to
some purpose by engineering; with in
fine a general picturesqueness, and
variety of capabilities, that should and
does attract the attention of enterpriS-
ing capitalists and lures the immi-
grant to seek genial home for his
family, and is marvel of wonder to
our northern visitors especially; with
these and other advantages which
might be named, Austin is indeed
city of great possibilities, even in the
near future if her people will only
wake up from the Rip Van Wrinkle
sleep in which they have too long
slumbered, scratch Ichabod from their
crests and write Excelsior on their
crowns.
This is no mere fancy sketch; and
with such advantages Austin should
long ago have been a city Of twenty
or thirty thousand souls. Her people,
as class, are noted for Individual
success. Nearly any industrious per-
son here earns living without any
"crlnging genutlections that thrift
may follow fawning" She has but
few dependents and her absolute
paupers can be counted on the fingers
"a few dozen at most. Even the
negroes here are unusually thrifty.
Age. sickness, decrepitude and lazi
ness are all that prevents men from
making fair livelihood; and to the
credit of the city it can be truly said
that laziness is not prevailing weak
ness either in the immediate city or
in the country which affects its popu-
lation more or less in the
blending of social relations. Still
Austin is lacking in great
many of the essentials of metropoli-
tan success. She has but one street
railroad for instance, when she should
have two or three, and when the cap
itol is finished might buy the syndi-
cate track for one of them. She is
woefully deficient in street improve
ments, and if her muddy streets could
not be paved they might at
least have brick or plank sidewalks,
such as even small towns afford every
where else in the state. And trees
should be planted on the streets, and
property holders encouraged to do it,
or If necessary it should be done by
limited annual appropriations by the
city and one street improved after
another till all are finished in the
main portion, and then in the suburbs.
A hundred thousand dollars has prob
ably been expended in misdirected
work on the streets of Austin without
anything to show for it, and the
citizens are to blame for not improv-
ing the streets more than they do to
make their premises and the city, as a
city, more attractive, and their prop
erty, as a consequence, more valuable.
Selfish satisfaction at their personal |
success in business makes them lose
sight of what contributes to the gen.
eral good ; and it is this that keeps the
city from flourishing as it should. To
make money is commendable, but it |
is far more so to invest it, or some of |
it at least, in some improvements out
side of selfish considerations, especi-
ally in manufacturing industries.
which bring business, population and
prestige to city, and attract capital
lists from abroad to undertake new
enterprises. Having the capital at
Austin caused the asylums,
state university and other IN
to be located here.
Fine mansions like those of the Dris-
kills attract others to build in the
same section of the city, and this i'm
proves the value of building lots. Lo-
eating mandatory brings the lots
around it into demand, and large en-
terprises indeed impart a sensibly in
value to city property gener-
ally. Street railroads improve and
build up localities to which they ex-
tend in the same way other railroads ,
open up the country and spring up I
towns all over the state.
The people of Austin, the council {
specially, need 10 wake up and study .
he situation and necessities of Aus :
in. Officials particularly should Z
study these matters, and the people
With them, just as they study to &C I
luire good education or to succeed