The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-03-20
CHANGE.
AUSTIN Described BY AN OLD
SETTLER, JUST AFTER
HER FOUNDING.
He Gives 4 Vivid Description of
the Town as He First
Saw 1t.

An old settler, who requests his
name be not used, was asked yeSter-
day how long he had lived in Austin.
why, sir, have always lived herep
was his reply. He then explained
that be came to Austin when it was
nothing but a cluster of log houses.
JUST after the town had been
established. He was therefore inter-
viewed as to the olden times and we
give the substance of what he SAID.
Few who have came to this city with
in the last ten years, can realize the
situation of affairs in the days of the
past when the wild beasts and the saw
age red man held undisputed sway of
the fertile prairies and the impressive
forests of Texas. These were truly
heroic times. Times that tested the
courage of man as well as his power
of phisycal endurance. Society was
UNRESTRAINED.
Indeed, men knew no restraints, ex-
cept what they put upon themselves
mon regard that one man has for an
other. Everything has changed, the
only familiar sight of the early days is
GIlO SOlOIduO, odlu Jul 1AAO1 MANI.
This flows by just the same as it did
the first day l arrived in Austin. The
appearance of the prairies have
changed so much that the typog-
raphy of the landscape hardly
bears resemblance enough to the
olden times to be recognized as the
same. Now it is cut into farms ana
plantations and fenced into pastures.
Then it was
WILD AND BoUNDLEss,
fenced by the great rivers only. Aus
tin in those days existed only in the
imagination-it was a big city only in
the mind. One day went across the
river and stood on the bluff where the
deaf and dumb asylum is situated
and here 1 had birds eye
view of the capital. 1 had been
here but short time-do you know
what said? / was given little in
those days to profanity and when ]
gazed upon this capital of a great re-
| public I said-simply said-h-l
What placel In the course of hu.
man events the new capitol will be
finished and it will be the grand
est in America. What contrast
Austin will present then t.
the capital of the republic as I saw it
that day. Had any one told me
would live here long enough to see
this metomorphiS-and l shall live tt
see the new capitol completed-I would
have looked upol the prediction as {
sort of romancing simply. All there
was of Austin at that time was abou
fifteen or twenty little log houses anC
the most ungainly structures tina
human genious could devise, and thes
were stuck into openings between
Scrubby trees. A man full of poetr,
might say the wild uncouth landscap
was grand-but poets are great liars
1t was the most barren and desolat,
looking spot l ever set my ewes on
The white
BARREN ROCKS GLARED
in the sun like the very projections O
restitution, upon which only
few sickly, dwarfed and gnarle
live oaks sat like death on
ship quarantined with yellow Jacl
had read the glowing description O
the commissioners who selected thi
perfection of desolation for the CAPT
toll of the republic and before 1 cam
to Austin l had my fancy wrough
up to high point of glory. / did no
not think men could lie SO, and as
stood on the bluff that day l said
and no wonder said it-'h-lr TIL
capitol was little wooden structure
there sir is piece of the cedar out o
which it was made" handing tn
STATESMAN representative a piece o
the old building-and the
OTHER BUILDINGS
were just as ungainly, only more So
not to exceed fifteen or twenty, al
told. Such, sir, was the capital O
Texas when 1 first saw it. l made u
my mind to leave right off, but di,
not. | staid, got acquainted with thos
grand old pioneers, and the wild, fire
and easy life they led became fascinat
ing to me, and have lived here eve
since. [ have changed IN,
mind and l have seen tn
wisdom of the commissioners TO
this desolate spot has grown into tn
most charming city in the south, and
fifty years from now, when her street
snail have been graded and paved, AM
lined on either side with shade tree
and sidewalks; when wealth and archi
tectural adornment shall have don
their work of identifying Austin, sh
will then be known as the beautiful
capital She is beautiful now, bu
what Will she be then?"