San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1885-04-30
The Court House Yard.

We meant 10 have resumed this subject In
our last, but had neither time nor space
Our former article was, perhaps, rather
strongly put, In defence Of which We Will
observe that great moral and religious re-
formers aud agitat0rs, such as the fhKk
Pass aud Rev. DIR. Talmage, hnd II sxpedi-
ent to adopt somewhat hyperboiie style
IN order to attract attention. Our use OF
the term "job" appears to be disiasteful to
some Of our county officials. We will there
fore withdraw II, and SEQ how much the ease
is changed thereby. One thing Is certain
the court house yard remains In shameful
condition through somebody's delinquency OF
duty. And ii Is extremely odd that such Is
tho fact. Bear Ia mind that We are not ar
guing in favor of any elaborate or expensive
laying ont OF the grounds, but simply clearing
of the stones, brush and other rubbish, filling
upIthe gullios, spading up the earth around the
trees aud shrubbery, extending and grayeling
the walks thro' the grounds taken in by the
new fence in short, only what any common
private citizen would feel ashamed OF him
self IL he did not do with respect to his own
grounds about his dwelling. Now, why was
this not done? There has been no difficulty
in doing other things involving from ten to a
hundred times the expense, and this, too,
without hesitation, delay, or even adver-
Using for bidders. Take the new court
house fence, for instance. This was sprung
upon the people at the very first meeting OF
the now Board of Commissioners, ostensibly
convened merely to wind up old business
There was no trouble at oil in committing
the commissioners TO this at once. The
fence was nesded, and wo have nothing to
object, only that the job ought to have been
regularly let. But we dare affirm, and feel
sure that the public generally will sustain US
in the assertion, that the matter of putting
the grounds in order was much more urgent
and really more important than the fence it.
self. The old fence made more respecta-
BILE appearance than the grounds, and now
the contrast makes them look vastly
worse. 1t suggests the scriptural quotation
about making clean the outside Of the plat
ter, etc., or (as we have before suggested),
DR.. Holmes comparison about "hedge hogs
dressed in lace" The object of the fence,
we take it, is to protect the grounds, and
if everything there is allowed to run to chaos,
a fine fence is superauous and burlesque.
We repeat, the wonder with everybody
must be, that while there was no difficulty in
finding other objects of far greater expendi-
ture this most obvious need was overlooked
or held to be unattainable. Search for SUBJ
jects of improvement was oven extended to
the roof of the court house! We would
humbly suggest that our county COM
misBioners might have found in the
matter we have pointed out, something which
really needed attention, without soaring so
high, only to be rewarded by the discovery
of huge ''mare's nest"
We leg leave to suggest, in conclu-
sion, If our county and town authorities
feel themselves unequal to the task
of putting in order the court house grounds
as we have indicated, that they turn
the matter over to a committee of ladies of
our town, who, we have no doubt, would
soon have the work completed in good style.