The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-04-02
LIFE IN TEXAS.
Bill Arp in tho Lono Star State.

| IeAaS w udI uo yOu Ihiuh VI
Texas ?" I have been asked that quee
ton hundred times. Forty-ive years
ago when was a merchants clerk, my
fathers clerk, 1 used to watch him at
night while he was posting his books by
the light of a tallow-dipped candle, and
many time have seen him balance an
unfortunate customers account with
three big letters, G. T. T., "Gone to Tex.
as" aud that settled it for good. But ]
am not on collecting expedition now,
I am trying to hold my own with Texas
and not go back poorer than 1 came, but
it is hard work-precarious work. The
obstacles are numerous. At one town
where I was advertised to lecture found
on my arrival that the streets were flood.
ed with posters, viz: "The church will
be open tonight as usual for prayer.
We see that the opera house will be
opened for worldly fun. Choose ye this
day whom ye will serve" Well, I was
the opera house man and so the good
people got alarmed and my house was
much larger than my audience. But
that was all right I reckon, and have
no complaint to make, though am in
clined to think that ii the preacher had
charged half dollar I would have come
out better and done no damage to good
morals or Christianity.
Well, Texas is great State and a great
people occupy it. Everything here is on
big scale. There is more land to the
acre and better land. The country all
along the railroads is one vast farm with
hardly a division fence to mark the vari-
Gus boundaries. In fact, there are no
forests to furnish timber to make fences,
and Just now the farmers are beginning
to use wire-barbed wire. The towns
are full of it and it is stored in ware
houses and you can see it piled up at
every depot. Iron is so cheap that wire
has come down to five and half cents q
pound and will yet be lower. Every
mile or 30 you will see narrow glade OF
low forest growth of pecans or Usage
orange or swamp bushes but not cnoug b
for fuel and not large enough for rails
and so the farmers have to preserve
everything they can, for coal is very dear
and brings eight dollars per ton at all
the dopots. and very poor coal at that.
Lumber is in demand at twenty dollars q
thousand feet, but these people don't
Sc I'm to think anything of high prices.
The farmers don't get high prices for
their products but they make more and
make it easier than anywhere, and as for
hogs and cattle, the whole country is full
of them. 1t seems to be no trouble to
raise them here. Hogs grow larger and
fner but l see no fine native horses or
cows; everything is scrub. The Texas
pony is part of Texas society. The
towns are as full of them as the country.
They are small, tough, wiry animal ,
and can gallop all day in Texas mud.
The drummers tell me they have driven
them sixty miles in day and they are
ready for frolic at the end of the jour.
ney. see no Jersey cattle or other in.
proved stock they will not live here.
One noted breeder from Kentucky
brought out herd and they all died.
Corn, cotton and small grain are empbat-
ically the cultivated products of Texas
soil, and cattle and hogs are incidental
to these. There are no manufactures
worth mentioning. Hardly any -four
mills to grind her wheat. A few cotton
seed oil mills, that pay only 124 cents a
bushel for cotton seed, are making big
money. This is the country for such
mills for the cotton seed are not wanted
for fertiliziog the soil as they are in
Georgia. One embarrassment over man.
ufactures Is the scarcity of fuel and the
high price of coal. Jay Gould has a
monopoly of the coal business. He has
leased the coal fields in the Indian ma
ton and charges his own price. Deni-
son is but GO miles and has to pay eight
dollars ton. Jay Gould's system has
developed much territory here along his
lines, but Jay Gould would kill the goose
to get the golden egg. He is universally
detested in this country, and it is said
that he has provoked the present strike
on purposes 30 as to depress the stoc t
that English owners hold in his lines
and then buy it up for himself. Many
good men are in favor of Governor Ire.
lands declaring his charter forfeited for
a misuse of his privileges and want the
Governor to take charge of the road and
run it. 1t is getting to be serious mat
ter now for the supplies are giving out
the neccessaries of life. The farmers
can't even get seed potatoes to plant, and
they have gvne up to three dollars a
bushel.
There is vast amount of money in
this country. Every little town has it's
national bank. Sherman has only ten
thousand inhabitants and has over a
million of banking capital. Dallas has
five millions and Fort Worth as much
more. Waco has FIVE banks. These
people are rich, and they have made
their money here. ANY prudent man
can make money here if he has some
money to start on. Golden opportuni.
ties are before him all the time for this
country is on boom. The farmer is
sure of fair crop if not an abundant
one. The merchant does not have to
depend on his friends and acquaintances
for customers everybody trades with
anybody and they take no time to run
around and jew for low prices. The
people do not look hacked or impover.
l3uGu UuG SLlI dlOuuO ilf0iJ.
But man who moves here from the
old States has to be very cautious until
he has had time to look around. If he
has little money he had better keep it
low down in bis pocket for few months
or he will get acclimated. By acclima,
ton they mean losing what you brought
with you and getting so reduced that you
can't get away if you wanted to: An
old acquaintance asked me Yesterday if
l had got acclimated and I told him yes
and that had written home for enough h
money to take me back to Georgia.
Happy man." said he, "if you have any
left at home, for but few who come here
leave any behind, and by the time we
acclimate them they are properly humble
and go to work and in year or so are
reconciled to stay"
This region around Denison and Sher-
man is fine country for fruit, and 4
great many people are engaged in raising
it for Kansas City and St. Louis markets.