The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1885-06-18
The River Of Texas.

The Texas rivers have been on
another bender. Fences, crops,
bridges, &C., have been swept away
by the besom Of destruction, so to
speak.
The Texas river Is an iustituti on
that Is peculiarly Texan. In the
Southern portion OF the State many
Of the rivers and strea ms manage to
get along during the 50 miner with
very little water. Near Ell Paso 1t
has frequently occurred that the ma
tives have had to dig wells, In the
dry beds OF the Rio drande, In order
to get drinking water. For many
miles the river bed was as dry as
two volumes Of the Congressional
Record.
The writer has crossed the Nueces
River without knowing II. The dust
was 80 thick that he did not perceive
that the road crossed the dry bed Of
the river. It must not be under
stood that, like Dan McGary, OF the
Houston Age, the Texas river is al
ways dry. About two hours after
crossed the Nueces river without
knowing it, tidal wave six feet high
came rolling down that river had
risen thirty feet, and before twenty.
four hours had passed away the riv-
er in some places was upwards Of
three miles wide, and at the place
where stirred up the dust the rag
ing waters were deep enough to
feat the Great Eastern.
The Cibolo Is q creek, between
Austin and San Antonio, that for
many miles runs almost altogether
under ground. It consists OF sue
cessien Of pools, The water sinks
out Of sight and reappears q mile or
30 distant. The banks OF the Cibolo
are quite steep, and In some places
are forty or f fly feet. which makes
it very difficult for wagons to cross,
particularly in wet weather.
The difficulty Of crossing the Cibolo
with q loaded wagon when the roads
are muddy has almost passed into a
proverb. When the idea Of building
railroad from the coast to San
Antonio was first broached, an old
lady living on Cibolo Greek sneered
at the idea. Not having ever seen q
railroad herself, her ideas on the
subject were very crude. She imag-
ined that there would be insur-
mountable engineering difficulties
In the way, for she exolaimed;--
"Build q roilroad to San Antonio
It can't bc did. How can they get
across the Cibolo, rertickerlary
when the roads are muddy?"
The engineers, however, were
able, to build q bridge across the
Cibolo, and now, even when the mud
is q foot deep all over the country
the trains cross the Cibolo.
The San Antonio, Comal, San
Marcos, Gaudaloupe, Brazos and
Sabine rivers do not become actual
ly dry, but In summer they, like the
Republican majority in many States
dwindlo away to almost nothing
At such seasons q little nigger can
wade across them without being
obliged to divest himself Of his low
er garmen's. All he has to do ID ia
roll them up. The statement that
water gets SO shallow that the cat
fish have to stand on their heads
and. fan themselves with their tails
to keep cool, Is exaggerated little
The habit the Texas rivers have
OF rising sixty feet In twenty -four
hours makes the building Of rail-
roads very expensive In Texas. The
brid ges pYer the apparently most
Insignificant streams hRye to- b.
made very high an OF tina mos
durable material.
When stranger sees sn immense
bridge over q small stream. he IL In.
clined to suggest that the people
sell the bridges and buy some watel
to put In the creek, but after therl
has been rise It would be more ap.
propriate to sell some water to buy
a new bridge,-Texas Siftings.