The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-04-24
BILL ARP IN TEXAS.
What The Georgia PHILOSOPHERS Says
ofthe Lone Star state


fthe Lone Star state
Cor. Atlanta Constitution,
l said that I saw no pleasant inviting
homes in middle Texas, no white houses
with green blinds and broad veranda
with vines running up the telIaces and
'evergreens in their yard. l never saw
more attractive homes than they have in
the towns and suburbs. They have SPLEEN
did court houses and jails and public
school buildinge, much finer and costlier
than any in>Georgia. These Texans do
what they do in a grand style. They
are well up with all the advances Of
modern times. find the telephone eve
ry where and it is used much more than
the telegraph-one can go to the tele-
phone in his hotel in any part of the
town and converse with any other town
100 miles away. There are ten times
as many telephones in Texas as in Geo
gia. A friend of mine while in Gains
vile talked to his family in Sherman
and then to his agents in Waco and Dali
las. He is in the lumber business, and
when man in Denison enquired by
telephone what he would sell him two
carloads of shingles for. he Immediately
telephoned a single man at Texarkana
and got his reply, and then answered the
/ Denison man, and said he mede S45 by
| the transaction. The telephone is hurt
ing the telegraph badly. 1t is hurting
the street cars, too. A man used to get
on the cars and ride a half mile to see a
man, but he don't now. There ale 240
telephones in Sherman and more in Dali
las, and as many in GAINESVILLE, They
are everywhere in this country and all
the towns are tied together by it.
Now I am here in Denison, in north
ern Texas, and find this much better
country for advance agriculture and
horticulture. Inever saw any orchards
south of Fort Worth, but these regions
are full of them. They make fruit a
speciality and it is lucrative occupa-
ton. Vineyards, and orchards, and large
areas of strawberries and other small
fruits may be seen all around the city.
1t is not prairie country like middle Tex
as, but is gently undulating and has a
rich. deep soil that needs no fertilizer.
But tire is one thing lacking here, and
that is manufactures. There are nosteam
whistles except on the locomotives.
There is nothing done in Texas except
farming and cattle raising and merchan-
disc. This is a fine field for the manu-
facturer to occupy. Train load aftertrain
loaded with wheat goes north and pass
es Just as many trains coming back with
flour But they don't care-money is
plenty and it goes free and easy. When
l smoked a cigar in Georgia I was
ashamed to pay more than a nickle foI
one but you can't find a nickel cigar
here. They are 10 cents or three for q
cents, and it is the same way with
everything. Lumber is SIS per 100
They used to weather board their hous
es with rawhides but they don't now.
Texas is cosmopolitan. People from
every land are here, but the native Tex
an prevails and rules. An immigrant
, has to live here for years before they
will trust them. used to hear that oul
boys would come back to Georgia i
l they could, but they don't talk that way
i to me. They love to talk about ole
=, Georgia but they don't want to go back
An old settler told me thai for a long
time they used to skin our boys whel
I they came and swindle them out o
: what they brought here, and that KEEP
r them from going back for they had moth
a ing to go back on, and SO they went t,
l work and after a while got reconciled.