San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-06-02
he SINGS OUR PRAISE.
The Overton Sharp Shooter Full of San
Antonio Inspiration-Turnsh his Mighty
Quill Loose in a Most Flater-
ing Manner.
From the Overton Sharp Shooter.
sAN ANTONIO.


The Alamo city may truly be styled
the garden spot Of Texas. Twenty-Five
years ago we first visited this city.
Then 1t was little more than collection
OF novels; the howl Of t he cayote and
the whoop Of the Comsnche could be
heard almost in the Main plaza. The
brawny Mexican and historic COW boy,
held high carnival in all the public
places. Murder. robbery, rape and vii
liany were of nightly and almost hourly
occurrence. The adobe house, the Mex
lean cart, and the walking arsenal
met the gaze on every side. The beau
tiful river wound its course through
the ugly, filthy, uncouth streets,
and was spanned by few old
rickety wooden bridges, and peacea-
BILE man, not to mention decent lady
dreaded to walk the rough cObblestone
muddy streets in day time, let alone at
night. But twenty-five years have
passed, the magic wand of civilization
has touched the city and "presto
change" has been pronounced. Where
stood the old adoba huts, magnificent
iron, stone and brick buildings are TO be
seen. Instead Of the yell Of the Com
manche, you hear the scream Of the To-
connective all around the city. Where
the unsightly Mexican cart met the
gaze, you now see the beautiful and
convenient street cars with their
sleek, fat mules, and their juggling
bells. In place Of the mesquite thicket,
where the coyote held his nightly rev.
els, you see fine broad avenues, lined on
either side with beautiful and stately
residences, surrounded with magnin-
cent groves Of shade trees and lovely
garden of flowers. Tall spires piercing
the skies now mark the places where the
piOus people assemble to worship God.
The same spot was then occupied by the
ravenous wolves that made night hid
eous with their ward howls. The little
old rickety wooden bridges have Cisap-
peared, and in their stead a hundred
magnificent iron bridges now span the
beautiful stream. Instead Of the "un-
derla J" "underla ~ of the filthy Mexi-
can cartman with the yoke strapped to
the horns Of his oxens, the fine carriage.
the commodious omnibus drawn by
beautiful teams of fine horses meet you
on every corner.
Where you then met the walking ar
senal, in the shape Of the drunken cow
boy, or the murderous desperate, you
now meet the sober, courteous, polite
policemen, with his club and badge OF
office, who is ever ready to give any in
formation you want. AS for his protec-
ton, you don't seem to need that.
The cobblestone sidewalks have given
place to the beautiful broad, smooth arti-
fetal stone, and the rough cobblestones
of the streets have been crushed and
filled until they are as smooth as the
shell streets of Galveston. Many man
ufacturing establishments have been in
sugerated; second to none is the Lone
Star brewery, which has capacity OF
800 kegs of beer per day. From a rough,
ugly town of. say 1900 population %
years ago-which population was COM
posed Of large majority Of greasers,
roughs, negro slaves, Indians, and the
off-scouring Of Gods creation-they now
have a population of 10000, composed
in the main part of the first
citizens of America, with three
flourishing daily papers, and everything
else In proportion. We wish we had
space to speak in detail OF her fine
churches, her places Of amusement and
recreation, her lodges, her magnificent
schools, her fine water-wOrks, her beau
tiful parks, her historic Alamo and mis-
sions, her government works, which are
so grand and extensive, her water power
which cannot be surpassed in the world,
her immense facilities for raising OF
garden vegetables. her immense
commerce, which is increasing all the
while at q rapid rate, her prom
inent large-hesrted men, such as Colonel
ii. b. Andrews, Senator A. W. Houston,
John Fl. Copeland and hundred others,
but as we have other matters of much
Importance which claim our attention
this week, we are forced to desist. We
could fill our entire columns in praise II
San Antonio, and then not say half which
might be truly said Of this lovely city
and Its generous people. We hope to
visit them again in the future when we
have more time to spend with them.