The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1886-07-31
A FLYER TO FORT WORTH.

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A FLYER TO FORT WORTH.
The Chief Editor of the ..Chief' Makes
An Excursion to the Panther City.
FoRT WORTH, TEXAS July %, 1886.
D.AB CHEZ:
Having been honored by election as Rep
resentative Of Lee Lodge No. 6. Of the An
Gent Order of United Workmen Of Texas,
which includes in its jurisdiction the States
Of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas and the.
Indian Territory. I left home Sunday
evening on the Z. & r. throughtrain, bound.
for this thriving city, where the Grand
Lodge was called to assemble on Tuesday.
The trip was not the most pleasant or COM
Portable in its character, owing to heat in
the daytime, mosquitoes at night and dust
all the time. Pleasant eompanionship did
much however 10 relieve the monotony and
discomforts of long railroad ride at this
unfavorable season. From Donaldsonville
to the Atchafalaya / enjoyed the agreeable
society of ]. T. Bringier, Esq, Of the
Houmas or Tureaud place, who was on his
way to the plantation homo Of the Goraons
of st. Landry, six miles above West Mel
vile on the Atchafalaya, where he intends
to spend a well earned vacations Of ten days.
Brother Charles Gross of Gretna, Represe1a-
tative from Jefferson Lodge, was aboard
the train, and we had scarcely moved away
from the Donaldsonville depot ere he had
found me out, and we straightway frater-
nized as brothers and laid the foundation
of what promises to be a very pleasant mu-
tual ACQUAINTANCE and friendship. Brother
Gross is a very close observer, an intelligent
and interesting conventionalist and of ex-
trernely amiable and fun loving disposition.
Knowing me as you do, my dear OH1Er, you
may imagine that We !" collared to each
other from the jump" SO tospeak, and have
already become great chums.
At Alexandria Brother ". W. Whiting
ton, Jr., Representative of Pelican Lodge
No. 16 of that town, boarded our train, but
unfortunately we did not discover his iden-
tity until after reaching Shreveport. We
hoped to have delegates from the Plaque
mine an1 Natchitoches lodges for fellow
travellers also, but owing to the dereliction
of the brethren at those places they are
without representation; in this important
and interesting session of our. Grand
Lodge. VI
At Shreveport Brothers ]. Henry Shep
herd, Grand Foreman, and b. 7. Vinson,
Representa- tive Of Louisiana Lodge No.
were added to our party and at Marshall,
Dallas and other points between Shreveport
and this place, our number was increased
by some fifteen of our Texas bretheren, SO
that there were about twenty of us in the
party that stormed the Hotel Pickwick at
s O'Clock Monday evening and demanded
to be taken in and done for.
It is scarcely worth while to dwell upon
the run from Donaldsonville to Shreveport,
as the territory traversed is familiar to
most of my readers, either from observa-
ton or frequent description, and the great
or portion of the trip was made in the
night. began to view the surrounding
country with increased interest," after leav-
ing Shreveport and crossing, for tie first
time in my life, the border of that vast en-
pire, the great State Of Texas. For some
hours the scenery was so similar to that of
Northwestern Louisiana that I found but
few points of special interest. There was
the same red sandy soil, the same plenti-
tude of scrubby pine trees, occasional
patches of dwarfed cotton and dried up
looking fields of corn, with here and there
a g railroad town" of recent origin, com
posed of a dozen more or less, Of hastily
constructed board houses and stores.
AS the forenoon wore on, however, the
character of the soil exhibited improve
ment, the pine became less prevalent and
the crops presented more thrifty appear
ance. The entire country through which
we passed from carly morn until afternoon,
was evidently sadly in need of rain, and
there is only a comparatively narrow strip
of territory between Mansfield, La, and
Fort Worth where indications OF recent rain
fall were observable. There was one thing
noted with interest; Notwithstanding the
seemingly poor pasturage-the grass being
short, spare and shrivelied up by drouth
and sun-the cattle grazing along the line
of the road after we entered Texas were all
in first class condition-in fact the only
poor one saw-and smelled-was dead, ),
lying alongside the.trnck, shedding orders
on the fertile cir that were anything but
sweet. s.==.s.u .-a: 81,
At Marshal, a live little city forty miles
west of Shreveport, We changed trains, but
not tracks, and bowled along ut increased
speed over an improved road, through the
kind OF wooded country I have been de-
scribing. We took dinner at the town of
Mlneola, an OCCASION which viii ever be
memorable i'll our minds by Brother Shep-
herd devouring twelve roatsing ears as a
prelude to his midday repast cannot say
OF my personal knowledge that twelve was
the. correct number. It may have been
more, and was possibly less, but Bro. Vim
son, who sat beside Bro. Shepherd, places
the number at twelve, and l would rather
accept the testimony than look for proof,
as I know that the chivalrous
representative OF Louisiana, would not
belittle the gastronomic achieve
ments of his worthy colleague and friend
Atall events Minola corn on the cob must
be better than the Marshal product in liquid
form, as one glass Of the latter pretty near
~ knocked out Bro. Vinson who is large
man, while Bro. Shepherd, who is Of small
Or physique, absorbed a surprising quaint