The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-03-25
LETTER FROM BURNETT
A VILLAGE HEMMED IN BY
MOUNTAINS OF EVER
LASTING GRANITE.
"A SYMPHONY IN CREAM"
pecial Correspondence of The STATESMAN.


BURNET, Texas, March 19.-The rocky
little village of Burnett is girt
about with hills and peach blossoms.
The hills seem to be settled institution,
fixture in the landscape, but the peach
blossoms are late arrivals and they impart
rosy fringe to the russet-brown robe of
the majestic hills.
This same russet-brown robe is fast
taking on lovely tints of green under the
magic touch of the artist spring.
To stranger, Burnett presents
the appearance of long, rather
rambling village picturesquely fra med
with hills, and in some places
presenting lovely views of misty purple
mountain tops and fertile valley farms.
In some places the rocks are so thick and
plentiful that they give an unkempt APP
peardnce to the vicinity, as though the
housekeeper of the place had failed in the
duty of putting things to rights One
wants to get an enormous rake and clean
up the rocky litter.
The stone yard, from which is to be
evolved that magnificent capitol, is stu
ated on rise in the southeast suburb of
the town, and is a favorite resort of the
people, especially on Sunday afternoons.
The great blocks of variegated pink gran
tie, with the tools of the workman by the
side of an unfinished piece of work, the
elevated railway. with all the ponderous
machinery necessary to handle the heavy
stone; the stone cutters themselves as they
loll about their boarding places on Sun
day, are all objects of interest to the
public. A number of new frame houses
have sprung up in the vicinity of the
stoneyard, where many an honest penny
is turned supplying the wants of the lab
orers.
Burnett certainly appreciates the name
and fame of her granite. Everything is
granite, but when you hear of the granite
house," granite store" granite saloon"
etc, you are not to suppose that these are
houses built of granite, nor yet that the
place is tending toward petri-
faction, and the hearts of the people
becoming hardened. The house aforesaid
Y may be of rough, implanted boards, and
the hearts of the inmates will probably be
warm with typical western human nature,
but it is thus they do homage to the great
stone god that holds court few miles dis
= tant, towards the rising sun, where faith
: full worshiprers at his shrine are being re-
4 warded with lavish gifts.
1t was my fortune to make my entrance
into Burnet through the medium of {
stage. Before coming to Texas stages
and robbers were always associated to
gether in my mind, so l naturally felt
little apprehensive. When the driver as
sured me, however, that the stage on thi
road had not been "held up" for a nun
Der of years, l Immediately felt littl
4,,,o ,,1a. &c 4
feminine mind. / hadn't anything O
value with me, and my driver and fellov
passenger were both strong and we
armed, and withal gentlemanly, and
thought modern Robin Hood would nc
have been an unwelcome addition to tn
scene. If there is anything l fairly d.
light in it is new experience, and stag
robbery would have been an adventui
worth talking about. This, have foun
out, however, is not the Texas of adve1
ture, but of civilization and refnemer
which the people of the east will not bt
lieve in unless they come and see.
As we neared the city, the proximity O
N the town was indicated by number O
"a board placards ornamenting the roadside
t. giving the traveller all the information
20 reasonable man could desire, as to wher
s, his wants might be supplied, in letters S
s. large that he who runs might read, and re
q minding one of Silas Laphams tendenc
t. to decorate the landscape with his mir
# eral paint.
l. On the roadside, at the entrance to tn
q village, was a romantic-loOking wei
It shaded by a large tree, at which on
t. might imagine a modern Rebecca meet
If ing her fate. 1t seemed mute welcom
e to a stranger, offering, at the very gate
Z of the village, the hospitality of cup o
cold water. After that came the long
straight streets, with comfortable house
on each side, leading down little slop
to the court house, which always seems t.
represent the heart of a country town, al
the streets diverging from it like arteries
through which the trade, the life-bloOd o
ID the country, flows.
g. Western towns are supposed to be flu
III of life-country wagons always comm
g. and going, trade in full blast, and pistc
10 shots sometimes awakening tn
,r echoes, and yet, do you know don
,e like to say it above a whisper-but Bul
al net does seem stupidity dull sometimes
re and everybody hasn't the ''get up" that
or usually attributed to Texas people. Ente1
Ing ill udiO INV
more explicit-a few evening
= ago, handsome, sleepy-looking youn
man finally reached our presence, an
M was fully ten minutes answering fe
90 questions. am satisfied, however, thu
co this was not western vim, but importe
w nonchalance.
90 have intimated chat l quite dote O
90 new experiences and impressions, an
dear knows, there are plenty of them, bv
M they will not all do to write about. YC
60 remember the sad fate of the author
'Cape Cod Folks" who fell among Il
20 lawyers, and all because some of the Cal
40 Cod folks recognized themselves in Il
% pages of her book The STATESMAN
90 universally read here, and | could n
90 count on you not telling"
% The STATESMAN links as with the OF
90 side world. It. comes every day, syI
pheny in cream, SO to speak; l refer,
% you please, to the tint, and not to the ric
% ness of the intellectual feast, though,
you prefer, you may take the expressi
90 to refer to both. There are other pape
90 it is true, but they are always day la
and what might not have happened sin
yesterday If, as someone has sal
ne to the progressive American everythil
De back of the daily paper is ancient h