The Portland daily press., 1888-06-26

THE GREATNESS OF TEXAS.
And the Greatness of the New State
House.
ATLANTA Constitution.


No man can travel through this great Lone
Star State, as have done, without being i'm
pressed with its magnitude and present
wealth and oserawed by its prospective i'm
portance. We get but vague idea of its
size when we are told that its area is $4,000
square miles. 1t helps us to think of 1t as Al
times as large as the State of Rhode Island,
six times as large as the State of New York,
and that it might have lake in the centre of
it so large that if the whole of France we're
anchored in the middle of this lake it could
not be seen from the Texas shore. Gov.
is hoss w gave me this morning few facts about
the finances of the State that comport with
its magnitude Its bonded Indebtedness,
mostly held in this State, in round numbers.
is So, 100000. Like Uncle Sam, 1t is troubled
with surplus that 1t don't know what to do
with. 1t has in general State treasury d sur
surplus of $16,000,000, more than half loaned
out in county and railroad bonds, and they
are seeking an Investment for the balance.
The farmers to whom the State has been sell
ing its land on 40 years time, with only
per cent interest in the hope that they would
be very dilatory in paying the principal, are
plllng in the money ON the overburdened
State treasurer The counties are doing the
same. To add to its misery the State has
30,0OO,0OO acres Of land yet to sell, which are
y
prices. Poor Texas Let every nation and
Individual on the face Of the earth that is
signing '''for lack of dollar or two" drop
tear on the lofty loneliness of this melan-
choly State. The finest State house of Texas
was simply double log cabin. Then came
two or three larger ones, one after the other.
But such was the obesity of the body polite
that In 1875 State convention offered any
body ooo0e0 acres up. in the Pan Handle
district that would build them real big
State house. These lands then were not sup
posed to be worth more than 90 cents an acre.
GOV. Ross told me today that under Gen.
Houston he commanded the frontier when
ne was l9 years OF age. and was all over these
lands, then in particularly dry time. He
says he has to confess with shame that as
member OF that convention he told them how
barren these lands were, and he wouldn't ac-
cept them as gracious gift. Well, in five or
SIX years three men from Chicago came
along that were fools enough to take up the
offer-fne State house for those worthless
lands. These men were John V. Farwell,
his brother Charles b. Farwell, now United
States Senator from Illinois, and little man
called Abner Taylor. Work was begun 1884
and to help along, some Bolton quarrymen
gave all the red granite to be used in the
building, and the State sent its convicts to
quarry it. Now the State has che largest
State Capitol in the Union. if not the finest.
and an second in size only. to the capitol at
Washington. 1t is 562 feet long, 2S7 feet
wide, and its height from base line to the sill
yer star in the hand of the Goddess of Lib
erty, surmounting the dome is 81 feet-four
feet higher than the national goddess at
Washington. 1t is grand, elegant and mas
sive in its exterior, and its 256 interior apart
ments are light, airy, elegant magnificent. l
have been all through it today. and do not
wonder that Texans are tickled with it.
Gov. Ross tells me that it cost the Chicago
syndicate 81 100000 in cash. And what have
they got to show for the pin money they have
spent? A little farm that takes 750 miles of
fences to surround, to say nothing of cross
fences, watered, where lakes, rivers and
springs are lacking by flowing artesian wells
only $50 feet deep worth says Gov. Ross So