Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-30
THE BRAZOS MOUTH.
Abner Taylor and Thos. J. Hurley Dis
course on Deep Water.
Work at the Brazos to be Commenced Within
Two Weeks and the Harbor Com
pIeted in One Year.
San Antonio Express, January p.

companied by Mr. Thomas J. Hurley of
Fort Worth, who has just returned from
the North where he has been in the inter-
est of deep water. Col. Taylor VIII stay
here until the end of the week. Last
night he was seen by an Express reporter
in the corridor Of the Menger hotel and
as usual he was found perfectly accessI-
BILE 81 am always willing 10 talk to
newspaper men, - said he, land tell
them all l know
''WeIl, colonel, a" Intercepted the
newspaper man, ~ wanted to ask about
the recently completed capitol building
You have, / understand, entirely settled
with the-state?"
eyes, - replied Col. Taylor, "all diff
ferences have been adjusted and every
thing has been arranged satisfactorily
and pleasantly. -
IN response to a second question Col.
Taylor said:
- think it is the best capitol building
Tn America II is all right in every way
except the roof and that never will be
satisfactory. It is a copper roof and
copper viii not do in this climate, there
Is too much heat in Texas and conse-
quently expansion and contraction of the
metal, but l notified them when / put it
on that it would not be satisfactory, and
am still Of the same opinion.
What do the syndicate propose doing
with the 3 600 900 acres of land received
in consideration of building the capitol?
eve have it in a ranch. It is all
fenced in and is covered with ll5, 600
head Of cattle. We propose to keep it as
Il ranch until the time comes when we
can sell to settlers. We are waiting for
the settlement of the country to reach us.
We are too far out on the frontier at
present -
At this juncture Col. Abner Taylor was
joined by Mr.. Thomas J Hurley, and
the conversation diverted into different
channel. The latter gentleman is inter-
ested in the syndicate which proposes
making a deep water harbor at the
mouth of the BraZos, with which
enterprise Col TaylOr's name is
also prominently connected. Col.
Taylor expressed himself as being
strongly in favor of the scheme
and when asked whether he had taken
any stock in the company said, 4 have
not got dollar in it yet, but there IS a
block set aside for me, which L expect to
take The BraZos is as certain to get
deep water as two and two make four.
1T is simply a case of the Mississippi over
again, except that it is on smaller
scale, there not being such q volume of
water The sand bar is less than Il mile
in length, probably 1000 feet, and this
difficulty is comparatively a small one.
The harbOr will be from two to SIX miles
from the mouth. You see, when you
cross the bar you can make any harbor
you want; it is simply a question of
dredging. The river is from twenty to
thirty feet deep now, and after dredging
we can float any steamer in the world IN
1t -
''The country which runs back from
the harbor is the finest in Texas. From
six miles up the river is the best in Texas
and as good as any in the world. The
fertility of the Brazos bottom is known
all over the world; the soil is twenty feet
deep and anything on earth can be raised
there. -
''You ask me what effect a harbOr at
the mouth of the BraZos will have upon
The commercial future of Galveston as a
deep water port. Well, I cannot exact
iy say. Galveston is a good sized town
now, and ] think it viii spur them up to
renewed action and greater apprOpria
tons if they can get them.
They viii now be for the
'old flag and appropriations sure
enough. It viii probably not help
Galveston any, but she is big enough to
take care of herself. The state of Texas
cannot wait for Galveston. If we have
deep water on the coast it viii add dol
lar an acre TO our land, and we cannot
wait for Galveston or any other point,
ard of course the country surrounding
the Brazos viii have its value incalcuIa-
bly, increased. -
in no rs no nh
$50 feet wide and as long as you want it
thirty miles if necessary. At present the
average depth on the bar Is six feet. l
don t know that L can tell you much
more about the matter, and will turn you
over TO Mr.. Hurley
''Who are the chief financiers forming
the syndicate, Mr.. HuTley?' asked the
reporter.
II am only a high private, and have
not got dollar III if; l cannot give you
the mformation-it is private. l can tell
You this, however, that there viii be
men ut work on the enterprise within two
weeks; the contract is let TO Mr.. Willlie
10 make deep water. He has been max
ing his sub-Coutracts and buying his ma
terials, and is getting them down there
rs fast rs he can. [ think the whole cost
of getting over the bar and improving the
river VIII De a. ,UUu ,UUU- Inc engineer Is
Mr.. L. II. COrtell, who had charge of the
work on the Mississippi. He was Eads'
head man. The contract calls for COM
plerion in two years, but l don { think it
VIII be more than a year before we have
deep water. -
1.-The enterprise is purely a private
one. We don I have to wait for any ap-
preparations. All the gentlemen in the
enterprise connected with it go down into
their boOtstrapS once a month to pay the
bills. The project is q great one but the
benefits TO Texas will be immeasureable,
and especially 10 this section, for deep
water 1T the BraZoS puts that section of
country and San Antonio in connection
with South America, which country last
year purchased $500 900 900 worth OF
goods, of which the United States sold
but one-siXteenth. One city alone,
Buenos Ayres, has 81 banking capital of
SEQ, 200 900, and il has hitherto
been buying all its goods
in Great Britain, Sweden, Norway
and France. This is q trade that Texas
ought TO have. This port viii also be
the entrepot for the Central American
trade, being the nearest point. 1 want
TO quote one interesting item: last year
the Illinois Central railroad from New