San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-09-03
THE HANDLE OF OUR PAN.
Brief Notes of a Journey Across the
Plains.
TAsCosA Texas Aug st, Both.

|
Fit. Worth railway" was an event
hailed with delight: not by Texans
alone, but by thousands whose homes
in the dreary northwest could be
changed to the sunlit plains of the
Lone Star state, to country where
the results of the present are fast
fading to oblivion the prejudices of
the past, for it is now an established
truth that. nearly all CEREALS, fruits
a ID vegetables can be produced
in this, the COASTS" of once
fancied 'desert-land.' A country
where the long-horned stalkers
can now, while feeding on
luxuriant grass, look with seeming
discomfort upon the fields of waving
grain that bid fair to checker the
broad and bOundless domain he has
so long claimed his own And to what
is such a transition due? To that pi-
| Oneer of civilisation, whose magnitude
we can hardly conceive. Scarcely
year has elapsed since its track of
steel first coursed the trail, and yet
more than twenty towns, with life and
prosperity indicative of as many cities,
grace the view; say naught of the
surrounding tributaries and syndicate
villages on paper. Among the latter
could be named Iowa Park and Okla
Union, each promising" in every
sense of the word. But to name the
Meccas of prosperity, mention might
be made, first, of Decatur, the "Sala-
mander" city, situated 40 miles west
of "Pantherville, and 400 feet nearer
heaven. Bowie and Henrietta also
cIamor for recognition, while Wichita
Falls, though not the healthy child"
of yore, is rapidly regaining its place
among the cities of the West. From
the car windows can be seen the
Falls of the Big Wichita river, from
whence the city derives its name.
An interview with a prominent
capitalist revealed the fact that Wi
chita is in the midst of the granaries
of the world. OF the 243 counties in
the continent of Texas" Wichita
leads the van Its wheat acreage is
and for all products it ranks next to
glorious state. Wilbarger, with Yer
non as its county seat perhaps the
livliest town in the state also claims
recognition as an agricultural region;
while Hardeman county, still far
ther west, has present growth sur
prising ard future that challenges
approach. Quanah, five miles from
the famous Greer county lands-is its
chief distributing point. Here it was
pleasure to meet Mr.. H. w. ChenO-
weth, formerly associated with T. T..
Frost, in your city. Mr.. Chenoweth
is engaged in the mercantile business,
and though rushed with trade, found
time to inquire about his San Antonio
friends.
Travelling onward and upward the
sprightly town of Childress is reached;
and many miles beyond Clarendon,
which at present is the terminus of
the first division of the d. II. & Fl. w.
Ry., being forty miles from the juno
ton of the Kansas Southern Ry.
Clarendon is beautifully located. In
fact all this prairie is beautiful to the
observer. Here one begins to appre-
ciate the high altitude, and realize
the great velocity of the wind as it
sweeps across the plains. IT'S task
to stand on the platform of train, but
the views are so inviting that many
venture and often become som brerO-
less. Once on the plains the eye ever
meets that distant view whose limit
seems unknown. All around you
the bright sun sends it's rays of light
on and onward till its setting tells
the close of day. Then picture if you
can the landscape scene of green and
gold, where in the distance may be
seen herd of the horned and hoofed
persuasion, carefully guarded by the
:'Knights of the Palms. whose
adrOit movements are watched
with deep interest by all on board.
Possibly the scene would be modified
by the appearance of a wheat field,
still marked with the course of the
binder which gathered sheaves from
the once grossly libelled soil. Another
loOk-ancther field and then, per-
chance, favored view of the broad.
green canvas, devastated here and
there by prairie dogs. But constant
| moving affords constant change, and
ere long the scene may be refreshed
by q passage through some lovely
valley, where along the streams are
growths of timberland different forms
of cultivation, with now and then
series of broken hills or an arroyo
hondo. Occasionally a field of cane
or millet meets the vision, but the
farther one travels the less of the lat
ter he sees. The orchards, too. be-
come extinct, and the same peaches
that sold for twenty-five cents bush
ell near the alpha of our iourney-sus-
tain a tremendous advance here, but
us presumably due to the altitude,
which gradually rises from $40 feet at
Fort Worth-to upwards of 1000 feet
| here.
al inn l.