The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-01-10

the art of living. The same peculiari-
ties Of architecture and the same
guiltlessness Of paint are noticeable tc
q considerable extent In the smaller
towns. The larger towns. of course
are much like our own, the principal
difference-aside from the saloon signs
being that the wagons and cara are
loaded with bales of cotton instead OF
with corn and hogs.
News of the coming of our party had
preceded US and at Milano,-150 miles
north Of Galveston-we were met by
Mayor Fulton, Mr.. Bryan, Of tbe
NeUs Mr.. Berson, Of the Tribune, and
q number of other gentlemen sent as a
committee by the Galveston Board of
Trade to tender US the hospitality OF
the city. They proved to be
royal entertainers and the hours which
were beginning to drag. qulckened.their
pace and passed rapidly enough.
Reaching Galveston at midnight,
Saturday, we were escorted in carriag-
es to Artillery Hall where an elaborate
lunch awaited US, after discussing
which we were driven TO the fremont
hotel. 1t was nearly three O'Clock
when we reached our rooms. The
noise of the city vas hushed and
through the open windows came the
voice of the "deep, sounding sea, ("
beating upon the beach a mile away
and making sweet music to our I'm.
accustomed ears.
-.
1t was not hard to discern when
Sunday morning came that we were
in "the land of the sun and the sum-
mer's noon." Men were walking
about the streets without overcoat or
gloves, ladies on their way to church
carried parasols to shield themselves
from the sun and children were offer.
ing for sale boquets of roses and violets
aud pansies fresh from out-of-door
beds. 1t was hard to realize that this
was the 18th day of December.
The program arranged by the citi-
zens for our entertainment began with
a carriage drive at O'Clock on Sunday
afternoon, along the beach and about
the city. Altogether the pleasantest
ride this writer ever had the good for.
tune to take, and he does not forget a
glorious afternoon on the Mexican
Paseo. Miles and miles along the
sandy beach where the hoofs of
our horses gave out no sound
and left no mark and where the great
green waves of the Gulf came racing,
one after and over another, up to our
very carriage wheels. And then other
miles past beautiful residences sur
rounded by green lawns, hedged in by
oleanders, shaded by wide-spreading
live oaks and dotted with beds of ros-
es in full bloom. while here and there
the date palm lifted its stately head
and the banana plant dropped its broad
leaves drowsily in the sunlight. 1t
was indeed breath of summer.
-.
Galveston is a city builded, in
defiance of Scriptural warning,
on the sand. The island, at the north
ern end of which the city population
about 40,0O0l is located, is a sand.bar
twenty-five miles long, something
over two miles wide in the widest
place, and ten feet above tide water at
the highest point. 1t lies at an aver
age distance of three miles from the
main land, communication with which
is established by means OF two railroad
bridges. The body of water between
the island and the main land is called
Galveston Bay and constitutes the
harbor of which there has been 40
much talk lately. The waters of the
harbor proper are deep enough, the
depth at the wharf front being 35 feet.
But there is sand bar at the entrance
to the harbor five miles from the
wharf, where the water is only IL feet
deep. 1t is to remove this obstruction
and open channel deep enough to
admit the largest ocean steamers, that
government appropriation is asked
and in support of which proposition SO
many conventions have been held. The
The method proposed to accomplish
this obiec: is to construct jetties be-
ginning at points about five miles
apart and gradually approach ing as
they are extended seward until at
the entrance to the harbnr they will
confiDe the channel TO about 1000 feet.
The work will be very expensive as
the stone for building the jetties must
be brought by rail from quarries $50
miles away. II will be worth to the
country all it costs, though, in the
added commercial facilities it will
bring. And it will certainly make
Galveston 4 great city. Even as it is
nearly 100000 bales of cotton were
shipped from the port last year. With
deep water the larger share of the
commerce of the whole southwest will
naturally drift TO this gateway while
a great proportion Of the South Amer
lean trade will as naturally make this
its entering port. The future has
great things in store for Galveston.