Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-08
j. p. STEELE, EDITOR.


| road centers. as we have already intimated.
| You have plenty of cases before you to fully
| sustain US in this position. For instance,
there is a great Panhandle country in Texas.
| The city which could command the entire
patronage of that country would have its
success insured. Not extremely long
ago the city of Dallas was founded in the
promise of future greatness based mainly
| upon that Panhandle patronage. Dallas
soon became great railroad center, as all
promising cities must become, in Texas,
but Dallas could not prevent the creation of
another great railroad center only few
miles nearer the Panhandle country, and so
the city of Fort Worth was the result. Fort
Worth is now the Panhandle city, but who
can say that unless Fort Worth has such
natural advantages as will enable her to
tower above other places, that few years
hence will not find the Panhandle city To-
Gated few miles further west?
That's what's the matter with capital in
every case where we need it and find it hard
TO obtain on our realty. The people who
have money to lend, expect to make money
off the money loaned, and hence they are
willing to take no particular risks. They
study all the things that we have men
tioned-that is their business. Times never
get so close that there is not I surplus
somewhere which cannot be obtained on
solid security, but of course tight times
make capitalists more cautious than they
might be under other circumstances. They
are not cautious because of scarcity of
money Oh. their part, but because they are
afraid that close times might make their
securities less safe. Convince them that
you are solid beyond possible doubt, and
you can get all the money you have 4 use
for, and the capitalists will be more than
glad to let you have it. 1t is this kind OF
thing that make mlllionaires. The man
who has his affairs 50 arranged as to make
investments in him entirely safe, can use
all the surplus capital of the world, il he
wants to use that much capitalize tighter
the times the more anxious are capitalists
to let him have money, for the reason That
their field of safe investment is materially
cut down. Safe investment is never IT 4
loss 10 find investors. 1t is only the posi-
bic .'shoddy'' that meets with embarrass-
ments in this direction.
Under this line of reasoning, which is
undoubtedly the correct line, it behooves
every young city of Northern Texas to in
vestigate into what she possesses in the
way Of local rataral advantages. If she
has nothing extra in that way she had as
well hang up and move her bricks to some
other more favored locality. if she desires
10 save anything on the first cost of her
bricks
Now, for the sake of showing how that
study should be conducted We will center
down to the city of Fort Worth.
What has Fort Worth peculiarly her own
to make her great city!
Well, she is an important railroad cen
ter. and she is the city of the Panhandle
country.
This part of the question has already been
touched on in the present article. What
else has she?
One of the finest and most healthful To-
conld be more healthful than Fort Worth.
This is grand thing, so far as it goes,
but men cannot live on good health alone.
What else has she?
She is surrounded by fine agricultural
country, and she has everything needed
TO make her great manufacturing center.
This too, is well enough, but there are
hosts of other places surrounded by fine
agricultural regions and equally as well
conditioned for manufacturing; many of
them are more favorable to manufacturing,
owing to the fact that they are nearer the
sources supplying the raw materials to be
manufactured into standard articles of COM
MERGE What else is there?
Immense bodies of fine lands for sale at
reasonable figures.
This has already been fully discussed
what else?
Nothing.
No gold, silver or iron mines to contrib
ute their quota TO the life Of the place?
None.
No rich phosphate beds, such as are sus-
tanning Charleston, S. c., or are giving her
special Importance TO tlorida'
Nothing of the kind.
This would seem TO be rather an unfavor-
able showing, but let us see if there is not
something else of special Importance that
the people of Fort Worth and vicinity are
not, as yet, counting upon to any very great
extent.
We have no rich phosphate beds-that
point has been settled. But what is phos-
phate, as the term is now commonly en-
ployed in Agricultural 1t is manurial
element applied to soils for the purpose of
increasing the yield of crops, but applied
alone it is worth nothing whatever. To
save your life you could not sprout pea in
q box of entirely dry Carolina or Florida
phosphate, no matter how well it might
have been prepared by mechanical manipu-
lation. There must be certain proportion
of moisture ere an, manurial element can
be made effectual, therefore moisture.
though not usually looked upon in that
light, Is, of all the manurial agents, the one
paramount in point of Importance. Without |
moisture, or water, if you like that term |
best, all other elements of plant food are
nought.
We get moisture in rains, therefore we do |