San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-06-08
SHORT STOPS.
What the People are Saying.
IBY Col. JAS. p. NEwcoMB.

vi ldllIOou '" do IOuSiICu
upon-as the "Great Southern" was
not named there was no occasion
to get miffed. There are two gen.
tlemen in that enterprise who, we
are assured, can build that road to
Brownsville and have change left
over.
Now "Short Stops" don't want
to make anybody angry just stand
ing up for old San Antonio. Our
people have been called mossbacks,
but the record of their donations to
railroads and other schemes prove
that we have been an easily worked
community.
The old resident has become &C
customed to being told that he is a
mossback and don't know what
progress and prosperity means.
Our donation of 100000 to Colonel
Pierce's road and the two donations
to the Arkansas Pass Railway add
ed together makes nearly half a
million dollars.
There has been no account pub
lished about the projectors of these
subsidies dying in the pOorhouse.
This railroad building is merely
a matter of business. If the general
welfare was the purpose to be sub
served, the railroads would never
be built. The men who get them
up expect to be helped by those di-
rectly indirectly interested, and
they work for the money that is in
1t.
Everytime a new railroad is
talked about we are told Of what a
fertile country it will open up and
develop away off several hundred
miles.
What shame that our immed-
late vicinity is largely grown up in
mesquite brush. 1t is possible to
convert the lands adjoining our
city into one of the most fertile
garden spots on the continent !;
peopled by a community that
would do all their marketing in
our city.
When even such an enterprising
man as Alderman Mackey wanted
to start a melon patch, he skipped
over the finest melon land on the
continent, ten miles from the city,
and opened a farm away of in an
other county. If people talk about
grapes, pears, Strawberries, they
only mention Rockport or Hitch
cock, when we have just as fine
lands for the growth of these fruits
as any county, right adjacent the
city. Now we hear great deal
about the sub-irrfgated lands Of
the lower Rio Grande, etc.
The building of railroads has
certainly contributed largely to
the prosperity and growth of our
city, and the building OF more
railroads will help the town-will
bring us more people and more
commerce, but railroads only
flourish when the country yields
its fairness. A railroad can haul
away from as well as haul to a
city.
Our city is situated in a rich,
beautiful valley, irrigating bitches
have been in existence ever since
the Spanish settlement; in old
times these irrigating bitches
furnished water to a great part Of
the valley land from the head Of
the river to the lower missions ;the
growth OF the city has covered
much of the former acreage, so
that the product from our irrigated
lands is not as great as formerly.
Beyond the valley stretches a
splendid body Of land, furnishing
variety of soil. The sandy soils,
of which there are thousands Of
acres, could be transformed into
garden by irrigation, because 1t
would secure rotation Of crops
from frost to frost.
The aiding of the development Of
artesian wells in the farming dis
trict will not cost as much as a
railroad and will certainly yield
as great results, il not more per-
manent prosperity. Help both.
During the dull season which
has fairly set in our capitalists
will have plenty of time to think
1905. 1ox;+ir ,o+o johannes RI loon