Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1897-03-25
Another Letter from Choctaw.
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAs,
March l1M, 1897.

Ndrch llth, 1897. J
Editor Greenbriel Independent:
The Texas Livestock Association
and the Texas Cattle Raisers' Asso.
citation met here this week. The
railroads sold tickets at price much
lower than common excursion rates
and thousands of cattlemen came,
many of them bringing along their
wives and daughters. Never in the
history of the State, or, as for that
matter, in the world have so many
stockmen met in convention. The
cattle industry has been unusually
profitable in the past six months, and
L have never before attended Il meet
ing of the kind in which there was
so much good cheer and hearty
greeting. Business of utmost I'M
portance to dealers in live stock was
transacted In the Convention.
The city, with its sixty thousand
people, many hotels and innumera-
BILE boarding houses and furnished
rooms, was crowded beyond its ca
pacity to lodge all without putting
from two to eight persons in room.
"A more appropriate season for such
gathering at San Antonio could
not have been fixed upon.
Think Of the Chicago, st. Louis,
Omaha and Kansas City delegates
coming direct from snowdrifts and
wintry blasts into a city where roses
are in full bloom, big trees are in
leaf and fruit, the blossom of the
grapevine is fragrant, the umbrella
and wild China are out in their
charming suits of green, the mercury
at so, and the fascinating girls of
this quaint old city with its thousand
historic "reminiscences are arrayed
in summer attire.
The beauty of the Alamo and
other plazas is rivaled by the exquis.
ite artistic taste displayed about pri.
Vate residences. One admires the
bright green OF the Bermuda grass,
the bristling, dense growth Of the
dark Ouisache tree, the varnished
leaf of the evergreen magnolia, the
Japanese plum and persimmon, and
numberless trees and shrubs with
their unpronouncableS Spanish names
but nothing attracts more attention
than the Spanish dagger, now in ful
bloom. AS rule only one cluste
OF flowers appears, but some of then
have as many as five, each one O
which will weigh as many pounds.
On the way we saw the long gra,
Spanish moss suspended from ever,
branch of elms, oaks, pecans ant
other trees, and at Cameron we saw
; the native cedars that had been S,
manipulated with the shears int,
farms, rare and curious, that hat
Solomon beheld them he might hav
forgotten Lebanon and written O
| the Cedars of Cameron, and h
would have mentioned the viii,
peach surprising the beauty of tn
holly.
, Groves of live oak, the thorny
, crooked mesquite putting out leave
and preparing for it's annual harves
of beans, upon which the beasts O
the field love to feast. Men Gu
tivating corn, and negro wome
, driving OK teams and plowing tn
Q land for cotton, and other sight
!; along the way gave pleasure an
: amusements to the passengers q
=. merry girls would call to their 10,
j ers, "Oh, just look at the beautifl
8 wild flowers; they are just too Lowell
for anythingv'
But the attractions of the wa
: were forgotten when rare old Sa
Antonio was seen in the distance.
}. After the first few hours spent
" hunting a lodging place ended SUI
!. cessfully, carriages and electric cal
v were filed with passengers. Son
}. went to Government Hill to see Il
|. grounds so clean and fair, the ba
,, racks so commodious and comfort
h BILE, the 700 soldiers drilling, an
It climbed to the top of the lofty tow'
y to view the whole city, the brusl
covered surrounding country, ar
- when they descended watched Il
peacocks on the lawn and flock
deer gamboling on the parat
); ground.