San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-03-27
GOLD AT LLANO.
Answer to the Express Correspondent
Mesquite Billy.

The Daily Express correspondent,
Mesquite Billy asks the question: us
there gold at Llano"
Yes, Billy, there is gold galore at
Llano, and silver, too.
Why have they never been devel-
poed?
Because, Billy, ever since the red
men have abandoned the jurisdiction
of Texas, we degenerate sons have
benn too busy developing the genus
demagogue. With our election every
two years and campaign of twelve
months preceding each balloting, we
have had too small a margin of time
since the days of reconstruction to
consider anything other than the sal
walton CD of the state. Then, too, it
takes money for the development of
mines, and money is Scarcer in Texas
than is that which the worlds people
call CAB" Besides, Billy, for some
ten years past we have been taught
that, though having none of our own,
the use of foreign money was not
good for us. That we were in danger
of having too many railroads, wooden
and cotton mills in West Texas; and
that these were becoming a menace
to a perpetuatiOn of the liberties that
our fOrefathers fit for" That the
danger was imminent that our below
ed Texas would be swallowed at one
gulp, by the grasping alien.
As for gold and silver mines, they
would be the ruin of our dear people
entirely, through the greed of the
blOated capitalist from abroad. We
accepted the new faith with a whoop.
grunt and a squeal drove out the
graSping plutOcrat, and, here we are.
1t is now about two hundred years
since the precious metals were pros
pected for in the regions indicated by
the enquiring Billy. The lordly COM
anche was then the power in the land |
and he too had his peculiar views |
anent gold and silver. He thought |
them neither good for himself nor his |
white brother and what Mr.. Comanche |
thought in those days usually event" |
even down so near us as the time of |
the advent of the reconstruction and |
reforming geinger.
During the earlier years of the 18th |
century of the regime of old Spain, |
mining operation were conducted sue
comprised in Llano and the adjoining |
counties contiguous thereto. In fact
it is said that evidences of works,
which antidate by some hundreds of
years those of old Spain, are to be
found in those counties, presumably |
put there by an older civilizatiOn-the
Aztec and the TOltec; people who are
known to have been deeply learned
and skilled in all the arts of the mines.
The old Spanish pioneers but followed
in the trails left by these older civil
iZations of some three hundred years
before.
From \. D. 1710, within the states
of COahuila and Texas, began a min,
ing boom which continued for half
century. The chief cause of its cesa
ton was the insecurity of human life
Occasioned by the incursiOns of hostile
Indians, these states being on the eX-
IRENE border and remote from the
Mexican capital. Down to 1875 much |
of this work was carried on just over
the border in Coahuila and with re-
turns that were enormous. In that |
year a mining town of over five thouS
and operatives was at one fell SwoOp |
wiped off the face of the earth by In
dams. Who will say Mr.. Comanche
was not a power in the land? Mining |
operations in Texas were also check
ed a few years later by the massacres
at Fort San Saba and other points. |
After this for three-fOurthS of a cen
curry it appears the country east of |
the Rio Grande was given rest by |
the bimettalists of the period.
In the early 30's of this century the |
quest for Ell Dorado was renewed by |
the heroes of the halcyOn days of Tex |
as, but the presnce of the hostile In |
dams and the absence of capital bar |
red any success. The early Texan |
knew the stuff was there, and he could |
afford to wait. He was never in a |
hurry, except at San JacintO.
In the years 1929 Mexico was
having a change of bOsses-it was an
upheaval Of exceptional violence, the
equal nearly of a gubernatorial cam
paig in Texas Augustine Iturbide, a
demagogue of eminence was proclaim
ed emperor by the mob. After a reign
of few months he was told to git
he stood not upon the order Of his
getting, but got up and got with
cinch on twenty-five thousand dollars
annual pension for life and nice
lump sum for expenses across seas.
| Here is a hint for poor Texas in the
disposal of her EXPOSES. 1t would
be cheaper than a transference to
THE United States Senate.
| 1t seems from his record His Imper-
ial Majesty did not know good thing
when he had it. He broke his promise
and returned to the sacred sod of
Mexico, and was caught by the boys
from the forks of the creek and was
summarily shot to death.
Iterbide reigned long enough to hear
from far off Texas and her mining
possibilities.
On the 25th Of May, 1922. he was
| In ot tho Tifrr Of Nov