Evening journal., 1897-07-24
TEXAS WRONGED.
Erroneous Views Regarding the
Lone Star State.
The Newspapers Have Done Much TO
Bring Repronch Upon a Great
49, and Prosperous Com
/ rins monwenlth.

Texas has for years been made the butt
of many of the humorists and play
wrights Of the country. When an ex-
ceptionally hard story had to be To-
Gated, the chances are, ten TO one, that
the scene is laid in Texas. This is par
ticularly the case when the pistol or
tough fighting is a part of the story.
1 have even heard people from Florida
and from Georgia, where there is per
haps more ignorance and semi-barbar-
ism than in any part of this country,
actually make fun of Texas and its
people.
The prevailing idea has all along been
that no Texan is well dressed at home
unless he has about his person two or
three pistols. The idea that he may
have at some time hat other than the
broad-brimmed is perfectly preposter-
Gus to the northern or eastern man.
The play of the Texas Steer has given
the northern man his idea of the Texan.
He appreciates the fact that the char
acters are exaggerated in the play. but
when he sees the average new member
of congress from Texas here with his
broad-brimmd slouch hat on, and in
closed in the folds of his capacous
Prince Albert, he thinks that the eX-
aggeration is not so great.
IL the state excites the wonder and
unfavorable comment Of other commu-
mites in the country, il is alone TO
blame. It's representatives seem TO de-
light in being odd in many things and
being odd always attracts attention.
but the most deplorable thing about
tho state is the disposition of the people,
or ] might say, the newspaper people.
20 exaggerate everything that occurs
in the state. / have been in this part of
the country now for about eight years.
In all that time do not think have
seen n single item in the papers here
from our state, which, IL believed.
would not have the effect of keeping
other people from going TO that state.
No one in the north has the least appre.
citation Of the size Of the state. So Jet
there be q drought in one or two coun-
ties. and at once the papers from what
is furnished by wire from Texas, por-
tray it in all the doleful colors that they
command.
The people think it takes in the state,
and are ready 70 subscribe for the re-
lief of the whole state. IL is the same
thing il one of the numerous rivers in
the state rises above it's general level
If there is q lynching, if there is case
of pistol shooting or killing of any
kind, every particular is given. and
given in, an exaggerated way up there.
] am telling literally the truth when
] say that in all the time | have been
here. have never seen in one of the pa
pers published in the north a single
item of news thar would be calculated
TO make man want 20 invest his money
In that state or to make IL his home.
I can look back over the news from
Texas, and sum il up in the following:
Cyclones, droughts, cloudbursts. lynch
ings, feuds, vendettas and all manner of
MURDERS five were TO raise ten bales
of cotton TO the acre, if we had gold
mine on every square foot of ground in
the state, do not believe the newspa-
per men who send out the dispatches
from that state would think it worth
their notice.
IL anyone would stop TO consider for a
moment they would see that Texas is
far from being a semi-barbarous state
II has n record of which few states cni
boast, and in which none Of the new
states eau compare. In the first place
within the life of the young man IL has
grown so that II now furnishes nearly
une-third of the cotton of the world.
Ii stands In the front of sheep grow
ing and cattle growing countries. i
takes its place by the side of the grea
corn growing states of the west. /
has its wheat, its rye, its barley-il
fact, il has what any state in the unioi
has, and has things that no other stat
has. / have seen wheat cut from
field in May in that state, and prett
good yield il was. and one-half bale O
cotton, raised on the very ground whic
had produced 10 bushels of wheat tina
year. There is not state in the unio
that can do this, and doubt If there
n country in the world which can d
it, with the exception of Texas.
And yet / have heard men from th
red hills of Georgia comment on the en-
barrassments under which the TeXa
farmer struggles to make a living.
was amused not long ago by a story tol
me by Senator Money, which gives q
idea of the ignorance Of the people {
other states as to our state. He sal
there was loud complaint among h
people in regard to the low price {
cotton. They were complaining of II
two political parties, and were fast b
ginning to.conclude that bad legislatic
had been the cause of the fall in n
price of cotton. He was making speeC
TO them, and explaining as best he cou
something of the causes of the price
thHtartiele. He said that Egypt had COZ
1nenced TO raise the staple. and tn
they--should remember that Texa
which only few years ago raised on
several hundred thousand bales. nc
raised in the neighborhood of 300
600 -baless an amount that might
called, without any great exaggerauo
Il third of the crop of the world.
went on TO say that the Texas pecI
did not have TO fcrtilize their lan'
and, more than this, that they had tho
sands of acres that would be placed