The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-06-17
THE LONE STAR STATE.
IL Has Been Wronged by Newspapers
Nonsense.

ceptionally hard story had to be To-
Gated, the chances are, ten to one, that
the scene is laid in Texas. This is par
| tscularly the case when the pistol or
tough fighting is a part of the story.
| 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,
| ctually make fun of Texas and it's
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 a hat other than the
hbroad-brimmed is perfectly preposter-
Eous to the northern or eastern man.
| The play of the Texas Steer has given
the northern man his idea of the Texan.
NHe appreciates the fact that the char
hcters are exaggerated in the play, but
Nhen he sees the average new member
! pf congress from Texas here with his
broad-brimmd SLOUGH hat on. and in
,t2losed in the folds of his capacious
Prince Albert, he thinks that the eX-
Jaggeration is not so great.
< IF the state excites the wonder and
unfavorable comment of other conmu-
mites in the country, it 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
the state is the disposition of the people,
or | might say, the newspaper people,
| to eNaggerate 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 a single item in the papers here
from our state, which, if 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 let
there be a 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 to subscribe for the re-
lief of the whole state. 1t is the same
thing if one Of the numerous rivers in
the state rises above its general level.
If there is a lynching. if there is Il case
of pistol shooting or killing of any
kind, every particular is given, and
given in an exaggerated way up there.
j am telling literally the truth when
I say that in all the time / have been
here, | have never seen in one of the pa
pers published in the north single
item of news that would be calculated
to make Il man want to invest his money
in that state or to make it his home.
l can look back over the news from
Texas, and sum it up in the following:
Cyclones, droughts, cloudbursts, lynch
ingS, feuds, vendettas and all manner Of
murders. If we were to raise ten bales
of cotton to the acre, if we had Il 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.
If anyone would stop to consider for
moment they would see that Texas is
far from being semi-barbarous state.
1t has a record of which few states can
boast and in which none OF the new
states can compare. In the first place,
within the life of the young man it mas
grown so that it now furnishes neErly
one-third of the cotton of the world.
1t stands in the front of sheep grow
ing and cattle growing countries. II
takes its place by the side of the great
corn growing states of the west. 1t
has its wheat, its rye, its barley-in
fact, it has what any state in the Union
has, and has things that no other state
has. | have seen wheat cut from
field in May in that state, and pretty
good yield it was, and one-half bale Of
cotton, raised on the very ground which
had produced Is bushels of wheat that
year. There is not a state in the union
that can do this, and doubt if there is
country in the world which can do
it, with the exception of Texas.
And yet l have heard men from the
red hills of Georgia comment on the em-
barrassments under which the Texas
farmer struggles TO make living. [
was amused not long ago by story told
me by Senator Money, which gives an
idea of the ignorance of the people of
other states as to our state. He said
there was loud complaint among his
people i'll regard to the low price of
cotton. They were complaining of the
two political parties, and were fast be-
ginning to conclude that bad legislation
had been the cause OF the fall in tha
price of cotton. He was making speech
to them, and explaining as best he could
something of the causes of the price of
that article. He said that Egypt had COM
menced to raise the staple, and that
they should remember that Texas,
which only few years ago raised only
several hundred thousand bales, now
raised in the neighborhood of 3,000,-
900 bales, an amount that might he
called, without any great cXaggeration,
third of the crop of the world. He
went on to say that the Texas people
did not have to fcrtilizc their lands,
and more than this. that they had thou
sands of acres that would be placed in
cotton before many years, and that his
people might as well make up their
minds to this.-Cor. Dallas News.