Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1904-04-07
Letter from Ben Cox
Beaumont, Texas, Mar, 20, 1904
Meade News, Meade Kas.,

left cold, muddy Missouri about
two weeks since; bumped up against
John Clary at Kansas City and we
rode all night together. The next
morning found US about the corner
of Arkansas, he left me at Gravett
l rode through Arkansas in day light
and l know of no other country that
will surpass it for hills and rocks,
this side of the Rocky Mountains,
1 suppose the Dutchman at Mena
told me the truth, when he said,
CHOW shentleman all the rocks vich
you can see is on top of the ground. !"
took his word for it; stopped off
at Mena one night, next day l rode
to Texarkana. The Red River
country is a good soil and some
nice farms. Texarkana is a nice
city of about IS, 900. Next day to
Shreveport, Louisiana, a town of
from I6 to 20, 900, a nice place.
Along here we began to see some
thing green and the farther south
the greener were the forests. From
Texarkana to Lake Charles, Louisi-
ana through fine country, lots of
little towns and saw mills and l
havn't yet determined whether they
built the saw mills to the town or
vice versa. At Charles l found
roses in bloom and niggers galore,
l don't know which is the more
numerous from there to this place in
Texas, went to the famed oil fields
and they are immense, the derricks
at a distance look like a forest
deadened. Oil all over the ground
and over everything else. Oil tanks
cover lots of territory here, think
of Is, 900, 900 barrels in storage,
lots of refneries and farms, it is
great, Steam ploughs IL to IA
ploughs 3 or discs hitched to one
engine or 3 drills following up as
high as from 3 to 1900 acres in
largest farms, went to Port Arthur
saw the canal and shipping, heavy
vessels came up to the Port, went
out on the lake and from there back
here, then to Galveston by the
cabbage path" route. We stopped
every mile or two to load cabbage,
the finest l ever saw. This road runs
for miles along the Gulf shore, and
to see the big waves coming in made
me feel as though we would be
washed away. From Port Boliver
we had a q mile ride across the bay
in ferry boat, rather rough that
day in the water, landed in Calves
ton and struck out to see the sights,
first place, the sea wall miles long
16 feet high built on piling out of
concrete, I6 feet at the base and 5
at the top, saw the immense decks
and ships, warehouses and elevators,
went to the forts but couldn't get in,
war prevents; went fishing on sail
boat out in the bay, on which day
got my face sunburned, had a big
fresh fish fry for dinner and that
wasn't all we had, my part of the
catch was sea crabs, sharks and
6 fish of different kinds lowest esti-
mate on one was $50 lbs. didn't
weigh it. This place is built on a
narrow strip of land 2 II miles wide
and 80 miles long, nice residences
and good public buildings all over
the place, lots of wealth. Palm
trees bananas and roses cover the
yards, it is beautiful place and d
fine sea breeze all the time but
''darn the skeeters," more numerous
than the roses and the niggers.
had made up my mind to try the
I place and was sitting on the hote
porch thinking it over when l motto
ed a military figure strolling along
the other side of the street, which
looked familiar and crossing the
, street, who should it be but our for
mer townsman the Hon. SaM Wes
ton, he said he was trying the place
so gave it up. All the towns herr
are full of new vegetables, potatoes
cabbage, beets, turnips, peas, car
rots, strawberries, truly 7 have beer
feasting. You will see loads o
such stuff anywhere along the street
brought in by the market gardeners
1 visited Houston, Texas, a plac
of Is, 900 or so. This coast countr,
is fiat, almost level with numerou
streams coming to the gulf acros
1t, many canals zigzag around amoni
the nice farms to water the rice,
grows in water and they put up littl
S dykes all over the fields and whel
n it gets fairly started they cover
with from two to four inches il
water and keep it so until nearly rip
then turn the water off, let the groun
drain out, then cut, bind aud thres
J. as we do wheat, They seem to b
as crazy over rice now as they wer
a few years ago over pears, million
of trees were set out but are abor
all dead now. wouldn't give
dollar for ali the pear trees in thi
e country, and 1 am afraid the ric
d farming will be about the same.
came hero from Houcton TO-DAY ar.