Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-06-04
STATE OF TEXAS,
A Strange Country With
Mighty Contrasts.
Not so Distinctly Southern as MANY
States,
A Place Where Anything Will Grow
Which Grows Anywhere.

| IdtiOn, 100 big Tor 4 traveller with onIv
one lifetime to make sure that he has
FOUND out anything about it. far ton
| big for an observer in search of fem
denotes and characteristics and pre-
JUDGED in favor of accuracy. One
trouble is that nothing Won can saw
about it is true; another is, that every
thing you can say is true-soraewhere
| Texas is low and hot. 1t is also high
ana cold. 1t is treeless, 1t is heavily
tlmbered. 1t is Southern. 1t is West
| ern. 1t is American. 1t is Mexican
also German. 1t is backward. 1t is
| progressive. 1t is stupid. 1t is inter
| eStlhg. Its people are all proud of liv-
| ing IN ii. They are equally proud of
not having been born in it. 1t is the
easiest of all tn" states to get into, the
| HtfuC"t To traverse or get out Of.
once inside, all your notions abou;
space and time will have TO be enlarged.
| When you get out ana try to tell the
| truth about it, you won't be believed.
! Yet you would have Il hard tine living
| about it if you tried. Texas is too big.
writes a correspondent of the Boston
Transcript.
! | have been pottering aimlessly and
|
else would be enough for column after
column Of CONGRATULATIONS The more /
! get hold OF, the less inclined / am to
! 3cneraliZe. Already on the eve Of a
colossal indigestion of Texas, I SYM
pathze heartily with the boil weevi!
1t is twelve years since he got through
with Mexico and invaded the United
| states. Inspired, no doubt with IL
| burning ambition to make q name for
himself that will last as long us the
| Scriptural locuSts, he is still in the
| lIulniiating fix Of the lnO!a-killer who
| was asked how many he had killed
When the Weevil is done with this State
and one other, that will be two. The
| chances are that before he gets to the
| Pan Handle he will execute a flank
movement to the eastward and attack
his enemy, the c0tton-plant. in the
rear. When he has occupied Louisiana
and Mississippi and Alabama and
| Georgia and the Carolinas. he will re-
! sumo serious operations in Texas. The
MeXiCans also, | understand, have an
| idea that they could whip the United
States if it weren't for getting across
| Texas.
| Being unDrepared to enter on .
| twelve years invasion. and uneQuipped
| for exploration. shall have to remain
| in those parts of the state which are
known to be Inhabited avoiding the
| counties whose population is in two
| figures or under. My curiosity is great
| to discover what sort of marital and
other civil usages prevail among the
| people of Bailey County, and particu-
| larry to find out which of the three
| women is married to the man, ana
| whether or not the other two females
are their daughters but | am bound to
| reflect that Il population of four pre-
sents somewhat limited material for a
STUDY of Southern tendencies. Besides.
there is enough, even here on the edge
of the coast country, to make one feel
rs if he had left the South behind.
What the sensation is one gets from
| trayersing the whole of the older South
and coming out on these high. rolling
prairies I cannot convey. hut | am not
| alone i'll finding it distinctly a sensa-
| ton of relief.
| Texas is in many ways sufficiently
Southern to suit the most determined
| adherent of all the dstinctively South
| ern causes Politically and socially
|
| maintain so ardent a loyalty to South
crn traditions and heroes and Ideals
| that the Mississippian or Alabamian
| who comes among them is sometimes
| hard put to it for the requisite re-
sponsive entnusiasms. 1t is a little
confusing, coming from states that
were founded within the lifetime OF
men still living, and whose people still
| look farther eastward for their revcr-
ences, to find those same young COM
| monwcalthS regarded as 4 sort of moth
| er country.
| But the atmosphee is different here.
! 1t is q freer air. Whatever else these
people have brought with them from
| their old homes, they have left the
Southern problems behind them.
Their share of the burden was never
heavy one. and with every mile one
moves westward across the praires
there is SO much less of it to hear. The
peculiar interest of Texas lies in the
| experiment which people of Southern
birth, training and ideals are making,
on Southern soil, in a Southern eli
mate, of an industrial system based on
free white labor.
1t is true that in certain of the east
| ern counties the negroes are so numer-
Gus that the whites have employed the
same methods in politics which have
found favor in the states to the east
ward. OF late, they have begun to
form what are called white mems
unions" frankly intended to deprive
the negroes of all participation in
political power. The new elections
law, requiring the payment of poll
taxes nearly a year in advance of cleo
tions, operates-and was meant to
operate--as a substitute for suffrage
amendment to the constitution dis
franchising persons Of color.
One Democratic county committee,
after resolving that the party primaries
should be open only to white men, has
resolved further that the intent of this
was to exclude not only negroes. but
Mexicans. In San Antonio, to whose
mixed population the negroes con-
tribute less than fifteen per cent, the
street car companies have set apart
and marked the rearmost seat For
negroes" and the negroes are now
hovcOtting the lines. Eut none Of these