Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-04

DID, the other, which was christened Lea
day. in honor of her'two'de husbands, ex-
listed only on a blueprint few weeks ago,
but now has a hotel, a store, blacksmith
shop, a school house, real estate office
and several dwellings,. Voss has church,
two hotels, three stores dncluding mil
linery establishment), a blacksmith shop
and a long Substance telephone. Mrs. Lea
has reserved several lots for churches,
one of which has already been occupied
by the Methodists; and she endows each
church with farm of 100 acres. which is
sufficient to support preacher. Inese
endowments are permanent, but the lana
cannot be alienated. If the church gets
tired of it, 1t will revert to Mrs Lea or
her heirs. She also gives free land Tor
school houses, and has presented site TO
the Christian Church for the establish
ment of an Industrial school for young
women. The camp meeting of the Chris.
tian Church is to be held on the banks OF
the Concho river near Leaday this sum-
mer, where Mrs. Lea has offered per-
manent location for that purpose.
AS an illustration of the way the coun-
try is filling up with people, in a oistrlc.
where there only one sheep herder
year ago, there is now a school OF eighty
two children.
Negroes Not Wanted.
This is a white mans country AT sew
eral of the stations along the Santa Fe
road: negroes are not allowed to land. On
rare occasions when they do land the sta
ton master, or some other citizen who hap
pens to be at the railway station, treats
them kindly but firmly as 1 was Informed,
and tells them that they had better move
on Formal action on this subject was
taken by one town after another several
years ago, because, as it was explained,
there has been so much trouble over the
race question elsewhere that we thought we
could along better without
1t is long but interesting drive from
Talpa to the Lea ranch, particularly
when you have an entertaining driver. And
we had one in the person of Mr.. PERKINS,
one of the early settlers of this part of the
country. Mr.. Perkins told us some fasci-
mating stories concerning the history of this
part of the country and the adventures of
the pioneers. He is an enthusiastic ad-
mirer of Mrs Lea and asserted that he
would rather have her for a business part
ner than any man in Texas. 1t is surpris-
ing that woman should have aroused so
much admiration and overcome so much
opposition as she has done.
Boy With the X-Ray Eyes.
One of Mr.. Perkins stories pertained to
THE Boy With the X-ray Eyes" who
appeared in this part of the country about
six years ago and made a business of locat-
Ing wells for the farmers. He was about
fourteen or fifteen years old and came from
the peculiar faculty OF being able to see
water through the soil at any depth, and
also made it a business to find things that
had been lost. One time he made a good
deal of trouble between two gentlemen. One
of them lost his watch and the boy being
hired to find it, Immediately located it in
the pocket of another gentlemen, whose
explanations were confusing and unsatis-
factory.
When farmer wanted to bore well he
used to send for the boy, who would come
In wagon and camp out on the range for
several days. He did not use divining rods,
or any other sort of hocus-pocus, but SIM
ply wandered around the range, gazing in
tensely upon the grass. When he saw water
through the soil he marked the place by
driving stake into the ground The farm
er paid him $50 for his services, provided
water was found, but If the well was a
failure the boys father reimbursed the
farmer for the expense of digging. But
Mr.. Perkins said he never failed.
When the oil excitement broke out down
in the Beaumont district his father thought
there would be more money locating oil
wells there. But somehow or other the boy
could not do that. His 'X-ray eyes, could
detect water through so or 100 feet of earth,
but they could never see oil; and Mr.. Per-
kins says he was SO chagrined that he lust
sorter materially disappeared-plum van
fshed-and hasn't been seen or heard of
SINGER