The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1906-10-09

lower Rio Grande with the QUITE
world. Brownsville, dating it
history back to that bright MAJ
morning in 1916, when the gun.
from Fort Brown answered sho
for shot from the forts across the
river, has lived for 90 years, self
reliant and independent, practical.
ly unto itself. Ever has it beer
waiting for the coming of the rail
road, patient, hopeful, throughout
all the years, never despairing,
trusting in the ever coming tomor-
row to bring the power of transpor-
tation it so much needed. In all
these years it has seen evil days
and good. The misfortunes of a
fratricidal war doomed it and gave
it, together with its twin sister
across the river, its most prospe-
rous days. The war between the
states ended. the other ports on
the coast re-opened, the trade that
it had derived from Texas depart
ed and its prosperity passed away.
Then followed the years after the
war of local strife between the of
6cers of the law and the robber
chiefs and their bands. Remote
from the center of civilization and
humanity, easy of access to fore
ignsland, it became the resort of
adventures and desperate men,
and to it some history made. Men
are still living there who followed
the fortunes of the Inflated Max
imillian, and others, who with |
pardonable vanity speak of the
succor and aid they gave to Diaz
when he plotted and planned the
revolution which ended in the for
nation of a stable government in
Mexico under the rule of that
great and remarkable man. With
dignity they wrapped in silence
heir robes about them and noted
he waning of the prosperous days
nto a long night of business stag
lation, yet, through it all, listen
ng, ever listening, for the far
way rattle of the rail. And at
asst it has come. Sixty years, that
we're sometimes adventurous, and
ometimes dull, passed between
he work of Jacob Brown and B.
:. Yoakum, yet the one is in
eparably linked with the other,
S much so as if the one of this
had stood in the blaze
nd fury of that 100 hours bonn
ardment and the other who has =.
lept so long in his soldiers grave
7ithin the reservation that bears
is name had stood in the counting
pom handing forth the dallars
lat transformed into the Gulf
cast line. And now that the
abroad has come, the pulse of its
ommerCe has quickened, and vast
npires that surround it to the
orth, east and west have been
oened. The saber that flashed at
alo Alto and run red with human
God at Resaca de la Palma has
cen converted into the sickle that
lrvest the golden grains of rice
I'd lays low the high-grown stalks
cane. While from everywhere
)out 1t the resources that so long
y dormant at its feet are spring
G into life, and the section that
it bids fair to become +
e mecca to which the home
ekers of the world are treckking.
And who will say that with such
story behind it, and such a vast
ture before it, stretching out to
e immeasurable years, that Fort
-own shall be lost to history?
-esidents may abandon and dis
antle ii; they may wipe its phys
al parts from off the face of the
nth, but in the onward rush of
e Anglo-Saxon towards his I'M
Town destiny i'll the great south
est, he will ever and anon pause
ng enough to pay tribute to its