The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1908-10-16
TEgAsspTCTURED-
As it is-A Grand Talk by Gilbert
McClurg-Beautisul Pictures.


McClurg-Beauti.ul Pictures.
Under auspices ofythe State School
OF Mines and the High School, last
night at Library Hally, a represen-
| tative audience assembled to greet
Gilbert McClurg who presented his
travel-taik 20, Brave New World of
Texas; .Conquror of the Desert and
Master of the Veal"
| With a wealth of moving pictures
of cotton and rice fields, and blue
waves of the Gulf of Mexico at CAL
weston, and with lively bucking
horses in the Pan Handle and Telling
pines near Houston; horses swim
ming rivers in, the Trinity-Brazos vail
ley7and waving six flags under which
the Lone Star state had battled
added to some three hundred gorge
ously colored stereopticop slides, Mr..
McClurg's entertainment certainly
was the best illustrated lecture ever
given here.
Other lecturers tell the stories of
foreign nations but 1t has been left
to Mr.. McClurg TO SOW seeds of 10y
atty and patriotism by portraying the
life and development of cur great
states. Last night he covered five
century of Texas history with MASTER
full capitalization and in, purest Eng
!ish. 1t was as good as a. trip to
| Texas with the typical scenes illus
| trated by camera and apt descrip-
ton.
THE main fact about the from
tier" he said General Crook declar-
ed, sis that there isn't any." How
different the lot of the hon eseekers
OF today as compared with the life
OF the pioneer in the. thirties--fol-
lowing the steel rail ribbons which
enmesh finely. built cities and the
fertile lands from which they draw
their wealth, or by the slower meth
cd Of the time-honored~ wagons,
through forests of oak and pine, past
cotton fields of green and snow with
glimpses of blue and smiling gulf to
close the vista! The products of
farm and field are there to meet the
newcomers needs; heavy fruitage
)ows the trees; the cheerful hum of
busy life alternate with the woods
deep-hearted stiffness; neighbors,
schools, churches, social opportuni-,
ties are ready for his choosing in
the new world of Texas.
Mr.. McClurg said, in part, that
the many lowered Lone Star State
of Texas, emerging from her mas.
cent period rises large and full in,
the gaze Of the nations-the largest
of the United States-an empire of,
antitheses; of distances and diversi--
ties; an empire of bigness and con-
tradictions.
1t is the state of the treeless.
plains and of thick forest growths Of
pine, mosquito, oak, pecan, walnut.
and ebony; the state where you may,
battle every day in the. year. in the
blue Gulf Of Mexico and delve, in.
the mountains of FL Paso for ore.
the State of heavy rains and rainless
desert; of inland farms and plateau
cities and ports, Shipping the cotton
of the worlds marts; of land for
all who come and yet not an acre of.
government land; a State with an
cient 'granaries dating back to 1893,
and with two crops of corn year,
in fields from which the cactus was
grubbed up a year ago by a Trinity
and Brazos Valley settler; the big
gest State with almost the lowest
rate OF taxation; the State with the
mos tomatoes and fewest tomato
canaries; Astounding in Peccaries and
importing most of its pork; which
will give you a Christmas dinner of
beef and plum pudding with straw.
berries and holly and twenty-four
varieties Of fresh gathered vege-
tables! 50
And to note other contradiction
In the vast empire-in Texas-the
traveller passes mysterious swamps
hung with ghostly, gray moss, to
reach breezy upland cattle ranges
where a billion beeves are fed; he
travels the distance from New York
to Chicago but he is still III Texas,
he Is braced by a Keen "norther"
and pulls bananas near the largest
palm grove In the United States-
still In Texas; here ears ares saluted
with soft, bastard Latin" at Ers Pa
80, and the Tongue OF the Fatherland
at New Braunfels; he passes fields of
oil and fields that yield sorghum;
he travels over twelve thousand miles
Of railroad, more than..in any other
state. but the stage coach still plies
its useful way In remote. Texas. Tex
as has citizens born under the rule
OF Spain and citizens who know
no flag save the stars and stripes;
its first American colonizers we're
Connecticut men yet Texas ii a
stronghold Of Southern Democracy;
Texas is the land of the cowboy sdes-
perado who adornA the frontier tale
but twelve thirteenths 81 tie Pan
Handle counties are prohibition
counties and card playing and cigar
cite smoking are not permitted!a
Moses Austin was tie first col
onizer to lead AM ricans into Texas
and his Son stephen took up the
work and to the title 1f Emp fesh rio
Lea title given to the promoters 'oi
vast l6hd enterpfises) has added that
If fhS5ssENo III, :. "