The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1914-03-20

country, and l realize that we are
nearing the land of the prickly pear,
the land of the burro, and the land of
of manana, as the coaches begin to
fill with MeXicans. 1t now being dark
| ! turn my attention to a greaser sitt-
ing next to me and ask him if he
speaks English. The answer is, mo,
senor," so it is up to me to throw a
little of my rusty Spanish in his di-
rection. ! ask him how many years
he has been out of Mexico, and he an
swers, dos" | asked him if he did
not want to go back, and he answered
NO. Texas bueno for me-" and |
thought so too. Texas is good, very
good. and there is room there for Is,
100000 more good industrious people,
who can make home sthere at a very
small outlay of cash.
AT 1880 a. IN. we reach Browns
vile and find fairly good hotel. moth
ing, however, to compare with our
own Hotel de Grubb. At $50 a. m.
| am up, unable to sleep longer on
account of habits formed while on the
Oroville-Princeton run, and going out
on the street | find another sight
seerer from St Louis, and together
we walk over the international bridge
and set one foot on Mexican soil. We
stand there and gaze upon the old
town of Matamoros, on the adobe
houses and huts, and the 400 year old
cathedral, and as we hear the reveille
sounded from the soldiers quarters
and see dozen soldiers crossing the
street couple of blocks away, my
friend remarked, 81 cts go back; 1
haven't lost anything over here" |
did not enter any objections, so we re-
turned, and after breakfast boarded a
train for the Rio Grande valley We
left the main line at Harlinden, some
20 miles north of Brownsville, and
soon we were in the midst of the ir-
rigatiOn district. This land is said
to be the richest and most productive
on the fact of the earth, where cotton
grows eight to ten feet tall and corn
stalks Is to 20 feet high; where they
grow 20 to 80 tons of cabbage to the
acre and have received as high as $50
per ton for it on board cars. In one
day since | came down there have left |
Houston on the st. Louis, Browns
vile & Mexico road 35 coaches loaded
with land seekers, and most of them
are buying this land at prices rang
ing from 1925 to $3.50 per acre. Even
at that the land has to be cleared, as
it is covered so densely with cactus
and greese wood that it is almost i'm
possible for man to walk over it. |
The wise man can go there and by |
looking around for a few days save
500 per acre in the purchase price of |
land. The road runs up the valley for |
about 20 miles. The largest irrigation
fumes | have ever seen are here,
some large enough to float a good siz-
ed steamboat such as ply on the Mis-
slssippi river. | believe this land will |
pVii III q lew years DIT PDUU per acre, |
and I think the place to make big
money in land is in Texas, the Lone
Star state.
Well to conclude. Back to Hous-
ton, and my next trip is to Hubbard, |
so miles south of Ft. Worth and 30 |
miles east of Waco. Here I stuck for
three weeks taking a dip every day
in bath, the water coming from an
artisan we'll 1000 feet deep, with a |
temperature of 1877 fer. Leaving Hub
bard on March 18th l arrived in
Spokane on the morning of the 18th.
where owing to slight indisposition
of Mrs. Getsey I will have to stay
for a week and be a daily visitor to
the Sacred Heart hospital, where she
has taken up her abode for a short
time.
Hoping that have not intruded too
much on your time and patience re-
main, Yours truly
J, f. GETSEY.