The Republican journal., 1916-04-06
Souvenirs of Travel.
Ashville, Chattanooga, Galveston, Houston
and San Antonio.

Ashville, Chattanooga, Galveston, Houston
and San Antonio.
Through the courtesy of Mr.. Selwyn Thomp-
son we have been looking over a number of
illustrated booklets collected by Mr. and Mrs.
Thompson during recent trip through the
South and to the Pacific coast They include
AsEville. the "Land of the Sky" Chattanooga,
Tenn.-one booklet with beautiful colored
views of Lookout Mountain, and another book.
let with views of Signal Mountain; Galveston,
Houston and San Antonio. Texas, and Cali
fornia's Missions.
VI special interest to the writer were the
views of Galveston and San Antonio, showing
the changes in SO years. In 1857 Galveston
was little more than town, with no railway
connections and streets ankle deep in sand
Now it has a cement sea wall that is one of the
engineering marvels of the present age, ten
million dollar jetties, mammoth grain ele.
vators, many sky scrapers, million dollar
hotel, Great Southern Pacific docks, wharves
where ships from every foreign nation are
seen, and causeway connecting the island of
Galveston with the mainland, lO675 feet in
length. on which is county roadway, sim
gle track lnterurban and double track steam
railway. This causeway, which cost $780,
600, is beautifully illustrated in colors in the
Houston booklet. Houston has ship cana
that makes this inland city port of entry,
and it is said that this waterway cuts the
railroad rate from 81 to 6 cents a hundred
,,o,,do 1lv
Sc, 100000.
But to return to Galveston. A view of cot
ton on the Galveston wharves for export re-
calls the time when the ships that came for
cotton laid in the roadstead and loaded from
lighters. The ships of those days were small,
compared with the schooners of today, The
Fox, the first ship launched in Belfast, was
built by Major William Cunningham near the
upper bridge in 1905, and was about 300 TONS
There was a gradual increase in size in the
ships built in succeeding years, but the largest
built up to and including 1857 was the Coro-
net. of 1857 "a tons, and later three ships of
I 700 tons were built.
| Even greater are the changes in San An
tonic. In 1857 it crude frontier town, in
| the hands of cutthroats and thieves until a
vigilance committee was organized to rid the
| place-and the esrth-of their presence. All
supplies were hauled by OK teams from the
coast. distance of 100 miles There were
height. The ma jority were Mexican jacals or
built of adobe. There was nothing in the
place that could be called hotel The Read
House, two story building in corner of the
main plaza. was little more than a boarding
house. and of course without modern conven-
fences. Now San Antonio has palatial hotels
The Gunter cost over $1,50OO0O, the St.
Anthony like sum, the Menger. described
by Mrs Dinsmore in her paper recently pub
lished in The Journal; parks, hardsome and
costly private residences, skyscrapers for
offices and other business purposes, and the
plazas have been improved and embelshed
beyond description. The Alamo Plaza, on
which the Menger hotel is situated, was a
dusty. wind swept space surrounded by shabby
! buildings, and the main plaza and the military
| plazas were little better. There was but one
tree in the Main Plaza, near the Read House,
and in its shade would be seen Mexican fruit
vendors. Now these plazas, as shown in beauti-
full colored views, have trees, shrubs and grass
plots and surrounded by fine buildings;
and in place of the once familiar Mexican
carts and mule teams you see automobiles and
trolley cars. Fifty-ni years ago the writer
found San Antonio attractive. and as it is to-
day does not wonder that it has an increasing
number of northern visitors The climate
which probably has not changed, is an added
attraction. No dew falls, and while the days
are hot there is a refreshing breeze at night
from the Gulf of Mexico The sky is usually
cloudless, of an intense blue, aud the moon
light rivals the daylight.