The Monroe journal., 1921-04-29
WITNESSES PASSING OF
LAST CHANCE" SALOON

Continued from page one.
Chance" and Last Chance" painted
on the signs. The little towns where
once the cowboys gathered from the
range and raised merry and deadly
hell are now filled with automobiles,
10 say nothing of Fords, and only
now and then co you see a lonely
fellow in the saddle with his rope
on the horn. and these are the tamest
looking of all. for they ride only in
pastures ard use the rope only when
calf is to be caught or steer to
be doctored. Branding irons and
Mexican spurs with spikes like
pitchfork, are now shown as relics.
But everything here is still ranch.
whether il is a ten thousand acre
pasture or a chicken farm. But they
have wild west shows and talk about
the west pretty much as we do at
home.
Politics I'm Texas.
Well, one of the familiar situations
that started out TO tell about Is
that relating to politics. They had
the governor riding in the parade
here Friday He has just come into
office and is complaining about the
same things that Governor Morrison
was complaining about In Raleigh in
February; namely, that the governor
/ had no power and that the whole
show was being run by boards and
committees over which he had no
control. They also talk about the
division between the east and west
of the state, just like we do except
they are more violent and demand a
division and a creation Of new state
sometimes. But there is enough for
two or three states and then some.
They say II you could flop Texas over
on the axis of its eastern border the
west would hit the Atlantic, on Its
western border the east would fall
into the Pacific. and on its northern
border the south would lie in Canada.
And that would be going some.
Disregard Nuts Warning.
Also the city has been going
through an election. The outs are
callings the ms rascals and incom-
petents. and the ms are calling the
outs bolshevicks. The farmers are
complaining about the price of cot
ton and steers. but don't hear any
thing about tobacco. because they
don't grow il. and nothing about fer
tilizer. for they don't use il. But the
Jack rabbits and the rats eat up ev-
erything and the weevil ruins the
grain. They are carrying on anti
rat campaigns, and jack rabbit drives
are frequent. II seems that the rats
NOW down the grass Of the pastures
as bad as the jack rabbits. But the
fields to my eyes are most beautiful.
The whole earth Is covered with
riot OF wild flowers. Corn Is knee
high and they are chopping cotton.
Vegetation grew rapidly In March
while the weather was warm but
later cold spells stopped II. Now II
is coming again and soon the sun
will be hot. They are talking about
roads much as we do and have about
the relative improvement that we
have. There are plans for two great
highways to cross here. One Is the
old Spanish trail from ocean to ocean
and one from Mexico TO Canada. And
tne bduit toois Wy w vSet '"N 49,.
across like they do there. AT one
railroad cross I saw well kept grave
and a real marble tombstone at the
foot and head. On the large stone
was an inscription. "In Memory OF
Careless Mutt" and underneath the
name there was a stanza OF verse tell
ing how Mr.. Mutt had undertaken to
beat the train across the track to
make the train crew sore. II was
the most vivid warning | ever saw.
But seven men were killed In car
at that crossing not long ago.
have been wishing that Tom Dill
Ion had been here during fest week
to get some points on parades and
floats. The automobiles. covered In
flowers, both real and artificial, were
so managed that they could be IL
Illuminated at night. and this produced
a great spectacle. With all the art
and expense given to the artificial
flowers. II Is noteworthy that the car
OF a blind man which was decorated
wholly with natural flowers, won first
nlaro