The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1922-07-24
ROBT. G. HEMPHlLL
WRITES OF WEST TEXAS
Capt. Perrin and Sing Finley Will
Leave For Lambert At
Once.

Leave FOr LAMBERT Ht
Once.
Federal Bldg, San Antonio, Tex,
July 9, 1922.
My dear Mother
This is Sunday morning and I have
just finished reading the morning pa
per with all it's news of strikes and
murders and trouble in general.
Judging from it this is a great world
of excitement that I am living in,
but as a matter Of fact mighty little
of it strikes me personally, and I
haven't a thing in the way of real
news to tell you. But I am going to
send this along to let you know that
II am still alive and able to sit up
and eat a piece of watermelon pro-
vided 1 can get it.
Since I wrote you last 1 have been
on a trip to West Texas, to San An
gelo and Fort Stockton, to get some
dope on farm costs. Texas is such a
big state that a trip to that part of
it means quite a bit of travelling, and
during the week I was away I got
pretty well fed up on a fivver as a
means of transportation. 1t is about
$50 miles to San Angelo and from
there to Fort Stockton is ITO miles;
and from Fort Stockton back to San
Antonio direct is $50 miles. That part
of Texas is pretty sparsely settled
and it is a country of magnificent dis
ltances without an inhabitant. There
are whole counties out there which
do not contain as many as 100 vot-
ers, and there r stretches of road
on which you can drive for thirty
miles and never see a civilized thing
except a windmill to pump water for
the cattle which ranges. the country.
San Angelo is on the Concho river
and is the metropolis Of west Texas.
It has about $4,000 to 10000 people
in it and it is a very attractive place.
The streets are wide and the bust
ness part of the town looks good.
There are also some nice parks along
the river which add much to the
looks of the town. It is a great coun-
try for sheep and good for goats too.
I understand that it is the second
largest inland wool market in the
country. When I was there they were
having the national convention of the
sheep and goat raisers and they were
there from all over the country.
Good rams were sold as high as ST.
900 apiece. The country around San
Angelo is much like the plains coun-
try of Colorado and it makes me
homesick for Colorado every time
60 out there. I can't get over that
love I have for vast open spaces with
mountains in the distance even if
there isn't a living thing in sight ex-
cept ~greasewood and sage brush.
The biggest dry goods firm in San
Angelo is the Baker Hemphill Com
pany, who do both a wholesale and
retail business. I wanted very much
to look them up and see who they
were but I did not have time. One of
them is a William and another is a
John Hemphill, so I guess they must
be descendants of the old John
Hemphill who fit the duel in Sumter
and then came west. (Old John would
hardly admit it, if true, as he was
never married. Though the evidence
as furnished by the name is against
him.-Editor.)
Fort Stockton is the site of one
of the old forts sprinkled all over
Texas in the early days to fight the
Indians and other bandits. There are
some very fine springs there which
flow about 100 cubic feet per second
or $4,000 gallons per minute and on
the site of the old cattle ranches
which surrounded them there are now
two small irrigation systems watering
about ten thousand acres. They raise
alfalfa as their chief crop and not
much else. 1t is a fine country but
the land was sold too high and they
are having trouble making a 60 of it.