Evening star., 1936-03-15
Bv Lucy Salamanca.

~PRING this year will usher more
than the bluebonnets into
Texas, and the Lone Star OF
- that fascinating State will look
down on such time of fiestas as was
not known even under the rule OF
Spain or Mexico. 1t was on March
2 that the first hundred years OF
Texas independence. of growth and
glory. triumphantly closed and Texas
entered officially upon a celebration
that will extend throughout 1885.
This celebration will cost millions
of dollars; it will include rodeoS,
fiestas. exhibits and fairs, pageants,
memorial dedications and the centen-
NAL eXpositionS in Dallas, for which
the most elaborate preparations have
been and are now under way.
So all-embracing are the efforts OF
Dallas to make this exposition world
famous that $2O,O00,0O0 are being
spent for renovation, repair or erec-
ton of buildings before the opening
of the centennial the centennial
building program alone running into
a total of S15,0o0,o00; viaducts that
will carry the heaviest burden OF
trafic to the exposition grounds from
other States or centers Of the State
itself are being improved, their ap-
breaches made beautiful and areas
thanking incoming highways cleared
or planted.
Campus campaigns are going for
ward at the University Of Texas for
the sale of continental half dollars,
the proceeds to go toward building the
Texas memorial museum, for which
project 100000 has been supplied by
the Federal Government and S225.OOO
from the State for furnishing and
equipping the building.
Texas students hope to supply an
additional minimum of $5000O0.
In Fort Worth loyal daughters Of
Texas are rummaging in attics and
burrowing in old trunks, exhuming
costumes and bonnets of frontier days
that they will wear to give colorful
air to their city when it formally
opens its centennial frontier show on
June 6.
Texas, in short, is shining its high
heeled boots the length and breadth
OF its incredible area to put its very
best foot forward from now on until
the last delighted visitor has returned
home. the spell Of Texan hospitality
warm upon him.
From now on, for months, events
crowd one upon another as part Of
the opening days Of the celebration,
for it was in early Spring that the
most glorious portions of Texas his
tory had their beginnings. 1t was on
March 2, for example, that a little
provisional congress Of Texans, meet
ing at Washington-o -Brazos,
drafted a declaration of independence
that established Texas as free and
sovereign republic. For days later oc-
Cured that slaughter Of rebel" vol
unteers and frontiersmen in the
Alamo at San Antonio by a Mexican
army of 5000 after 10 days Of re-
sistance in the old mission buildings.
IT shall never surrender or retreat" I"
declared Col. w. B. Travis, in COM
mand, in the message he sent out to
all the world, and he died with his
men in the old mission house during
the fierce hand-to-hand struggle that
ensued when the Mexicans swarmed
up the walls. 1t was on March q
that members of another volunteer
force of Texans, under Col. Fannin,
were brutally slain by a firing squad
at GoIad, only one or two escaping.
Still with the soft hand of Spring
upon her, Texas won actual inde-
pendence in the Battle of San Jacinto,
and today April 81, 1886. means as
much to a Texan as July 4 means to
the rest of the United States. Here,
to the grim admonition, Remember
the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" Texas
avenged the death of her heroes, sur
prising Santa Ana at his afternoon
siesta under a tree and losing but 2
men, with % wounded, to $50 MeM-