Dallas County, Texas - The whole text, 1892 (part 6 of 32)

" We are charged with preserving and maintaining free institutions. Is there a man here who carried a musket that does not remember some blessing from woman's lips that followed him from the old hearthstone to the battlefield? Is there one here who suffered with wounds in the hospital or on the field that has not occasion to gratefully remember the tender office of some blessed woman? Our cliildren ought not to be permitted to forget them. Then you do a service to jour country and justice to your owu feelings of virtue when the mothers of to-day lead their little children and watch them strew flowerg around tiie graves of fallen hei-oes of both armies. The war, with its disasters to the cause in which the hopes of my young manhood were wrapped, and in which I offered my best efforts, ended leaving no stain on me. I rejoice at its results. I meet my brother man of the Federal army. I do not feel humiliated or degraded. Then I stood for my country as he stood by his; I stood for Texas, the State whose lone-star flag as a republic sheltered me in my infancy. I owe it to that State, my country. I fought for Texas as you fought for Massachusetts or New York. (Applause.) In these times of peace we meet in good fellowship, each rejoicing that in the other he finds the hero worthy of his steel. How measure the glory of Gettysburg, of Fredericksburg, or of the last charge, where the current wave of secession and rebellion reached its height? By the resistance it overcame. If the armies under Grant, Thomas and Logan had fought cowards, would Grant, Thomas and Logan and the brave men who stood beside them be entitled to the name of heroes? No one earns credit for striking a cripple; no man earns credit in this day for overcoming a foe not worthy of his steel. The unconquerable courage of the Confederate soldier made the glory of the Federal general. When we remember Grant let us look at him as a hero, let us see him as he handed back the sword to Lee. Place that to his credit. As we look to Lincoln let us remember every kind and generous act he did - that greatest of great men - and when you, my men of the Grand Army of the Republic, think of the Confederacy, remember only her suffering and all that she lost in that most terrible of wars. Slavery abolished, 1 rejoice with you in these things; but do not charge that which luade heroes in bitterness to us. It was well that the war came when it did; that it was fought by the men who fought it and that it ended as it did end. We performed our duties faithfully and well, and we are thankful that there came from it a higher salvation - a better promise than the man who participated in it ever dreamed of. We can all rejoice in this day, returning as it will return blessed by the people of this country. May it, as each one of those here passes beyond the river to that eternal camping ground, be an incentive to the closer union of the people of this country!

" We are to-day the superior of the earth. Let this inspire every American heart of today. This 65,000,000 of people, blessed as we are with our free institutions, located as we are, upheld by the strong arm of our Government, can defy the civilization of the world to put foot upon these grounds and conquer or harm us. (Applause.)"

Trinity River Navigation

While many skiffs and canoes had traversed the Trinity from Dallas to its mouth from the earliest settlement of the county, no steamboat had ever arrived at Dallas over this stream until in May, 1868, when Captain J. H. McGarvey and wife, with Philip Dugin, engineer, and one hand, arrived in a steamer called "Job Boat No. 1:" dimensions, 66 X 20 feet, bearing twenty-six tons' burden. This boat was licensed as the law required to traverse the waters on Galveston and its tributaries.

Mr. McGarvey was induced to steam up tlie Trinity to Dallas, for the sum of $500, paid him bj' the citizens of Dallas. After this boat remained at Dallas for many days, several of the citizens of Dallas took a trip down the Trinity in it as far as Mount East Fork. McGarvey, as he progressed on this trip, discoursed to the citizens how the channel of the river should be cleaned out in order to make the river navigable. On reaching Bois d'Arc island, about thirty miles by water of the two chutes that surrounded the island, McGarvey recommended that the main raft should not be interfered with, but that one chute should be closed and the other opened. It was so done, and it has ever since borne the name of " McGarvey's Pass."

After this the citizens became very enthusiastic over the navigation of the Trinity river, and a boat was built and launched in 1869, with dimensions eighty-seven feet in length, by eighteen wide. It bore the name of -' Sallie Haynes," named after Mrs. Governor BarnettGibbs, daughter of Mr. Ilaynes, one of the leading merchants of the city, then the belle of Dallas, and one of the most beautiful young ladies of Texas.

Subsequently a memorial was circulated over the counties bordering on the Trinity, between Dallas and the Galveston, asking the legislature to make an appropriation of $75,000 to remove the obstructions from the river, overhanging timber, etc. This memorial was placed in the hands of the Internal Improvement Company, during Governor Edmund J. Davis' adtninistration, and a bill was pre- pared to meet the wishes of these citizens; but the legislature at that time being wild on railroad building, the bill, to use Colonel W. C. WoitTs language, " fell asleep in the hands of the committee, and has slept until this day."

A memorial was also presented to the members of the constitutional convention at the city of Austin, Texas, in 1869, of which the following is a copy: " To the Honorable President and members

"Your memorialists, citizens of the county of Dallas, respectfully represent to your honorable body that the recent arrival of the steamboat Job Boat No. 1, Captain J. H. McGarvey, master, at the town of Dallas, establishes the fact that the Trinity river may be successfully navigated from the city of Galveston to the town of Dallas for six months annually, by the expenditure of a small sum of money in removing snags, leaning timber, and other obstructions between the town of Dallas and the mouth of East fork. An experienced steamboatman of twenty years' practice has proposed to citizens of Dallas county to remove all the obstructions in the river between the above designated points, so that boats of sufficient capacity to carry live hundred bales of cotton can be run on the river to Dallas for four months in the year, for the sum of five thou-^and dollars in specie. A project promising advantages so great to every department of industry and enterprise should demand the especial attention, not only of the people of Dallas county, but of the whole State. The benefits flowing to the people of Dallas county from the success of such an enterprise are not to be measured or estimated l)y the small sum proposed to be expended; in fact, they are beyond enumeration, to the State, of opening up to successfnl navigation a stream penetrating her interior a distance of seven hundred miles from the seaboard, securing tlie rapid settlement of millions of acres of rich and fertile lands by thrifty and enterprising emigrants, which are now lying idle and yielding but little revenue to the State, and none to the owner. The saving in the single item of pine lumber in one year will fourfold repay the amount expended, besides the advantage of the great redaction in prices in the items of salt, sugar, iron and other articles of necessary consumption. The immense pineries of the counties of Anderson, Houston, and Walker, arealmost valueless in their present condition, because of the slow and expensive means of transportation to the prairies, where every description of pine lumber is in constant demand. Navigation to Dallas, three months annually, would reduce the price of pine lumber onehalf, thereby bringing it within the reach of every farmer to supply himself for the improvement of his farm and home.

"To raise the money by private contribution would naturally become onerous upon those who are determined upon the success of the enterprise, while those, for reasons whether selfish or otherwise, refusing to contribute, would reap an equal benefit. Therefore, your memorialists are impressed that a more proper and just course would be to levy a sufficient tax upon the property in Dallas county to raise the sum of live thousand dollars in specie, and as the citizens in the town of Dallas have signified their willingness, let the tax be so levied that one-third of the whole amount sliall be paid by those owning property within the corporate limits of said town. Your memorialists are aware that more properly this petition should be presented to the legislature when it assembles, but the delay of such a course would compel the loss of the advantao-es at least one season, and perhaps more, the importance of which needs only to be mentioned to commend its reason. Feeling that you will not hesitate to act in a public matter of so much magnitude, and especially when those to be burdened are asking the action, we therefore ask your honorable body to pass an ordinance authorizing the police court of Dallas county to levy and collect a tax of five thousand dollars in specie upon on all property in Dallas county subject to ad-valorem taxation, said tax to be assessed upon the schedules or lists rendered to the assessor for the year 1868, said money to be expended under the direction of the police court in removing the obstructions in the Trinity river, between the town of Dallas and East fork. Provided, that onethird of the amount shall be collected from property situated within the corporate limits of the town of Dallas; and provided further, that the tax levied shall not be more than twenty cents on the hundred dollars, except on property within the corporate limits of the town of Dallas, which may be taxed as high as sixty cents for each hundred dollars.

In 1873 the legislature did grant a subsidy in land certificates of 10,000 acres per raile to Captain Poitevant, a steamboat captain, and he removed the overhanging timbers and snags on the river as far as Magnolia, in Anderson county. At this point he stopped. He received, however, his certificates for land on contract, for his services. As many as fifty steamboats ran continuously from 1852 to 1874, up the Trinity river as high as Trinidad in Kaufman county, also to Porter's Bluff in Ellis county. A live shipping business of cotton of general freight was carried on. In the '70s, however, the railroads began to traverse the country and, under excitement over the rapid travel over these avenues of commerce, attention to navigation was lost; and so greatly were the people absorbed over the rapid transportation of railroads and the strides of business generally that the idea of traversing the Trinity river with steamboats seemed absolutely absurd. But some of the pioneer settlers, knowing the history of the past, knew the idea perfectly feasible and continued to encourage efforts in that direction.

Colonel W. C. Wolff was the leading spirit to revive this interest lately excited among the citizens of Dallas. Having failed at several public meetings in Dallas to get a hearing, proposing the feasibility of the navigation of the Trinity, he finally succeeded in getting the attention of the Board of Trade of the city. At this hearing he aroused attention to say the least, and since then a live interest has been manifested by some of the most influential citizens of the city. Among those most active are Captain Sidney Smith, Captain J. Piuck. Thomas, Coh)nel D. 0. Mitchell, Colonel J. B. Simpson, Colonel Henry Exall and Hon. John H. Cochran and numerous others.

In July, 1890, JohnH. Cochran, J. Pinck. Thomas and W. C. Wolff secured a charter for a company known as " The Trinity Navigation and Improvement Company;" capital stock $100,000; shares $100 each. The following were the charter members:

This company built a steamboat 64 feet long and 12 feet across the deck, and launched it in the fall of 1891. It drew only seven inches light, and estimated to be 300-barrel capacity. It was used in cutting away obstructions from Dallas to Liberty, Texas. It is used at this time in shipping railroad ties to Riverside for the use of the International & Great Northern Railroad Company. This company, at a public meeting in Dallas, agreed to give away to a new company. Effective service is now being done to get the United States to make this a navigable stream.

The citizens have succeeded in arousing interest in Captain Flatau, an experienced and able steamboatman in the enterprise, and considerable attention has been excited generally. The following is an account of a meeting held in Dallas, February 2, 1892, and as publisiied in the Dallas News:

The meeting in the auditorium of the city hall yesterday on the navigation of the Trinity river was largely attended, upward of 200 persons being present. Hon. John H. Cochran occupied the chair, and Mr. Leo Wolfson, secretary of the board of ti'ade, jierformed the duties of secretary. Addressing the meeting, the chairman said it was not necessary to argne the importance of the navigation of the Trinity river to the future of Dallas. The undertaking, he proceeded, was neither visionary nor of recent birth. John Neely Bryan pitched his tent where Dallas stands because he considered it the head of navigation, and the only obstacle to navigation regarded by the early settlers was the raft at Bois d'Aro island, which to-day, with the aids and instrumentalities of science, could easily be removed. The last effort looking to the navigation of the river was the taking out of a charter last July to that end. In addition to the resources of tlie company had they available $500 cash, $100 worth of dynamite and $10 worth of coal oil, the river would now be navigable down to the raft. He recited the operation of the company in buildincra boat and clearing the river. With the aid of the people of Dallas the river, he asserted, would soon be navigated to the gulf and Dallas declared a water point. (Applause.)

Captain Ballard, commander of the Sallie Haynes, a Trinity river steamboat, named after Mrs. Barnett Gibbs; Captain Beeman, the pilot of that boat; Judge James Bently, commander of Job Boat No. 1, which had successfully navigated the Trinity; Captain L. S. Flatau, of Pittsburg, Texas, who navigated the Trinity for years, and Jndge A. B. Norton, the veteran editor at the Three Forks, were invited to seats on the platform.

Captain Flatau, who at short distance looks like a man of thirty-five, but over whose head forty-eight summers have rolled, addressed the meeting by invitation. He had, he said, navigated the Trinity for along time without noticeable trouble, and he could not understand, in view of the bonanza offered by this water course, why the people of Dallas did not take a livelier interest in opening it up to commerce, than which nothing was more practicable. The narrowness of the Trinity, he proceeded, is an argument in its favor; for whenever a steamboat gets into a river that she tills navigation is easy; but when the river is wide and shallow there is trouble. This part of the Trinity river in which you think a steamboat cannot get along is the easiest navigation of the river. 1 used to steam up to Liberty, and I believe that I am the first man who ever navigated down the river; and I was the first who ever carried Buck's headlight at the jackstaff. 1 have come to Magnolia in the night and never had any trouble. 1 commanded the Cage. Once they sent Colonel Tucker from Dallas to know if I would not bring the Cage up to Dallas. I left Galveston light at the tail of the season and came up in the neighborhood of Bois d'Arc island (al)out fourteen miles below Dallas). It was at the time of the year when there was but little water in the river, and if the river had stayed up I would have come to Dallas. There is not a better river in the south than the Trinity. If the importance that exists for the navigation of the Trinity from Dallas were to exist in Illinois the river would be at once navigated. Why, with less necessity the people of Illinois have cut a canal 200 miles, largely through rock. You have no bars in the Trinity and only a few shoals, which nature has meant as a bed for locks - Kickapoo, White Eock and Cannon Ball shoals. You cannot put locks in an alluvial soil, but here is a foundation laid by nature for them. Talk of snags! I have steamboated on the uppei* Missouri, where snags look like the bristles on a hog. Snags under the water line cut no figure. The people of Dallas cannot afford in these times to let such an opportunity pass. Like all other true Texans I would like to see Dallas grow to a great city. To that end you must have a freight rate that will encourage manufactures and that yon can acquire through the agency of the Trinity river. (Applause.) I would not ask better fun than to start from Galveston to Dallas with a well rigged boat if it were not for a few railroad bridges. All the rivers in the upper country are filled with boats, and if you will in a measure clear away the obstruction in the Trinity river the owners of those boats will make an effort to trade here. The value of timber along this river can only be appreciated by those acquainted with it - pin oak, ash and hickory. I have plied the Trin- ity river night and day, and we pulled throngh the rafts. With a quart of glycerine and telegraph connection the raft will disappear. Think of what the Government did above Jefferson. Below Bois d'Arc island the river is filled with raft. There are eight or nine clay bends. Put a dynamite can under one of those bends and the water will wash it out. It will cost $550 or $670 a mile to Galveston from Dallas to make the Trinity river navigable. All the railroads to-day are nearly dead for some excuse to give you a cut rate. (Applause.) If it were not for the interstate commerce commission you would have it to-day down to B flat. I represent B. F. Avery & Sons, and if you could say to them here is a fifty per cent cut rate they would pull up from Fort Wortli tomorrow and give you $10,000 bonus. Continuing, the speaker said that while civil engineers had performed wonders in their profession, practical pilots, men who knew how to cut and where to cut, were -the men needed to clean out the river. A civil engineer had reported on the great difficulty presented at the mouth of the river. The speaker, when the river was low, steamed through the mouth, having lightered his cargo into two barges, which he towed to Galveston. By backing the enterprise, he said, the people of Dallas could count on half a dozen steamboats entering here within two years.

that owing to the increased rainfall in the Panhandle country and all over north Texas there is more water now in the Trinity than when he navigated it. A dam at White Rock or Kickapoo Falls, if it should be found necessary for low water, would, he insisted, back water almost up to Dallas. Concluding, he said: If you push this thing as you should Dallas will be the greatest distributing and manufacturing point in tiie Soutb. Build a wall around Texas and we would not know that there was anybody elsewhere, such are our resources. The men in Dallas who own great brick blocks and annexes would be paid by digging a ditch to Galveston. (Applause).

Resolved, That a committee of ten, composed of two members of the County Commissioners court, two members of the City Council, two members of the Board of Trade and four members of the Trinity River Navigation and Improvement Company, be appointed to formulate and present the most feasible plan for the early reopening to navigation of the Trinity river from Dallas south to the county line. That all the counties bordering on the Trinity river from Dallas to the Gulf of Mexico be requested to consider our common interest in this enterprise and give their aid to this movement either by taking stock in the Trinity river navigation and improvement company or by giving lands and donations in money.

The chair appointed the following committee under the resolutions: From the City Council - Aldermen Webster and Harris; from the County Commissioners' Court - Judge Bower and T. B. Fisher; from the Board of Trade - S. W. S Duncanand John II. Taylor. From the Trinity River Navigation and Improvement company - Sydney Smith, J. P. Thomas, C. E. Perry and D. C. Mitchell.

The committee retired, and during their absence the meeting was entertained by Judge A. B. Norton, Judge Bentley, F. N. Oliver and General Gano with short addresses. Judge Norton said that no State in the Union was so well provided with water-courses as Texas. The Trinity was misnamed. It should have been called the Rio Grande, because it was the grandest river in Texas. In the early days of Texas, he said, speaking from recollection, all the cotton raised in the counties adjacent to this river was taken adown its bosom to Galveston. Legislature had given grand subsidies to railroads, but they did nothing for his great commercial highway. The speaker said that when he ran against Roger Q. Mills for Congressjthe main horse he rode was the navigation of rivers. He promised if elected to get a good appropriation with which to put the Trinity in a good navigable condition. He was not elected and he has since been as one crying in the wilderness. Conclutling, Judge Norton said, and the sentiment was loudly cheered: Away with all party considerations; away with all divisions among men; stand shoulder to shoulder on the navigation of the Trinity river. It matters not who gets hold of the public teat. He only helps himself; but he who works for improvement of the navigation

Judge Bentley briefly reviewed his experience as a Trinity river captain, and he heartily indorsed the movement looking to the return of the use of that river as a highway of commerce.

The committee appointed under the Wolff resolution presented the following report: We, the undersigned, your committee, beg to make the following report, to-wit:

That whereas, the Trinity River Navigation and Improvement Company propose to open the Trinity river for navigation and thereby declare Dallas a water point, and propose at their own expense to canvass for and collect subscriptions for that purpose to be paid when Dallas is so declared a water point;

And whereas, they propose to turn the said subsidies over to three trustees to be used for that purpose; now therefore, we recommend the acceptance of their proposition and the election of the three trustees as mentioned, who shall receive all such funds and use the same in conjunction with the said Trinity Navigation and Improvement Company for the accomplishment of that object, returning to said Trinity Navigation and Improvement Company the remainder, if any, that may be left after said object lias been accomplished.

It is also recommended that all citizens take stock in said Trinity River Navigation Company and that our members of Congress be instructed to at once take such action as they deem necessary to have Congress appropriate $500,000 for improving the navigation of the Trinity river from Dallas to its mouth at Galveston.

The chair, speaking as president of the Trinity Navigation and Improvement Company, said that the directory consisted of thirteen members, seven of whom would resign to give place to subscribers to stock.

Colonel Holland suggested that Captain Flatau be at once sent to Washington to present the claims of the Trinity river before the River and Harbor Committee.

Captain Flatau said he had received letters from Congressmen Abbott and Culberson, asking him what the improvement of the river would cost. He had replied to the communications. He was willing to do what he could in the premises.

The following is the bill upon the subject of the navigation of the Trinity river originally introduced in Congress by Congressman Abbott April 28, 1892, and as reported by the committee on rivers and harbors and called up in the House of Representatives by Congressman Charles Stewart for Mr. Abbott, and passed in the House the 20th instant. There is no doubt about it passing the senate and becoming a law quite favorable indeed to this great Dallas enterprise:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the Trinity Navigation Company, a corporation created and existing under and by virtue of the general laws of the State of Texas, or its successors and assigns, be, and are hereby authorized and empowered to open to navigation the Trinity river in the state of Texas, from the town of Liberty to the city of Dallas, in said state, and to this end said company, its successors or assigns, are authorized to remove all logs and rafts and stones from the water bed of said river, as well as other obstructions found in said river, so as to secure safe passage for such vessels as may navigate the same; said company is further authorized and empowered to construct such locks and dams as said company deem proper and necessary, and to do and perform any and all such acts and to make such improvements on said river and its banks as may be proper and necessary to secure safe navigation of said river at low water between the points named for steamboats having a draft of not less than three feet:

Sec. 2. That in consideration of the labor and exipenae incurred and to be incurred i)y said Trinity Navigation Company in opening said river to navigation, the same is hereby authorized and empowered to charge and collect such tolls therefor as may be prescribed by the regulations that may be made from time to time by the secretary of the treasury of the United States. -

Sec. 3. That within two years of the passage of this act, said company shall begin the work of improving the navigation of said river, and shall proceed with said work as ex-

Sec. 4. That the United States reserves the right at any time dnring the progress of the work on said river or at any time after the same is completed to take ciiarge of said river and the works of said company and in the exercise of this reserved right shall have the option of taking said works at their original cost, or at their actnal v-alue at the time of taking the same, and the actnal value thereof shall bn ascertained by three officers of the engineer corps of the array of the United States, to be appointed by the secretary of war; provided that, in estimating the valne of said works to be paid for by the United States, the franchise of said corporation resulting either from this act or derived by it from tlie State of Texas shall not be considered or estimated.

Seo. 5. That ttie right to collect tolls on said river under this act shall not accrue to said company until it shall have improved said river between the town of Buffalo, in the county of Anderson, in the State of Te.xas, and the city of Dallas, so that between said points, at the lowest stage of water, steamboats having a draft of not less than three feet can navigate the same, and in no event shall tolls be charged for the use of said river below the town of Lil)erty, in Liberty county, in the State of Texas.

Railroad Facilities

For any city to become a great commercial center she must have able means of transportation either by water or railroad. Dallas in her earlier stages of city development, when she realized that it was possible for her to become the great metropolis of the State, began to exert every effort to secure the railroad line reaching through the southwest; and the first subsidy voted by this ambitious and enterprising city, then comparatively small, was in 1872, prior to any prohibition by the State constitution to such subsidies given by a vote of the people which now exist, and was $100,000 to the Texas & i-'acific railroad, which was then being constructed westward from Texarkana.

The shrewd and enterprising citizens then of Dallas, foreseeing the importance of having at this point the intersection of this gieat eastern and western line, and the Houston & Texas Central running north and south, which was at that time driving with rapid speed north from Houston into the Indian Territory, determined to use every means possible to have this intersection. So she was liberal in her donation, accomplished her aims and thereby in this happy arrangement made Dallas in many respects the railroad city of north Texas.

Being ambitions of attaining the proportions of a great city, she was yet unsatisfied, and even in those early days she had her eyes open to the importance of connection with the Panhandle and the great Northwest, and only a proposition ha<l to be made to build a road from Dallas to Wicliita Falls, Texas, to open that territory of rich prairie lands adapted specially to the raising of small grain, when Dallas steps to the front with another $100,000. This line, however, was built only as far as Denton, at which point it

These were the only subsidies voted by the people. Since then the constitution of the State has been so anjen^led as to revoke the power of the people to do that. However, the liberal spirit of the citizens has never been quenched, and thousands of dollars have been most generously donated in the way of private donations to secure the other great lines that now radiate in eleven directions from Dallas.

After these the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, a line direct from Galveston, was secured and made connection with the Missouri Pacific at Greenville and the St. Louis & San Francisco at Paris, giving Dallas two other great avenues of commerce, which has ever been her pride and boast. This Missouri Pacific system a short time afterward extended their branch, reaching from Denton to Dallas on to Hillsboro, where it joins the main line of the great Missouri Pacific system, now the Missouri, Kansas & Texas.

The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe did not stop at Greenville, but extended on as far as Paris, where it made connection with the St. Louis &, San Francisco, thereby giving another direct outlet to the East.

The Texas Trunk was early put into operation. Extending iu a southeasterly direction it traverses a rich country and opens up to connection witli Dallas one of the finest timbered sections in the State, and indeed in the Union. This line was bought by the

Southern Pacific Railroad Company in the spring of 1892. So it is apparent that nearly all the Texas railroads lead to Dallas, and it is said that those roads now being operated in the State and not coming into Dallas contemplate doing so as soon as practicable !

It is certainly an evident fact now that no railroad can come into north Texas with the purpose of having a Texas trade without paying tribute to the city of Dallas. About four years ago. General Geo. F. Alfred organized another railroad company, called the Dallas, Archer & Pacific (now the Dallas, Pacific & Southeastern), was its first president, and was succeeded in the presidency on account of failing health by Colonel J. E. Henderson. Nearly 100 miles of this road were graded into the great Panhandle, bifurcating the rich country between the Texas & Pacific and Fort Worth & Denver railroads, and penetrating the richest coal belt in the State. The hard times and money pressure following the collapse of the Barry boom suspended construction for the time being, but it will soon be resumed, and this great artery of commerce will then be pushed forward to Albuquerque, New Mexico, thus making connection with the Atlantic & Pacific for San Francisco, and making a through line from San Francisco to JSlew Orleans, about 400 miles shorter than any transcontinental line now in existence.

Texas State Fair And Dallas Exposition

No institutiou has ever been established in Dallas county that has ever attracted more attention from abroad and excited more pride among tlie citizens, not only of Dallas county, but also througliout the entire Stat«, than the Texas State Fair, and Dallas Exposition. It has not only impressed the people abroad that Dallas is the foremost city in the State, but also that her citizens cannot be surpassed in enterprise and vim.

It is located on a beautiful rolling prairie east of the city, about two miles from the courtiiouse; and there are to the ground a rapid-transit electric street-car line, and the Missouri & Pacific railroad also runs by the ground, thereby affording ample accommodation to the immense crowds that gather in Dallas, to witness the great exhibition each year. For an elaborate detail of the history of this great institution, we give in full an article written by Sidney Smith of Dallas, ex-secretary of the association, and published in October (1891) issue of The Round Table, a literary monthly journal of the city.

The following are the present officers of the Texas State Fair and Dallas Exposition: J. E. Schneider, president; J. N. Simpson, vice-president; J. S. Armstrong, treasurer; C. A. Cour, secretary.

This great fair has certainly gained a national reputation, and men of national reputation have met the people of Texas, and delivered addresses on subjects of interest on such occasions. Among the most noted from a distance were Hon. Francis, Governor of Missouri, and Hon. Robert Taylor, then Governor of Tennessee. On the day Governor Francis delivered his address, there were so many Missourians present rejoicing in enthusiastic demonstrations, that it seemed Missourians only lived in Texas; and when Bob Taylor came, he felt as if ho were at home in Tennessee. Everybody seemed to him to be from his State. Tennesseeans flocked in from every section of the State, and, like the Missourians, appeared to populate the State. And when that great young orator, Henry W. Grady, of Georgia, the pride and boast of the South, came, Georgians flocked to hear him in thousands; and just such another day was never witnessed before or since the 27th day of October, the day this most eloquent and divinely gifted young orator of Georgia, delivered his great oration, said by many to iiave been really the greatest speech of his life. As it has been pronounced as a gem of literary production to be preserved in history, and as it was one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in Dallas county, we give it nearly in full, together with the invitation sent liiin, the correspondence, and arrangement made by the committee of reception.

'' Probably no one enterprise in the whole history of Dallas developed so great a surprise, even to its projectors themselves, and has brought and continues to bring such lasting and material benefits to the city and to the State at large, as the Texas State Fair and Dallas Exposition. Its organization was completed in the early part of 1886, the following named gentlemen being chosen as directors, to serve for the first year: J. B. Simpson, T. L. Marsalis, Alexander Sanger, J. S. Armstrong, W. J. Keller, J. M. Wendelken, E. M. Reardon, W. H. Gaston, B. Blankensliip, wlio elected James B. Simpson president and Sydney Smitli, secretary, with C. A. Cour as assistant, and Mrs. Sydney Smith, as superintentendent of the Ladies Department. Captain W. M. Johnson, who had formerly served the city for eight years in that capacity, was appointed as engineer in charge of grounds, and .1 udge J. II. Dills, of Sherman, Texas, was employed to lay off and bnikl tiie race track.

"The selection of the site was concluded in April, and work begun in July of that year. From that time until October 26 - the opening day - ninety acres of wild, unimproved hog-wallow prairie had been transformed into a beautiful park. The citizens of Dallas themselves could hardly realize how such a transformation could have taken place, and visitors from abroad positively refused to believe that these beautiful grounds, complete in every requirement for a first-class fair and exposition, were the results of less than four months' work. But to effect this mighty change had required the continuous labors of more than 300 carpenters and 150 two-mule teams from July to the night of October 25. The gates were thrown open the morning of the 26th, and neither the sound of hammer nor saw could be heard on the grounds. The work was complete. It had ceased at 12 o'clock the night before.

" Each member of that directory had put his shoulder to the wheel, and it was said that the executive committee and secretary had parted each night at 12 o'clock to tneet on the grounds at 7 o'clock the next morning. To be a member of that directory in good standing, meant almost a total neglect of private business as well as the loan of money and credit with which to carry forward the enterprise.

" Dallas had two fairs on her hands that year, each contending for the supremacy and each managed by her liveliest business men. The entire State was ablaze with excitement over this freak, and the general opinion was that Dallas was smartly overdoing the fair business; but Dallas as usual was equal to the occasion, and hence both fairs continued to a successful holding the same week. Fair stock, it is true, was not much sought after by the average citizen, and humanity could not resist the temptation of taking advantage of this rivalry, by bidding each a Godspeed and helping neither. As an evidence of this, when the first fair had closed its gates after a run of eleven days, $179,000 had been expended in the purchase of grounds, erection of buildings, cost of premiums, purses, etc., and $50,000 had been taken in from visitors; the entire stock paid in covered less than $27,000, and more than half of this amount had l)een paid in by the directors themselves, who, in addition to this, were carrying the entire indebtedness of the association in their own personal accounts. But the fair had been a grand success and the entire city was in smiles over its happy effects.

" More than one hundred thousand visitors had seen Dallas, and each had left behind him a few dollars, aggregating, it was estimated, more than five hundred thousand dollars which had circulated in and through every stylo of business. None so humble that did not receive a part, and none so grand as to ignore its good effects. Congratulations seemed to be the order of the day, and a general good feeling was felt all over the city. The two rival fairs were at once consolidated, the charter of each being canceled and a new company organized with increased capital stock. The name selected was the Texas Slate Fair and Dallas Exposition, being a

" Each of the rival grounds was offered for sale to the new company, and over the entrance gate of the one selected was inscribed '- The Texas State Fair," locked in hands with " The Dallas Exposition," thereby publishing to the world that all conflicting interests had been blended in name as well as deed for the good of the common cause. Immediate preparations were set on foot for a grand entertainment.

" The grounds were increased by the purchase of thirty acres additional ground and the erection of such new buildings as were necessary to accommodate the increased demands from exhibitors.

" The gates were thrown open October 20, 1887, and closed on November 5, following; the result of which cannot be better told than by quoting from the files of The Dallas News of December of that year, giving in full the secretary's annual report of that year, which closed as follows: 'In conclusion I beg to report that the total cost of your real estate, $49,980, covers a body of land 120 acres in extent and situated less than two miles from the center of your city, and taking into consideration the fact that lands adjoining these are now selling for $1,500 to $2,000 per acre as fast as they are put on the market. I do not think it an over-estimate to place yours at the maximum, viz.: $180,000.

" ' The total cost of your building and improvement account, $177,322.71, covers a full mile regulation track first-class in every respect, five miles of graveled drives and walks inside your grounds, an exposition building 200x300 feet; a horticultural hall 60x180 feet; a farm and mill product hall 16x200 feet; a poultry building 16x200 feet; a geological hall 45 x 45 feet; an agricultural implement hall 60x600 feet; a power hall 75 x 300 feet, and fitted with all necessary boilers, engines, shafting and pulleys; two rows of privilege booths, one 48 X 200 feet, and the other 50 x 200 feet; a grand stand 50x250 feet; 184 race stables 12x14 feet eacii; 100 exhibition horse stables 10x12 feet each; 500 stalls for cattle, and pens for 500 sheep and swine. Your grounds are supplied with water through 5,000 feet of service pipe, owned by your association, and they are ornamented by shade trees, evergreens, flowering shrubs and roses donated to you by exhibitors, and the whole is enclosed by an eight-foot tight board painted fence, some 10,000 feet in length. The great St. Louis Exposition, standing today without an equal, and as a living memorial to the city's enterprise, located in the midst of her 300,000 population, supported by 2,000 stockholders, with a capital stock of $1,000,000, aided by her trades unions, her veiled prophets, her brilliant street illuminations, and honored by the presence of our nation's ruler, held open doors for forty days, with $126,000 receipts.

"' The Texas State Fair and Dallas Exposition, a mere infant in age, scarce two years old, located in a city of less than 50,000 soulS; and aided by nothing save its own merits, ran seventeen days and took .in $78,916.'"

-' The comparison speaks for itself. Thus closed the second fair. The clouds of doubt and adversity began to break away and let in the sunshine and prosperity, and it became a permanency.

" The public with one accord began to appreciate, and pronounced it a most potent factor in the development of the many advantages and vast resources of the State at large, and the third entertainment was organized with J. S. Armstrong, one of the old stand-bys, as president, who was supported by a directory composed of the veterans who had enlisted on the first call and who fell in ranks confident of the glorious success which crowned their efforts during the twenty-one days - October 11 to 31, 1888 - they held open gates.

" The Fourth Annual Fair and Exposition October 15 to 27, 1889, was organized with the Hon. Henry Exall at the helm as president, C. A. Cour as secretary, with Leo Wolfson assistant, and Mrs. E. L. Barlow in charge of the Ladies' Department.

" It being a generally conceded fact that Colonel Exall was one of the best known men in the State, bright, active, courteous and popular, a bundle of concentrated energy, with Texas permanently lodged in his brain and her best interests at heart, it is not to be wondered at that under his administration the association scored another brilliant success, both as to the receipts and the pleasure and agreeable manner in which the crowd was handled and entertained. Encouraged by the great benefits derived from exhibitions at the previous fairs of 1887, 1888 and 1889, the attention of the country seemed to have been attracted. Live-stock breeders and raisers, manufacturers, merchants, mechanics, miners and educators, representing twentyone States in our Union, had entered the list as exhibitors and seemed settled in the opinion that an exhibit by them at the Great Texas State Fair and Dallas Exposition would reap for them rich rewards.

" Prominent counties in different portions of our State recognized the fact that in no better way could they lay before the capitalist and the home-seeker their many claims and inducements, than by an exhibit of their soil products and general resources at these great fairs and expositions. Indeed, so great had grown the general interest that months before ihe opening day every available foot of space had been taken, and when the fifth entertainment was organized, with J. S. Armstrong as president in charge, the demand for more space had grown so pressing the management was forced either to increase facilities or dwarf the proportions of a Dallas enterprise far below the expectancy of the public. The former course was adopted, and every comfort and facility for both the visitor and exhibitor were prepared. An arena with grand stand attached was prepared for the better exhibition of stock of all kinds. A music hall, with a seating capacity of 3,000, was built for the music-loving class of visitors, and the Ladies' and Art Department, which had assumed such colossal proportions as to count their exhibitors from nearly every county in Texas, and from more than twentyfive different States of our Union, and which had grown to be one of the chief attractions of the Fair and Exposition, was fitted up in elegant apartments consisting of twelve rooms all connected with portiere openings, and in which were collected and classified the deft handiwork of women, showing their skill with the needle, and the artist with pencil and brush. In fact, nothing was left undone that ingenuity could devise or money procure for the entertainment as well as the education of the crowds of visitors who were expected to throng their gates. This entertainment opened its gates on October 18, 1890, and closed on the 2d day of November following, with total receipts of $105,000 as the offerings of a generous public in their appreciation of the grandest entertainment that had ever been given in the Southwest.

" It is a difficult task to properly estimate and appreciate the great benefit which this institution has brought to the State of Texas, and too much praise cannot well be accorded to the few citizens who stood by it in its infancy and spared neither tlieir time nor their money to uphold it in the face of all doubts and evil prophecies as to its certain failure. From the beginning they outlined a broad-gauge policy, all sectional tendency was ignored, and not Dallas in particular, but the interests and resources of the entire State were considered in every move. Exhibition accommodations, unsurpassed, were furnished free of cost. Premiums equal to any in the history of fairs and expositions, were offered and paid. Entertainments of every kind were procured for the amusement of visitors.

"Band leaders with justly won laurels all over the civilized world, were employed in the musical department; and no visitor from any section where music is sung or played but who could hear some of the melodies of his fatherland at these entertainments.

" Estimating that each left behind him $10 during his stay in the State, and tlie magnificent total of $5,000,000 has been parceled out into every style and grade of business, to say notiiitigof the millions of dollars invested in Texas, brought here by the wonderful resources of the State as shown up in miniature at the "grand exhibits made by Texas counties at these fairs.

" The Sixth Annual Entertainment, which opens on October 17, 1891, is cliainpioned by the Hon. W. C. Connor as president, assisted by C. A. Cour as secretary, with Leo Wolfson as assistant, and Mrs. Sydney Smith in cliarge of the Ladies' and Art Departments.

" With this corps of able assistants wlio liave grown with the growth and strengthened with the strength of tills institution, their labors and experience guided by their chief, whose record for the past four years as Mayor of Dallas has made his name a synonym of tact, talent and affability, assure the public that the coining entertainment will far surpass all of its predecessors.

"Twenty -eight tliousand dollars are offered as purses in the racing department alone; and the running entries which have just closed show the roster to be 221. This department, under the personal supervision of A. W. Campbell, a horseman of national reputation for cool judgment and faii-ness on all racing matters, now numbers its entries from every State from ('alifornia to Kentucky.

" General Stanley, the courteous gentleman and commandant of tlie Department of the Southwest, has kindly consented to attend this fair and will bring with him a troop of LTnited States cavalry, and also the artillery commanded by the genial and ever popular Major Burbanks, and the exposition drills given by tliese well trained troops, will, of themselves, be worth all the cost and time it takes to see them.

feature of the occasion. His name alone is an assurance of iiU that is refined and elegant in music, and be brings with hini fifty-one men, each an artist in his own line.

" Kiralfy, who to the spectacular drama is what liarnum was to the circus, will occupy the Musical Hall nightly with his 100 people in the great spectacular of Around the World in Eighty Days.

" These are but some of the many attractions which have been procured, which, added to the grand display of the educational interests, the soil and manufactured products, the mineral, ore, coal and timber resources of the Empire State; and these, combined with the immense stock shows, from the Northwest as well as from Texas, will furnish a pleasant day of education, entertainment and diversion for every visitor who may chance to come within their gates."

Invitation To Heney W. Okady, Esq

" In answer to the call of the directors of the fair in The News a few days ago, quite a number of the young men of Dallas met at the Merchants' Exchange to arrange to cooperate with the directors of the Texas State Fair and Datlas Exposition in celebrating Texas day of the programme of entertainment to be present in October. They decided to invite Henry W. (4rady, of Atlanta, Georgia, a distinguished young orator to deliver an address upon the development of the South with special reference to Texas. This evening the invitation from the young men, accompanied by one from the directors, will be forwarded. Charles PVed. Tucker, E6(|., who

" The invitation gotten up by the young men is very beautiful. It was arranged by Mr. J. C Patton, chairman of the committee, and the pen engraving was designed by Prof.

D. A. Griffitts. At the top of the first page are the words To the Hon. Henry W. Grady, Atlanta, Georgia, - elegantly written below which and in the center is a neat star worked as if finely lithographed, and across the face is written 'Invitation.' At the bottom are the words 'From the yonng men of Dallas, Texas.' The invitation on the second page is superbly written. Then come the names of the young men. There are nine leaves in all, and bound together at the top with red, white and blue ribbons, tied in lovely bows with ends hanging entirely over the front page. The following are the names of the young gentlemen who extended the invitation: James C. Patton, chairman; Hartlett Sinclair, Kenneth Foree, K. C. Porter, A. B. George, W. J. J. Smith, A. P. Wozencraft, Lafayette Fitzhugh, S. P. Morris, E. S. Lauderdale, Z. T. White, J. Welborn Jack, Freil. Porter, Thos. Buford, T. M. Jones, A. S. O'Neale, George C. Cole, Wm. J. Moroney, Geo. H. Plowman, Joe M. Dickson, K. K. Legett, C. F. Crntcher, W.

My Dear Sir - I write yon because I liave misplaced the letter addressed to me by the representative of your association, and which came by even mail, with the invitation from the young men of Dallas to be present at your fair on October 27, and make an address. I have officially notified Mr. Patton, as chairman of the committee of the young men of Dallas, of my acceptance of the invitation; and I now write to you to ask for certain details as to the date and as to what is expected of me. I regret that I have not been able to make this acceptance earlier, but I did not see my way clear to coming at all when I first received the invitation and held it up in the hope that I might work out the way to accept it, which I have done. 1 propose to leave here about the 24th and reach Dallas on the 26th. President Norton of the Louisville & Nashville roads has tendered me his private car and a number of my friends will go with me, including Governor Gordon, e.x-Goveriior McDaniel, Judge Newman, Senator Colquitt, Mr. Evan P. Howell, my partner in the constitution, Hon. A.

O. Bacon, Speaker Little and a half dozen others of the leading citizens of Georgia. We will probably pick up Senator Morgan of Alabama on our way through that State. It is possible that President Norton of the Louisville & Nashville road and John H. Inman of New York will come with us; also S. M. Inman of Atlanta. If so they will use John Inman's car and will fill it with a number of New York and Richmond capitalists. We will be comfortal)ly tixed in our car and provided with everything, so that no arrangement need to be made to entertain myself and my friends. It is probable that we may remain in Dallas for two days and will go to see the State capitol, as Mr. Thomas of our capitol commission will be one of the party, and we may take a three or four days' trip through Texas. I do not desire, nor do my friends, to take one moment of your time that will necessarily be occupied while we are there, and we will be able to take care of ourselves while in Texas. I simply give you our programme in order that you may see that you can put me in whenever you please in your proceedings. I am going to make a feature of reporting the Fair for the Constitution and will probably send Mr. Cooper of my staff to Dallas three or four days ahead of ray coming. In that event I shall ask your courtesy in his behalf, and that you will see that he has access to all legitimate avenues of information.

" I will be obliged if you can give me any information on these points. AYhen am 1 to speak? At what time of day? In open air, or in hall? I should very much prefer the latter. What will be the probable size of the audience? I ask this because I have fears of my voice, although I have frequently been heard with ease by ten or twelve thousand people. Now, then, is it necessary that

I should take the especial subject suggested ill the invitation? I prefer to make the address on the Soutli, its opportunities, and the duties of its yonn<]; men; and I would perhaps not be able to devote as much of it to Texas as your people might wish. Yours very truly, U. W. Gbady."

" My Dear Sir - As 1 advised you by telegraph this morning, it gives rae pleasure to be able to accept the kind invitation of the young men of Dallas to be present at your State Fair on October 27, and deliver an address. Let me assure you that no honor could be paid me that I value more highly than to be asked by the young men of the South to come into council with them as to what we had best do to get the South a fuller independence than our fathers ever sought to compel in the forum by their eloquence, or to win in the Held by their swords. Thanking you especially for the kind words in which the invitation was conveyed, and the young men associated with you for their courteous compliment, 1 am yours very truly,

Next Friday Honorable Henry W. Grady and party will arrive in the city, and be present at the Fair on Texas Day. The following is the programme for their reception and entertainment:

4. At 3 p. m. there will be speaking by Governor Gordon and others, the speakers to be introduced by Messrs. Gibbs, Tucker, Exall and Simpson.

with a seating capacity of 7,000, was packed, as also was the large space in front of and under it. The gathering was estimated at 10,000, bnt that does not cover all who had come to hear Mr. Grady, for large bodies of people, after discovering that the could not get within hearing distance walked away resolved to read his speech in the Neios. Shortly before 11 o'clock Liberati's band struck up an operatic air, which, thongh beautiful, did not contain tlie kind of fire that the crowd wanted to warm their souls at; but they were equal to the occasion, and "Dixie," uttered in a squeaky voice at the reporters' stand, went from mouth to mouth until it reached a mighty yell. The band tiien struck up that tune so sacred to past memories, and it was cheered at every one of its angles. As the last strains of Dixie died away Mr. Grady and the other distinguished orators mounted the stand, which, owing to hurry, anc}, perhaps, a little confusion, had been erected without ornamentation. Mr. Grady was introduced by Mr. Charles Fred Tucker, whose speech was quite lengthy and frequently interrupted by calls for Grady - calls that were indicative of the impatience of the throng and not intended to be disrespectful of Mr. Tucker.

Mr. Grady began his address without even the customary preface, "Ladies and gentlemen." He seemingly felt that he was addressing the South collectively, and that no such preface was necessary. The delivery of his address consumed about an hour and a lialf, and he throughout held complete control of his audience, whom he swayed witli marked

"Who saves his country saves all things, and all things saved will bless him. Who lets his country die, lets all things die, and all things dying curse him."

Mr. President and Fellow Citizens: I salute the first city of the grandest State of the greatest government on this earth. In paying earnest compliment to this thriving city and this generous multitude, 1 need not cumber speech with argument or statistics. It is enough to say that my friends and myself make obeisance this moi-ning to the chief metropolis of the State of Texas. If it but holds this pre-eminence - and who can doubt in this auspicious presence that it will---the uprising tide of Texas' prosperity will carry it to glories unspeakable. For 1 say in soberness, the future of this marvelous and amazing empire, that gives broader and deeper significance to statehood by accepting its modest naming, the mind of man can neither measure nor comprehend.

I shall be pardoned for resisting the inspiration of this presence and adhering to-day to blunt and rigorous speech, for there are times when fine words are paltry, and this seems to me to be such a time. So I shall turn away from the thunders of the political battle upon which every American hangs intent, and repress the ardor that at this time rises in every American heart; for there are issues that strike deeper than any political tlieorj' has reached, and conditions of which j^artisanry has taken and can take but little account. Let me therefore with studied plainness, and with such precision as possible, in a spirit of fraternity that is broader than party limitaniSTORT OF DALLAS COUNT y.

tions, and deeper than political motive, discuss with you certain problems upon the wise and prompt solution of which depends the glory and prosperity of the South.

But why, for let us make our way slowly, why the South? In an indivisible Union, in a republic against the integrity of which sword shall never be drawn or mortal hand uplifted, and in which the rich blood gathering in the common heart is sent throbbing into every part of the body politic, why is one section held separated from the rest in alien consideration? We can understand why this should be so in a city that has a community of local interests, or in a State still clothed in that sovereignty of which the debates of peace and the storm of war have not stripped her. lint why should a number of States, stretching from Richmond to Galveston, together by no local interests, held in no autonomy, be thus combined and drawn into a common center? That man would be absurd who declaimed in Buft'alo against tiie wrongs of the Middle States, or who demanded in Chicago a convention for the West, to consider the needs of that section. If then it be provincialism that holds the South together, let us outgrow it; if it be sectionalism let us root it out of our hearts; but if it be something deeper than these and essential to our system, let us declare it with frankness, consider it with respect, defend it with iirmness and in dignity abide its consequence. What is it that holds the Southern States, though true in thought and deed to the Union, so closely bound in sympathy to day? For a century these States championed a governmental theory, but that, having triumphed in every forum, fell at last by the sword. They maintained an institution, but that having been administered in tiie fullest wisdom of men, fell at last last in the higher wisdom of

God. They fought a war, but the prejudices of that war have died, its sympathies have broadened and its memories are already the priceless treasure of the republic that is cemented forever with its blood. They looked out together upon the ashes of their homes and the desolation of their fields; but out of pitiful resources they have fashioned their homes anew, and plenty rides on the springing harvests. In all the past there ig nothing to draw them into essential or lasting alliance, nothing in all that heroic record that cannot be rendered unfearing from provincial hands into the keeping of American history.

But the future holds a problem, in solving which the South must stand alone, in dealing with which she must come closer tojjether than ambition or despair have driven her, and on the outcome of which her very existence depends. This problem is to carry within her body politic, two separate races, equal in civil and political rights, and nearly equal in numbers. She must carry these races in peace, for discord means ruin. She must carry them .separately, for assimilation means debasement. She must carry them in equal justice, for to this she is pledged in honor and in gratitude. She must carry them even unto the end, for in human probability she will never be quit of either. This burden no other people bears to-day ; on none hath it ever rested. Without precedent or companionship the Soutli must bear this problem, the awful responsibility of which should win the sympathy of all human kind and the protecting watchfulness of God, alone, even unto the end. Set by this problem apart from all other peoples of the earth, and her unique position emphasized rather than relieved, as I shall show hereafter, by her material conditions, it is not only fit but it is also essential that she should hold her brotherhood unimpaired, quicken her sympathies, and in the \\^\\t or in the shadows of this surpassing problem, work out her own salvation in the fear of God, but of God alone.

What shall the South do to be saved? Through what paths shall she reach the endl Through what travail or with what splendors shall she give to the Union this section, its wealth garnered, its resources utilized, and its rehabitation complete - and restore to the world this problem, solved in such justice as the finite mind can measure, or Unite hand administer?

I approach this discussion with a sense of consecration. I beg jour patient and cordial sympathy. And I invoke the Almighty God, that having showered on this people His fullest riches has put their hands to this task, that He will draw near unto us, as he drew near unto troubled Israel, and lead us in the ways of honor and uprightness, even through a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

What of the negro? This of him. I want no better friend than the black l)oy who was raised by my side, and who is now trudging patiently with downcast eyes and shambling figure through his lowly way in life. I want no sweeter music than the crooning of my old " mammy," now dead and gone to rest, as she held me in her loving arms, and bendino- her old black face above me stole the cares from my brain and led me smiling into sleep. I want no truer soul than that which moved the trusty slave, who for four years while my father fought with the armies that barred his freedom, slept every night at my mother's chamber ' door, holding her and her children as safe as if her iiusband stood guard, and ready to lay down his humble life on her threshhold. History has no parallel to the faith kept by the negro in the South during the war. Often 500 negroes to a single white man, and yet through these dusky throngs the women and children walked in safety, and the unprotected homes rested in peace. Uumarshaled, the black battalions moved patiently to the fields in the morning to feed the armies their idleness would have starved, and at night gathered anxiously at the big house to " hear the news from master," though conscious that his victory made their chains enduring. Everywhere humble and kindly. The body guard of the helpless. The rough companion of the little ones. The observant friend. The silent sentry in his lowly cabin. The shrewd counselor. And when the dead came home, a mourner at the open grave. A thousand torches would have disbanded every southern army, but not one was lighted. When the master going to a war in which slavery was involved said to his slave, " I leave my home and loved ones in your charge," the tenderness between man and master stood disclosed. And when the slave held that charge sacred through storm and temptation, he gave new meaning to faith and loyalty. I rejoice that when freedtnn came to him after years of waiting it was all the sweeter because the black hands from which the shackles fell were stainless of a single crime against the helpless ones confided to his care.

some strange folian^e. As no race has ever lived in such unresisting bondage, none was ever liurried with such swiftness tlirougli freedom into power. Into hands still trembling from the blow that broke the shackles was thrust tlie ballot. In less than twelve months from the time he walked down the furrow a slave, the negro dictated, in legislative halls from which Davis and Calhoun had gone forth, the policy of twelve commonwealths. When his late master protested against his misrule, the Federal drumbeat rolled around his strongholds, and from a hedge of Federal bayonets he grinned in good-natured insolence. From the proven incapacity of that day has he far advanced? Simple, credulous, impulsive; easily led and too often easily bought, - is he a safer, more intelligent citizen now than then ? Is this mass of votes, loosed from old restraints, inviting alliance or awaiting opportunity, less menacing than when its purpose was plain and its way was direct?

My countrymen, right here the South must make a decision on which very much depends. Many wise men hold that the white vote of the South should divide, the color line be beaten down, and the Southern States ranged on economic or moral questions as interest or belief demands. I am compelled to dissent from this view. The worst thing, in my opinion, that could happen is, that tlio white people of the South should stand in opposing factions, with the vast mass of ignorant or purchasable negro votes between. Consider such a status. If the negroes were skilfully led it would give them the balance of power - a thing not to be considered. If their vote was not compacted, it would invite the debauching bid of factions, and drift surely to that which was most corrupt and cunning. With the shiftless habit and irresolution of slavery days still possessing him, the negro voter will not in this generation, adrift from war issues, become a steadfast partisan through conscience or conviction. In every community there are colored men who redeem their race from this reproach, and who vote under reason. Perhaps in time the bulk of this race may thus adjust itself. But, through what long and monstrous periods of political debauchery this status would Ije reached, no tongue can tell.

The clear and unmistakable domination of the white race - dominating not through violence, not through purchased alliance, but through the integrity of its own vote and the largeness of its sympathy and justice through which it shall win the support of the better classes of the colored race - that is the hope and assurance of the South. Otherwise the negro would be bandied from one faction to another. His credulity would be played upon, his cupidity tempted, his impulses misdirected, his passions inflamed. He would be forever in alliance with that faction which was the most desperate and unscrupulous. Such a state would be worse than reconstruction, for then intelligence was banded, and its speedy triumph assured. But with intelligence and property divided - bidding and overbidding for plac« and patronage - irritation increasing with each conflict - the bitterness of desperation seizing every heart, political debanchery deepening as each faction staked its all in the miserable game, there would be no end to this, until our suffrage was hopelessly sullied, our people forever divided, and our most sacred riirhts surrendered.

One thing further should be said in perfect frankness. Up to this point we have dealt with ignorance and corruption; but beyond this point a deeper issue confronts us. Ignorance may struggle to enlightenment; out of corruption may come the incorruptible. God speed that day. Every true man in the South will pray for it and work for it. Through education the negro must be led to know, and through sympathy to confess, that his interests and the interests of the people of the South are identical. The men who from afar off view this subject through the cold eye of speculation, or see it distorted throngh partisan glasses, insist that, directly or indirectly, the negro race will be put in control of the affairs of the South. We have no fear of this. Already we are attaching to us the best element of that race. As we proceed our alliance will broaden. External pressure but irritates and impedes. Those who would put the negro race in supremacy would work against a divine and infallible decree, for the white race can never submit to its domination, because the white race is the superior race.

This is the declaration of no new truth; it has abided forever in the marrow of our bones and shall run forever with the blood that feeds Anglo-Saxon hearts. In political compliance the South has evaded the truth and men have drifted from their convictions. But we cannot escape this issue; it faces us whereever we turn. It is an issue that has been and will be. The races and tribes of earth are of divine origin. Behind the laws of man and the decrees of war stands the law of God. What God hath separated let no man join together. The Indian, the Malay, the negro, the Caucasian, these types stand as markers of God's will. Let not man tinker with the work of the Almighty. Unity of civilization, no more than unity of faith, will never be witnessed on earth. No race has risen or will rise above its ordained place. Here is the pivotal fact of this great matter: Two races are made equal in law and in political rights, between whom the caste of race has set an impassable gulf. This gulf is bridged by a statute and the races are urged to cross thereon. This cannot be. The fiat of the Almiglity has gone forth, and in eighteen centuries of history it is written. We would escape this issue if we could. From the depth of its soul the South invokes from heaven " peace - on earth and good will to man." She would not if she could cast this race back into the condition from which we daily thank God it was raised. She would not deny its smallest or abridge its fullest privilege. Not to lift this burden forever from her people would she do the least of these things. She must walk through the v^alley of the shadow, for God has so ordained. But he has ordained that she shall walk in that integrity of race that, created in His wisdom, has been perpetuated in His strength. Standing in the presence of this multitude, sobered with the responsibility of the message I deliver to the young men of the South 1 declare that the truth above all others to be worn unsullied and sacred in your hearts, to be surrendered to no force, sold at no price, compromised in no necessity, hut cherished and defended as the covenant of your prosperity, and the pledge of peace to your children, is that the white race can never submit to the direct or indirect domination of the race that insolent tinkers with divine decree would put above us, but that the white race must and will control the South.

It is a race issue at last. Let us come to this point, and stand here. Here the air is pure and the light is clear, and here honor and ])eace abide. Juggling and evasion deceives not a man. Cotnpromise and subservience has carried not a point. There is not a white man North or South who does nto feel it stir in the gray matter of his brain and throb in his heart. Not a negro wlio does not feel its power. It is not a sectional issue. It speaks in Ohio and in Georgia. It speaks wherever the Anglo-Sa.\on touches an alien race. It has just spoken in universally approved legislation in excluding the Chinaman from our gates, not for his ignorance, veins of corruption, but because he sought to estal)li8h an inferior race in a republic fashioned in the wisdom and defended by the blood of a homogeneous people.

The Anglo-Saxon blood has dominated always and everywhere. It fed Alfred's veins when he wrote the charter of Eiiglish liberty; it gathered about Hampden as he stood beneath the oak; it thundered in Cromwell's veins as he fought his king; it humbled Napoleon at Waterloo; it has touched the desert and jungle with undying glory; it carried the drumbeat of England around the world and spread on every continent tlie gospel of liberty and of God; it established this Republic, carved it from the wilderness, conquered it from the Indians, wrested it from England, and at last, stilling its own tumult, consecrated it forever as the home of the Anglo- Saxon, and the theater of his transcending achievement. Never one foot of it can I)o surrendered while that blood lives in American veins, and feeds American hearts, to the

This problem is not only enduring, but it is widening. The exclusion of the Chinaman is the first step in the revolution that shall save liberty and law and religion to this land, and in peace and order, not enforced on the gallows or at the bayonet's end, but proceeding from the heart of an harmonious people shall secure in the enjoyment of these rights, and control of tliis Republic, the homogeneous people that established and has maintained it. The next step will be taken when some brave statesman looking demagogy in the face shall tuove to call to the stranger at our gates " Who comes here?" admitting every man who seeks a home, or honors our institutions, and whose habit and blood will run with the native current, but excluding all who seek to plant anarchy or to establish alien men or measures on our soil; and will then demand that the standard of our citizenship be lifted and the right of acquiring our suffrage be abridged. When tliat day comes, and God speed its coming, the position of the South will be fully understood, and everywhere approved. Until then let us, giving the negro every right, civil and political, measured in that fullness the strong should always accord the weak, holding him in closer friendship and sympathy than he is held by those who would crucify us for his sake, realizing that on his prosperity our's depends, - let us resolve that never by external pressure or internal division shall he establish domination, directly or indirectly, over that race that everywhere has maintained its supremacy. (Applause.) Let this resolution be cast on the lines of equity and justice. Let it be the pledge of honest, safe aiul impartial administration, and we shall command the support of the colored race itself, more dependent than any other on tho bounty and protection of government. Let us be wise and patient, and we shall secure through his acquiescence what otherwise we should win in conflict and liold uncertainty. And as in slavery we led the slave through kindness to heights his race in Africa will never reach, so in freedom through wisdom and justice we shall lead him a freeman to a prosperous contentmunt to which his friends in the North have slight conct^ption. What

HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTYis stolen from him in frand is unworthy, and shall not endure. What is taken in violence is worse. What he yields to a policy that commands his sympathy, and which he will help to enforce, - that is precious, and out of it shall come healing and peace. (Applause.)

All this in no unkindnesss to the negro, but rather that he may be led in justice and in peace to his uttermost good. Not in sectionalism, for my heart beats true to the Union, to the glory of which your life and heart is pledged; not in disregard of the world's opinion, for to render back this problem in the world's approval is the sum of my ambition and the height of human achievement. (Applause.) Not in reactionary spirit, but rather to make clear that new and grander way by which the South is mai-ching to higher destiny, and on which I would not halt her for all the spoils that have been gathered unto parties since Cataline conspired and Cissar fouglit. Not in passion, ray countrymen, but in reason; not in narrowness, but in breadth, - that we may solve this problem iu calmness, and in truth, and lifting its shadows let perpetual sunshine pour down on two races, walking together in peace and contentment. Then shall this problem, that threatened our ruin, have proved our blessing, and work our salvation. Then the South, putting behind her all the achievements of her past - and in war and in peace tliey beggar eulogy - may stand upright among the nations and challenge tlie judgment of man and tlie approval of God, in having worked out in their sympathy and in His guidance, this last and surpassing miracle of human government. (A thunder of applause.)

What of the South's industrial problem? When we remember that amazement followed the payment by thirty-seven million Frenchmen of a billion dollars indemnity to Germany, that the live million wliites of the South i-endered to the torch and sword three billions of property, and that thirty million dollars a year, or six hundred million dollars in twenty years, has been given from our poverty in cordial willingness as pensions for Northern soldiers, the wonder is that we are here at all. There is a figure with which history has dealt lightly, but that, standing pathetic and heroic in the genesis of our new growth, has interested me greatly - the soldier-farmer of the South in '65. What chance had he for the future as he wandered amid his empty barns, his stock, labor and implements gone - gathered up the fragments of his wreck, and urging kindly his borrowed mule, paying eighty per cent, usury for all that he bought, and buying all on credit, his crop mortgaged before it was planted, his children in want, his neighborhood in chaos, working under new conditions and retrieving every error by a costly year, plodding all day down the furrow, hopeless and adrift, save when at night he went back to his broken home, where his wife, cheerful even then, renewed his courage while she ministered in loving tenderness to his troubled heart. Who would have thought, as during those lonely and terrible days he walked behind the plow, locking the sunshine in the glory of his harvest, and spreading the showers in the verdure ot nis field - no friend near save nature that smiled at his earnest touch, and God that sent him the message of good cheer through the passing breeze and the whispering leaves, that he would in twenty years, having carried these burdens uncomplaining, made a crop of eight hundred million dollars, and that from his bounty the South would have rebuilded her cities and recouped her losses. Yet this has been done! While we

Wiience this enormous crrowth? For ten years the world has been at peace. The pioneer has now replaced the soldier. Commerce has whitened new seas, and tlie merchants have occupied new areas. Steam has made of the world a chess board, on which men play for markets. Our western wheat-grower is made acquainted in London with the Russian and the East Indian. The Ohio wool-grower watches the Australian shepherd, and the bleat of the now historic sheep of Vermont is answered from the steppes of Asia. The herds that emerge from the dust of your amazing prairies might hear in their pauses the hoof-beats of antipodean herds marching to meet them. Under Holland's dykes the cheese and butter makers ^y^\\i American dairies. California challenges vine-clad France. The Dark Continent is disclosed through meshes of light. There is competition everywhere. The husbandman driven from his market balances price against starvation and undercuts his rival. This conflict often runs to panic and profit vanishes. The Iowa farmer burning his corn for fuel is is not an unusual type.

Amid this universal conflict, where stands the South? ANHiile the producer of everything we eat or wear in every land is fighting throuoh tjlutted markets for bare existence, what of tlie Southern farmer? In his industrial, as in his political problem, he is set apart - not in doubt, but in assured independence. Cotton makes him king. Not all the fleeces Jason sought can rival the richness of this plant, as it unfurls its banners. It is gold from the instant it puts forth its tiny shoot. The shower that whispers to it is heard around the world; the trespass of a worm on its green leaf means more to England than the advance of the Russians on its Asiatic outposts; and when its fiber, current iu every bank, is marketed, it renders back to the South ^350,000,000 every year. Its seed will yield $60,000,000 worth of oil to the press, and $40,000,000 in food for soil or beast, making the stupendous total of $450- 000,000 annual income from this crop. And now, under the Tompkins patent, from its stalk newspaper is to be made at two cents per pound. Edward Atkinson once said: " If New England could grow the cotton plant without the lint, it would make her richestcrop; if she held monopoly of cotton lint and seed she would control the commerce of the world." But is our monopoly, threatened from Egypt, India and Brazil, sure and permanent? Let the record answer. In 1872, the South made 3,241,000 bales; other countries 3,036,000, - leading her rivals by less than 200,000 bales. Tliis year the Southern supply was 8,000,000 bales; from other sources 2,100,000, - all expressed in bales of 400 pounds each. In spite of new areas elsewhere, of fuller experience, of better transportation, and unlimited money spent in experiment, the supply of foreign cotton has decreased since 1872 nearly 1,000,000 bales, while that of the South has increased nearly 5,000,000 bales. Further than this. Since 1872, population in Europe has increased thirteen percent., and cotton consumption in Europe has increased fifty per cent. Still further. Since 1880, cotton consumption in Europe has increased twenty-eight per cent, wool four per cent., and flax has decreased eleven per cent. As for new areas, the uttermost missionary woos the heathen with a cotton shirt in one hand, and the Bible in the other, and no savage, I believe, has ever been converted to one. without having first put on the other. To summarize: Our American fiber has increased its product nearly threefold, while it has seen the product of its rival decrease one-third. It has enlarged its dominion in the old centers of population, supplanting flax and wool, and it peeps from the satchel of every business and religious evangelist that trots the globe. In three years the American crop has increased 1,400- 000 bales, and yet there is less cotton in the world to-day than at any time for twenty years. (Loud applause.)

The dominion of our king is established. This princely revenue is assured, not for a year, but for all the time. It is the heritage that God gave us when he arched our skies, established our mountains, girt us about with the ocean, tempered the sunshine and measured the rain, - ours, and our children's forever.

Not alone in cotton, but also in iron does the South excel. The Hon. ex-Judge Norton, who honors this platform with his presence, once said to me: " An Englishman of the highest character predicted that the Atlantic will be whitened within our lives with sails carrying American iron and coal to England." When he made that prediction the English miners were exhausting the coal in long tunnels, above which the ocean thundered. Having ores and coal stored in exhaustless quantity, in such richness and adjustment that iron can be made, and manufacturing done, cheaper than elsewhere on this continent, is to now command and at last control the world's market for iron. The South now sells iron through Pittsburg in New York. She has driven Scotch iron first from the interior and finally from American ports. Within our lives she will cross the Atlantic and fulfill the Englishman's prophecy. In 1880 the South made 212,000 tons of iron; in 1887, 845,000 tons. She i.s now actually building, or has finished this year, furnaces that will produce more than her entire product last year. Birmingham alone will produce more iron in 1889 than the entire South produced in 1887. Our coal supply is exhaustless, Texas alone having 6,000 square miles. In marble and granite we have no rivals as to quantity or quality. In lumber our riches are even vaster. More than 50 per cent, of our entire area is in forests, making the South the best timbered region of the world. We have enough merchantable yellow pine to bring in money $2,500,000,000, a sum the vastness of which can only be understood when I say it nearly equals the assessed value of the entire South, including cities, forests, farms, mines and personal property of every description whatsoever. Back of this our forests of hard woods and measureless swamps of cypress gum. Think of it. In cotton a monopoly. In iron and coal establishing swift mastery. In granite and marble developing equal advantage and resources. In yellow pine and hard woods the world's treasury. Surely the basis of the South's wealth and power is laid by the hand of the Almighty God, and its prosperity has been established by divine law, which works in eternal justice, and not through iiuman statutes which levies taxes from its neighbors for its own protection. Paying tribute for fifty years that under artificial conditions other sections might reach a prosperity, impossible under natural laws, it has grown apace. Its growth shall endure, if its people are ruled by two maxims that reach deeper than legislative enactment, and the operation of which cannot be limited by artificial restraint, and but little hastened by artificial stimulus.

conditions that made other crops impossible or under allurements that inailo other crops exceptional, its dominion would he despotism. Wlienever the greed for a money crop unbalances the wisdom of husbandry the money crop is a curse. When it stimulates the general economy of the farm, it is the profit of farming. In an unprosperous strip of Carolina, when asked the cause of their poverty, the people say "Tobacco, for it is our only crop." In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the richest American county by the census, when asked the cause of their prosperity, they say "Tobacco, for it is the golden crown of a diversified agriculture." The soil that produces cotton invite the grains and grasses, the orchard and tlie vine. Clover, corn, cotton, wheat and barley thrive in the same enclosure. The peach, the apple, the apricot, the Siberian crab in the same orchard. Herds and flocks graze ten months every year in meadows over which winter is but a passing breath, and in which spring and autumn meet in summer's heat. Sugarcane and oats, rice and potatoes, are extremes that come together under our skies. To raise cotton and send its princely revenue to the West for supplies and to the East for usury, would be a misfortune if soil and climate forced such a enrse. When both invite independence, to remain in slavery is a crime. To mortgage our farms in Boston for money with which to buy meat and bread from western cribs and smokehouses is folly unspeakable. I rejoice that Texas is less open to this charge than others of the cotton States. With her 80,000,000 bushels of grain and her 10,000,000 head of stock she is rapidly learning that diversified agriculture means prosperity. Indeed, the South is learning the same lesson, and learned tlirough years of debt and dependence it will never be forgotton. The best thing Georgia has done in twenty years was to raise her oat crop in one season from 2,000,000 to 9,000,- 000 bushels without losing a bale of her cotton. It is more for the South that she has increased her crop of corn - that best of grains, of which SamuelJ. Tildon 8aid"itwill be the staple food of the future, and men will be stronger and better when that day comes" - by 43,000,000" bushels thisyearthan to have won a pivotal battle in the late war. In this one item she keeps at home this year a sum equal to the entire cotton crop of any State, that last year went to the West. This is the road to prosperity. It is the way to manliness and sturdiness of character. When every farmer in the South shall eat bread from his own fields and meat from his own pastures - and disturbed by no creditor and enslaved by no debt, shall sit amid his teeming gardens and orchards and vineyards, and dairies and barnyards, pitching his crops in his own wisdom and growing them in independence, making cotton his clean surplus and selling it in his own time and his chosen market and not at a master's bidding, getting his pay in cash and not in a receipted mortgage that discharges his debt, but does not restore his freedom -then shall be breakintr the fullness of our day. Great is king cotton ! But to lie at his feet while the user and grainraiser bind us in subjection, is to itivito the contempt of man and the reproach of God. But to stand up before him, and amid our cribs and smokehouses wrest from him the magna ciiarta of our independence and to establish in his name an amj)]c and diversified agriculture that shall honor him wliile it enriches us - this is to carry us as far in the way of happiness and independence as the farmer working in the fullest wisdom and in the richest fields can carry any people. (Applause.)