Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 16, Number 25, DeMotte, Jasper County, 3 May 1946 — There Is Only I One Texas! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

There Is Only I One Texas !

By EDWARD EMERINE

WNU Wuhlniloi Correspondent. WNU Features «XTO NATIVE has ever seen all of Texas t— and no visitor •ver will.” A huge, incredibly rich piece of real estate, with more cattle than human beings, and ranches described in square miles rather than acresl ,

Texas derives its name from “tejas,” meaning friend or ally. Six great flags have flown over the state —Spanish, French, Mexican, Republic of Texas, Confederate and United States. But no one nation built Texas, or developed it. It was built by the Texans, a breed apart. They conquered it, and they made it over to suit their taste. They did it with rifles, six-shooters and bowie

knives; with com, cotton, cattle and barbed-wire; with books and Bibles, schools and churches; with sugar mills, gin mills, sawmills; with oil drills and oil refineries. The first settlers found an acreage that was unlimited, soil that was fertile, a climate that was caressing, a land abundant in natural resources. So they set to work and gave Texas its traditions, its culture, its costumes and customs, its manner of speech, its swagger, its reputation. They gave it big hats, handsome riding boots, sheriffs and Texas Rangers. Texas is a mighty empire of the southwest, a land of superlatives. It sprawls huge across the map, sniffing breezes from the Gulf of Mexico and ozone-laden air from the Rocky mountains. It has its coastal plain, its central plains, and western high plains, ranging in altitude from sea level to 4,700 feet and peaks pointing even higher. There are 800 long miles between the semi-tropi-cal Rio Grande and the northern border, and the greatest distance cast and west is 775 miles. Water covers 3,498 squarfe miles of Texas with plenty of dry land left. Texas has 254 counties, some of them large enough to be states! Along the Sabine river on the east, the annual rainfall is 55 inches; El Paso has only 9 inches. Snow seldom falls in most of the state: 3 feet of it has been known in the high altitudes of west Texas. Wheat grows in the temperate north, oranges and grapefruit in the subtropical south.

and corn and cotton in between. No one can predict when the “norther,” a sharp, cold wind, will strike any part of the state. Nearly a million acres are irrigated, and such cities as San Antonio, Houston, Galveston and El Paso get their water from artesian wells. There are 230 kinds of fish in lakes and streams, and 4,000 different wild flowers blossom within its borders. Between the twisted salt cedars of the Gulf coast and the desert reaches of ocotillo and sotol In the west, there are 12 million acres of commercial forests, 550 kinds of grasses and 100 varieties of cactus. There are alligators on the coast, homed toads in the desert, and rattlesnakes wherever you find them. Once 60 million buffalo grazed in Texas, and it still knows the armadillo, chaparral bird and roadrunner. Here is a land of forest and desert, of fertile fields and jagged mountains, of rolling prairies, sleepy rivers and wide Gulf beaches. And here Texans created Houston with its 50-mile ship channel to the Gulf; San Antonio’s ancient houses with yard-thick adobe walls and skyscrapers; Dallas, the city of the north; Fort Worth, the cow town; Austin, the capital; Galveston, picturesque port and beach; El Paso, with American energy and Mexican color. It is suitable that there should be added such as Randolph field, “the West Point of the air corps,” and Fort Sam Houston, the army's largest post. Oil wells have brought scores of El Dorados to the state, and Texas natural gas is piped to Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, lowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois. If the gas ever runs out, plenty of coal remains. Quotations like these tell the story of Texas: "Who’ll go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?” "I’m going to Texas to fight for my rights,” a Tennessean on his way to join Texas’ War for Independence. "The Americans were so stubborn that not one of them would surrender,” Gen. Santa Anna. “Ride like Mexicans, shoot like Tennesseans, and fight like the devil,” the Texas Rangers. “Thermopylae had Its messenger of defeat; the Alamo had none,” inscription. "Remem-

ber the Alamo! Remember Goliad!” Sam Houston. “The Republic of Texas is no more/’ Anson Jones. The shrine of Texas is the Alamo where 182 men, including Travis, Crockett, Bowie and Bonham, refused to escape or surrender. At Goliad, a Texas force under Fannin surrendered and was massacred. At San Jacinto, the furious Texans, under Sam Houston, in 20 minutes shattered Santa Anna's army and won independence for Texas. Texas, still in cowboy boots, has its great trading centers and seaports, its flying fields and oil derricks, its mines and fields, and cattle ranges. It retains its old flavor, but combines the glories of its past with new energies and new horizons. In agriculture, industry, culture and recreation, the Texas tradition of "biggest and best" is making new strides. There is only one Texas —it is the expansive, friendly, hospitable and progressive Texas we all know.

GOVERNOR COKE STEVENSON A freight wagon operator at age 16, Coke Stevenson has been banker, lawyer, county attorney, county judge, state legislator, and lieutenant governor and governor of Texas.

San Jacinto Monument

"Grapefruit Bowl,” Lower Rio Grande, near McAllen, Texas