The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003 Page: 517
675 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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"God Help Them All and So Must We"
517
grass squirm ... I cannot retreat now." Judge R. M. Norman was slow to
respond and omitted any reference to Brown, foolishly bragging of hav-
ing shunned him. When Judge Fleming heard of Norman's behavior, he
forced him, "at point of bayonet," to recant. Several hundred voters at
Shackelford County's Democratic primary in October watched as local
men took Norman to the proverbial wood shed, and Peter Hart was elect-
ed as new county judge.29
In his book, Brown says the local cattlemen called him home and his
refusal resulted in their opposition through the press. The Dallas Morn-
ing News wrote three mordant commentaries November 7, 9, and 11 con-
cerning Brown's letters to the Fort Worth Gazette and the Albany News. Al-
though it is difficult to summarize the venom exchanged, Brown was
equal to the debate. His responses were never fully printed in Dallas,
however, where they criticized his geography when he said that farmers
from Dallas to the Rio Grande and Indian Territory were affected. "He
has allowed the importance of his mission to tear down the partition be-
tween the storehouse of his facts and the granary of his imagination, and
his whole stores are mixed. He is a doctor they love, but ... too emphat-
ic, too excitable. And they want him to ... come home ... they implore
him . . . hush." The Dallas Morning News claimed local relief committees
had handled the problem and suggested that if Brown believed "land
grabbers, speculators and free grass men [gloated] over the chance to
starve people ... in the land of his adoption, [he would] do more good
... with the gospel's warning than . . . by [telling] stories of emaciated
human beings." The paper cautioned Governor Ireland against endors-
ing Brown's mission, saying he was not an official emissary of Texas. "Tell
the North we are recuperative and gritty, not despondent and whining
beggars.""s
Punctured Texas pride was a theme the young Albany Star newspaper-
man Edgar Rye used when he wrote the Fort Worth Gazette: "While we
gratefully acknowledge their kindness and return our . . . thanks, how
much prouder we would feel [if] the Lone Star State provided for ... her
own." He repeated Brown's earlier proposal that emergency funds
should be set aside by the legislature to be used at the governor's discre-
tion. Brown had suggested in an open letter to legislators and the gover-
nor a contingent fund of seventy-five thousand dollars be established,
saying "it is discreditable ... that a great state like Texas, fast filling up
with immigrants ... subject to droughts, cyclones, floods ... should have
no provision made in advance to mitigate distress. The people are taxed
" Albany News, Oct. 14 (1st quotation), 28 (2nd quotation), Nov. 18, 1886.
o Dallas MorningNews, Nov. 7 (ist quotation), 9 (2nd quotation), 11 (3rd quotation), 14, 1886;
Brown, Twenty-Fwve Years a Parson an the Wild West, 177, 178.2003
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003, periodical, 2003; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101223/m1/595/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.