The Matagorda County Tribune (Bay City, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 48, Ed. 1 Friday, March 11, 1927 Page: 2 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Matagorda County Area Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Matagorda County Museum & Bay City Public Library.
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■ t
t* •• •
The Largest Sulphur Mine
in the World
GULF,
MATAGORDA COUNTY,
TEXAS
i di<i
dern
CITRUS FRUIT TREES
19tf
and
never — no,
-o-
FOR SALE -Porto Rico yam seed
Phone 818
<
per bushel f.o.b. Midfield, or $1.00 at
my place three miles west of Midfield.
I also have 300 bushels of same high
quality potatoes for table use at the
same price,
field, Texas.
Henry Leltenberg, Mid-
2-11-4-llw
the trend felt In the halls of con-
gress.—Houston i’ost-Disputch.
--------o—0--•-----•
Yoakum Grants Gas
Company Franchise
MODERN MUFFLER
SAVES GASOLINE
VETERINARY
SURGEON
U. F. HELMECKE
GENERAL SHEET METAL WORKER
Bay City, Texas
GEORGE HELMECKE, Manager
Postoffice Box 212 Phone 100
We make:
Galvanized Tanks, Ventilated
Flues, Gutters, Ridge Roll,
Cornice, Ventilators, Sky
Lights, Etc.
We repair:
Guns, Pistols, Locks; Repair
Parts In Stock; We Duplicate
Any Kind of Keys.
Make It of Sheet-Metal
Dr. W. 0. Testerman, formerly of
Angleton, has moved to Bay City
and will be located here in the
practice of his profession. Notify
Matagorda Pharmacy or P. G.
Huston, druggist, for Dr. Tester-
man’s services. 2«-ti
Brothers engineers after
experiments have devel-
improved muffler which
To in-
Iron ore of extreme richness, test-
ing fix per cent pure metal, has been
discovered in Leghorn, Italy. This
may free Italy from the necessity of
importing iron.
——---o—o—----•
Ruined.
"Why don't,you advertise?”
Town Storekeeper: "No slree.
once and it pretty near ruined me.”
“How was that?”
"Why. people came in and bought
near all the stuff I had.”
Huppy Though Married.
Two roosters met in the barnyard.
“Is your married life happy?” asked
the first rooster.
"You bet it is,” was the reply. “You
see. my mother-in-law is an Incuba-
tor.”
Yoakum, Texas. Mar. 4.—Yoakum
city commissioners have granted a
30-year franchise to a natural gas
company to operate here. The grant
passed its third reading without op-
position and added a third franchise
in this section to those already grant-
ed in this section to the same com-
pany by Cuero and Gonzales.
Orange, grapefruit, satsuma, kum-
quat trees for sale; also seed and
garden plants. Faickney Building,
East Seventh St., T. A. Walker.
Anderson
Anderson
Brothers dealer.
"Back in the old days when many
makes of cars were regularly equip-
ped with muffler ‘cut-out’ valves and
the owners of many ears of other
makes added such equipment,” Mr.
Anderson says, “it was not uncommon
to hear a driver boast of the extra
speed he could attain with the noise
making device open. Anil perhaps it
was true of many cars on the road
over a decade ago.
“Between two evils, a noisy engine
and chassis and the roar of the open
exhaust, it is perhaps not strange
that some drivers in the old days pre-
ferred the barking of the open cut-out.
But conditions have changed. The
car of today equipped with a cut-out
is unusual and the sound of an open,
unmuffled exhaust is seldom heard
except from aircraft—and doubtless
within a few years there will be leg-
islation against noisy airplanes.
"The old ‘cut-out’ before it was
abandoned, however, did accomplish
one good thing. It attracted attention
of the motorist, and of the engineer
and designer as well, to the ineffi-
ciency of some of the many types »f
mufflers. Some mufflers silenced the
exhaust effectively enough but they
caused too much back pressure and
loss of engine power—and when the
cut-out valve was opened many cars
showed marked increase tn speed and
hill climbing ability.
“The natural result was the evolu-
tion of more successful, more effi-
cient mufflers. Today the fitting of
a cut-out valve to the exhaust pipe
should give so little increase in pow-
er, it any. as to be scarcely notice-
able to the driver.
“The function of the muffler is to
receive the hot gases which are ex-
hausted from the cylinders at high
pressure several hundred times each
minute and after allowing them to
cool and expand discharge them into
the air in a nearly constant stream— >
minus the loud reports which would
occur if they escaped through a short
open pipe. Further, the gases must |
flow through the exhaust pipe and ,
muffler with so little obstruction that potatoes, smooth, clean, select at $1.25
they will not be held back and pre-
proper emptying of the cylin-
are held in the outer shell by a rolled
lock joint made on special machines^
designed for the purpose. There art^
no castings in the construction—all
the joints are mechanical, no welds
or bolts or rods are depended upon to
secure the heads, shell and interme-
diate chambers together where they
must withstand bursting strains.
“An interesting advantage of the
design, the engineers point out, is
that the heated gases are expanded
and cooled in the large outer chamber
before passing into the smaller inner
chambers on their way to the outlet
pipe. If the heated gas enters the
muffler at a temperature of 500 to
1300 degrees and due to the cooling
while passing through a muffler of
this construction is cooled 100 to 200
degrees the volume is considerably de-
creased. This cooling and conse-
quent decrease in volume aids mate-
rially in reducing both back pressure
and exhaust sound.”
------o—o------
From Every Station
From Nome to the tropics, Seattle to
Maine.
We join in the ditty and lift the
refrain:
Buy it today and remit as you can—
It's simple, quite simple, our easy-
pay plan—
A dollar today and a dollar per week,
A system exceedingly clever,
Just a dollar today and a dollar per
week.
Forever—and ever—and ever.
Furniture, jewelry, dresses and clocks.
Furnishings, radios .headgear and
socks,
Chinaware, silverware, blankets
silk.
Phonographs, saxophones, frigidaires,
milk,
Limousines, magazines, books by the
shelf:
Nice, easy payments be good to your-
self
For a dollar today and a dollar pet\
week—
Reviving the time-honored hide-
and-go-seek
With the surly collectors who grum-
ble and peek
And leave you — no,
never;
But follow you on through the tur-
bulent day—
And phone you at night when you’d
rest from the fray—
For a dollar per week that you prom-
ise to pay
Forever—and ever—and ever.
— Retail Ledger.
-o--------
vent
ders.
"Dodge
exhaustive
oped an
closely approaches the ideal,
sure strength the shell and Interme-
diate expansion chambers are of steel
with the joints so made as to be
stronger than the metal away from
the joint. The pressed steel heads
The influence which the muffler or
exhaust silencer may exert on the
fuel consumption of a motor car is
frequently overlooked by the motor-
ist of today In the opinion of R. Lee
of the Hardy-Anderson
Auto Co., local Dodge
Texas
Gulf Sulphur
Company
ers!
w e re
by
the
Sheppard Strain
Heavy Winter Layers
Order Now Terms Cash
L. J. BEALL
BAY CITY,
TEXAS
MIRRORS RESILVERED
Art Glass Work
All Plate Glass Work
Mirrors Called For and Delivered
ARTCRAFT COMPANY
Phone 410
2604 Avenue F
Near Brownsville Depot
Plate Glass Dresser Tops
Show Case Work
belongs
legends
her
the
The Bells of Rufugio
¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥
Incident in Texas History
Usurping State Powers
15c
_.30c
._. 35c
Four weeks old chicks, each 45c
Six weeks old pullets, each 60c
Eight and 10 weeks old pullets and
cockerels, each $1.00
Barred Rock baby chicks, each 16c
had they completed this
when the Mexicans arrived at
They did not attack
hut took a position on
Ancona hatching eggs $7 per hundred
Day-old chicks, each
Two weeks old chicks, each
Three weeks old chicks, each
BY ADI5E DE ZAVALLA.
In The San Antonian.
ANCONA CHICKS
From
There Isn’t any secret about why
federal authority has continued to en-
croach upon that of the states. The
invasion of the rights of the states
is dealing with the commingling of
intrastate and interstate transactions,
and in that situation, it is necessary
to recognize the rights of congress to
prescribe the dominant and final rule.
In bolding constitutional the laws
that permit state regulation to be sup-
planted by federal regulation, there is
no intention of recognizing the power
of congress to deal with the internal
concerns of the states.
What ever the theory or the inten-
tions may be, the practical effect of
holding such legislation constitutional
is to make the federal government su-
preme over many purely state con-
cerns. The interstate commerce com-
missions. for instance, doesn’t stop
with regulating railroads doing inter-
state business, but regulates those op-
erating wholly within a state, owned
by local capital, and doing primarily
a local business.
It is evident that no relief from
federal encroachment is to come from
the courts. Public sentiment in the
states must make its influence against
Help did not come Thinking per-
haps of the cld saying that “God helps
those who help themselves," the men
of the group of refugees determined
to capture that infernal cannon and
so thwart Hie plan of the Mexicans.
Six men, five Irishmen and a Ger-
man. volunteered to carry out the
dangerous mission. As the evening
shadows fell, they kissed their wives
and children good-bye, shook hands
with the men who remained behind
and cautiously crawled out from the
shelter.
What magnificent
indomitable spirit!
i/, to t..~ —-—-
question of time when
Incident
beautiful
connected with the missions of this
fair state or whether a sincere belief
dating since 1836 has placed it
among the miracles ascribed to di-
vine interference in warfare it is
neither legend nor belief, this heroic
deed of six sons of Texas.
It is historical fact and should be
made part of the accounts of the his-
tory of Texas. The story of the strug-
gle before the walls of the mission
Nuestra Senora del Refugio (be-
tween February 29 and March 12,
1836) is little known, in fact is one
of a long string of many heroic deeds
during the years of fight for freedom,
but is lifted out of the ranks of the
commonplace by the romance of the
bronze voices of the bells, which con-
vert it into an historic gem on par
with the battle of the dead above thb
fields of Chalons.
The account of thia incident, com-
ing from the daughter of a man who
had taken part in the defense of the
mission against Urrea’s forces, relat-
ing it as she had heard it from
father, contains a reference to
bells which is worthy of note.
The fleeing settlers maintained,
upon arrival at the Mission Nuestra
Senora del Refugio, that they had
heard the bells tolling, calling to them
from the belfry, urging them to flee
In that direction. The settlers In-
sisted that they had heard the bells
when still some distance away, but
on arrival were told that there were
no bells in the belfry, as they had I
' been carried off more than a decade
i ago.
t few men
the wives, girls and chil-
worked fervishly to
the shelter the massive,
walls of the mission at-
t they gave
father who
No sentry
they worked
They had al-
.1'
■ has been invited time and again. The
' linnAioni txt’ Ihn /I { u I V» <• 1 i fl Q t I r»»A tif t h l»
’ states Io deal effectively with many
problems has opened the way for fed-
eral action. With citizens of the
states running to Washington for "aid”
in every emergency ami regulation in
matters that clearly come under the
states’ supervision, it isn’t any won-
der that tile federal government has
continually expanded Its powers and
its functions.
But, speaking before a law class in
Columbia University, the other day,
Charles Evans Hughes discussed a
phase of federal usurpation of state
powers which is not usually given
much attention by the layman. That
phase has to do with the increasing
willingness of the supreme court to
I hold constitutional acts of congress
* ‘ 1 bureaus
of hearts filled with fear, ’filled with "I""1 ,ll<’ agencies of the states,
despair for these six valiant men ; Mr n,u,h»o na-
were outnumbered loo greatly to hope
for success.
Men groaned in death agony, cursed
horribly before dying but strange—
these trices were in Spanish. Not a
sound of a voice in Gaelic, German or
English. And then as it seemed to .
the watchers, hours afterward*—-the
sound of battle ceased. The Mexicans ,
had fled, leaving their dead and
wounded behind and through the I
heavy doors of the mission, swinging j
open on rusty hinges, there walked,
unharmed, tlie six heroes, dragging |
the captured cannon behind them. Un-1
harmed, except one of them, who had
a slight flesh wound in his face.
Strange as it may seem, in this
fierce hand-to-hand combat, during
which many Mexicans were slain and
wounded, the Increditable fact that
none of the Texans was killed or se-
riously wounded remains.
With the coming of the new day.
tlie remaining Mexicans withdrew and
the refugees buried the dead in tlie
narrow ditch which surrounded
abandoned enemy position.
Then they cared for the wounded
and every one of these stated that
they had seen a strange force In the
air, fighting and protecting the Tex-
ans. Not only that, but many a well
aimed blow or shot was rendered
harmless by the heavenly hosts fight-
ing against the Mexicans. The six
men confirmed these statements. How
could it have been possible, otherwise,
that they had escaped with their lives
from a seemingly unavoidable slaugh-
ter? They sincerely believed that
just as the absent bells had called
them to the mission Nuestra Senora
del Refugio, so had these bells called
to their assistance the guarding
angels from heaven and to those they
ascribed their rescue as
thunks to the heavenly t
had sent them.
Whether this
among the many
..... that they had to steal their way
through the enemy lines.
It is certain, that no help, neither
from Golian nor from Fannin, arrived.
The Mexicans kept up the steady
pounding of the mission walls and the
great stones of which these walls
were built gave away, one after the
Naturally, to the refugees It was
merely a question of time when the
dreaded attack would materialize and
it could only mean a slaughter of all
those who were behind the mission
walls. If help did not arrive soon-
resistence was out of question.
of the bells from the Mission Nuestra Texas
Senora del Refugio.
When Attila. King of the Huns,
hurled his hosts against the Franks
on the Catalaunian Fields, near, what
is now known as Chalonssur-Marne,
the historians, since 451 A. C. made a
record of the fact that the ghosts of
the slain continued to fight in the
air above the living warriors. The
Christians, history stales, hud the
help of heavenly hosts and so
able to annihilate the Huns.
That cold facts, although accepted
by and included in every historical
work, pale by comparison with the
poetic beauty, the tender sentiment
contained in the story, so little known,
of six unsung heroes, Texans, which
concerns itself with Colonel Grant's
■ campaign against Santa Anna, in
1836.
As early as 1790, the plans for a
mission, situated near Refugio, in the
old province of Texas, were made,
but we know that the beginning of
the 19th century marks its definite
establishment, a removal from the
originally considered site having been
made Two bells hung In the cupola
of the old mission, probably cast in
old Mexico, although they may have
originated in the old province of
Texas. No authentic record Is avail-
able. The casting is very crude, but
the names of the bells, In bold relief,
are very plain. One bell is named
NUESTRA SENORA DEL REFUGIO
(Our Lady of Refuge) after the mis-
sion ami the other one "SANTA RITA"
after a saintly woman who died at
Cascia .Italy, about 1456.
When, in 1814. due to political trou-
ble lu New Spain, which shook the
religious ami civil life of the province
in Its very foundations, the settlers
decided to abandon the town of Re-
fugio, they were strengthened in this
decision by the fact that they were
suffering from continuous raids by
savage tribes and were made the buf-
fer between revolution and counter-
revolution.
About 1825 the settlers left Refugio
and, currying the bells with them,
moved into the vicinity of what is
now Corpus Christi.
The bolls were supposed to have
been there but they had disappeared
when, for the purpose of repairs, u
search was Instituted mid only re-
cently they were located at Browns-
ville and restored to the town of Re-
fugio. So much for the history of
the bells.
In February. 1836. Urrea, Santa
Anna's ablest general, commanding
part of the Mexican forces in their
advance on Sun Antonio, marched
along the gulf coast and during the
night of February 28 reached San
Patricio.
That little hamlet was occupied, at
the time, by Col. Francis Johnson,
who, with 40 men was awaiting there
the return of Colonel Grant, at that,
time scouting along the Rio Grande.
In these times the population of
the old Province of Texas was by no
means all friendly to the cause of
liberty. Many were decidedly in favor
of the Mexican government ami those
men were well known to Santa Anna
and his agents. These agents had
warned the Mexicans to leave lights
burning in their abodes in order to
indicate to the soldiers which houses
and lives to spare.
Colonel Johnson was busy writing
into the late hours and to this fact be
owed ills life and that of five com-
panies The six Texans escaped when
Urrea’s forces attacked San Patricio
and slaughtered the remainder of Col-
onel Johnson's small detachment.
Those settlers who could make good
their escape fled to Refugio about
30 miles to the north and joined the
Irish settlers at that place. . . .
While the Mexican soldiery burned,
looted and pillaged the deserted homes
nt San Patricio, the refugees, with the
settlers of Refugio, sought the shelter
of the Mission Nuestra Senora del Re-
fugio. There were only a
to protect t...
dren and they
strengthen I
three-foot t
forded.
No sooner
work v.... - --------
the scene. They did not attack at
once, hut took a position on a knoll
about 200 yards east of the mission.
What determined them to delay the
attack is not known, but the com-
mander seemed to have concluded that
without a field-piece, he could not
take the strong fort the old mission
actually represented.
The troops left, but soon returned
with a four-pounder, which they train-
ed upon the walls of the mission.
Solid shot after solid shot pounded
against the formidable walls. The de-
fenders felt safe, at first, because the
bombardment seemed not to make any
impression whatever upon the stones
of the wall. But when the fastness of
these giant blocks, under a steady
pounding of the cannonballs began to
weaken, messages were sent to Goliad
and the Fannin, imploring their help
and assistance. It is not known
whether or not the messengers reach-
ed their destinations, considering the
fact that they had to steal their way
The history of mankind, containing
many facts and legends of identical
trend, spaced widely over the cen-
turies of the foundation, existence and
passing of nations, records but one.
which may. even in the slightest de- .....
gree claim similarity ^with the story | ulu spirit which is the very basis of
‘ .... **••—* «.r.. • —- liberty!. What death-defying
love must have inspired these unsung j
heroes to risk their lives for their
loved ones and those of their broth-
The stake was a high one—it
was worth taking the chance.
The Mexicans were at supper and
did not espy the six stalwart men
who crawled nearer and nearer to
where the cannon was planted upon
the soil so dear to them,
was posted near and
quickly and silently.
ready gotten the gun carriage out of
Its emplacement and down the re- ,
verse side of the sloping knoll when impotent.y or the^jlislnclinatlon of the
a wounded soldier saw them and gave
the alarm.
The carelessness of the Mexicans
was bused upon the belief that there
was no escape for those within the
mission walls. The refugees were as
good as condemned to death and
Urrea certainly did not think that any
attempt would be made by them upon
his forces. The feat of the six men,
therefore, when discovered, had an 1
infuriating effect upon the Mexicans. ;
The outcry of the wounded man
sent tlie whole Mexican detachment I
after the Texans. They fell upon the
six men, yelling like fiends and the
women, watching the conflict from the
narrow windows of the mission saw
their men engulfed by the enemy.
i The editor Is greatly Indebted to
courage, what Miss De Zavalla tor her kind assist-
An example of [ ance in conducting the necessary re-
i<, verv IuihIk of search work to acquaint tlie readers
I of "The San Antonian” with a little
known, yet authentic incident in the
I history of tlie State of Texas. As far
I as we could ascertain it lias never
been mentioned in any work on that
subject.
• • ■ • •• ■ • •• ' lip, I I' <1 IZ.V VII' X- »• ' (1 < J .
They offered prayer after prayer, out , which hu pvt*-impose federal
■ .... . ... . . ' tlia util
"Forty years ago,” Mr. Hughes as-
serted, "few lawyers would have
.dreamed of the extensive schemes of
1 federal legislation which have suc-
cessfully passed judicial scrutiny as
to their constitutional validity.”
"In rapid succession.” he recalled,
"we have had the interstate commerce
act. the Hepburn and Carmack amend-
ments. and those of the transportation
act, the anti-trust acts, the safety ap-
pliance act, the hours of service act.
the employers’ liability act, the Adam-
son act, the pure food and drugs act,
the meat inspection act, the white
.slave traffic act, the Harrison nar-
I cotie act and many others.”
He might have mentioned the pro-
hibition act. Tlie masses are more
familiar with the issue that act has
raised titan wit it any of the others the
former chief justice named.
Tile court goes on the theory, ac-
cording to Mr. Hughes, that in enact-
ing this sort of legislation, congress
I
I
-------- <
__
.....if’—=-?»■■■■■
■ I'WiOe WT IM LJ jLii'i
.......... ■■ -
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Smith, Carey. The Matagorda County Tribune (Bay City, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 48, Ed. 1 Friday, March 11, 1927, newspaper, March 11, 1927; Bay City, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1309796/m1/2/?q=music: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Matagorda County Museum & Bay City Public Library.