The Texas Miner, Volume 1, Number 33, September 1, 1894 Page: 6
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THE TEXAS MINER.
OUR FORT WORTH LETTER.
Fort Worth, Texas, August 31. 1894.
Editor Texas Miner:
SOCIEI\ is greatly shocked to see the unfortunate women,
who are fined by the various petty criminal courts of our
city, compelled to work in our streets alongside of the men con-
victs. To see a member of the gentler sex, no matter how low
and degiaded she may be, drunk or disorderly or engaged in
otherwise offending against the peace and dignity of the State is
bad enough, but to see that poor unfortunate driven by the stern
and cruel hand of the law to work upon the public thoroughfares
of our lovely city is an outrage on common decency and an evi-
dence of heathenish barbarity not countenanced bv any other
civilized community on the face of God's green earth.
Early this week a gang of "drunks and disorderlvs" were set
to work cleaning or repairing ceitain of our streets. Among
this crowd of miserable unfortunates was a woman. She was
given a hoe and compelled to do the work of a man alongside
of men and in the very presence of a crowd of jeering, sneering,
beasts in human form. Her hands, unfortunately for her, were
unused to that kind of work and in no time they were a mass of
blisters. Hounded by the merciless creatures, clothed by law
with a power not permitted by any rule of humanity or civiliza-
tion, this poor fallen woman, driven to desperation bv the pain
of her blistering hands, was obliged to remove her stockings in
the public street and use them as gloves.
This in a civilized community !
No pillory or whipping post ot olden time was more degrad-
ing than this—no punishment so severe.
Cruel, inhuman, repulsive to every intendment of civilization is
this barbarous execution of law.
I ruly may it be said that this city is infested with some of the
lowest dregs oí human kind. To ' Fighting Fanny," the giant
negress who heeds no law and defies the enforcers thereof, such
punishment may not be so cruel, for she is used to that sort 01
thing, but to the woman who, while morally degraded and de-
praved, is, in hei immorality, accustomed to the surroundings
and accompaniments of comparative wealth and luxury, it is a
hideous relic of pre-historic cruelty.
This mode of punishment sets at defiance every argument
which modern civilization stands for. It absolutely precludes and
banishes from the pale of even remote possibility, the reforma-
tion ot the unfortunate fallen one. It places forever upon the
brow of those misguided, of those lead from the paths of virtue
by dire necessity, yes starvation—the ban of moral obloquy.
It brands forever, beyond obliteration, the human frame which,
while steeped in social degradation and shame, contains a soul
that may yet be illumined with Divine forgiveness and clensed
with the purity of righteous repentence.
What poor unfortunate, thus made the object of public deris-
ion and scorn, can ever rise above the curse that marks her
punishment. She—once a temple of purity, once the abiding
place of a spotless soul—the victim of man's perfiidy, socially,
morally killed by man in the execution of man's laws.
Shame, mortification, humiliation are upon us. The fair name
ot our city is tarnished. Our civilization and social standing are
made lower in the eyes of the world.
Stop this inhumanity. Wipe from the table of laws this can-
nibalistic ordinance, and let reason, kindness and Christianity be
the weapons wherewith to wage war against the social evils of the
hour.
1 he local press, Mr. Editor, save the Mail, will not utter its
protest against this odious law. Will The Miner not cast its
influence on the side of humanity? Tarrant',
'OBSERVER" HOMEWARD BOUND.
Dixon, III , Aug. 25, 1894.
Editor of The Texas Miner:
ON the back track from the far West, here I am, headed for
the Eone Star state, the commonwealth that can play a
"lone hand" on two and a quarter million bales of cotton, as we
hope she will this year, can discount many of the Northern states
in the bushels of wheat, corn and oats that is produced per cap-
ita—the state that is forging forward at a greater speed than any
of the states in the Union.
We are like the boy who bragged that "he could dive deeper,
stay under longer and come up fresher" than .any other, and
that's what Texas is demonstrating at this time. Cursed with a
bad name, resulting from the immense area, sparse population,
where the bad men of the East, West and South could hide
away from evil deeds committed by them in other and older
states—all this gave Texas a bad name as the home of outlaws.
This changed many years since, and yet the impression in the
North and West kept immigration of the hardy cultivator of the
soil away from the rich lands and excellent climate that so large
a portion of Texas possesses; but the success of the few who
came and made their fortunes drew others, and now this state is
being talked about all over the Union.
In railroad cars, wherever I meet progressive men, they be-
come interested at once when they learn that I am familiar with
Texas, and I tell them that nowhere I go are the chances for the
tiller ot the soil to receive as quick returns for his labor, nowhere
in the country can the hard working man make a home for him-
seif quicker than in well selected portions of Texas.
I came yesterday through the state of Nebraska, and saw-
thousands upon thousands ot acres ot corn that were blasted by
the hot winds and drouth, saw the labor of months in preparing
tor crops utterly mined in a few days, saw many families leaving
their homes, and in their Prairie Schooners," with wife and
babies, seeking for some spot where a living could be earned. I
wanted to teil every one ot them to turn toward our own lovely
state, where cheap rich lands could be found without limit. The
much vaunted Nebraska lands that are good are occupied, and
the barren plains are no place to make homes.
Wt can in Northern Texas rai.-e every crop they can in the
North advantageously, and sonu that cannot be raised so far
north and west. I he people ot Texas cordially invite the tiller
ot the soil. W e have a school system as guod as can be found
anywhere; we have good markets lor farm products; our villages
and cities are growing rapidly, and the Democratic party is grow-
ing small by degrees and beautitully less. Men can have their
own political views without being boycotted. A new Texas is
growing in our fruitful soil. The curses about "d—d Yankees"
are heard less and less. It is true that we have some old moss-
backs who cannot forget or torgive. but they are disappearing in
the general prosperity, and are frowned upon by the progressive
men of the New South.
Illinois has produced this year more than average crops.
Iowa also will realize a large sum from her crops.
1 see by The 1 exas Miner that we are selling corn at 50
cents a bushel, and it is worth 55 cents in Chicago. Such con-
cerns as the I exas & Pacific Coal company are a great blessing
to the surrounding country, and the intelligent, honest inhabit-
ants are finding it out. " Observer.
THE RAILROADS AND FREE TRADE.
T 1 is pointed out by the Railway Age that receivers were ap-
1 pointed between January 1 and June 30, 1894, for no less
than twenty-three railroad companies, owning nearly 3,00c miles
of road and representing bonded debt and stock capitalization
aggregating over $260,000,000. The same authority says, in
discussing this situation: "Adding these impressive figures to
those which made the extraordinary record for 1893, it will be
tound that in the last eighteen months ninety-seven railway com-
panies, owning nearly 32,000 miles of road and representing
more than $2,000,000,000 in bonds and stock, have defaulted
and been placed 111 the hands ot receivers. ' This has been the
effect upon the railroads since the country was overwhelmed with
the fear of free trade. It also reflects indirectly the injury and
destruction done to American trade and commerce.
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McAdams, Walter B. The Texas Miner, Volume 1, Number 33, September 1, 1894, newspaper, September 1, 1894; Thurber, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth200480/m1/6/?rotate=90: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.