| OCR Text |
Show 'i One Texas 77.e Lone Sfar State M Sfi Motto: Friendship j A yS-T 1 ' "IjCa" FWer: Bluebonnet jJV By EDWARD EMERINE V 0Jv WNU Washington Correspondent. V. t WNU Feature! N. FLilt3 jf tvX XJO NATIVE has ever leen all V & n of Texas and no visitor v ipi( ever will." vTMM ft A huge, Incredibly rich piece of ?ifl real estate, with more cattle than jvA4' human beings, and ranches de- rQlL mvi v scribed in square miles rather than 'iro " V-3 acres! By EDWARD EMERINE WNU Washington Correspondent. WNU Feature! "XTO NATIVE has ever seen all of Texas and no visitor ever will." A huge, incredibly rich piece of real estate, with more cattle than human beings, and ranches described de-scribed in square miles rather than acres! . ,'. v-v H Texas derives its name from "tejas," meaning friend or ally. Six great flags have Mown over the state Spanish, French, Mexican, Repub-I Repub-I lie 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 aaaaaaaaaaaaB ' aHHllllalH alaaaailaEl li V Jt 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 mil-lion acres are Irrigated, and such cities as San Antonio, Houston, Galveston Gal-veston 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 blos-som 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. cac-tus. There are alligators on the coast, horned toads in the desert, and rattlesnakes wherever you And them. Once 60 million buffalo grazed in Texas, and it still knows the armadillo, chaparral bird and road-runner. road-runner. Here Is a land of forest and desert, des-ert, of fertile fields and jagged mountains, of rolling prairies, sleepy rivers and wide Gulf beaches. beach-es. And here Texans created Houston Hous-ton 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 en-ergy and Mexican color. It is suitable suit-able 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, Col-orado, Kansas, Wyoming, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois. If the gas ever runs out, plenty of coal remains. re-mains. 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 Tcnnessean on his way to join Texas' War for Independence. Independ-ence. "The Americans were so stubborn stub-born that not one of them would surrender," sur-render," Gen. Santa Anna. "Ride like Mexicans, shoot like Tennes- I seans, and fight like the devil," the Texas Rangers. "Thermopylae bad ' its messenger of defeat; the Alamo , had none," inscription. "Remem- ' GOVERNOR COKE STEVENSON A freight wagon operator at age 16, Coke Stevenson has been banker, bank-er, lawyer, county attorney, county coun-ty judge, state legislator, and lieutenant governor and governor of Texas. ber the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" Sam Houston. "The Republic Repub-lic of Texas is no more," Anson Jones. The shrine of Texas is the Alamo where 182 men, including Travis, Crockett, Bowie and Bonham, refused re-fused to escape or surrender. At Goliad, a Texas force under Fannin Fan-nin surrendered and was massacred. massa-cred. 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, sea-ports, its flying fields and oil derricks, der-ricks, its mines and fields, and cattle cat-tle 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. San Jacinto Monument knives; with corn, 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 acre-age that was unlimited, soil that was fertile, a climate that was caressing, a land abundant in na- ! tural 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 j Rocky mountains. It has jts coastal plain, its central plains, and western high plains, ranging in altitude from sea level to 4.700 feet and peaks j pointing even higher. There are 800 long miles between the semi-tropical Rio Grande and the northern border, and the greatest distance east and west is 775 miles. Water ' covers 3,408 square 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 haas only 9 inches. Snow seldom falls in most of the state: 3 feet of It has been known in the high altitudes alti-tudes of west Texas. Wheat grows in the temperate north, oranges and grapefruit in the subtropical south, "Grapefruit Bowl," Lower Rio Grande, near McAllen, Texas |
