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Show 77 jr I THE CITIZEN 16 3 i FIVE STATES OUT OF TEXAS. f r Shall the Lone Star of Texas disappear and in its place a constellation of five stars be- created? In other words, shall the greatest state in the Union, in point of territory, be divided i i ; into five great commonwealths to be - known as North Texas, South Texas, East Texas, West Texas and Central ' ' I ? i t I I e I I i J i I i i i i i i 1 1 Texas? For many years there have been Texans who advocated the division of Texas into two states, but it was not until very recently that the proposition to divide it into five states was seriously proposed. The man who has suggested that Texas be divided into five parts to be known by the names given is Judge John N. Garner of Uvalde, Texas, the dean of the Texas delegation in the lower house of congress. Judge Garner is a native born Texan and one of the states most prominent citizens. The Fifteenth district, the southwestern border district of Texas, which for more than eighteen years Judge Garner has represented in congress, is itself larger than many of the states in the Union. It is a district the southern border line of which trails with the Rio Grande from Cameron county on the gulf to a point on the Rio Grande beyond the border city of Laredo. In other words, this single Texas district, were it a territory, would be eligible for statehood. Advocates of division ask these questions: How many people know that Brewster, Presidio, Pecos, Val Verde and Webb counties, Texas, are each of them larger than some of the New How many people England states know that it costs $12,000 to circularize the voters of Texas once, and that it costs a small fortune to campaign the state from north to south and east to west in other words, that the scate is so tremendously big, as measured in square miles, that the only men who can campaign it properly are rich ' men? Yes, said Judge Garner the other day, I am for dividing Texas into five parts. I think of the problem not from the viewpoint of present day conditions, but from the viewpoint of die or future in other words, twenty-fiveven fifty years from now. Remember that Texas is bigger than two New Englands, and yet New England has twelve senators, while all that the great territory that we know and love as Texas has but two. An area twice as large and rapidly becoming as populous as New England, should at leant have ten senators, and the only way we can get them is to make five states, not five small states, mind vcu, but five great states, each among the most imposing in size and resources In the Union, and none of them with less than 500,000 population. To divide Teaxs would require no action by congress, for the enabling act which admitted Texas into the Union made provision for such a contingency, so all that would be necessary in the event the division into five commonwealths is realized would be for the governor of the old state to officially inform the department of here in Washington that, in accordance with the provisions of tho annex- - ation act, Texas had divided into five states, to be known as North Texas, South Texas, East Texas, West Txas and Central Texas. Of course each e would retain the name of Texas. It would be a sacrilege' to even suggest anything to the contrary. The Alamo, San Jacinto and the other glories of Texas are the common heritages of all Texans, and always will be. Once a Texan always a Texan, answers the question why each of the five states should and would retain the old state name. Just now I am not going to suggest : before the voters for state offices.- And the same is true, but to a lesser degree, of those who run for state-wid- e federal. positions. In other words, the man who runs for office in Texas must either be rich or backed by other .men Ill hear thy Tuscan - : or interests t ; one-thir- f s . moment Texas is a state of 253 counties, many of them larger than some of the states. She has a population that is increasing by leaps and bounds, the increase since 1900 alone being more than 1,600,000 people. Twenty years ago the population of all New England was approxithe possible exact boundaries of these mately twice that of Texas. Today it proposed five states of Texas. I can has been cut down to about say, though, that North Texas would and Texas is gaining every day, and be one of the greatest agricultural the day is not far distant when Texas states in the Union, a land of cotton, will be in the third state in the Union, corn, alfalfa, fruit and the other things with New York and Pennsylvania In that are good for man and beast. first and second places, respectively. South Texas, which would include So, to my way of thinking, this at least a part of my own district, dividing-oTexas into five states is would be a state of diversified indusnot only a proper, but also a very practries and resources, a state producing tical proposition. Instead of one oil, a state in which shipping would state we would have five be a great industry, a state that would commonwealths, each with contain the greatest sulphur mines in its own constitution, framed to meet the world, a land of great sugar and its own peculiar needs, each legislatrich plantations, and also, of course, ing according to its best interests., no inconsiderable amount of cotton. thus probsolving many present-daGalveston and Houston might be in lems, since at the present time the this state. of the different sections of the East Texas would share with her state are so different that these differsisters the greatness of the old state. ent sections are continually, asserting She would have the oil, and in agri- that they are being discriminated culture she wul(i approach in the size against. of her crop yields North and Central The suggestion' to give to each Texas. state the name of Texas, I believe, Like North Texas the state of Cen- would remove much of the objection tral Texas would be essentially a great that always creep up when the propoagricultural state, one of the greatest sition to divide Texas is broached. It in the Union, with Austin and Waco would simply be the creation of a Texas of five parts. It would make among the principal cities. Last but not least would be the possible to a greater degre than is splendid state of West Texas, a land how possible home rule, and it would of cattle, minerals and industry. In make it possible always for the best this state would be among the worlds men to offer themselves for office, no greatest cattle ranges and its metrop matter what their status as to wealth N. Y. Times. olis would probably be the wonder might be. border city of El Paso. You ask why should these five PAMPINA. states be created? There are man? reasons. First, the political. In my opinion the final test is yet to come Lying by the summer sea between the condensed industrial pop- I had a dream of Italy. ulation of the east and the rural populations of the south and west, and the Chalky cliffs and miles of sand, final residium of power in this govMossy reefs and salty eaves, ernment is in the senate, and so I want Then the sparkling emerald waves, ten instead of two senators from what Faded; and I seemed to stand is now Texas, and the only way to get Myself a languid Florentine, them is to make five Texases where In the heart of that fair land. now there is only one. And in a garden cool and green, is of Texas it in the today Again, Boccaccios own enchanted place, not if difficult impossible for the poor I met Pampina face to face man, unless he be backed by others, A maid so lovely that to see to run for state office. It is almost ImHer smle is to know Italy. possible' for the people to know their Her hair was like a coronet candidates as they should. Just think her Grecian forehead set. for a moment that in Texas it costs Upon Where one gem glistened sunnily about $12,000 to circularize the stale Like Venice, when first seen at sea just once and that a candidate for I saw wtihin her violet eyes state office can spend properly and leskies. The starlight of Italian gitimately in his efforts to reach the And on her b.ow and breast and hand people anywhere betwen $25,000 and The olive of her native land. $50,000. Some of the best men in our state, just as is the case in all the other states, are poor men, and yet And, knowng how In other times Her lips were ripe wth Tuscan unless these men are backed by lliymes friends or combinations, or perI haps some great interest, it is Im- Cf love and wine and dance, spread possible, as the situation now exists, My mantle by an almond tree, for those men to present themselves And Here, beneath the rose, I said, At the-presen- d : un-wield- ly self-sustaini- ng - y in-ters- ts . melody. tale that was not told In those ten dreamy days of old. When Heaven, for some divine offen Smote Florence with the pestilence And in that' gardens odorous shade The dames of the .Decameron With each a loyal ' lover, strayed. To laugh and sing,: at sorest need To lie in the lilies in. the sun With glint of plume. and. silver bred And while she. whispers in my ear The dewy, slim chameleons run Through twenty colors in the sun; The breezes blur the fountains glas And wake Aeolian melodies, And scatter from the. scented trees The lemon blossoms on the grass. I heard a . co . The tale? . I have forgot the tale A lady all for love forlorn, A rose-buand a nightingale That bruised his bosom on the thorn-A jar of rubies buried deep, A glen, a corpse, a child asleep. A. Monk that was no monk at all, In the moonlight by a castle-wall- . Tuscan wove Nowftwhile the large-eyeThe gilded thread of her romance Whicli I have lost by grievous chanctl The one dear woman that' I. love Beside me in our seaside nook,' Closed a white finger in her book. Half vext that she should read, and d, ' . d weep, For Petrarch, to a man asleep! And scorning me, so tame and cold, She rose, and wandered down the shore. Her drapery, fold in fold, Imprisoned by an ivory hand; And on a bowlder, half in sand, She stood, and looked at Appledore. wine-dar- k And, waking, I beheld her there Sea-dreami- in ng the moted air. siren lithe and debonair, With wristlets woven of scarlet weedi And oblong amber beads Of shining in her hair. And as I thought of dreams, and how The something in us never sleeps, But laughs, or sings, or moans, or A sea-kel- p weeps, I saw the and and on her breast She turned brow won tint that seemed not From kisses of New England sun; I saw on brow and breast and hand The olive of a summer land! eyes She turned and, lo! .within There lay the starlight of Italian skies. Most dreams are dark, beyond the range Of reason; oft we can not tell If they are born of heaven or ell; But to my soul it seems not st.anpe That., lying by the summer sea. Writh that dark woman watching me, I slept and dreamed of Italy! Thomas Bailey Aldrich. ln-- r 1 SELF-EXPLANATOR- Wet Recruiting Sergeant. name and wot branch of Jthe dye want to be in? Perkins (who stammers)1 T - er rvHs y It. S. (writing "Cant speak E and wants to join machine gut1 out The American Legion We dyfit. - |