Southern Trips 113 



liarly with the tone of the tree itself, especially where, upon 

 the round, rocky, mountain ledges, its distorted roots cling, 

 disputing a scant nourishment with the stunted grass. 



SAN ANTONIO 



We have no city, except, perhaps. New Orleans, that can 

 vie, in point of the picturesque interest that attaches to 

 odd and antiquated foreignness, with San Antonio. Its 

 jumble of races, costumes, languages and buildings; its 

 religious ruins, holding to an antiquity, for us, indistinct 

 enough to breed an unaccustomed solemnity; its remote, 

 isolated, outposted situation, and the vague conviction that 

 it is the first of a new class of conquered cities into whose 

 decaying streets our rattling life is to be infused, combine 

 with the heroic touches in its history to enliven and satisfy 

 your traveller's curiosity. 



. . . [The streets] are laid out with tolerable regu- 

 larity, parallel with the sides of the main plaza, and are 

 pretty distinctly shared among the nations that use them. 



In the outskirts of the town are many good residences, 

 recently erected by Americans. They are mostly of the 

 creamy limestone, which is found in abundance near by. It 

 is of a very agreeable shade, readily sawed and cut, suffi- 

 ciently durable, and can be procured at a moderate cost. 

 When the grounds around them shall have been put in 

 correspondence with the style of these houses, they will make 

 enviable homes. 



THE SAN ANTONIO SPRING 



There are, besides the missions, several pleasant points 

 for excursions in the neighborhood, particularly those to the 



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