794 



TEXAS. 



$1.89 per acre. The assessment of 1882 shows 

 an increase of llf per cent over that of 1881. 

 The special tax on occupations yielded, during 

 the fiscal year, $567,134.60. 



RAILROADS. Six or seven years ago the rail- 

 ways in Texas were comparatively few and 

 short. Now, in 1883, she has 5,908 miles ot 

 railroad, running in every direction, furnishing 

 highways for the transportation and markets 

 for the sale of her produce and stock, bringing 

 between $30,000,000 and $40,000,000 into the 

 State, and opening to civilization and produc- 

 tive industry millions of acres of land, pre- 

 viously penetrated only by the savage or the 

 fugitive from justice. Of the number of miles 

 of railroad given above, 4,926 have been built 

 within the last ten years ; and 1,461 miles, 

 costing $44,525,000, within the year ending 

 September 1st. The following are the railroad 

 lines, and their extent, in operation in the State : 



Miles. 

 590 

 837 

 972 

 50 



935 



738 

 534 

 305 

 176 

 335 

 114 

 105 

 104 



57 



Missouri Pacific and Texas Pacific Kailroads 



International and Great Northern 



Texas and Pacific 



Galveston and Houston 



Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio, and Mexican 



and Pacific Extension 



Houston and Texas Central 



Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe 



Texas and St. Louis (narrow gauge) 



Texas-Mexican (narrow gauge) 



Houston, East and West Texas (narrow gauge) 



Fort Worth and Denver City 



Texas and New Orleans 



Sabine and East Texas 



New York, Texas and Mexican 



Gulf, West Texas and Pacific 



Austin and Northwestern (narrow gauge) 



Texas Western 



Texas Trunk 



Eio Grande and Pecos 26 



Kio Grande 22 



Texas Transportation Company 8 



Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (in Texas) 8 



Missouri, Kansas and Texas (in Texas) 5 



Total miles of railroad December 1, 1882 5,974 



Suit was instituted in the District Court, last 

 March, by the State against the International 

 and Great Northern Eailroad Company, seek- 

 ing a forfeiture of its charter, and of the land 

 grant of twenty sections per mile for the road 

 between Jefferson and Laredo, for alleged fail- 

 ure to construct the road as required by the 

 charter that is, " at the rate of at least forty 

 miles each year, or of eighty miles every two 

 years." The court decreed that the land grant 

 be adjudged forfeited upon all the railroad be- 

 tween Jefferson and Laredo, not completed at 

 the filing of the suit, viz., from Austin to La- 

 redo, and from a point north of Longview to 

 Jefferson. 



THE CAPITOL. The new Capitol, now in 

 process of construction at Austin, will be one 

 of the largest and handsomest public buildings 

 in the United States. It will be built of fos- 

 siliferous limestone, found in large quantities 

 in the immediate vicinity. The interior will 

 be finished with various kinds of Texas marble. 

 The basement -floor will consist of fifty-one 

 rooms, to be occupied by the Comptroller's 

 and Treasurer's department, specie-vaults, and 

 heating apparatus. The second floor will be 



set apart for the Senate and House of Repre- 

 sentatives, Governor's reception-rooms, por- 

 trait-gallery, library, committee - rooms, etc. 

 The third floor will be occupied by the State 

 House and judicial officers, court-rooms, judges' 

 rooms, Attorney-General's and Marshal's office, 

 etc. The fourth story will consist of a num- 

 ber of rooms not yet designed for any specific 

 purpose. The whole will be surmounted by a 

 dome, which, it is said, will be the highest in 

 America. The estimated cost of the material 

 and labor will be $1,480,000; but it is sup- 

 posed that it will cost fully $2,500,000 to com- 

 plete it. The contractors are to receive for 

 the building, when finished according to the 

 plans, 3,000,000 acres of land, situated in the 

 extreme northwestern part of the State, in 

 what is known as the " Pan-handle." The 

 dimensions of the building, at greatest meas- 

 ure, are 666 feet long by 288 feet 10 inches 

 wide. The dome will be 311 feet high. The 

 excavations were commenced on February 1st. 

 The contractors the Rock Island (Illinois) Syn- 

 dicate have agreed to have the building u fully 

 completed and delivered on or before Janua- 

 ry 1, 1888." The lands to which they will be 

 entitled when the Capitol is completed could 

 be readily sold for $1.50 per acre, so that re- 

 ally the cost of the buildings, at the present 

 price of the land, will be $4,500,000, and it is 

 probable that by January, 1888, the lands will 

 be worth fully fifty per cent more than at 

 present. 



At the extra session the sum of $50,000, 

 and the material of the old burned Capitol, 

 were appropriated to purchase or erect suit- 

 able temporary buildings for the Executive, 

 judiciary, and Legislature of the State. Just 

 after the stone-work of the building was fin- 

 ished, and the roof placed upon it, a severe 

 wind and rain storm caused a large portion of 

 the walls, which the contractor had failed to 

 bond, to fall. When this happened, $27,300 of 

 the $50,000 had been already expended, leav- 

 ing only $22,700 to repair the damage and 

 complete the building. The contractor went 

 forward, finished the work, and now trusts to 

 the next Legislature to reimburse him. 



BouNDAEY-LiNE. The long unsettled ques- 

 tion as to the boundary-line between Northern 

 Texas and the Indian Nation has been revived 

 by the researches reported by Mr. John M. 

 S wisher, acting as agent on the part of Texas. 

 The dispute arises, it is said, from the fact 

 that the United States Commissioner 

 nized the South Fork of the Red River as the 

 continuation of that stream, while the Texas 

 authorities have always held that the North 

 Fork is the true river. Several successive Le- 

 gislatures of Texas have affirmed the claim of 

 the State to the territory known as Greer 

 County, which lies southeast of the Pan- 

 handle, between the North and South Forks of 

 Red River, and it is asserted in support of this 

 claim that, although the bed of the South Fork 

 is more extended than that of the North Fork, 



