DRAWBACKS ON LIFE IN TEXAS. 27 



been offered one glass of water from spring or well. Eain-water is 

 very generally drank ; nearly every tolerable dwelling being pro- 

 vided with a tank or reservoir for keeping it, oftener underground. 

 As veiy many lack even this, the excuse for drinking bad coffee, 

 or worse whisky, is here stronger than almost anywhere else. That 

 springs are very rare, while well-water is uniformly undrinkable, is 

 certain ; but why each city and considerable village has not tried to 

 obtain better, by sinking to a depth of two or three hundred feet 

 (not ex2)ecting the fluid to rise to the surface and flow over, on the 

 Artesian plan, but drawing it up by wind or other power), I do not 

 understand. The muddy product of the rivers, creeks, bayous, and 

 sloughs, which the cattle must imbibe per force, cannot but be prejudi- 

 cial to their health and thrift ; to say nothing of the dry seasons, 

 when even this detestable stufi" can hardly be obtained. The suffering 

 of animals from thirst, and from the villainovis witch-broth wherewith 

 they must quench it, must work them serious harm. If I were a herds- 

 man here, I would have better water for my stock, or I would 

 sink at least three hundred feet in quest of it. 



Sad roads and other impediments to inter-communication have 

 sadly crippled Texas, and still ci-ipple her. Her crops, as a gene- 

 ral rule, have cost the grower more after than before harvest. 

 Though oxen and horses have long been abundant and cheap, the 

 wheat-growers up ISTorth could reach no market with their product 

 unless at ruinous cost, while the lower counties were importing 

 Flour at the rate of three thousand barrels per day. A State whose 

 chief products are Grass and Cattle, has imported both Hay and 

 Milk ; her herdsmen, as a general i-ule, never see either. A purely 

 agricultural State that buys most of her bread, a splendid soil for 

 Corn on a good part of which Corn is dearer to-day than in New- 

 York City, a capital State for growing Swine at no cost, yet 

 which has bought three-fourths of the Hams universally consumed 

 by her people — such are among the causes which have hb])t her 

 people poor in spite of the remarkable fertility of her soil. Her 

 I'ivers, creeks, and bayous, rarely bi'idged, are subject to great and 

 sudden floods, whereby teamsters are often imprisoned for days 

 between two creeks which in dry seasons are waterless, and halted 

 by a river for weeks. Bvit for Railroads, Texas is doomed by nature 

 to stagnation, impotence, and barbarism. 



As yet, she has barely begun to be penetrated by railroads. A 

 line north by west from Galveston to Houston (50 miles), and 



