212 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



bogged deeply in the black and 

 tough soil or mud, sometimes for 

 days and weeks. In those days, 

 however, such game as plover, 

 curlews, wild sand-cranes, ducks 

 and geese abounded all over the 

 western prairie plains, and it was 

 a pleasure, though generally com- 

 bined with great hardship, to go 

 hunting; who in those days, 

 (when game was so plentiful, lead 

 and powder were scarce and one 

 had to load and reload his gun 

 not manufactured cartridges,) 

 would have thought of shoot- 

 ing a single dove or shoot 

 three or six times; nay, like often 

 nowadays, ten to a hundred shots 

 durnig a day's hunt, at wild fowls 

 to bring home two or three thus 

 killed. Hunters in those olden 

 days were well trained to shoot, 

 to get the game; and seldom was 

 game missed or crippled. , They 

 were trained like soldiers to handle 

 their gun carefully and for sheer 

 ; economical necessity — not to shoot 

 "holes in the air" like is practiced 

 nowadays by some of our good 

 friends and "shoot-away-shells" 

 nimrods! Then also a gun was 

 to be handled very carefully 

 on account of the method of 

 loading. When once loaded the 

 caps had to be removed when 

 not in use, or to be more sure of 

 accident, the whole load had to 

 be extricated with a so-called 

 "screw-driver ramrod," when the 

 gun was to be set aside at home. 

 What a difference now in loading 

 a gun and quickly emptying it 

 of its deadly shells — thanks to 

 the genius of our inventive modern 

 gun makers. 



But I am tresspassing my orig- 

 inal intention — to write about olden 

 time conditionsandhuntinggrounds 

 around San Antonio. I will con- 

 tinue the latter for another chapter 

 and only include herein some old 

 timerecoUections of San Antonio. In 

 those days no skyscrapers adorned 

 the then quaint old Spanish-Mexican 

 frontier town "San Antonio de 



Bexar," as it is often remembered, 

 nor was anything known of as- 

 phalted streets or electric lights 

 and street cars, or automobiles, 

 telephones, waterworks, sanitary 

 sewerage systems and other mod- 

 ern commodities. And still the 

 inhabitants were quite contented 

 with what they possessed. The 

 houses in those days were mostly, 

 all built of soft rock or "adobe," 

 and several of these houses are to be 

 seen here today: the old Seffel's 

 blacksmith shop, Hartmann's sa- 

 loon building and others on the 

 corner of Crockett street and Alamo 

 Plaza, and in various other dis- 

 tricts of our good old Alamo City. 



In social circles, the old Casino 

 on market street, a great entertain- 

 ing center, especially of the German 

 element was what now is Beethoven 

 Hall, and Turner Hall, the Herman 

 Sons Home, the Chamber of Com- 

 merce and many -other modern 

 clubhouses ; and it was frequenteji 

 by the military, staff on Gov- 

 ernment Hill. , The Ger- 

 man-English school • on South 

 Alamo street and also St. Mary's 

 College were the main educational 

 institutions of old San Antonio. 

 Among some of the prominent 

 citizens, men who have helped the 

 old town- along to bring it up to 

 its modern metropolitan standard, 

 these men among many others 

 too numerous to mention here 

 were, as far as I can recollect: 

 Thielepape (first German Mayor 

 of San Antonio.). 



Dr. F. Herff, the oldest veteran 

 physician of Texas, August Nette, 

 Julius Behrens, Wm A. and Simon 

 N. Menger, A. Nette, G. Duerler, 

 Kampmann, Maverick, Towig, 

 Stumberg, Dau^nhauer, Frasch, 

 Frost, Schuetze, Wurzbach, Seffel, 

 Russy, Biehl, La Coste, Cosgrove, 

 Bro. Charles, Sullivan, Runge, Dr. 

 Hertzberg, Stein, Deussen, EVies, 

 Boelhauwe, Stumberg, Boettler, 

 Appmann, Judge Devine, Noonan, 

 Paschal, Haubold, Hensel, Calsen, 

 Moeller, Mueller, Brautach, Deu- 



