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Remember
way back before the advent of the internet when people clipped newspapers
instead of downloading stories?
Way back, newspaper clippings weren’t even called clippings. People
referred t them as “cuttings.”
So, for some lazy summer reading, here are some early-day “cuttings”
from various Texas newspapers:
“Latest date from Texas state that the commissioners have located
the seat of government on the Colorado River at a point called Waterloo,
thirty miles above Bastrop,
and ten miles below the mountains...The name of the place is to be
changed to Austin, which
the capital of Texas will hereafter bear in honor of its illustrious
founder.” – Maine Farmer, Winthrop, Me., May 4, 1839
“A company of about 180 volunteers and ten or twelve Indian spies
went out with Captain Lewis some six weeks since in pursuit of Comanches,
and for sport generally. A determination was expressed at that time
to remain out during the whole summer unless a respectable body of
Indians could be found sooner.” -- Houston Morning Star, June 2,
1841
“The Lockhart Clarion says that a drove of three hundred and fifty
Beeves passed through that town on the 25th ultimo, for markets in
Missouri. If we are not mistaken, this is a new direction the stock
trade of Texas is taking.” -- Texas State Gazette, May 6, 1854
“Robbing An Editor. – There are ungodly people in San
Antonio – the robbery of editor of the Texan furnishes incontestable
evidence of the fact. Under what strange hallucination did the person
or persons labor who committed the unreasonable act – searching an
editor’s trunk for money, and packing off his worn clothes.” -- Texas
State Gazette, June 14, 1855
“Fort Town’s men hanged an abolitionist in the early morning of July
17 on a pecan tree near the bank of the Clear Fork, three-fourths
of a mile west of Fort
Worth. They left him hanging there. All through the day people
thronged to gaze upon an abolitionist.” -- Fort Worth Whig Chief,
July 25, 1860
A Galveston
man, who had a mule for sale, hearing that a friend in Houston
wanted to buy a mule, telegraphed him: ‘Dear Friend: If you are looking
for an A No. 1 mule don’t forget me.’” – Galveston News, reprinted
in Wit and Wisdom, Jan. 20, 1881
“At Baird, Texas, on the 3d
instant Thos. Jones and George L. Franks, of Cotton Springs, getting
into a dispute, met on the street, Franks with a shotgun and Jones
with a revolver. Both fired and both were instantly killed.” – Silver
City, N.M. Jan. 11, 1883
“Vote for the Confederate home amendment to the constitution. Surely
the great state of Texas which has paid millions in pensions to Union
soldiers, can afford $100,000 for the brave defenders of the Lone
Star, in their old age.” -- Eagle Pass Guide, Nov. 3, 1894
“The Beaumont
gushes have lost their force and the Lone Acre Oil Co., has filed
a petition asking the court to modify the regulations so as to permit
the construction of setting tanks near the wells. The conditions have
changed so that pumps will have to be used to obtain the oil.” --
Texas State Democrat, Farm and Home, June 5, 1902
“A Triple Hanging
Smith, Brown and Jones hang their hopes of recovery upon Cheatom’s
Laxative Chili Tablets. They will be around soon shaking hands with
friends. 25 cts. No cure, no pay. A.M. Gilmer & Son.” – Rocksprings
Rustler, Jan. 31, 1903
“Early Sunday morning Johnson Bird was passing the Arsenal block school
when he was fired at twice, but was not hit. Mr. Bird states that
he knows no reason why any one would wish to kill him, unless it was
for some small affair he had at Lytton Springs several years ago.”
-- Texas State Democrat, Farm and Home, June 5, 1905 |
© Mike Cox
"Texas Tales"
July 10, 2008 column
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