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Show LAS TEXAS Y LOS TEJANOS. 407 north of Red River. In the valleys the soil appeared very rich, on the upland rather thin. About half the country is covered by timber, and very few cultivated farms are seen. Occasionally appears a cattle corral, and near it a stylish log- house or rude cabin, from which " White Choctaws" peer out at the train, with an air of lazy admiration. In the heaviest timber, wild turkeys often fly near us, and smaller game are quite abundant, while on the high prairies large herds of horses and cattle show the wealth and employment of the Choctaws. Crossing the yellow Red River, which is rather narrow at this point, we enter the sovereign State of Texas, and four miles further disembark at the " city" of Denison. A regular " norther " is blow-ing, and for the first day of my stay an overcoat is not too heavy. This is a cosmopolitan town. About half its citizens are from the North, half from the South ; a third or more are foreigners, the rest from every State in the Union. It is curious to observe how often a Northern and a Southern man are in partnership, and that the clerks in large establishments are similarly divided. The wants of com-merce demand amnesty. The Alamo Hotel, where I stop, deserves a week's study. It unites the characteristics of the Yankee hotel, the foreign hostelrie and the Southern " public house;" among its guests are the swarthy Southron, the darker Mexican, the blonde English-man, the pale Bostonian, and the omnipresent Jew, whose features are the same from Puget's Sound to Key West. The neighboring region is very fertile, the climate healthful, and if the State develops half as fast as it promises, Denison must make a considerable city. The " norther" blew all day. At night it suddenly ceased ; the air grew warm, and the streets of Denison were thronged by hundreds of loungers. Let us walk, listen to the music from half a dozen concert-saloons, and take notes of the denizens. There is the regular railroad follower, with glazed cap or slouched hat, dark red complexion, red shirt and brawny arm; the " sporting gent" of faultless exterior, whose wide- awake air in the evening, and eye with dark under- stain, indicate wakeful nights and sleep by day; and the Yankee merchant and his Southern clerks, the usual combination here. And there are the rural Texans lounging in groups of four or five, most of them dark, gaunt, and grizzly ; a few Mexicans, who have come with cattle herds all the way from San Antonio, and numbers of white " bull-whackers," sunburnt, healthy, and jolly, carrying with them con-stantly their murderous whips, which look as if one heavy stroke with them would flay a cow's back. All are good- humored and sociable. Their language is the horror of grammarians, and such phrases as |