MANN TRICE, assistant Attorney General, came up to see the Fair close and will remain over and vote.
     He says Culberson will be elected by a purliaty of from 60,000 to 100,000 votes. He estimates the total vote at 400,000, which he distributes among the Gubernatorial candidats as follows: Culberson, 210,000; Nugent, 108,000; the two Republican candidates combined, 80,000, this leaving Culberson, a safe 100,000 plurality.

First Ward -- George W. Hynson.
Second Ward -- Ford House.
Third Ward -- J. T. Trezevant.
Fourth Ward -- Geo. Merriwether.
Fifth Ward -- Robert Gibson.
Sixth Ward -- E. R. Fonda.
Seventh Ward -- D. L. Stuart.
Eighth Ward -- H. Hatcher.
Ninth Ward -- J. D. Thomas.
Tenth Ward -- T. G. T. Kendall.
Eleventh Ward -- C. E. Bird.
Twelfth Ward -- H. N. Haskell.
14 -- Smith's Hall, W. P. Cochran.
15 -- Farmers Branch, T. C. Marsh.
16 -- Carrollton, J. M. Myers.
17 -- Trinity Mills, John Jackson.
18 -- Stark School House, Berry Daniels.
19 -- Richardson, A. R. White.
20 -- Oak Lawn, R. D. Rawlins.
21 -- Jewella, A. J. Ross.
22 -- South Park, James Greer.
23 -- Calhoun, R. H. Fisher.
24 -- Scyene, A. McCommas.
25 -- Mesquite, J. S. Frost.
26 -- Haught's Store, William Humphreys.
27 -- Seagoville, J. C. Sewell.
28 -- Kleburg, Lando Prewett.
29 -- Rylie Prairie, W. S. Freeman.
30 -- North Mesquite, S. G. Lackey.
31 -- Ball's School House, J. L. Ferguson.
32 -- Rose Hill, W. M. Anderson.
33 -- Pleasant Valley, T. C. Brown.
34 -- Garland, Sim Bethel.
35 -- New Hope, A. W. Lander.
36 -- Long Creek, Ed Paschal.
37 -- Reinhardt, R. P. Bethurun.
38 -- DeSoto, Dave Nance.
39 -- Hutchins, Flem Bledsoe.
40 -- Wilmer, M. Hurst.
42 -- Patrick School House, Jordan Patrick.
43 -- Lancaster, Joe Moffett.
44 -- Wheatland, Sam Uhl.
45 -- Duncanville, Frank Sliger.
46 -- Cedar Hill, John Ramsey.
47 -- Lisbon, John W. Edmondson.
48 -- Five Mile, G. W. Neely.
49 -- Mount Airy (West Dallas), John T. Duncan.
50 -- Eagle Ford, K. B. Archie.
51 -- Grand Prairie, J. K. P. Jordan.
52 -- Sowers' School House, Wiliam Haley.
53 -- Spring Chapel, W. O. Harrison.
54 -- Hackberry, J. J. Butler.
55 -- Union Bower, Wiliam Jones.
56 -- Oak Cliff, F. N. Oliver.
57 -- Rowlett, D. W. Housley.
58 -- Elam, M. A. Humphreys.

     It is not often that wit and humor are associated with the duties of a sexton, but a visit to the Catholic cemetery in this city brought the writer in contact with Pat Dempsey, a genuine son of the "ould sod," who occupies a rather dilapidated house within the confines of the graveyard. Being asked how he enjoyed his lonely location in the "city of the dead," and whether he was troubled by spiritual visitors, Pat replied: "No, but if you were around here about midnight, you might find me out poachin' after cattle and hogs to keep them out. That's not what thrubbles me, it's this house. Why, there's not a whole windy in it, but that one, an' the other night, when it rained, Oi had to send a man down town for a tint to pitch over me bed, an' if ye don't belave me, come and see for yirself." As he spoke, he oopened the door of the shanty, and there, sure enough, was a good-sized tent inside the principal room, spiked securely down to the floor and covering Pat's sleeping apparatus. "Come along, gentlemin, it's only a penny a head, an' if ye have no head, ye needn't come in." Now that he was started, Pat confided to the reporter that one of his greatest trials was the taking up and re-interring of corpses. After handing him a cigar, he proceeded" Before I came to wurruck here, I used to chew tobaccy reglar, but the first corpse I took up gave me an awful turn, the nixt was worse, and the third, begorra, Oi had to give up chewin altogether. Now, Oi have to smoke all the toime, and," looking at the cigar, "Oi see this is a Mexican Commerce. Oi smoke them every toime when Oi can get thim, they're just the sort to keep away the creeps, ye know, an' the spirits. Good evening, Sor, an' may ye niver be widout a Mexican Commerce whin ye come this way."

     A train of thirteen wagons, containing as many families, passed through the city to-day, en route from Kansas to South Texas. The movers had with them their household furniture and effects, their chickens, dogs, cattle and horses.
     They said they left Kansas, because that State is no good. In Texas, they can raise better crops on half the labor, and then not have to feed all the corn and hay they can produce to their stock to carry them through the rigorous winters. In fact, there was but one thing in Kansas they cared to bring with them, in addition to the things above-mentioned, and that is their Populism. They said that during the winter and spring, several hundred Kansans from the immediate neighborhood from which they came, will remove to Texas.

     The possibilities of these marvelous machines can hardly be estimated. Views and scenes can be taken all over the world. Anything in motion can be photographed and reproduced exactly true to nature, from the effect produced by slowly rising clouds of smoke, to the falling of water at Niagara; from the rounds of a prize fight, or the heats of a horse race, to the flashing of lightning in the cloud-bedarkened Heavens. Nothing is beyond the reach of the kinetograph, and in turn, a faithful reproduction by means of the kinetoscope. Even a bullet shot from a gun has been photographed, so swift is its action.
     What a detective! What an aid to science and the arts! What a recorder of scenes and events! Events which people go hundreds, and even thousands of miles to see, can be brought to their very doors.
     The kinetoscopes are now on exhibition to the public at the Oriental Hotel.

     The Long distance Telephone [has] begun its work in Dallas to-day, phoning between Dallas and Waco. It will also operate between this city and Sherman, Denison and neighboring cities and towns. It is a most timely and acceptable institution.

     Dr. Grace Danforth died yesterday at her home in Granger of an over-dose of anti-pyrene. The circumstances under which she took the drug are not given in the meager telegram conveying the news of her death.
     Dr. Danforth was one of the most remarkable women in Texas. She first appeared in Dallas about twelve years ago as a practicing physician. She was then just graduated from an Eastern medical college. There was a great prejudice existing against her sex entering the learned professions, and it is not likely that she got much practice. But, she was a woman of a vigorous and active mind, and she soon took a leading part in all reforms.
     She became a prominent member of the W. C. T. U. when Miss Willard came here to organize the women many years ago. Later on, she assisted in the organization in Texas of the Equal Rights Association. She was also a member of the Woman's Press Association.
     At a meeting of the Equal Rights Association in Dallas two years ago, Lee Copeland was invited, as President of the State Press Association, to address the meeting. Copeland, who was under the influence of liquor, made a regular infidel speech and scored the church, unmercifully, to the great scandal of orthodox church members present, who called upon Dr. Danforth as chairman to suppress him. Dr. Danforth then shocked the meeting by stating that she endorsed all the speaker had said, saying that she had no use for a religion or a system of morality of morality that would not bear criticism. She made quite a speech, setting forth a regular Free Thinkers' platform, which gave quite a backset to the Equal Rights movement in the State.
     Dr. Danforth was also a reformer in dress, and she invented and even wore some very unique styles.
     Dr. Danforth was a woman with a man's mind. She was a native Texas and was between 35 and 40 years old.
     Dr. Danforth never married, because, it is said, her judgment was so much in advance of her sentiments.

     A sensational item, which the police had been at work on for several days, received the finishing touches for the press last night.
     Mrs. Sarah Jane Hansen, better known to fame as Mrs. W. P. Siler, and one Emma Bluhme, attempted by dire threats to make Mr. Jules Schneider dig up $1000 in the manner following. On the 7th instant, Mr. Schneider received through the mail, this letter:
     "DALLAS, Tex., 6th May, 1895. -- Mr. Jules E. Schneider, 269 Ross Ave., Dallas, Tex. -- You are requested by the society, known among themselves as the Elixirs or the Doomed to Death, to make a contribution of one thousand dollars in this wise: Place the money in a small box, the bills being large, go and enter the Trinity cemetery from McKinney avenue, bury the box in a hole in the first grave on the left hand side of the road as you enter the cemetery. It is the grave of a German who died in Cedar Hill, Texas -- one end of the marble slab rests on the grave and leans back, resting against the head board. The hole is directly under the large slab. Cover the box securely with dirt. Now, heed our law; we never call on a man but one time, we know just what you are work and you and yours will never miss this small amount. We will, and can, do more good with it than you can. It will help put bread into the mouths of many who are starving. You are as safe in going and making this deposit for us [as] you would be in walking to one of your city banks. We give you ample time, and that is one week from the date of this note. Should you fail to comply with our request, make this demand known to the public, or cause the one who goes to get your deposit molested, in any manner, shape or form -- Woe be unto you and YOURS, as that person is, and will be, as innocent as yourself, knowing nothing about how the money came to be deposited. They are simply told to go at a certain time and to a certain place. We are the Elixirs. They are the Doomed to Deaths; that is, if they fail to do what they are told to do. ELIXIRS.

     Mr. Schneider, at once, consulted with Chief of Police Arnold. Chief Arnold detailed Officers Durham and Bob Cornwell to shadow Mr. Schneider to and from his place of business and to keep an eye on his home until the family retired at night.
     Officer Bill Sheeley was instructed to get a make-up like that of the grave digger in Hamlet, and watch the grave of the departed German in the day, and officers Wilson and Massey, who do not believe in ghosts, kept the night watch.
     As the day of reckoning with the Elixir folks drew near, Chief Arnold decided it better for Mr. Schneider to place a box in the place designated by the grave. Accordingly, Mr. Schneider arranged a package and deposited with it, the following note:
     "DALLAS, Tex., May 11. -- Well, boys, the joke you are trying to play on me is a good one. Hardly think you will ever call for this note. In case you do, let me know who the poor are you want to relieve, and if worthy, would rather dispense my charity in my own way. JULES E. SCHNEIDER."
     In the meantime, an extra guard, in the person of officer Frank Magee, was detailed to look after members of Mr. Schneider's family when they left home.
     Promptly at noon, on the last day of grace for the draft on Mr. Schneider, Bill Sheeley observed a woman approach the grave of the German. She appeared to be rattled, and afraid to take hold of the package. Finally, a little negro boy came along. The woman called him and told him there was, in the hole, a box containing $1000, but she was afraid there was dynamite attached to it. This let the boy out, who said, "Good evening!" with the accent on the "good," and took to his heels.
     Here, Officer Sheeley approached, and the woman repeated what the officer had overheard her say to the little negro. Officer Sheeley detained the woman until Officer Durham, dressed in citizen's clothes, came up. She asked Officer Durham to get the money out. In answer to questions put by Officer Durham, she said Mr. Schneider had deposited the money there, in response to a threatening letter she had written him, at the instigation of Emma Bluhme, a fortune-teller, who came to her house and placed her under a spell to do her bidding.
     The officers conducted the woman, who gave the name of Mrs. Sarah Jane Hansen, to the City Hall. The same officers were detailed to watch Emma Bluhme.

     Last night, Mrs. Hansen sent for Chief Arnold, and stated, that owing to the lack of a suitable instrument, she had failed to commit suicide, and she was ready to make a clean breast. She said she had tried, but failed to reach her heart with a hairpin, and had also made a failure in the effort to open a vein in her arm. She said that she and Emma Bluhme, wishing to start a hotel, concluded to tap Mr. Schneider for the money, as he could give up $1000 and not miss it. She, however, admitted that her home is plastered with a $3,800 mortgage, which is about due. She said she is not addicted to the use of morphine, cocaine or other drug. Here, she fell to quoting scripture, saying, "the wages of sin is death." This was the first time Chief Arnold had heard the quotation, since he saw it in a school grammar as an example of false syntax. "Lordy, me," continued Mrs. Hansen, "the Devil has been after me ever since I ran away from the convent. On the way to the cemetery, I lost my Catholic charm, which I have always carried, and that was the reason I was afraid to take hold of the box. I also wrote a threatening letter to another party in the city." She, here, gave the name of a well known woman connected with philanthropic work, who, on being applied to by a TIMES HERALD reporter, declined to give the letter, which is in the hands of Chief Arnold, for publication.
     She said: "No, I must positively decline to have that letter published. It would, no doubt, make a sensational item, but you know me well enough to know that sensationalism and notoriety are the least of my desires."
     "Mrs. Siler," said Chief Arnold, "years ago, you inveigled a certain banker, who has since left the city, to your house. Your husband, burning with indignation and flourishing a six-shooter, broke into the room, and after demanding blood, by your entreaties, wound up by saying $1,000 would go in place of the blood."
     "I liked that banker, but he had a nice family, and he had no business being caught in such a scrape," said Mrs. Hansen.
     "You and your husband also attempted to put up a similar job on another rich man of the city, but it didn't work."
     "We were accused of making such an attempt, but there was no truth in it."
     Mrs. Siler, here stated that her mother lives at Commerce, Tex., and that as soon as she gets out of her present entanglements, she will go to her.
     One morning, about ten years ago, Mrs. Siler created a sensation at the Texas and Pacific depot by firing a couple of shots from a revolver at her liege lord, the red-headed transfer man.

     Mrs. Siler's last husband, O. Hansen, is now on the poor farm, working out a heavy fine imposed on him for committing an aggravated assault on her, in which he is said to have given her a beating that she will always remember. As the negroes say, he "done her scandalous."

     Emma Bluhme was arrested last night, and she and Mrs. Siler were, to-day, transferred to the county jail. The State will get them for attempting to levy blackmail, and the Federal Government will get them for violation of the postal laws.

     Mr. C. F. Alterman, editor of the Nord Texas Presse, said: "The German buried in the grave which figures in this sensation was Curt von Wittzleben, a German count, who came here for his health, and who died in December, 1890, of flux, at the home of a German farmer at Cedar Hill. His family in Germany sent the slanting marble slab that marks his tomb, which, on account of its odd appearance, attracts particular notice in the cemetery. Emma Bluhme claims to have gone to school with the deceased count's brother in Germany, and also to have known the count. It was, perhaps, on account of her acquaintance with the count's family, and also on account of prominence of the slab, that the count's tomb was selected by the woman."

     Mrs. Sarah Jane Hansen, formerly Mrs. W. P. Siler, was put through the County Court yesterday afternoon on the charge of sending a letter to Mr. J. E. Schneider, to the effect that if he did not give up $1000 by a certain day, the "Elixirs" would make it very hot for him.
     Mrs. Hansen's defense was insanity, but the jury gave her six months in jail and fined her $100. Emma Bluhme, the German woman whom Mrs. Hansen claimed induced her to send the letter, was acquitted.
     Two other persons in the city also received letters from Mrs. Hansen on the so-called "Elixir" people. One of them was Co.. H. Morrison. The letter informed col. Morrison that the "Elixir" people knew he had loads of money, and that unless he made a little contribution of $[1],000 to the cause within a specified time, that he would always wish he had.
     Col. Morrison is said to have laughed until his fat sides ached at the though of how badly the "Elixir" people were going to be disappointed, but he never told anybody about the letter until he saw accounts in the newspapers that others had received similar epistles.

     Frank Vinage, a journey man blacksmith, at work at Harry Eel's shop, in making the rounds of the saloons last night, got stabbed in one of the rooms he got into. The wound was several inches in length and extended literally across his abdomen. He plastered it over with sticking plasters and went on with his fun, exhibiting it to the boys in the saloons.
     The man that cut Vinage has not been arrested. Vinage's brother blacksmiths say that what would kill an ordinary man would amount to nothing with him, as he has a constitution made of the metal he works in.

     S. T. Baer was fined $50 by Judge Mathis of the police court yesterday afternoon on a charge of maintaining unwholesome premises and Kid Williams, M. Iskovitz and W. T. Robbins were fined $25 each on similar charges. The fines against the defendants were assessed by Judge Mathis after he had given all the parties plenty of time in which to correct the evils of which they were accused. The charges against the parties grew out of alleged defective plumbing in buildings on Elm street in the vicinity of the Union depot.
     Several times, the cases were set for trial, and in each instance, more time would be asked by the plaintiffs in which to make the necessary repairs, and the claim was made that a plumber was at work on the premises on each occasion.

     A. J. McCauley states that he has found a boy's coat, evidently the property of a cripple, and that the property may be had by applying at his office, over 533 Elm street. There is a pad of leather sewed under the right sleeve at the arm-pit, and the leather shows signs of much contact with what may be the arm of a crutch.

     The cool of the summer twilight lay about them. The dog slept at their feet. The old man gazed close at the print of his newspaper as the light waned, and his wife sat quiescent, idle, dreaming, perhaps, of the years of activity which had been left behind. The fruitful acres, upon which decades of labor had been put by the family, surrounded them. And, the story of this man and woman, who were born and who grew to maturity, and, in time, established a home of their own in Dallas County, is the history of the county itself, and of many others who have seen Dallas grow from a ford in the Trinity River, to a prosperous city.
     Mrs. Jess Ramsey, nee Trees, is one of the ten children of Mrs. Anna M. Trees and Crawford Trees, who were the first couple ever married in Dallas County. This marriage took place in the days when there was no courthouse, and the office of Justice of the Peace was a hazardous position. But, the license was issued to Miss Anna Kimmel, whose father had come pushing across the Texas prairies with his little family and all his worldly possessions stowed away in a homemade wagon, and Crawford Trees, whose parents entered Dallas County in the fall following the immigration of the Kimmel family in the spring, on July 23, 1846.

CRAWFORD TREES	MRS. CRAWFORD TREES

No Wedding Journey.
     The bride was not honored with showers and did not wear a going-away suit of blue tricotine. She had made her own dress of homespun. Afterward, they made their way through the undergrowth and the slight woods between the log cabin, in which their parents lived at Cedar Hill, to that which was to be their home. There was no wedding trip for the first couple married in Dallas County, for trips in those days were more strenuous than the ordinary course of existence. Their furniture was improvised from the materials at hand, and several pieces were given them by their parents. The log cabin, the floor of which was made from logs split in half by the men of the families of the bride and bridegroom, was not large, but it housed, comfortably, all of the worldly goods of the two young people taking up life within its walls.
     They were not within calling distance of their parents, but communication was comparatively easy, even in those hard times. In the days that followed, they took up the life of the pioneer, as they had known it from childhood. Instead of helping his father to clear the trees from his land, Crawford Trees began on that which he had appropriated for himself. He was the head of a family, and their welfare depended solely upon the fruition of the acres about them. Instead of helping her mother to spin and weave for her brothers and sisters, Anna Trees now had her own spinning machine and spun for her husband and kept the house.

Civil War Breaks Out.
     The virility of the life that followed, with its goodly portion of monotony, and its difficulties, did not daunt the family. It grew steadily, and at the outbreak of the Civil War, there were ten children. Crawford Trees gathered his old rifle and his knapsack together and went off to the war, leaving his wife to look after the ten children and to manage the farm and the negroes. After a year, he was back, with his health so impaired, that Mrs. Trees still continued the work of the farm and cared for the family. And, with the sturdy little boys who were growing up, she managed well. The father died in 1889. The boys and girls grew to maturity, married and moved to new cabins about her. Eight of the children made their homes near Cedar Hill, and their children, and their grandchildren, have also made their homes in Dallas County. Mrs. Trees died about six years ago at the home of her oldest daughter, Catherine, Mrs. Jess Ramsey, after seeing numerous grandchildren ready to take up the work of cultivating the fruitful acres, which she had taken out in the days when Dallas was marked by a ford in the Trinity River, and Bonham was the only settlement on the Red River.

Home of Mr. and Mrs. Jess Ramsey near Cedar Hill, where Mrs. Trees, their mother, died a few years ago.

Still at Cedar Hill.
     And now, this daughter of the first couple ever married in Dallas County has grown old on the land of her parents, within sight of the old homestead. But, her declining years are spent in a modern farmhouse, which has water piped to it from a cistern that is never exhausted. The screens keep out the flies and other insects, which she remembers her mother kept away with leaf brushes. The woods are gone, and in their stead, plowed acres and huge haystacks, and a pike road, upon which the modern knowledge of engineering has been expended, are to be seen from her front porch. Her front lawn is mowed with a lawn mower. Her children visit her in automobiles. And, in the calm of the summer evenings, when the work on the farm is done for the day, she sits on the porch of her home and thinks of the days when her mother ran the farm and her father was at war.
     "During the war," she said, "we used to go across the river on horseback and take our wool to be carded, for we made all of the clothes we wore at home. There was one little store and several log-houses and a blacksmith shop. The goods we got at the store were brought in ox wagons from Houston or down the Red River from Jefferson. We saw the first brick house go up, and we saw the Indians disappear, going farther and farther away from the settlements of the whites.

Troubled by Indians.
     "I can remember hearing my mother tell about the time when she hid several protesting babies away between the feather beds and stood at the door with the shotgun as the Indians approached. When I got big enough to remember, there were too few of them for us to have any trouble. The only thing they bothered us about was the horses. We simply couldn't keep any. One of our neighbors tried putting iron hobbles on the feet of his horses so they couldn't drive them away. But, the Indians just cut off the feet of the horses and went their way, when they found they couldn't get them.

"First Negroes Ever Saw."
     "I can remember, too, the first negroes I ever saw. My father returned one night and brought with him some slaves. I was asleep, and the next morning, when I waked up and crawled out of bed, I saw two little negro girls asleep on a pallet at the foot of my bed. They like to scared me to death, and then they got funny to me, and my father couldn't get me away from them. We kept those negroes, I guess, until the war was over. They stayed with us for about a year afterward, and then they went.
     "Mr. Ramsey and I went to school together at the Bethel Schoolhouse. It was opened in 1853, and Mr. Scott was the first teacher. Jess used to come home with me after school, and we would take turns about grinding the meal we used. You know, we would hollow out a stump and put the corn down in that, and then grind it with a pestle. We didn't have any flour at all. Mr. Scott was awful hard on us, and we were all scared to death he would lick us. I don't believe Jess ever got a whipping at school in his life. We studied writing and reading, and geography and figures. I went to school at Lancaster, too. Then, when we grew up, we married and started out life as my mother did, in a log cabin of one room. We added to it, later, and had two rooms, and then we got this. We have just three children.
     "Our children are all grown and married now, and we are worse off than when we started. Sometimes, I believe ten wasn't any too large a family.

Old House Still Standing.
     "We had 1,200 acres here to start with, but we gave all but 200 of it to our children as they grew up and married. We have a little grandson about 6 years old, who goes to school in Dallas to Miss Edna Washington. She is teaching him how to talk without hearing. My mother died when he was about a month old. She lived here with us until then. You can see the old home place. It is the first two-story house on the main road toward Dallas from here. Our children live up there on the pike, too, but we like it back here where it's quiet. How did you get that gate open when you came in? That's a patent lock we got on there."
     "No, we haven't any car. Wouldn't know how to drive one, if we had it, but our daughter has one, and she comes up here in it. Get down; get down, dog. She'll put her muddy feet on you, if you let her. Come back and see us and spend the day some time. We'd be glad to have you."

     When a modern Dallasite walks down Elm street these days and sees the broad fronts of the well-appointed music stores with their wonderful mechanical instruments, he can hardly conceive of the little village on the banks of the Trinity of a comparatively few years ago, with only a primitive harmonium to make music for the hardy pioneer citizens or possibly a steel-stringed fiddle, or so, brought to the settlement, strapped to the saddle of some adventurous traveler from the East.
     Could the folks of those days see what is so common to the present generation, they would have stood still in their tracks. Imagine the heavily booted, long-haired pioneer stumbling up the steps, and in the doors of the City Temple, to hear the resonant tones of the modern electrically-operated pipe organ, or standing in bewilderment in front of one of our amusement places, where the strains of jazz are heard for many hours each day.

Rapid Development.
     All these changes have been made within the span of a single lifetime, for the great advancement in music has come since Dallas was first settled. It is said that the fist approach to a piano was introduced in Dallas by the French settlers, whose descendants still live across the river in the vicinity of Irving. They came in 1855.
     They were poor folks, and the modes of transportation of those days were of the most primitive nature, but the French love of music would not be denied. They brought along a melodion, that, for many years, supplied the accompaniment for the songs they sang. It was a primitive sort of instrument, no longer manufactured, and almost unheard of by the moderns of today. The old melodion is described as resembling a miniature piano with legs, but operated on the principle of an organ by pedals.

First Piano in Dallas.
     When Captain W. H. Gaston came to Dallas in 1867, he brought with him what is generally accepted as the first piano in Dallas. The instrument, the old square type, is believed to be 100 years old, and is still preserved and cherished in the home of Captain Gaston's daughter.
     "The piano came by water to Galveston, all the way up the Trinity in a boat to the old town of Magnolia, and was hauled from there to Palestine in 1854[?], where it was presented to my wife, who was then Miss Ione Furlow," Captain Gaston said.
     "When we were married, the piano came along, too, and we took it with us when we made the journey from Palestine to Dallas in 1867, in a farm wagon drawn by mules.
     "There were 1,200 people in Dallas in 1869, according to a census that we made as best we could, but I don't recollect that there was any other piano, for that was long before the railroads," he said.

Dallas' First Music Teacher.
     Very little is known of Dallas' first music teacher, except that he organized the first band of the city in 1873, according to J. E. Hess, 3520 Ross avenue, the only survivor of that famous organization. "I came to Dallas in 1871 and found Professor Boening here before me," Mr. Hess said. "He was undoubtedly the first teacher, and when we decided to organize a band, he was selected director. The only trouble with our band, was that we did not have any instruments, but our troubles were solved through the bounty of the city administration, under Mayor Ben Long.
     "It came about in this way: A traveling band came to town and played, but failed to pay the city $50 for the privilege. The only way to collect was to take the instruments, which Mayor Long did. He called up our volunteer band and said, 'Here, boys; take these horns and see what you can do.' We didn't wait long, but got to work under Professor Boening, and soon had a band of about twelve pieces. I don't know what happened to Professor Boening, but believe that he was killed somewhere across the river," Mr. Hess said.

Meine Brothers Band.
     It was not long until another band was organized in Dallas. The Meine Brothers Band dated its beginning from 1879, and was a very creditable organization, composed of Germans. The band made tours to many Texas cities and was very much in demand, until it broke up with the departure of the Meine brothers in 1885[?].
     After Professor Boening, Professor Frees was probably the earliest music teacher in Dallas, according to Mrs. Henry Bryan, herself one of the pioneer instructors.
     "When I came to Dallas in 1879, Professor Frees had already been teaching music for a number of years," Mrs. Bryan said. "He was a most remarkable and versatile man, as I remember him. Piano, voice and the organ were all taught by Professor Frees with equal facility. He had studied in France, I believe."

Lessons at $3 Per Month.
     "Soon after I came, we discussed the question of raising the price of music lessons from $3 to $5 a month, and I will never forget how astounded everybody was when we announced our decision, but they kept on taking lessons, just the same. Maybe it was because we had a monopoly and a little music teachers' union of our own, without fear of competition."
     Besides his activity as a teacher, Professor Frees was organist at the Catholic Church, and at the old Jewish Synagogue.

First Music Store.
     According to best accounts, the first music store was opened in Dallas in 1875 by Dorman & Holmes, a firm with headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. This store was bought out by a man named Redfield, who continued in business for only a few years. Professor Frees, his father and brother, were also in the music business, but ill-success caused them to move to St. Louis.
     "When I bought out the store of Henry Garrett in 1882, the big music house in Dallas was that of C. H. Edwards," Will A. Watkin said. "It stood opposite where the Linz Building now stands."
     "Mr. Edwards was very proud of the fact that the best boardwalk in town was in front of his place of business," Mrs. Bryan said. "Will A. Watkin was another of the early dealers, and the only one that is still doing business."

Old Methodist College.
     Although not organized entirely for instruction in music, the old Methodist College should be considered the first music school in Dallas, for it had a department devoted entirely to music. It drew students from all parts of the State.
     The college was privately owned, but opened under the auspices of the Methodist Church in 1879. It continued in operation until 1887, and during that time, many of the children of Dallas pioneer citizens received their early education. The music department was under Mrs. E. W. Rose, 3919 Gillon avenue. She had as her pupils, Mrs. Will Waters, Mrs. Edward Gray, Mrs. N. A. McMillan of St. Louis, who was formerly Miss Mattie Carruth; Mrs. Charles Dexter, Mrs. Ike Jalonics, Mrs. H. S. Keating, Mrs. George Jester, Mrs. Barry Miller, Mrs. W. N. Freeman, Mrs. George K. Meyer, Miss Belle Hughes, and many other prominent women of the present day.
     The old Methodist College property was sold to the city by Mrs. Rose's father in 1887. The site is now occupied by Bryan High School.
     Following the early successes of the bands and choirs, it was natural that Dallas musical talent should seek a larger field for its activities, and "Queen Esther" was the result. It was noted for the unusual number of talented musicians in the cast.

Maclyn Arbuckle.
     Much has been said about Maclyn Arbuckle, Dallas boy, who has endeared himself to American theatergoers during his thirty-three years on the speaking stage, but there are few who know that he started his dramatic career as a chorus man in the old Dallas Opera House.
     Queen Esther, "the reigning musical triumph," was the vehicle in which young Arbuckle made his bow to the footlights as one of the "guards." "Regular prices" prevailed for the show, which was produced Aug. 5, 6 and 7, 1884, and the proceeds went jointly to St. Matthew's Choir and Tompkin's Light Infantry. There was a "grand orchestral accompaniment" and "rich and gorgeous Oriental costumes" were worn, according to the advance notices of the time.
     It was four years later, Dec. 25, 1888, that Arbuckle made his professional debut at Shreveport in "The Emigrant." He was born in San Antonio, July 9, 1866, and was sent to Scotland by his parents during his early boyhood to prepare for the clergy, but he became convinced that he was not destined to become a preacher, and returned to Galveston, where his father had moved. The despairing parents then induced him to begin the study of medicine, which he did while employed as a clerk in a drug store, during 1883. This vocation was abandoned with the medical profession when the family moved to Dallas, and Maclyn was sent to work on a farm. It was during this time that he made his appearance in "Queen Esther," but it was several years later before the young man decided to embrace the "boards" as his life's work.
     After tasting and discarding the clergy and the profession of medicine, the young man decided he would like to try the law, and moved to Texarkana, with that purpose in mind. He entered a law office there, and for the first time, seriously applied himself to the profession, with the result that he was admitted to the bar in 1887. That same year, while only 21 years old, he ran for Justice of the Peace. Arbuckle was defeated, and a few months later, espoused the stage as a profession. Whether or not his political defeat influenced him in his decision to become an actor, has never been learned.

Other Members of the Cast.
     Other members of the "Queen Esther" cast still live in Dallas. Henry Garrett, son of Bishop Garrett, who is now Superintendent of the Police and Fire Signal Department, and affectionately known to the departments as "Dad Garrett," was, at that time, organist at St. Matthew's Cathedral, and also for "Queen Esther. Although he long ago abandoned music as a profession, he still has harmonious hankerings, for just lately, he has devised a means whereby a phonograph played at central fire station can be heard on his wireless equipped automobile wherever he may be. Several successful demonstrations of his wireless transmission of music have been made.
     Will A. Watkin, who directed "Queen Esther," is still connected with the music trade of Dallas proprietor of the oldest house doing business in the city. Mrs. Henry Bryan, pianist for "Queen Esther," has only recently retired from active teaching, after a long career as one of the pioneer musicians of Dallas.

Rehearsed in Beer Garden.
     "The success of 'Queen Esther' was probably due to the splendid place in which rehearsals were held," Mrs. Bryan said in jest. "We used to practice in Mayer's beer garden, which stood on the present site of Fakes furniture store. The garden was a very popular place, and all the best people in town went there in those days. I am sure it was most convenient for the men in the 'Queen Esther' cast.
     "The rehearsals were held in the great ballroom over the garden. It was in that room that the first Idlewild ball was held. The production in Dallas went off so well, and was so well received, that we decided to put it on in Fort Worth. There was, however, one incident to mar the Dallas performance. Professor Steer was one of the guards with Maclyn Arbuckle. They were costumed in heavy armor, but I don't believe the professor had his sufficiently well-fastened, for it seemed to slide off during the performance, and, on account of the warm weather, he was not very heavily clad underneath. The professor fainted, but whether from the heat, or his misfortune, no one ever knew."

Train Sick En Route to Fort Worth.
     "The Fort Worth invasion was not entirely successful," Mrs. Bryan continued. "Everybody was sick on the train going over, but recovered by the time we got there, for it took a long time in those days. We did right well, we thought, but about a week later, the Fort Worth newspaper came out and roasted 'Queen Esther' as best it could. It said that some of the men in the company had attempted to compete with the bulls in the stockyards. Those were great days when music was in its infancy in Dallas."
     The "Queen Esther" production was managed by Alexander C. Garrett, venerable bishop of the Episcopal Church. It was a financial success, according to the estimates of those times, and proceeds went to St. Matthew's choir. The choir was the first organized in Dallas, and sang in the old cathedral, which stood on the present site of the old Santa Fe passenger station, on Commerce street, opposite the Southland Hotel. It had the first pipe organ in Dallas.

Dallas' First Orchestra.
     It was many years after the success of "Queen Esther" that the organization of Dallas' first symphony orchestra was attempted.
     "Present struggles of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra take me back twenty years to the time we organized the first symphony orchestra in the city," Hans Kreissig, pioneer musician and teacher, said. "Of course, we did not attempt anything as large as the present orchestra, but had we received the public support that is now accorded music, I am sure that we would have lasted longer. As it was, the first orchestra survived only two concerts and disbanded.
     "The old Windsor Hotel, which has since been torn down, had just been opened when I came to Dallas in 1887, thirty-three years ago. There were board walks on Main street in those days," he said. "I had been touring with an opera company and had no idea of locating in Dallas when I accepted a six-month engagement to direct the German Singing Society, which was the leading musical organization in those days. I liked Dallas so well, that I stayed, and have seen the city grow from a raw town, to the great city and the recognized musical center that it is now.
     "We organized the orchestra in April, 1889, and had our first concert in the old Turner Hall, May 22, 1900. Virtually all of the musicians who took part were amateurs. Several of them have passed away, some, including Sherwood Sabin of Dallas, have drifted into the musical business as a profession, while the young women are mostly married. Miss Eliza Schneider is now Mrs. Leon Blum and Miss Felice Kahn, daughter of E. M. Kahn, were members of the orchestra.
     "The second concert was given by the Dallas Symphony Club, Dec. 26, 1901, and it was the last. The club broke up soon after that. Many of the women liked the work, and I was presented with a baton in recognition of my work, but the people didn't support the orchestra."

First Mechanical Music.
     It was a long jump from the first piano, the band and the choir to the first mechanically-played musical instrument brought to Dallas. Player-pianos and phonographs are so common today, that we can hardly believe that twenty-six years ago, they were practically unknown in Dallas, except to the few persons who had visited the Eastern cities. It is surprising to know that the phonograph came before the player-piano.
     In 1895, when a salesman for a musical house walked in the store of Will A. Watkin and offered for sale, a talking machine, Mr. Watkin scoffed. "It looked like a toy to me, but the salesman insisted that it would play, and it did," he said. "His persistence won out, and I took the contraption home to show the children. The machine looked like a clock with a little tin horn. The children thought it was a toy until I wound the thing up with a key, slipped on the soft wax record, and clapped down the needle. They were astounded to when they heard a very near reproduction of the human voice in song."

Early Phonographs.
     "The first instruments which bore the patent mark of Thomas A. Edison were very delicate and of little commercial value until several years after their first introduction. They were made entirely of metal, and the mechanism was all exposed. The records were cylindrical in shape and very soft. They were made of wax and liable to damage from the slightest scratch, Mr. Watkin said.
     The first player-pianos followed the phonographs in Dallas by about five years. From the beginning, they were fairly successful, but far inferior to the marvelous reproducing pianos of today, whose music, which can hardly be distinguished from human playing. Among the first to buy pianolas, as the players were then called, were Judge G. N. Aldredge, father of our present Mayor, E. M. Reardon, Sidney Reinhardt and E. H. R. Green, who had one made especially to order.
     The old pianolas were detachable, and had to be rolled away from the piano before that instrument could be played by hand. Some of them had organ attachments, which did very well until they got out of fix. The organ feature has since, generally, been abandoned.

     "No metropolis south of Chicago presents a more imposing vista in its canyons of lofty buildings than Dallas affords, looking up Commerce from Lamar street," Lorado Taft, world-famed American sculptor, declared while a visitor here during the week. "Your magnificent Santa Fe terminal, a triumph in architecture, arrests one's attention as the eye travels down that thoroughfare and feasts on the other superb shafts of commerce -- the Magnolia Building, the Baker and Adolphus Hotels, Medical Arts Building, and others, stand out in adjacent sections. I am delighted to find that this view and several others, equally impressive, have been portrayed in the etchings of L. O. Griffith, one of the founders of our Chicago Etchers' Club. I trust your citizens realize the great service he has rendered in these prints that will proclaim to the world, Dallas' metropolitanism, just as surely as have those of New York and Philadelphia by the late Joseph Pennell," he said.
     In view of the tribute paid this etcher, who has just established a winter studio here, many will be much interested in the current display of this Dallas series, together with the original plates, which are now hung in the galleries of the Highland Park Town Hall, Drexel Drive and Eton avenue. Apropos of the "Book Week," being observed in that community and featured by daily teas in the art gallery, Mr. Griffith is showing several interesting book-plates.

Shows Commerce Street.
     Like Pennell, Griffith has a special penchant for architectural masses in juxtaposition to some historic landmark, reminiscent of the "old gentility" -- places encroached on, or destined to be obliterated by the city's growth and change. The print having the Medical Arts Building as its focal point of interest is proof of this. Another, equally interesting, of this type, is the view of the skyscraper district, as seen from the site of the old Masonic Cemetery on South Akard street. Also, picturesque vista is given of the downtown section in another, which has as its vantage point that portion of Wood street, where ramshackle shanties, now unoccupied, still stand, mute reminders of early Dallas.
     In the South Pearl street market section stands a gaunt, weathered structure, once a fine old home, that has been converted into a market for the sale of every conceivable sort of merchandise. It is just such a place as would have delighted the heart of Dickens, and Griffith has portrayed its human interest and appeal with an artistry that arrests the attention of all beholders. It is reminiscent of tumble-down shops, and is very fine in feeling.
     A remarkable atmospheric effect has been achieved in his individualistic aspect of the city's skyscrapers, afforded in his view of Commerce street, looking from Lamar. This is the vista that so impressed Lorado Taft, and Griffith's etching of it depicts, with striking felicity, the first unit of the Santa Fe Building. In this, one also recognizes such other well-known structures in that vicinity as Padgitt Bros. Company, the Adolphus and Baker Hotels.
     It is doubtful if many of the thousands who motor to the business district down Main street each day even have fully appreciated the impressiveness of its vista. All will rejoice in it when they view the etching, which shows the quaintly picturesque clock-cupola of the postoffice, silhouetted against its neighbors, with the new Republic Bank Building in the distance. In other offerings of the collection, the artist has chosen the City Temple, Scottish Rite Cathedral, and other familiar landmarks as his subjects.
     Just what does it mean to Dallas that this internationally known etcher has immortalized her civic beauty? The thoughtful and far-visioned citizen needs only to be reminded of the fine advertising, which the late M. Pennell gave Philadelphia and New York through his prints, and which Hassam and others are still doing. Too, others will recall the article captioned, "The World Ransacked for New York Prints," which appeared in a late winter issue of the New York Times. The fact that the etchings and lithographs recording the manners, customs and historical landmarks of the New York of 1840 are now being sought, should suggest to all, that doubtless, these prints of Dallas will, in future decades, bring equally large prices. Also, there are few to refute the belief that history repeats itself. Therefore, undoubtedly, several generations hence, Dallasites will be retrieving from the dusty oblivion of old garrets, these Griffith prints.

"Magician of the Needle."
     It has been said of Griffith that he is a "magician of the needle." His work shows an exceptional power in the virile handling of architectural masses and a quaint charm in delineating the subjects of poetic beauty and refinement, and in capturing the very spirit of picturesque buildings, nooks and corners of city streets.
     Coming early under the influence of Pennell and D. Y. Cameron, while being a close student of Rembrandt and Whistler, he has worked through healthy restraint into his own free manner. At heart, he is a lyricist -- one of the greatest of American lyric etchers working today. He is a man one can easily imagine tramping a road at early morning so ecstatically happy, that he must sit down and spill his happiness out on copper.
     As a youth, Oscar, as his first teacher, Dallas' own master, Frank Reaugh, affectionately calls him, dreamed away many an evening in this city. Thirty years ago, he was a cloakroom boy in the old Windsor Hotel, which old-timers remember as the most popular hostelry of that day. Even then, he was enamored of this city's old motley buildings, when Lamar and lower Commerce represented the business district. He tells of how he used to draw and paint late at night by a smudgy lamp or even candle light in a tiny back bedroom of the hotel he served.

Romance in His Return.
     Now that this former Dallas boy has achieved a high place in the art world, there is a bit of romance in the fact that he returned to his boyhood home to seek inspiration for his needle. Also, this group of prints he is now showing assures us that those early days were not lost, for he has glamored this late work with that inexplainable, elusive thing that artists call "feeling." He has portrayed Dallas of today with an affectionate understanding and appreciation because it is the evolution of the struggling "burg," nestling by the banks of the then "navigable" Trinity, which he knew as a youth.
     Some years ago, Griffith did etchings proclaiming the quaint charm and historic beauty of New Orleans, which won for him the gold medal at the San Francisco World's Fair. During the last ten years, he has exhibited with distinction throughout the country at all international etching shows, and has been invited to membership in the Societte Francaise Internationale, a much coveted honor. Just now, a collection of his etchings and aquatints is hung at the Sesquicentennial, and the Dallas series was shown last summer at South Bend, Ind., and will be exhibited at the midwinter International Etching Show in Chicago.

Tim Spencer's "Sons of the Pioneers" will be guest artists on the "KRLD Open House" Saturday, 6:30 to 7 p. m. The group appeared here last summer during the Centennial. In the picture, left to right, are Carl and Hugh Farr, Tim Spencer, Len Slye ["Roy Rogers"] and Bob Nolan. The boys hold the 1936 title awarded by the National Fiddlers' Association. They will enter the all-western contest at Dallas Sportatorium Sunday. In their Saturday KRLD Program, they will do "Timber," the new Billy Hill number, "One More Ride," written by Bob Nolan, and a fiddle and guitar number by the Farr brothers, called "Farr Brothers Stomp," also an original composition.

Mrs. Ora Nell Preston and Carson Whitehurst are shown at their intricate work of completing small-scale maps of 2,400 Dallas County farms, in the office of County Agricultural Agent A. B. Jolley. Showing every detail of houses, crop acreages and divisions on each farm, the maps are being done to scales of 1 inch to either 330 or 660 linear feet. (Times Herald Staff Photo)

     Individual maps of 2,400 Dallas County farms, showing acreages of every field in perfect scale, were near completion Monday in the office of County Agricultural Agent A. B. Jolley. The maps were primarily assembled as records of each farmer's participation in the 1937 agricultural conservation program, but the outline surveys from which they were made up, will remain in the agricultural office as a permanent record of the size of each farm, Mr. Jolley explained.

To Retain Maps.
     While Jolley's office will retain the farm outline and division survey sketches, one of the finished crop maps will go to the farm owner and the other will be kept in the agricultural office.
     About [4]00 of the crop maps were created from aerial photographs made by contractors of the department of commerce in the Duck Creek Valley in Northeast Dallas County. The aerial photographs were made in long narrow strips, extending entirely across the region, later matched with similar adjoining strips.
     From those aerial maps, Mr. Jolley's office crew, working under supervision of H. H. Jobson, traced outlines of every farm, transferring the tracings to heavy paper.
     The other 2,000 maps were built up from field sketches made on the site by surveyors of each farm. After each farm outline map is made up, it includes measurements of acreage of each crop in two decimal points' precision. Each finished map shows location of the farm house, every outhouse, fence, pasture and crop land.
     The acreage shown on the maps are compared with each farmer's department of agriculture compliance contract to determine if soil depletion and building crops are balanced. The basic survey sketches will remain in the office as permanent records.

     Dedication rites for the new plant of the St. Joseph's Home for Girls, Pembroke and Bishop, will be conducted at 3 p. m. Sunday by Bishop Joseph P. Lynch.
     Valued at $150,000, the eighteen-acre tract occupied by three main structures and several smaller ones, was purchased in July, 1941, by Bishop Lynch and renovation work was begun soon afterward. The property is the former Virginia K. Johnson home.
     The three-story main building was equipped with a new steam heating system. Nearly seventy-five individual rooms in the buildings were eliminated and the space was converted into four dormitories and a chapel. New electrical wiring and fixtures were installed, the buildings were repainted and replastered.
     Formerly housed at the old Dallas University campus, where the Jesuit fathers are opening a Catholic high school, the fourteen Sisters of the Incarnate Word Congregation, who conduct the institution, and the eighty-three girls under their charge, were moved to the new home several days ago.
     The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio were invited by the late Bishop Dunne in 1905 to take over the institution from the Vincentian Sisters, who were housed with both boys and girls under their charge on Paige Street in Oak Cliff. The invitation was accepted. In 1917, Bishop Lynch had the boys removed to their present quarters on West Davis, the Dunne Memorial Home for Boys, and in 1930, the girls were moved to the old Dallas University campus. Their current transfer returns the girls to within five blocks of the original location of the home.
     Bishop Lynch will be assisted in dedicating and blessing the new home by Msgr. Augustine Danglmayr, vicar-general of the Dallas diocese; the Rev. W. J. Bender, chaplain of the home, and other pastors and priest of the city.
     Representatives of the Community Chest of Greater Dallas, of which the home is an agency, and members of the various sisterhoods in Dallas, will attend the ceremony. Out-of-town visitors will include Mother M. William, San Antonio, assistant general of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, and Mother M. Madeleine, St. Louis, provincial of the order.

Architectural drawing of the new home to be built at Mount St. Michael, 4500 West Davis, to provide shelter and guidance for 100 homeless girls, ages 11 to 13. A $200,000 building fund campaign will open Dec. 6.

     A campaign to raise $200,000 for construction of a home for girls in the 11 to 13-age group, now seeking admission to Mount St. Michael's Home, will open Thursday, Dec. 6, R. R. Gilbert, general campaign chairman, has announced.
     Members of the advance gifts committee, headed by E. L. Flippen, Fred F. Florence and J. B. O'Hara, will meet Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the week before the drive's opening, he said.
     Mount St. Michael's Home, at Cockrell Hill and Fort Worth Roads, under direction of Mother Clement, Superior, is filled to capacity. More than 100 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are living and training there. The girls are offered opportunity to acquire an education, receive vocational training and to study music, sewing and cooking.

Institution Self-Supporting.
     Situated on fifty acres of land, the home has an administration building, a school and dormitory, a laundry, garage and power plant. Through a work program of four hours daily for the older girls in the laundry, and the needle work of others, the institution has become self-supporting.
     A building similar to the present school and dormitory is desired to house 100 younger girls who are without protection. "The construction of this building will aid greatly in the prevention of juvenile delinquency in Dallas," Gilbert said.

Girls Given Home.
     Mount St. Michael's was founded in 1928 by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. Hundreds of homeless girls have been given a home and an education and sent into the world qualified to lead happy and useful lives.
     Sponsors of the building fund campaign are Nathan Adams, J. B. Adoue Jr., Pat Buell, E. L. Flippen, Fred F. Florence, J. J. Foley, Edward Furlow, L. M. Glasco, J. M. Haggar, Fred M. Lange, R. A. McBean, B. F. McLain, George L. MacGregor, Hart Miller, Col. T. J. Moroney, Henry Neuhoff, C. F. O'Donnell, R. J. O'Donnell, J. B. O'Hara, DeWitt Ray, E. P. Simmons, J. W. Simmons, J. C. Tenison and R. L. Thornton.