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TEXAS ANO HER GREATNESS
Trabel Notes by the Editor
The greatness—the bewildering greatness—of
I’exas. When you see it one time it lives with you
ever afterward by day and by night. I went out there
the other week to attend the Texas Baptist Conven
tion at San Antonio, and it seemed that the mes
sengers and visitors to that marvelous convention
had, like Napoleon’s soldiers and firearms, 11 risen
from the earth and fallen from the skies.”
Two days late for the Ministers’ and Laymen’s
Conference, but plenty of time to reach San An
tonio for the first day of the convention proper.
Not much. They have funny laws about railroads
out in Texas. If the connecting train is thirty min
utes late the superintendent must run another train.
This time he ran that train, leaving me about ten
hours to spend in New Orleans. Pastor Chas. V.
Edwards, who has labored faithfully and success
fully for several years in that beleagured city of
“rum and Romanism,” carried me over the city,
feasted my eyes and heart on the beautiful new
building of the First Baptist Church, on St. Charles
Avenue; took me to his delightful home for tea, and
had me talk thirty minutes to his prayer meeting
until a hackman whirled me away to a Southern
Pacific train for the Empire State of the West.
Her Lost Prestige.
When I was presented to the big Texas conven
tion by acting president, the courtly W. C. Latti
more, I told them that I remembered saying to them
last year in Waco: “I bring you greetings from
Georgia, the Empire State of the South, to Texas,
the Empire State of the Earth. But now I come
to Texas, the Empire State of the South, from Geor
gia, the Empire State of the Earth! For Georgia
is the first State of the South to drive saloons from
her borders.” The Texans accepted the “soft im
peachment” with becoming humility, and were re
freshingly generous when I told them I was strongly
tempted to come out and camp somewhere on the
plains of their Lone Star Empire and help them
“lick licker” as we had done in Georgia.
And the Convention! I can not tell it. I will
not try. Buckner, the father-friend of over six
hundred orphans, was there —president of the con
vention! B. H. Carroll was there, towering like an
intellectual and spiritual Colossus above the hosts
whom he has led for years! B. Gambrell was
there —the “Uncle Gideon,” not only of Texas, but
of all Southern Baptists, superintendent of mis
sions for Texas and master of movements and of
men. George W. Truett was there —matchless ma
gician in the realm of hearts, of preachers and
preaching. S. P. Brooks was there —the masterful
president of his alma mater, Baylor University, at
Waco, with her thousand students every year. W.
A. Wilson was there —the Sir Galahad of all
America as a president of a woman’s college, lead
ing over four hundred girls at Baylor-Belton as a
gentle father would lead his children. Riley and
I. H. Gambrell were there —the “iron-grey pair”
who have determined to run liquor out of Texas.
C. C. Slaughter was there —that great man among
men who is called by some a “cattle king,” but who
gathers his cattle on the rolling plains and com
passes his mighty plans in the marts of trade for
the sole, glad purpose of investing his money here,
there, everywhere, for the good of humanity and
the glory of God.
Frank Norris and Joe Dawson were there —the
brilliant young twins who are making The Standard,
with her forty thousand subscribers, the wonder of
the religious press of the South. And time would
fail me to tell of a hundred others, each great
enough to be a king in other States, but just one
of Wm. J. Bryan’s “average men” in a State whose
scale of measurement is as big as that of Texas.
To be in Texas is inspiration —inspiration toward
everything that is large and enlarging.
White at Beaumont.
What a, treat to stop at Beaumont, the famous
oil center of Texas, and spend three days with Dr.
J. L. White, who was twelve years the beloved pas
tor of the great First Baptist Church at Macon,
Ga., and president of the board of trustees of Mon
joe (now Bessie Tift) College at Forsyth. Build-
The Golden Age for December 5, 1907.
ing on the superb foundation of another Georgian,
Louie B. Warren, Dr. White has done a magnificent
work at Beaumont, and there is universal regret
that he has determined to go to the First Church,
Greensboro, N. C. But it is a physical necessity.
Dr. White’s health otherwise has been splendid,
but his throat trouble has been very much aggra
vated by the atmosphere at Beaumont. He goes
back to his native North Carolina for a salary a
thousand dollars less than Beaumont is giving him.
With three sons in grand old Wake Forrest Col
lege, he naturally feels a longing for the “wind
harps of his native groves.” It was my privilege
to be present on Sunday morning when his Beau
mont people urged him in tears to withdraw his
resignation. Happy the pastor who follows such
a wise man as J. L. White in such a royal church
as he has been leading, in such a coming city as
Beaumont!
It was like being again in Georgia to be a guest
in the home of Dr. and Mrs. White, with all that
large company of boys who are not yet old enough
to be at Wake Forrest.
At the public schools of Beaumont it was a treat
to meet Professor Triplett, the “John Halifax, Gen
tleman” to whose pupils I talked at Ennis ten
years ago. And it was to me the privilege of a life
time to be in the home town and in brotherly touch
with George W. Carroll, the great-hearted philan
thropist, who enjoys his oil wells, his saw mills, hi»
brick buildings and his broad acres for one pur
pose only—that he may make his life count most
for the glory of God in the uplift of humanity.
I spoke to an immense crowd on Sunday night
“Agin Red Liquor,” and Colonel Andrew Jackson
Houston, son of the famous Sam Houston, told me
that in January the campaign would be launched
to drive saloons from the beautiful city of Beau
mont.
I? *
Has the Sky-Scraper a Limit ?
This question is asked, in a leading editorial, by
The Municipal Journal and Engineer (New York,
October 30), which, after ringing the changes upon
it, apparently leaves it for the future to answer.
Says this paper:
“About a decade ago the American Surety Build
ing, at 100 Broadway, New York City, twenty sto
ries high, eclipsed anything in the way of high
buildings which had yet been erected, and it was
popularly believed that it would not be surpassed
for year's, if ever. Since then many other buildings
have cast this into the shade; the Singer Building,
having 41 stories, and now the Metropolitan Life
Building is being rapidly raised to its designed
height of 48 stories. Besides these, there are two
26-story buildings, three 25-story buildings, two
23-story buildings, four 22-story buildings, and nine
20-story buildings. Os buildings having between
ten and 20 stories there are now in the city 516.
Several questions suggest themselves with reference
to this piling up of story upon story. Is there a
limit to the height which such structures can be
carried? What will be the effect upon health, light,
noise, and many other features of city life should
all buildings be raised to height of even 20 stories,
thus making of every street a canyon? Possibly
even more important is the question as to fire risk
involved in such construction. We are told by the
advocates of these buildings that they are more
nearly fireproof than any others in the city, and they
are able to cite instances to back their claims. But
should a fire gain any headway in the upper floors
of such a building, how is it possible to reach it
with any considerable volume of water, more than
can be contained in small roof tanks located on the
buildings themselves? And in a street lined with
such buildings, in which fires are raging practically
unrestricted in the two hundred feet or so, would
not the falling glass and other debris make it im
possible for firemen to remain in the street below
.to fight the flames in even the lower stories? Con
tinuous rows of ‘sky-scrapers’ will present condi
tions which are absent while they are widely scat?
tered.”
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*
'Resurrected Songs.
Resurrected Songs, of which a miniature title
page has appeared in The Golden Age for the past
several issues, is a song book prepared for the
church. We are anxious for those interested to
examine this book and to compare it with other
books for a similar purpose. Although the book has
been before the public for a short while we are
shipping it over more than thirty different states.
If you have an old favorite song that our fathers
and mothers once chanted you will certainly find
that song in this book.
We would be pleased to hear from those interest
ed, and send them specimen pages of Resurrected
songs. J. B. Vaughan.
Athens, Ga.
9