The German population of Texas were generally understood to have Union sympathies, avid were therefore cordially hated by original Texans. We were riding one day into the country with a genuine Texan, and coming to a heavy German settlement, he called our attention to their fine farms and substantial improvements, and said, "See the Germans squatted everywhere on the best lands in our State. I'll tell you what I would do if in my power. I would compel them to leave the rich land and go to the sand hills and sand prairies. I don't think they have any business on these lands, and right under the noses of the better class of citizens."
This was an occasion when we regarded the "discretion" of thinking without speaking "the better part of valor." But we confess that we never felt more disgraced by the company we were in. We passed out to his plantation. His house was scarcely fit for a horse-stable, and everything was in filth and confusion in and out of doors. We thought the meanest German in the settlement his king in industry, neatness and thrift. One of the most flourishing towns in Texas is New Braunfels. It is thoroughly German in its original settlement and growth. As already stated, it is located thirty miles east of San Antonio, and probably on the shortest river in the world, the Comal, two miles long. Just to the north of the town, and running west, is a range of mountains. At the base of this mountain range, the Comal rises from the bosom of the earth, from several large springs, which flow together within a distance of a few rods, has no tributary, descends fifty to seventy-five feet within the two miles, and then falls over a bluff, making the best water power in the State, and equal to any in the world for the quantity of water. Then loses itself in a confluence with the Guadalupe River, which still further north rises in the same sudden way. And on this stream are several fine water powers. The waters of the two rivers will equal in volume the Rock River of Illinois. The San Antonio headwaters are formed from several sudden springs three miles above the city. The San Marcos, still east of all of those before named, originates in the same way, and all of them furnish an abundance of water power all along their courses. And when it comes to the character of their waters, the writer must confess that he has never seen their equal in any country. They are as limpid as the finest spring water ever seen. We have thrown a five cent silver piece into one of the San Antonio springs, and seen it on the pebbly bottom, fifteen feet down easily, and the depth did not seem to the eye more than five or six feet.
