Small but Vigorous.
The Houston East & West Texas Railroad, running from Houston, Texas, to Shreveport, La., is not very much of a road as to mileage, but there is more hustle about it than most roads of ten times the length exhibit. With only 232 miles of road the company is doing more relatively towards the development of the country it traverses than almost any other road in the country. Recently a development department has been created and put in charge of General John M. Claiborne, an old newspaper man. Among other methods of building up the territory of the road, and besides the usual concessions to settlers in the way of passenger and freight rates, the company has offered to contribute to a common fund an amount equal to all that can be raised by the people of the counties through which the road passes, the money to be spent in getting in settlers. The road promises to locate at least one family for every two dollars the citizens of these counties will raise. The country through which this road passes includes some superb farm and garden lands, and large areas of original forest timber, pine and hard woods, and with the energy and push of the managers of the road it will not be long before immigrants will be pouring into their country.
The officers of the road are E. S. Jemison, president; M. G. Howe, vice-president; M. S. Meldrum, secretary and treasurer, and T. Cronin, superintendent, all of Houston.