ustxtxb_obs_1962_08_17_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

LEGALS CITATION BY PUBLICATION THE STATE OF TEXAS TO James M. Backley Defendant, in the hereinafter styled and numbered cause: by commanded to appear before the 98th District Court of Travis County, Texas, to be held at the courthouse of said county in the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas, at or before 10 o’clock A. M. of the first Monday after the expiration of 42 days from the date of issuance hereof; that is to say, at or before, 10 o’clock A. M. of Monday the 3rd day of September, 1962, and answer the petition of plaintiff in Cause Number 127.407, in which Gertrude G. Backley is Plaintiff and James M. Backley is defendant, filed in said Court on the 20th clay of July, 1902, and the nature of which said suit is as follows: Being an action and prayer for During the marriage of plainjudgment in favor of plaintiff and tiff and defendant no children against defendant for decree of have been born to them as issue divorce dissolving the bonds of of such marriage. matrimony heretofore and now During the marriage of plain existing between said parties: tiff and defendant, they have acPlaint , f f alleges that on many quired community property but and divers occasions, while plainas of the date of filing this petitiff resided with defendant, that Lion no community property redefendant was guilty of excesses, mains. cruel treatment and outrages to All of which more fully appears wards plaintiff of such a nature from plaintiff’s Original Petition as to render their living together on file in this office, and which insupportable. Defendant on numerous occasions showed an utter disregard for financial responsibility and by his actions has caused the loss of all household financial obligations and has failed to live up to the responsibility of these obligations placing such a burden and strain upon the plaintiff which has caused plaintiff much worry, humiliation, and embarrassment. At the time of the separation of the plaintiff and defendant on the 6th day of July, 1962, defendant left their residence to avoid being served with legal proceedings on a hot check charge and has since that time refused and failed to inform the plaintiff of his whereabouts. The plaintiff, on numerous occasions, has been visited or contacted by creditors in their attempts to locate defendant thus causing great worry. humiliation, and embarrassment. FROM OUR CAMEL EDITOR: Jeff Davis’ Texas Scheme SAN ANTONIO Acute bronchitis found its mark, and at 10 o’clock on the night of December 6, 1899, in New Orleans, Jefferson Davis died. America paid close attention to the obituaries. A planter and West Point graduate with seven years’ military service, Davis was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi. He went back into uniform during the Mexican War, after which he returned to political life as U.S. Senator. In 1853, he became Secretary of War under President Pierce, and finally, President of the Confederate States of America. The newspapers reported the obvious, but an old sailor living at 1710 H. Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., recalled the unique. He was Admiral of the Navy, David Dixon Porter, once superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy and himself less than two years from death. JROM SOLDIERING in the arid a Southwest, Jefferson Davis was convinced that the camel, equipped as it was by nature, would be useful in establishing an overland route between California and the Mississippi. It seemed logical enough-: the ability to go long distances without water; droopy eyelids adorned with long lashes providing a shield against the hot sun; thick pads under the toes of each hoof to prevent sinking in sand; the hump, a reserve supply of nourishment, a portable pantry. Indeed, the credentials were long standing, for Abraham of the Old Testament counted this animal among his most prized possessions. Reporting to President Pierce, the Secretary of War pointed out, “In regions reaching from the torrid to the frozen zones embracing arid plains and precipitous mountains covered with snow, camels are used with the best of results.” Besides, Napoleon had used the camel to quell the Arabs, “whose habits and country were very similar to those of the mounted Indians of our Western Plains.” On March, 1855, Congress voted $30,000 for the importation of camels under a joint army-navy commission, bringing together Major Henry C. Wayne, former West Point artillery instructor, and Porter, then a young naval lieutenant, commanding the USS Supply, a 54-ton, three-masted schooner, 142 feet long, berthed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Orders to the Supply’s captain advised, “Major Wayne will join best point for you to proceed to first will be Smyrna. In Salonica it is said the camels are of superior character. From Salonica you will proceed to Constantinople. It is desirable that you should make arrangements by which you can obtain steam towage through the Dardanelles, up the Sea to Marmora, and into the Black Sea. . .. It is believed that the best breed of camels to be found is in Persia. . . . After embarking the camels . . . you will proceed to the coast of Texas and land them at the most convenient spot . . .” READYING THE SHIP, Porter set up a stable between decks to which the camels would be lowered through the main hatch amidships. Wind sails aiming fresh air below deck to the stable were placed at small hatches fore and aft the main hatch. To further insure ventilation, a trunklike structure 60 feet long, 12 feet wide, and ten feet tall, open at the top with portholes along each side, was placed above the upper deck permitting the hatches to be kept open in all kinds of weather. “It would never do to hoist a camel on board with a pair of slings like those used in shipping,” Porter wrote to Secretary of War Davis. Instead, a cage of heavy oak, 8 feet 6 inches long with doors at each end, was designed. Called “the camel car,” it was to be rolled down the beach on skids and then placed in a flatbottom boat. Alongside the Supply, the cage, loaded with a camel, would be hoisted to and lowered down the main hatch. On June 5, 1855, the Supply sailed through the Narrows of New York Harbor, arriving at Spezzia, Italy, 38 days later. After discharging supplies for the Mediterranean Squadron, Porter left on foot to make an inspection of camels in Florence and Pisa, quickly returning to his ship upon encountering cholera. By this time Major Wayne was aboard. Failing to secure an exchange of currency at Naples, the Supply sailed on to Tunis where one camel was purchased. Two more were presented to the Americans as a gift of the Bey. Here Porter’s brother-in-law. Guinn H. Heap, who had lived in the East as the son of an American consul, was taken on board as a consultant and purchasing agent. Making brief stops along the way, the Supply entered the Dardanelles on September 27, 1855, and worked her way across the Sea of Marmora to Constantinople, now Istanbul, where the city camels were found diseased. Invited to visit the Crimea where the camel had been used in combat, Porter and Wayne boarded a steamer, the Imperador, crossed the Black Sea, and arrived at British-held bases west of Yalta. Not long before in this general vicinity, the charge of the Light Brigade had occurred, a suicidal military action of the Crimean War later immortalized by Tennyson. From discussions with British officers, Wayne found that the one-hilmp camel made an excellent c; valry mount with two men ridinz back to backthe driver t the front, with the infantryman facing co the rear. In a pinch, the camels could be hobbled and used as a breastwork against enemy bullets. RETURNING to Constantinople, the Americans sold two of their camels, both diseased, and cast off for Alexandria after the Sultan of Turkey failed to make good an offer of four gift animals. Although the ancient city of Alexandria proved to be a fruitless source, a trip up the Nile resulted in nine camels being brought on board with the good wishes of the Viceroy of Egypt. Prices for camels began to soar wherever the Supply appeared. To avoid attracting attention, Heap left by himself for Smyrna where he completed purchases to fill out the agreed quota of 33 camels. Loading the animals without incident, except for one camel so large that a hole had to be cut in the main deck to make room for his hump, the homeward voyage was begun on February 15, 1856. On board was a small number of Turks and Arabs hired as “native experts” who won quick unpopularity with such suggestions as burning the camels’ humps for disciplinary reasons, or curing their swollen legs with a mixture of tea and gunpowder. Six camels were born at sea, but the only two survivors had Porter as their midwife. Both were trained to wrestle one another, and one, a bright youngster named Uncle Sam, had the run of the lower deck, becoming agile enough to knock the sailors’ legs out from under them. BY MID-APRIL, the Supply put into Kingston, Jamaica, for supplies and water. Remaining there almost a week, the strange animals were enough of a sensation to attract 4,000 Jamaicans on board in a single day. Sailing on to Indianola, Texas, then a thriving seaport between Galveston and Corpus Christi, Porter, in the face of high swells, took his ship to the Southwest Pass of the mouth of the Mississippi River where his cargo with Major Wayne and native handlers were transferred to a smaller ship, the Fashion, just before the Supply began its return voyage to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Four days later the camels were unloaded at Indianola with Wayne reporting that the camels, “on being landed, and feeling once again the solid earth beneath them, . . became excited to an almost uncontrollable degree, rearing, kicking, crying out, breakine; halters, tearing up pickets. ar.d by other fantastic tricks he iberty of the soil.” On June 4, Major Wayne started his caravan westward, stopping long enough in the town of Victoria to have the animals clipped and a pair of camel socks knitted for the President of the United States. The oncoming shadows of civil war were ominous as the camels made their way to their final destination, Camp Verde, an army frontier post north of San Antonio. In only a short time now, Jefferson Davis’ dream would vanish with the first shot fired at Fort Sumter. Post-war efforts to revise the experiment failed when Congress operation in the Sahara hardly could be called exploitation. It might interest Mr. Davidson to know that if he checked the record, he would find that these same Sahara oil interests, whom he labels as villains, were among those who were active in seeing that France, during the years after World War II, poured billions into Algeria to help build and strengthen the Algerian economy. Unfortunately, Mr. Davidson is not content with his analysis of Algeria, and he feels it necessary to carry this same analysis over into Latin America. This is most unfortunate, because the facts of life are so very different. The independent nations of Latin America were not, when allegedly exploited by United Fruit, colonies. These nations were governed by their own citizens. If any company, including United Fruit, were able to exploit the economic and social welfare of any Latin-American country, it was done with the aid and connivance of the local people. who were only too delighted to exploit their fellow citizens. There Is no similar set of facts applicable to Algeria. Algeria has not had a local government made up of its own people which has served to exploit its own people. It is a shame that Mr. Davidson can find nothing but the romantic notion that the villain from the United States is responsible for the sad conditions that obtain in some parts of Latin America. It might be more helpful if he looked a little deeper into the past and saw what the tradition of Spain had meant in terms of the primacy of the Church, the military, and the aristocracy. It is this triumvirate, the true Spanish heritage, which has betrayed the people of Latin America, and not the actions of American firms in any particular country. E. Ernest Goldstein, School of Law, University of Texas, Austin. refused to appropriate funds. Cavalrymen, aghast at the idea of swapping their horses for such an odd animal, became an implacable enemy, as did the cowboys whose mounts would shy in the presence of such alien beasts. The camels had few friends. Some were sold to circuses. Others ran wild for years, and one had the distinguished honor of stumbling upon a small boy named Douglas MacArthur then living on an army post in New Mexico where his father was commanding officer. The person most responsible for the strange cargo of the USS Supply would be remembered for other accomplishments. Even the obituaries failed to recall Jefferson Davisimporter of camels. MAURY MAVERICK JR. Conservative Democrats Sirs: One of the greatest tragedies in American politics is this: Jack Kennedy will go down in history as a poor president. It won’t be his fault. He has more talent and training for the presidency than any other person who has ever served, with the possible exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Congress is killing Kennedy. It is controlled by a coalition of Republicans and Southern “Democrats”. This coalition of Republicans and pseudo-Democrats has been the majority party in Congress since before the turn of the century. Wilson was badly hurt by it; Roosevelt had a depression and a war to spur an opposing Congress into supporting him; Truman had trouble aplenty with his do-nothing Congress, but at least had Rayburn to lessen the strain. The stimulus and support for the President’s program must come from Congress. For lack of a Rayburn the Kennedy program is being killed. A conservative Democrat is nothing but a Republican with a misnomer. The majority of Southern Democrats are Democrats in name only, and staunch supporters of the Republican Party and its policies. They are the Eisenhower “Democrats”, the Nixon “Democrats”, the followers of Barry Goldwater and Harry Byrd. The Republicans have two parties in Texas: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, controlled by conservative Democrats. The only way the liberals can regain the Texas Democratic party is to get the conservative Democrats into the Republican Party where they belong. The most expeditious way to do this is to establish the Republican Party on the state level. A growing number of liberals are going to support Cox. Many believe that the conservative Democrats will flock to the Republican banner if Cox wins this November. Then the conservatives will swarm to the