True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 61
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HOUSTON AND HOUSTONIANS 61
Wrecks and attempted wrecks were frequent, for there were
not wanting men, who, to get revenge on the railroad company
by destroying its property, were willing to run the risk of
destroying the lives of innocent passengers. The first wreck
of this kind that ever occurred in Texas, was on the Houston
and Texas Central, near where the water tank is, about 12 miles
from Houston. Some scoundrel drove spikes between the ends
of the rails and wrecked the train. No one was killed, but Mr.
Bremond, who was on the train, received quite serious injuries
and was laid up for repairs for several. days.
It is a pity some historian of that day did not keep a record
of the ups and downs of the life of the early railroad builders.
It would make interesting reading today. It would show, as
the Frenchman said, "more downs as ups," for their progress
was marked by more temporary failures than by successes.
+ +
AT THE MASQUERADE BALL.
T SUSPECT that the young folks have just as good times
now as we used to have, but I doubt it. I cannot see
how they can have, "our times" were too near perfect.
The balls, dances and social gatherings now are too formal,
and then, too, the people do not know each other as well as
they formerly did.
Houston was then not much more than a big town. Everybody
knew everybody else, and it is a fact that society was
something like a great family. There were several social clubs
here. Two that devoted themselves to dancing the, "German."
These Clubs were the "0. C." and the "E. C." The "0. C." stood
for Omnibus Club and the "E. C." for Economical Club. Each
club had a "german" every two weeks, so that there was a
"german" every week. There were similar organizations in
Galveston, Austin and Waco, and as mutual invitations were
exchanged there were always some popular members of outside
clubs at our dances or some of ours at theirs. The Omnibus
Club got its name from a rule of the club prohibiting the
use of carriages and requiring the gentlemen to take the ladies
to the dances in one of Baldwin's omnibuses, which made the
rounds collecting the couples for the party and distributing
them after the dance was over.
Now, in addition to these two clubs was the famous Z Z Club,
which gave delightful dances and balls, and the grand Purim
ball given by another association. That Purim ball was the
grand social event of the year, and was looked forward to with
pleasurable anticipation by the young people of Houston for
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Young, Samuel Oliver. True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young., book, 1913; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24646/m1/61/?rotate=270: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.