The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-11-28
TCor. of the N. Y. Tribune.
The Story of a Cattle SpeculatOr.

ICor of the N. Y. Tribune.]
The Story of Cattle Spectator.
Last June young cattle dealer, with
Scotch blood in his veins, and the shrewd-
ness, courage, and enterprise Of his race in
his head, Joseph G. Mccoy. the junior part
ner of the widely-known firm of Mccoy
Brothers, went to Kansas to see if he could
not find path wherein the Texan and In
dian cattle could walk in peace to the East.
He passed up the line of the railroad, "pro-
specting," as they say out here. He carried
map Of the United States, wherein, with
his tinger-nail, he had traced air-lnes from
the cattle ranges of the southwest track OF
the Union Pacific The distances, the grass,
the richness of the land, the neighborhood
of timber, the peacefulness OF the Indian
tribes through which the trails would run,
indicated Abilene, water station ON the
road, as the place where, God willing, he
would establish the biggest mart in America
for receiving and shipping cattle. The point
was we'll selected. 1t was 165 miles west OF
Kansas City, on the Missouri, less than 375
miles from northern Texas, rs from the
mouth of the Arkansas-set within Il rim OF
stratified limestone, in theIloveliest and rich
est of valleys, we'll wooded and well water
ed, with which the Connecticut river bottom
or the Mohawk flats would not dare to
straight and level, crossing the Red river at
Bolen's, and running past Chisms Ranch,
Fort Arbuckle, and the mouth of the Little
Arkansas, with abundant water all the way,
and superintendent blue-stem and bunch
grass in the wide valleys, and bunch and
buffalo grass on the uplands, and sufficient
wood for camping purposes. There were no
organized bushwhackers and mustered-out
rebel soldiers the road to exact toll In
coin The semi-civilized Indian tribes con-
tented themselves, each. with a lame steer or
TWO for meat for the day, as sufficient pay
for traversing their lands.
| After driving down his stake at Abilene
Mccoy set his house in order at the East,
and returned to Kansas and his enterprise in
| the last week of July. On the first day of
September he had stock and shipping-yard
built that would hold 900 head of cattle and
| load a train of forty cars in two hours; had
tcn-ton Fairbanks scale in position that
would weigh a Car load at time; and had
Texas and all the Southwest placarded with
handbills, in which he invited drovers to
come to Abilene, and offered to pay cash for
all the cattle they would drive there, and
gave them guarantees of innumerable bank
and railroad presidents that he was respon-
sible and honest man, and OF Governors OF
States and we'll known politicians that gen
IlCmcn from 1CAaS WOult ut,L ue HlOieslcu
nor made afraid on account of their little
participation in the rebellion, either on their
arrival at their destination or on their way
there Then guests were invited from Him
OILS and Missouri as well as Kansas-beef-
packers, cattle-dealers, railroad officials, and
their wives and daughters -to see the first
shipment of beeves over the Union Pacific
railway. They came ut the appointed day,
and saw a traintul weighed, loaded, and
started To the East; and then, in great
tent they celebrated the important event
with a feast.
That was ON the 9th of September. To-
day is the 24th of September, and the tent
is gone, and in its place is handsome three
story hotel, painted a delicate wood color,
with great venetian blinds to the windows,
hard finished plaster on the walls, and hand
some accommodations for eighty guests at
bed and board, and possibility of feeding
at well spread tables three times that num-
Der. Opposite the hotel is a banking house
(the McCoys are bankers as we'll as buyers
of cattle on a thousand hills) and behind
the hotel is vast livery stable for the hOr-
ses of the drovers, to recruit those kept for
the return trip and to g get up" those sold
when the droves are sold. And near the ho-
tel will soon go up large store, in which
everything Il Texan man or woman can need,
from bacon and flour to rev0lvers, shawls,
and bonnets, will be Sold And here are the
drovers, the identical chaps 1 first saw at
Fair Oaks, and last saw at Gettysburg.
Every man of them unquestionably was
in the rebel army. Some of them have not
yet worn out all of their distinctive gray
clothing men, full OF reserved
force, shaggy with hair, undoubtedly terri
bic in fight, yet peaceably great at cattle
driving, and not demonstrative in their
style of wearing slx-shooters. Some of them
are paying lightning prices" for ready
made clothing to two Jews, who have eX-
temporlzed a store out of an empty corn bin
and are selling the goods they receive from
Fort Leavenworth at from $50 to 200 per
cent. profit almost as fast as they take them
from the boxes. These rebels are getting re-
constructed fast.
The cattle they drove here are grazing all
over this magnificent valley under the care
of herders. The drovers usually herd, after
arrival, from thirty to sixty days, to recruit
the animals before selling. And such pas
turage The steer that would not fat here
visibly would have starved to death in the
garden of Eden. But just look at them as
they wade in the grass, and see their Fulton
market roundness and glossiness. With diff
fculty L credit the statement that there are
$4,000 head here now, waiting Shipment
Yet here they are, and 10000 more are
known to be on the way here, and full 5O,-
900 will have arrived by the close of the
season. Four times many would have
been driven here as have been if the stock
men of the Southwest had known that there
was safe and sure way out of the lookup,
which the war first and the toll-demanding
ruffians afterwards established. So say the
most intelligent of the Texan drovers, and
they say that 20O,O 900 head of beeves will
surely be here next year for sale and ship
ment Now mark. These animals, "beeves,"
can be bought by thousands in Texas at
from So to $40 per head in gold, or $12 to
$14 in currency. They can be driven to Abb
lene at an additional cost of not two dollars
a head in from five to eight weeks time
They can be shipped from here to St. Louis
at 500 carload, and to Chicago for SIS
car Joseph Mccoy tells me they can be af-
forded in Chicago at four cents gross, with
satisfactory margin to drovers, shippers, or
railroads. Surely the butchers of more than
one city or State have got to come down,
and surely there was grateful reason in the
toast to the Kansas Pacific railway as the
cheapener of beef to the people of the Uni