Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-09-18

seem to civilized people good deal like
buying pig in the bag. Under ordinary
circumstances it is as commonplace
transaction as the purchase of any other
vested title in property. The laws OF
Texas provide for the right of brand as a
title to stock, as definitely as they do
for the title to real estate by warranty
deed. This man of whom the firm OF
Grigsby & Adams had purchased his
brand, had been forced by the war to neg
lect his stock, which he had left in Sixty
three, and had not been back to the
rancho since to even corral and brand the
calves Then the Comanches and k1o-
was had been rusticating about there for
two or three summers, quite at their ease,
and the presence of Comanches and kio-
was always affect the value OF stock
brands, precisely as an earthquake
causes real estate to fiuctuate in
price and otherwise. And besides,
| his cattle was on the outermost
range, and he had a family, and bachelors
get along better in Indian neighborhoods
than married men do; 50 he was glad
enough to sell his brand out for three hun
| dred dollars, hard cash, which he un.
| doubtetlly invested iii fixtures" and
entered into the great Southwestern in
dustry of keeping saloon. But for old
Matt the Comanches had no terrors- Ii
there was anything in fact, that he was
afraid of, he had singularly failed to come
upon it, though he had been hunting
danger we'll on to forty years. And there
was similar absence of caution in the
| composition Of young Adams, though it
probably was crowded out by his youth
| full recklessness, rather than shut out al
! together by the hardihood of his nature,
as was the case with his mild-vOiced,
! taciturn Old partner. Thus these two
made an admirable pair to GO out on the
verge of the Comanche range to pick up
neglected brand" And they turned
their horses heads towards the Staked
Plain. and Austin saw them no more.
There is obviously a poverty ofromance
and lack of chivalry in the business of
herding stock. One would naturally eX-
pect that race of men whose lives are
spent in the mOnOtOnOus round OF twelve
hours "On" and twelve hours of watch
ing a herd of grazing cattle, varied only
by an occasional stampede, would be OF
all men the tamest and least interesting.
May be they are. But try one of them
with an insult or indignity, and you will
presently discover that you have struck
the most wildly interesting customer you
have ever met Taking the class of Texas
cattle men in the aggregate, anu il will
be found as an unvarying characteristic
that they afford more net lighting weight
TO the pound gross, and greater com
bative capacity to the superficial square
inch than any other class Of men on the
face of the earth 1t makes no difference
to him what may be the status, color or
circumstances of the enemy, 50 only he is
aggressive; whether he be Comanche,
kiowa, horse-thief, sharper or claim
| jumper; the Texans means Of redress is
| always slung conveniently on his right
| hip, and his sense of justice is measured
| by the surest eye, the suddenest nerve ana
| the quickest finger
But fortune smiled on the firm OF
! Grigsby & Adams. And when fall came
they had gathered from all the Wild range
north of San Antonio several hundred
head of cattle-mostly two-year dds
! bearing on their launches the cauterized
scar they had bought for three hundred
! dollars. As time wore on they were still
| successful. Their cattle wintered we'll
| No nOrther came to them to blast with its
| icy breath the fruits Of their venturesome
! toll and sturdy patience; no kiowa came
| hustling across the tracklcss pampas with
his scalp-lOCk quaking in the breeze and
his warwhOOp splitting the air, 20 SIAM
| pede their herds or give the herders sepul-
ture by the cotton woods, with the buzz
yards and coyotes for mourners. And as
the summer and the winter came and went
again, old Matt and young Adams, found
themselves getting well to do in the world.
They sold some stock into a big drove,
and put the money where it would do
most good-in reinforcement OF young
calves. And so they wrought and watch
ed and waited for four years, until the
brand they had bought for three hundred
dollars became rated among the thou
sands. Grigsby Il Adams were getting
rich. But young Adams was getting rest
| less. His aged mother, whose only boy
he was, worried about him. Some one
who lived over across the Illinois prairie
from his home, was getting anxious too,
for it was now seven years since she had
given her trOth to the beardless volunteer,
ana she thought she had waited long
enough. All this came to Adams in long
letters at such intervals as horseback Jour
neys could be made from the range to the
post-office eighty miles away, and he want
ed to sell out and 90 home and settle
down But old Matt demumed He
thought they were doing powerful we'll
and it was better to hang on another year
and double their pile. Finally one day
old Matt came back to the camp from a
long trip. He had been clear to Austin.
In Austin he had met a man from Kahn
tuck, and this man had told him that his
mother, eighty, almost blind, with no one
left to lean upon as she passed down to
the river little way beyond, found an
apology for a home with some distant
| kindred WHO were patiently waiting for
her to die. Matt was moodier and more
| taciturn than ever now. The next day he
mounted his mustang, and when he came
back in the course Of three days he knew
just what the firm of Grigsby & Adams
was worth. He was ready to yield to
Adams and sell out. It was not difficult
to find purchaser then, for it had begun
to be noised abroad that there was money,
mlnts Of it, III Texas cattle. So there was
activity for few days on the Grigsby &
Adams range. The cattle were corralcd,
the steers that were fit to drive were
picked out and driven away out on the
range. The stock cattle, COWS, calves,
yearlings, etc, representing the brand,
were sold to couple of ranchers for
twenty thousand dollars. And old Matt
and young Adams took the Chisholm trail
with twelve hundred head of steers for the
Kansas City market
AS they moved slowly northward with
their hoofed and horned wealth in front
of them, and the proceeds of the sale of
their brand in their saddle bags, each