Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-03-18
Life i'm Northern Texas

| Lie IN NOftnern Texas
The climate of Northern Texas, dur
ing nine months out of the twelve, is
absolutely and perfectly delightful.
There is no such thing as intense sui
triness, for a refreshing breeze is al
ways blowing. Spring comes in April,
and enamels the prairies with wealth
of blossoms, among which none are
more splendidly beautiful than the prai-
rie plume, a plant which sends up
lofty fower-stalk, crowning it with
plume-hke head of closely clustered
crimson flowers. These prairie plains
are destined, some time in the not far
distant future, to supersede Florida
and Minnesota as a resort for consump-
tives. The dryness and equability of
the atmosphere strengthens, vitalizes,
and heals the lungs that have become
diseased in a wet or freezing climate.
1t is said that O case of consumption
never originates there; while many who
have gone there in the last stages of it
have taken a new lease of life and lived
comfortably for fifteen or twenty years.
In such cases, however, they got the
full benefit of the healing air by breath
ing it in an undefiled state, sleeping
under a tent, or in an open log cabin.
As farming country, Northern Texas
possesses great attractions. Its broad,
rolling prairies are easily convertible
into fields of cotton-there is no clear
ing to be done, only the tall grass to be
burned off in the spring, or turned under
with plow. And cotton grows there
beautifully. Since railroad facilities
have been introduced its culture pays
handsomely. II farmer wants to raise
corn, oats, barley, and wheat, as well
as cotton, he can just fence in a big
prairie field, fifty, hundred, or three
hundred acres, as he chooses, and not
go to the trouble of taking in" all the
land he owns. Two plowings, one with
turn-plow, the other with a sweep,
will make a crop of cotton, though. as
in the sold States" it does better with
more careful culture. The quick growth
of cockle-burrs and sun flowers necessi-
tates the use of the hoe more than grass
or any other kind of weeds. Corn yields
splendidly. From one quart of corn,
planted in May, three bushels were
gathered, Stock raising is a speciality
OF Texan farmers. A herd of forty cows
will, in twenty years, produce a drove
of eight hundred /; horses increase in
the same ratio, and both get their living
off the prairies, the owner taking no
trouble further than branding them
the mark generally being his own ini-
tials. Colts are broken, few at time,
from a drove, caught with & lasso and
thrown down. An unbroken horse will
bring fifty dollars broken one. sew
enty-ive
In the spring of the year cattle spec
ulators pass through the country buy
ing up cattle for beef, giving, where
they buy a large drove, not more than
six dollars per head. A cruel custom
prevails among these cattle drovers,
which they excuse on the ground of ex-
pediency. As large numbers of COWS
with calves are included in the droves,
they drive them all together for a few
days, till they come to some wellwa- |
tered timber. where, having camped,
they shoot all the young calves, saving
their skins, which will bring them as
much money as the calves flesh would. |
They remain at these camps several 1
days, so that the cows may see and be
convinced that their calves are dead, as 4
otherwise they would not submit to be |
driven. The drovers contend that it is |
more merciful to kill the little calves in /
this way than to wear them out by a
march of several hundred miles, as their .
usual course lies northward to the track |
of the Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska |
Railways, where the cattle are shipped
for beef to Eastern markets. The set |
tied population of Northern Texas ac- |
cumulate property rapidly, raise their
herds of cows and horses, and the finest |
of wheat, but there is a large floating
population, constantly on the move,
who hardly pay expenses.
There are good many Indians still
in the country. 1t is said that in the
part of country inhabited by the Com
anches a silver and copper mine has
been discovered, which will doubtless /
be opened and worked by capitalists in |
a few years. The friendly Indians who |
come into the country keep up the old |
system of barter, bringing venison,
kets to exchange for blankets, whisky, |
powder, shot, corn, and -four. Their |
baskets are beautiful specimens of deft
handiwork, made of split cane, bril- |
liantly colored, red, green, blue, and
yellow, with vegetable dyes. They are
made by the squaws, who, as from time
immemorial, do all the work while the
warriors hunt and ride. The price of
basket is what it will hold of corn,
wheat, or flour. They use no salt with
bread or meat, stripping the flesh en-
tirely off the bones, and stretching it as
thin as possible TO dry it. Their method
of killing beef aptly illustrates their
savage temper, and how they educate
themselves to practice the torture.
Several of them get round the animal to
be killed, and shoot arrows at it in parts |
of the body where the points of the ar
rows sticking in will only produce a
stinging, irritating sensation, and this |
they Will continue, laughing, yelling, |
hooting, at the evident sufferings of the |
victim for hours, until, indeed, they
see it droop as if about to die, then a
well-aimed arrow through some vital
part instantly dispatches it. To this
day they occasionally steal white girl
children and sarry them off, in order to
get ransom for them, managing to get |
the reward, on the restoration of the |
child, without betraying the original