The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1877-11-16
AMERICAS MONTE CBRIsTO.
Col. Kings Mexican Ranch and His
C:Old-Crammed Treasury.

| bOrder during the next few months
The adventures who are seeking to
incite the two countries to trouble
along the Rio Grande for the sake OF
booty or ambition, are here in consid-
cradle numbers, and are sometimes
able to attract q curious crowd to lister,
to the stories of the wonders of their
Eldorado. These are colored by warn,
inlaginings, but have reason to think
that the one hich follows is absolutely
true. At all events, have it from one
of the gentlemen who spent q consid.
erabie time in the service of the gov.
! ernment along the Rio Grande border,
and who could have no special interest
in calling upon his Imagination for his
facts. At any rate, the story of this
big rancho, as told to me, runs in this
way: '@ 's -
A FEUDAL BORDER FARMER.
Col. King is fair type of one of the
former feudal knights Of our Mexican
border. He found his way to Mexico
during the Mexican war as a camp
follower in the wake of the army.
subsequently he became q cabin boy
on a steamboat on the lower Rio
Grande. He picked up Il little money
in this pursuit, and soon had accumu-
lated enough to begin stealnboating on
earnings of his steamboat he invested
in Spanish land grants, saving his
grants until ne had secured u large
amuunt of stacreage," which he settled
in one locality. From the time Of the
Mexican war until our late civil war
he devoted himself to agricultural
pursuits. At the outbreak of the last
war he commenced operations in cot
ton, ,in which he made another fortune.
The excitements Of the border, and the
love of speculation together, helped to
make him rebeilious during the war,
and he became rebel of that passive
sort which permitted other people to
do the fighting while he pocketed the
gains. l am informed by an officer in
command along the border that during
the war Col. King found more con-
genial residence south Of the Rio than
north Of it. He is II man 55 years of
age, of Irish parentage. He has u
family of three daughters, whom he il
educating at Louisville, Ky, and who
are the heiresses to the most
MAGNIEICENT FEUDAL ESTATE
in republican America. AS might be
expected from his life, King is u man
of little education, but possesses much
natural ability, and has acquired con-
siderable polish from contact with the
world He has had no time for culti-
vation. He now owns most of the
steamboats, on the Rio Grande, and
controls the gulf trade between Calves
ton and New Orleans. His ranch
possesses the magnificent proportions
which can be best appreciated by the
Il Hlbiti0us Western farmer. His estate
itself comprises 100000 acres; of this,
100, 900 are under fence. In one in
closure there are 100 miles of fencing,
built at a cost of 5000 per mile. The
ranch is situated in u diversified country
on the Lower Rio, made up in part OF
rich low lands, and in part of wooded
rolling hills. The figures which re-
present his stock are of such character
that the addition of a cipher or two
in the imagination of the ordinary
reader. He has %, 600 horses, 10000
cows, 10000 stock cattle, $4,000 mules,
$4,000 sheep, and jackasses and pigs in
countless numbers. He employs 800
Mexicans to manage his rancho. They
are of peculiar tribe or clan, from
which the herdsnen of the border are
usually chosen, and are of "A very diff
ferent character from the rowing bandit
clans whose occupation consists in pre-.
datory incursiOns upon our territory.
These herders are tame, quiet, inof-
fensive and faithful, and constitute in
themselves an army either for offense
or defense which the isolated bands
of plunderers do not needlessIy at
tack. ... .:. .,,... -.
-y > THE RANCH ITSELF
is large brick building, unpretentious
in appearance, but comfortable in its
appointments. A large brick ware
house is necessary to contain the stores
of;thfs plantation. One section OF this
store-house, strongly built, is called
the 1'treasury." In it this farmer
knight of the border keeps his money,
mostly in the shape of gold and silver
coins packed in bags. a'a i.
HOW HE SPENDS HIS MONEY.
The ssColonel'' had occasion, when
my informant was there, to go the near
est large town on commercial business.
He travels in style corresponding in
lavishness with the extent of his own
broad estate. The spending-moneyf for
trip was contained in fifteen or twenty
bags of considerable size, filled with
gold and silver COINS. On arriving at
the little town he threw out these bags
on the ground with careless unconcern,
and directed the hotel man to take care
of them. They were slowed away by
the landlord with equal carelessness
behind the bar on the floor a. If they