The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1881-07-16

| battle. in which the StaffOrlS We're vic
torious, several being killed and wound
| ed on both sides. The Townsends wert
| ultimately crowded out Of the way
! and Stafford rcigned supreme over thu
! Colorado ranges. This is a fair illustra
| ton Of the manner Of man stUck-raisel
must he
Captain Kennedy, King S Old partner
| whose ranch is located on the headwater:
of the Nucces, annually brands tifteel
thousand calves. Colonel Eugene Millet
in his pastures on the Upper Brazos
owns forty Thousand head and brand,
ten Thousand calves Il year. James +.
Ellyson, of San Marcos, William T.
Mines of Tres PalacioS. in Matagorda
county. d. II. FAINT. whose cattle water
in the san Antonio River, and perhaps q
dozen more throughout the State. brand
annually from five to ten thousand calves
Many OF the pastures of these cow-mei
are larger than the State of Rhode
Island. In Southwestern Texas the stock
firm of Coleman, Mathis X Fulton have
enclosed nearly the three entire counties
of Bee, Arkansas and san Patrcio, and
craze more than two hundred thousand
head of stock. This firm sold this year
one hundred and fifty Thousand acres oi
fenced pasture land to one man (William
Wright for fifty cents an acre. Wright
paving besides ut the rate of five hundred
dollars mile for the fence that SUI
rounded it. The fencing is almost en-
tircly of barbcd wire. According to the
COW mems arithmetic. there is a calf to
every four head of cattle. Failure after
YOU are once started in the stock bust
ness they consider impossible if man
adhcreS strictly to this COWS: although
several years ago stock firm, Allen u
dollars. and now they have broken and
their names as stockmen are things of
the past But their failure was attribut-
ed in large measure to having made bad
Investments in landed property.
Bnt what would astonish the peaceful
law abiding citizens of the East is the
immense amount of thieving which is
done on the border. The facility with
which this netariouS practice can be car
ricd on has been greatly lessencd within
the past year. Prior to that, the only
punishment melted out to the cattle
thieves was by the citizens taking the
law into their own hands and hanging
and shooting them whenever found. In
the fall of 1876. Il regular organized band
of desperate white men and low down
MeXicans infested the country around
Goliad and stole large bodies of cattle.
driving them across the river into Mexico.
This band was under the leadership of
two white men. Ada Mildly and Bill
Brooking. Issuing from the dense por-
tons OF Guadalupe and San Antonio the
Brooking's band would round up a bunch
of cattle on the prairie, and corralling
them. would proceed to brand, counter
brand. and dcfacc the marks upon them
until the cattle were beyond recognition
If anybody rode up, they would stop
work. and. putting their hands in their
pockets. hang listlessly around the pen
until the stranger went went Oft. The
stock men of the ncighborhood organized
Il vigilance committee. which. after much
hard riding and fighting, broke up the
band. killed most of them, and drove the
rest into Mexico 1t was a long time,
however. before they caught the two
leaders. Young Mildly was only twenty
one years old. the son of Il respectable
old German, Il carpenter of Goliad. but
was known as one of the holdest and
most successful thieves that roamed the
praries. He could easily have escaped
into Mexico. but from the recesses Of
the river chapparal the vigilantcs were
unable to drag him. until, venturing one
day in broad daylight into the town of
Goliad to hold an interview with his
sweetheart. W W lltlil WIS SUM w bt
married, he was surprised and surround
ed by the stock-men in the Case Hotel.
Fear was a stranger to the young thief,
and he never uuailed at his perilouS posi-
ton. Standing AT the top of the stair
case, with six shooter i'll each hand
while his sweetheart stood near him with
Il cooked Winchester rifle. he swore they
should only have his dead body. Fair
promises induced him to come down Oh
the street, where boldly facing the score
or more of mounted men before him, he
asked them what they wanted of him.
"Where is Bill Brookins?" asked Cap
tain Tom Sullivan. the leader of the par
ty.
Il don't know: and if did. | would
see you in h-ll before | would tell you,
was the cool reply. But his courage
availed him nothing. for ut Il sign from
Sullivan. lie was lasSoed and his arms
bound tightly to his body, while two of
the horsemen diSmounted, and. Selling
the young thief. strapped him. not with
out a desperate resistance, to the back of
a led horse. Riding out of town, the
party stopped on the banks Of the Perdi-
do OF Lost Creek. and held il consultation
as to the best method of disposing of
their prisoner. During the whole time
Ada Mildy's round, red face never palcd.
nor did he pay any attention to what was
being said. His GOODNESS was so eNtraor-
binary that few of them wanted him
turned loose under promise to quit the
country: but when the proposition was
made to him he refused to accept it. A
few days afterward Ada MiIdy'S mangled
carcass was tished out Of the san Antonio
river and sent to his aged father. Bill
Brooking shared the same fate, being
shot while cooking his supper, and his
body left to the tender mercies of the
prairie wolves.
These vigiantes existed all through
Texas two years ago: but the energetic
services of General Ord. assisted by Il
body of State Rangers under Captain
Lee Hale. has rendered thieving more
precariouS method of earning a livelihood
than most men are willing to accept. At
one time the negroes resorted to skinning
and stealing cattle on the ranges along
the Colorado and Guadalupe rivers; but
armed squads of white men would ride
through the timber in the river-bottoms
where the negroes cabins are all located
and taking the blacks from their homes,
WOuId cOuduct them into the woods a