Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-08-19
A CATTLE STORY.
A Cattle Kings Wedding Present.
From the Texas siftings.l

FROM lilc 1cAdS ClllnSS.l
Lieut.. Atwell recently married the
daughter of Capt. Richard King of Tex
rs, known as the cattle king, who has at
the Santa Gertrude rancho one hundred
thousand head of cattle, ten thousand
horses, seven thousand sheep, and eight
thousand goats. Three hundred Mexi-
can herders and vaqueros attend to the
management of these vast herds. The
ride around the fence of the Santa Ger
trude rancho is sixty miles in extent
Upon the occasion of the wedding,
Lieut.. A. was presented by the brides
father with 10000 head of cattle and
horses. Just imagine the visitors, as
they fingered over the wedding presents,
when they came to ten thousand head
OF cattle among the card cases, butter
knives and napkin rings that custom re-
quires should be presented to bride and
bridegroom by their friends; and think
of how embarrassed Lieutenant Atwell
must have been when he had ten thou
sand long-horned cows, frisky calves
and believing steers turned over to him,
without even halter around their necks
to hold them byl Nobody ever gave me
ten thousand head of cattle, but I can
remember when received an old COW
in payment for a bad debt. 1t was q
very bad debt, and / came to consider
it very bad payment. She was thin
COW, but the former owner said she was
better than she looked, being a cross
between the Jersey and the Durham.
She looked as if she might have been a
cross between an old hair trunk and an
abandoned hoop skirt.
/ kept the brute three days, and no
one, except perhaps Lieutenant Atwell,
could ever appreciate the sufferings l
endured in that time. The first night
she broke through the fence, and re-
duced to pulp all the under clothing
belonging to my next door peighbor.
She put her horn through my bath tub,
and ate up all my aunt's geraniums. |
had expectations from my aunt, but the
extent of that cows appetite ruined
them. She-the COW | mean-was to
give three gallons of milk a day, but she
seemed to be short Just then, and never
had that amount to spare while we kept
her. In fact she never produced any
milk worth speaking of unless it was the
milk of human kindness that she kicked
out OF the hired man. The second day
she walked into the kitchen and upset q
pan of batter, my aunt's nerves and a
tub of lard. Then she fell down well,
and when got her out, at cost of five
dollars, she took the collie, whooping
cough or something, and kept us awake
all night Not green thing was left
in my garden; my neighbor's peach
trees, and the rope on which his under
wear grew were as bare of fruit as a
single tree, and he did not have twig
of shrubbe1y left. NY neighbor came
over to see me, and said:
"Why do you let your COW into my
garden at night? Why don't Won take
your blamed COW IN after dark ?"
"And why, my friend" said l, 'don't
you take your blamed old garden in
after dark? ?"
"Now I don't desire any quarrel, but
| want you TO keep your COW out OF my
shrhbbery."
"And want you to keep your shrub
out of my COW; it spoils the taste of
the milk. :"
Friends separated us, but ever after
ward there was cnolness between us,
and my neighbor's s wife ceased to pat
ronize our house when she wanted to
borrow cupful of yeast powder.
could bear the COW no longer. /
sacrificed her to the payment of bad
debt owed the grocer around the cor
ner. Now, if one old COW disorganized
my domestic economy, and destroyed
the amicable relations existing between
my neighbor and myself, what must
T.iautaoant Atvra1 have suffarad with
ten thousand COWS Think of the ruin
and desolation of his garden Imagine
how the neighbors over the way must
have suffered would venture to say
that inside of two weeks there was not
living soul within fifty miles who had
O shirt to his back.