Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-09-28
THE WIRE CUTTERS.
Interview with Two Prominent Meu
from one OF the Injured Districts.
WHY and by Whom the Cutting is Done
aud the Remedy Proposed.

Last night Judge w. b. Plemons of
Henrietta and Hon. A. Is. Swan
member OF the lower house OF the
| legislature from Clay and Montague
counties passed through the city
ON their way to Austin They
we're promptly interviewer by
! GAZETTE man. Judge Plemons
said they were going TO
Austin, at the request of quite a
number OF citizens of all classes, prn-
cipally of Clay, but also of Montague
and Cook counties. so interview the
governor and talk with him, and adj
wise him rs to the true state of affairs,
erroneous impressions having gone
abroad. The people of that section
! thought an extra session should be
called to take action. The stockmen
thought law should he passed to
punish men for fencing in land not be-
! longing 10 them, and afiording protec-
ton TO men fencing In their own
land. The principal cause of the cut
ting, said the Judge, grew out of the
fact that many cattle owners had not
procured lands, and wanted to go
| back to the old custom Of
free range. Within the past year
: .arties had bought large quantities of
| land and enclosed it, and so many had
thus been left without grazing lands.
! SympatizerS with these said that this
fencing in prevented the growth and
settlement Of the country. Opposi-
| ton was also made by men whose
! land was inclo,ed inside the wire, but
many of these inclosed men said pub
| licly that they were satisfied, that they
/ knnnEtaI lui,,,v f,n.al in, NC
! il gave them greater security.
Questioned as to the extent of the
cutting, the judge said in his
section it was principally in
the southern part of Clay, extending
from Stephens northeast striking the
southern part of Clay, the northern
part of Jack, east through Montague
down to Cook. But little was cut in
these last two. He thought the cause
| of cutting was the same all over the
state, because it was of comparatively
recent origin. Many came into the
state to farm and seeing tnat the stock
men were making fortunes, they got
them some COWS and thought they TOO
could get rich. Many of them were
unable to buy land. In 1852 there was
such demand for land, fencing be-
came popular, and the rich stockmen
bought up the range. These small
farmers saw this and be-
came disa1ected. Free pasture
was the main idea. These
small farmers, with their small
punches of cattle, had interests iden-
teal with those of the large stockmeu
who were left out. These latter were
not Numerous, but there were quite II
number of them. He thought tho
remedy was to have u special session
OF the legislature To pass laws prohib-
iting the fencing of land not belonging
to the party fencing and then make
the cutting of wire felony in order to
protect man in his property. When
he had bought land, and paid his
taxes, he had right to its use. But no
man had right to buy ten thousand
acres and fence u hundred thousand
The Judge said there were not many
Fencing in the land belonging to them.
That vas rather the exception.
In many instances where land not
belonging to the party was fenced in,
1t lay alongside OF his own and he had
made efforts to buy it, though there
were cases where land rot owned had
been wantonly fenced. The fence
around large tract, every foot of
which belonged to Miss Newcomb. had
been cut, notwithstanding the fact that
she had left road forty feet wide all
around it, and had offered to put u
sixty foot lane through the center.
"A petition came To the commissioners
court not To allow road, but TO nut
gates in, and she allowed his. and
these gates gave access from various
points. Mr.. Shelley owning 1000
acres in Clay and Jack, had his fence
| cut; Mr.. Ball, owAing 100 acres
alongside, Mr.. G. II. Gowan.
owning between 1000 and 5000
acres near Henrietta; Chris. Sanaen-
berger, owning only few hundred
acres near Gowan's; (he was in bed
SICK at the time Of the cutting, and his
! stock was still running ut large. as he
had no one topui itnp.) b, L. Albiu,
/ owning 900 acres southwest of Hen
rietla; Mr.. Brown and several neigh
hors OF Albin's, owning only $40 acres
! each. Near st. 10, in Montague coun-
/ ~, u calf pasture OF forty acres had
| been cut
I Mr.. swan now said that out of four
/ en- instances he could recall
| in twelve of them the land
was ali owned by the fenccrs. leaving
| but two of the men who did not own
all the land enclosed. The motive
| came from the free rangers. he Thought.
1 The cutting itself however, came rom
men who had nothing and were op-
posed to everybody else having any
! thing. 1t came fIom1men without ms
| lures. The trouble also arose from a
false conception as to mems rights. A
great many thought they had legal
right TO free pastuage and that no
| body had a right 10 close up the coun-
try, no matter VIII owned Il. He
thought when a man fenced in land
that did not belong to him, IL was a
! question between him and
the owners, but they thought
II was between him and EVERYDAY
The Judge added that this was u fight
| between the free rangers and the
stockmen and not the small farmers
ana stockmen. Farmers fenced I'M
had said publicly that they were bet.
Ter satisfied to be fenced in. some
complained, he thought, because they
were not enclosed in the pastures
Inc rangers We're not doing this work
themse yes, but were getting lawless
men 70 do it. The indications were
that The cutters were men without
anything at all of their own.
Butler, the manlkillgd u,h;Ia o,,tt;,,r,