The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-12-19
CALIFORNIA CATTLE KINGS.
Some Of the snobs n snobocracy Of tns
Pacific Coast.

4aC1uC Goa6L.
San francisco Letter to Post-Dispatch.
This is the land ofluck, and fortunes
%tavors, like the rain, fall pretty much
alike on the just and the unjust. OF all
inc kings, I have seen up to date.
whether mining, cattle or railroad king,
The last-named go to the front in the
matter of assumption and ridiculous
self Importance. It is small wonder
that Californians detest the railroads;
The real wonder is that the antagonism
between the people and corporations
has not gone to sanguinary extremities.
Fortune has favored some shocklngly
UNI ust men, and they abuse their power
and position very much as n might
suppose Warren Hastings did his as
tendency in India.
The magnates here are veritable IA
bobs, and their attendants even assume
a languid superciliousness to the last
degree presumptuous and insane. A
millionaire whose interest lies largely
with the roads assured me that those
corporations had entirely overdone the
extortion business, although he believed
their enemies had, in some instances,
unnecessarily abused them. At the den
of a railroad king all the underlings,
and they are legion, come and go at the
call of an electric bell, and the autocrats
are as difficult to approach as the Car
of Russia, but when one meets them
there seems to be little in the intellect
ual or general ability to warrent their
exclusiveness. Their homes are places
their grounds are Shaw's gardens, and
their attendants and equipagcs are gor-
geous and innumerable. The cattle
kings Of the coast, Miller and Lux, are
rated at 5000, 900 to SO, 00O, 900, and
were poor men twenty years ago. MIR.
Lux told me that they had about 80, 900
head of cattle and lis 600 head of sheep,
of which latter theykill G, 900 per month.
They own an irrigating canal worth
81, 900 900, fences 300 miles in length
n fortune In itself; in California 600, 900
acres of land; i'll Nebraska $1,000 acres
and $4,000 acres of alfalfa grass. They
lately bought 5000 cattle in Nebraska,
with large land and water privileges.
Speaking of ranches and herding, he
said:
'Our free grass is amatter of the past.
The Legislature is against us. We are
compelled to take care of the stock. If
u cattle do any damage at all we must
pay heavily, as the people are prejudice
ed against any one they may be pleased
to call a monopolist. And yet, by their
severe measures they are constantly en-
HANGING the price of meat. We are COM
PEELED to buy land and fence it, which in
wolves a vast outlay ofmonev away. They
must build fences anyway, and, if the
smaller holders would fence securely
against stock, we could Craze at less
expense and they would have cheaper
meat, but you can'tmake anear-sighted
man see a long distance-he must pay
for his spectacles. California, as q
grazing State, is a thing of the past.
And then, you see, we are heavily tax
ed. We are rated arbitrarily at n fix
ed sum per head, and there is no dodg-
ing or securing a r%evaluation at a lower
figure. We are interested largely
i'll Oregon, Nebraska and Montana,
and in everything that pertains
to the cattle interests of those
localities, and will either be pres
ent III st. Louis personally or by repre-
~ SolNSIitloh 10 u llcCCS-
sity to the business, and no cattleman
should fail to lend his c~onntenance or
counsel; We must stand together or all
will suffer. And the people, the con
sumers, will suffer. l have no doubt
that if the citizens of the United States
could understand the matter, they
would see that their interests and ours
are identical.
One thing has hindcred the growth
Of the cattle interest, which as q hurtful
influence will, to n great extent disap-
pear after the convention in St. Louis,
and that is the timidity Of capital with
respect to cattle-growing. Formerly
banks and bankers only loaned to q cat
tie man at rates of interest which no
other business could pay, and the con-
sequence has been the ranchmen have
had to thrive under grieveus loads.
Now that the matter has become better
understood the cowman gets more rea-
sonable rates, but even yet the feebler
men are unfairly death with, and they
must all look to the convention and its
result for relief from many discr1mina-
tions against them"