, 1885-04-23
A CATTLE QUEEN.
A Chat With a Daring Lady Stock
Grower. 3
Touching Stories About a Cowboy
and Sunday Schools.
The Romance Of a Rich and Fear
less Western Girl.

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train load of cattle which will sell for
about $4,000. She is Miss Mary
Meagher. a tall, majestic woman not long
past thirty years from age, and she halls
from Walla Walla, where she owns the
biggest ranch in Washington Territory.
Miss Meagher, Notwithstanding her
calling, is not all masculine. neither in
appearance nor in manners She will
travel ., 500 miles in a cattle train caboose,
which carries ten drovers, and she is on
pleasant, but not familiar terms with her
neighbors. As she does not mind tobacco
smoke, and is slightly partial to a friendly
game Of poker, the drovers were not
much put out by her company.
II can take care of myself" Miss
Meagher said, when asked why she did
not marry, ''and l can manage the men
besides. | employ lorty COW boys, and
not one of them would dare disobey me. "
A look at the lady's determined face
and flashing black eyes told the same
story. She is not beautiful, but she is
very interesting and a fluent talker.
Nothing but business satisfies her, amp
she will talk of not much else. In all
things appertaining to stock raising she is
well versed, and no man is better ac-
quainted with the details of the business.
Her story is a peculiar one, showing what
a self-reliant girl can do under adverse
circumstances.
Miss Mary is a New York girl" said
one of the cowboys on the train, but she
came west with her parents when very
young. Her father was a haDpy-go-lucky
Fenian, a brother of the noted Meagher,
of the Irish Brigade. He died in Chica-
go about fifteen years ago, and his wife
died the next month or SO. This left the
daughter alone in the world and without
money.
She had a natural love for an outdoor
life and cattle and horses, and instead of
making shirts for a living or standing
behind a counter sixteen hours a day she
went as far west as she could, and reached
Walla Walla in hopes of finding her uncle
Tim, who had last been heard from at
that point. She was Just in time. Her
relative had just died, leaving the nucleus
of an immense cattle ranch. Had the
young girl been unable to prove the rela-
tionship, or had she not gone west, the
property would have been gobbled up by
cowboys and Others, as society was in an
unsettled state at that time" 4
BY great tact Miss Meagher has in
creased her property tenfold in the last
ten years, and she now ranks with Mrs,
lift, of Denver, with many hundred heads
of cattle. Miss Meagher is the coming
cattle queen of the world, however. She
gives her personal attention to her herds,
and if one of the cowboys doesn't attend
to business he gets such a lecture that he
remembers it for weeks. She has got
them down fine and a better lot of boys
cannot be found.
Blow do you keep the cowboys within
bounds?' was asked by a reporter during
a short conversation.
"Oh, | suppose it's because they adj
mire pluck. If a man talked to some of
them as | have he would have been killed
long ago. l never had but one unruly
cowboy. lie would not go to the Sunday
school | established. He delighted in
teasing the calves. | reasoned with him,
but to no purpose, and at last I was
obliged to hand him over to his brother
cowboys. They had begged me all along
to let them fix him, but Iheld out as long
as possible. Then I said;
Take him, boys but don't treat him
too tough"
That was all that saved his life. They
took that cowboy to- the edge of the
ranch and thought up a Just pun.
ishment. They took off his sombrero,
the badge of manhood, and put a piul
hat on his head and turned him adrift
Besides the indignity of the thing the
change in headgear probably cost him hii
life, as an Indian was seen inside the hal
about a week later
There was a merry twinkle in the lady
eyes which rather belied her words anC
somehow it occurred to the reporter
whose plug hat rested on his knee, tina
Miss Meagher was playing him for {
tenderfoot,' He intimated that she wal
in Wyoming, the greatest cattle country
on earth, and politely suggested that she
save that story until she crossed the Mis-
sissippi river. The conversation ther
turned on the cattle business, the success
of the past winter and other kindred sub
jects, which Miss Meagher discussed
Just like a man." A few moments latel
the train left for the east.
Miss Meager will return Immediately tt
Walla Walla, and take east 400 additions
head of cattle. She might carry back +
man as a husband if she had the fancy
but she laughingly says that all the mel
are frauds and she does not care abou'
taking a partner. She is said to have
fine villa on her ranch where she enter
tains literally. It is limited that whel
she finds a man who knows as much abou
cattle as she does, she will marry him 70
love.
"Burhu-PnIbn.-
Quick, complete cure, all kidney, blad
der and urinary diseases, scalding, irrita
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