Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-11-20
THE CATTLE BARONS.
THEIR DAY WAS BRIEF, BUT 1T WAS
GREAT WHILE IT LASTED.

GREAT WHILE IT LASTED.
they Thought They Owned Texas Until
the Man witt, tho Hoe Came Along Too
Fast for Them-Fulfillnlent of the Edi-
tors Prediction Uttered at the Feast
The career of the COW baron was short
but picturesque Ten years ago he thought
| he owned Texas. He counted his long
horns on a hundred hills He held con-
ventions. Five hundred of him sat down
to 5000 banquet at Dallas. They drank
champagne from big goblets Diamonds
as big as pecans which grow in the Concho
country sparkled on the bosoms of the
barons wife and daughters. When he
wanted legislation the baron went down to
| Austin and got it. He shouted Free
| grassr' and he called the farmer who
moved in and settled upon the water
| courses of his range "a hester" His COW
boys were his feudal following and knew
| no law but his DEGREES
| One night near the end of the session of
| the legislature the barons and their friends
entertained behind closed doors. 1t had
| been period of satisfactory Iawmaking
| for the cattle interests. Everybody who
| was present felt good A governor who
| once said that Texas didn't want immi
/ grafton sat at the head of the table.
Speech after speech was made The cattle
| interests were eulogized. 1.-THE nester'
was ridiculed Such newspapers as had
begun to rebel against the arrogance of the
| barons came in for hard raps, and finally
| the governor in a spirit of fair play called
| for the only newspaper man present to de-
fend his craft. Nettled by the sarcastic
filings to which he had been listening, the
speaker replied, half angrily:
Gentlemen" said he. you may have
your sport tonight at the expense of the
despised hester You may think you are
strong enough to defy the press and public
sentiment, but let me tell you one thing:
A man with hoe has poked his nose over
your wire fence and is looking at you to
day You'll kill him. of course. know
that very well. Tomorrow there'll be two
men with hoes looking over that same
fence Kill the two. and tomorrow there'll
be four men with hoes looking at you
Kill them, and tomorrow you'll see eight
men with hoes in the same place. 1t isn't
in the nature of things, gentlemen, for an
acre of land which will raise twenty bush
els of wheat to be given up for all time to
the possession of the five dollar COW. Mark
what | tell you. In ten years the man with
the hoe will have you on the run"
The barons laughed. But it was their
last banquet They had never heard of
''the man with the hoe" till then. Ten
years? The prophet gave himself an
unnecessarily long limit. He might have
cut his time in two. Five years after the
prediction was uttered the baron's reign
was over THE man with the hoe" was a
reality. He had pair of nippers in his
pocket and walked through the baron's
fences. To-day 1.-THE man with the hoe" is
everywhere. He is a Texas proverb AS
you get off the cars at Fort Worth his pic
ture. ten feet high, confronts you.
THE CATTLE COMPANY FEVER
In 1878 and 1879 stock cattle roamed over
three-fourths of Texas The ranges
stretched from the Gulf to No Mans Land.
and from Fort Worth to FL Paso Those
cattle were worth eight dollars a head
when there was any market at all for them
They were called dogies in east Texas. sea
lions down by the Gulf and long horns in
the Panhandle. In 1881 the price had
crept up to $3.50 head. Then the COW
baron burst his shell In 1882 these. same
cattle went to S22 80 head and hela that
,, for two years, There were l0.000,000 of
them Money poured in from the north
and east to buy at this advanced price
Cattle companies were formed, more than
hundred of them Stock was sold right
and left. Blocks of it were taken with
aydity by men who had never seen Texas
and never expected to see it.
To one looking back upon that wild rush
into the cattle business. it seems as if a
mania must have taken possession of 9th
erwise level headed men. Nobody can tell
the amount OF capital which flowed in
from the north to be invested in cattle.
Bat it never flowed back Everyb body
loaded up. and then the prices began to
drop, drop, drop They went clear back to
the point from which they had started, and
the tenderfoot and his money were parted
| Fast as the baron's wealth waned, his
wealth in politics and his prestige in bust
ness departed faster Five years after Dial
las had given the baron 5000 banquet
there was none in the commercial metrop
oils to do him reverence. Five years after
the baron had been shown at Austin by
| Colonel Bill Sterett the handwriting OF
the man with hoe' on the wall. the leg
islature had decreed an end to free
grass" The baron was buying or leasing
the public land for his cattle to roam over.
The despised hester had shouldered the
hoe and was moving in steady ranks over
the ranges to the northwest, to the west
and TO the southwest. 1t was strange
transformation.
WHY TIRE STATE DID NOT SUFFER.
| And there are still several counties to
| hear from. Some of the surprises that
are taking place in this new country are
| almost laughabie. A man came down
from the north and discovered that q little
way out of Fort Worth there was some
land naturally adapted to melons. He
named his product the Sylvania cantaloup.
| He is growing 1000 acres of Sylvania canta-
| louns and shipping them to the Rocky
mountains Think of fruit in Texas IF
the youngsters who now beset the trains
at station after station with baskets of
peaches and pears that come around few
years ago. the cowboys would have used
the fruit to do the William Tell act.
1t was the romance of the COW business
which departed with the cattle baron. The
reality is still here. John r. Hoxie, who
built the million dollar packing house in
Fort Worth, says Texas has gained these
grain growers and lost nothing in live
stock. He had discussion not long ago
with some fellow capitalists who were
mourning the supposed decadence of the
cattle industry Mr.. Hoxie disputed their
forebodings and the assessors returns, for
county after county were examined "We
found, said Mr.. Hoxie, that in those very
counties where the most land had been
turned into grain growing, live stock had
increased instead of diminished.
| The explanation is easy. Tae long
legged, racer built steer is thing of the
| past in all this region which the grain
grower has invaded. A stocky, short
horned animal has succeeded to the pos
session of what grass land is left. And
this newcomer, instead of rustling all win
ter until his ribs show, consumes straw
aud fodder and cottonseed meal. - St.
| Louis Globe Democrat.
Work Done by New York's Paupers.
During three months of 1890 in the work
| house $50 cubic yards of stone were broken,
| H1 wards Oe raO rarpat yypra yyovan T51