Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-05-03
OUR TEXAS GIRL.
A Texas Ranchman Seeing the
Tiger in New York.
NUMEROUS BLONDE WOMEN.
A Social Time at Delmonico's-Dudes and
Dudines-Cattle Talk Applied to the
Metropolis-The Stock Exchange
and Places of Interest.
Special Correspondence Of the Gazette.


body in my life.''
l was walking along Broadway thinking
that it takes few hundred thousand peo-
pie to make utter loneliness, when these
words smote on my ear. A large hand also
smote my shoulder, its mate grasped my
hand warmly, and looked up with startled
eyes at jim Boxer, whom | saw last SIX
months ago in West Texas.
Jim is a DEVILS river cattle and sheep
ranchman, and he has gotten rich at the
business. TIL means that he has moro
grit and cor han most men; that he
has lauSLe hardship, privation and
loneliness 81 with" the sheep through
good and bad luck, in all weathers, and all
sorts of seasons, lodging and faring pretty
much as they lodged and fared-under the
open skies; and that his unfiinching pluck
and neutrality-suspicious. have earned their
reward.
He is big fellow in every sense OF the
word-even in West TeXas-and uncom-
monty handsome, too, and as looked up at
his six feet two of stalwart grace, and noted
how his splendid figure and his unconscious,
lordly swagger became the elegant suit and
fetching light overcoat he wore, l felt
awfully proud of him. you're lust stun-
ming, Jim,'' l said, II wonder what made
me neglect to fall in love with you last year.
Come on, let's so on regular tear. You
take me to Delmonico's, or I'll take you,
and you may talk q whole hour, and l won't
say word
So we went. and l never enjoyed any
thing so much in my life.
Now I've been here weeks and weeks,
and I'm absolutely blase. But jim! jim
had never been in a big city before-nOt
even Chicago or St. Louis, as many car
loads of beef, mutton and wool as he had
shipped there. The mixture of lively in
terest and curiosity, q certain degree of
D1fiIa anlnr1h and .l1iDpirV and
the cool easy way of the man who is a big
fellow where he comes from, were ire
sistible.
Why do you reckon it is there's so many
more blonde women than men in New
York;" he began. ''Why it seems to me
more than half the women l meet have got
some sort of light hair, anywhere from
fuzzy stuff, almost white, to out and out
orange. Now look at that girls over there.
For the Lords sake! IS it painted some
way?"
But had agreed to keep still if it choked
me, so Jim went ahead
1.-The funniest thing l see anywhere is .
man-great two-fisted fellow as big as me,
or nearly: old chap, too. may be, leading
along i bl,me3 little two-by-nine coyote of
dog with d red necktie onto its neck.
saw two of 'em up in the park this morn
ing and I'm dam-beg your pardon, Pm
blessed-if l didn't want to knock their
heads together. l asked one of 'em-sort
of preacher lookin' fellow-if his dog would
bite; and he said, as solemn as a church, o,
no, it was quite amiable!
''But say. went up in the stock exchange
little while ago, and saw the way they
handle stock there! 1t was regular
roundup.
SIT looked like all the cattle-I mean men
had been thrown in one bunch; then
every fellow seemed to have got his stock
mostly out in a little bunch sort of to one
side. Each one of these little punches had
little sign up with the name of the outfit
on it: and all round between these punches
the loose cattle was kind Of milling and
milling, uneasy, like trail cattle act after
too hard days driving, or when there's a
norther threatening; when, to save your
neck, you can't get the grumbling fools
bedded down. They were iawing and wind
ing round and round, shaking their horns
I mean their hands-and u looked to me
like a stampede any minute. Every once il
a while some fellow'd cut out one of these
loose steers-or men-from the milling herd
an run him into his little bunch. Then
they'd rare an paw, am shake their hor-
hands, an yell like Comanches.
There was lot of little yearlings-sort
of lonely looking little critters, like they
might be mavericks-in gray, kept lodging
an trotting round amongst the herd.
Every once in a while a row would
break out in one of the little lunches of
some fellows brand in one of those sort of
side draws, a whole lot of the loose cattle
would run in among 'em, some of the other
brands would break away and join 'em:
there'd be a regular hullabaloo, aud the
whole prairie in wild confusion.
Il remember one spring up in the Corcho
country the boys got awful smart and
thought they's have big roundup, the
biggest roundup anybody ever saw. So
they just kept rounding up and rounding
up--throwing 'em all into one bunch-till
they had the whole prairie covered out
there on the Middle Concho. There was
such an everlasting herd they couldn't do
a thing with EN- They had to turn 'em
loose and let ZEN scatter out and round up
the next week in some sort of reasonable
size, and they were lucky they didn't have
q full-grown red-eyed stampede on their
hands for their smartness.
And that's the way it looked to me here,
when all at once the thing broke loose. just
as matters had been getting sort of Gained
down and Strengthened out little.
"a fellow about my Size-yeS he was, or
nearly as big On answer to my doubling
look)-came walking out of that sort of dry
arroyo that runs round one end of the place.
BY George, he was Il fine looking fellow!
And he came walking out of that arroyo,
across the divides, and into the main draw,
as proud and slick and sassy as q wild mus
tang after the April rains, when grass is
grass.
'I'm blessed if that whole herd-except
mavericks-didn't pitch itself believing,
hooking and snortins onto that fellow. the
minute he came out well into the middle of
the draw! I've seen some steers have a
sort of winning way to catch that kind of
thing. I've seen herds turn like that, all
together, on strange steer that came WIS.,
iting, and didn't somehow part his hair to
suit 'em. And by George, I've seen the
steers do 'em up ike this fellow did the
crowd this morning.
Jim suddenly threw back his head and
laughed, a great mellow, deep-chested
laugh, SO that my champagne glass hoped
nervously about and hit its head against
the water Jug; and a square-faced, curate-
looking waiter approached hastily, with an
expression of mingled solicitude and repro
baton. Do You remember the scene in
''Girofie Girotia" where the gigantic pirate
with his rolling eyes, fierce moustachioS
and generally fell and terrifying appear
ance is roaring and charging up and down
the stage like a South African lion with
mustard in his eye, when IN comes some
henchman or Servitor-a mere ordinary hui
man-with some notifying message, the
believing giant finally becomes aware that
someone is trying to say something to him;
he turns round suddenly and perceives the
timid messenger, when. without going near
him. he puffs out his vast chest and blows
contemptuously toward him. whereupou
the fellow falls all over himself and clean
of the stage
Well when jim Strengthened up his
shoulders abruptly and looked at the waiter
it reminded me of that incident. '.Baig
pawdon,n said the fellow confusedly, and