The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-10-31
THE CATTLE BARONS.
THEIR DAY WAS BRIEF, BUT 1T WAS
GREAT WHILE IT lasted.

tors Prediction Uttered at the Feast
The career of the COW baron was short
but picturesque. Ten years ago he thought
be owned Texas. He counted his long
horns on a hundred hills. He held con-
ventions. Five hundred of him sat down
TO s., 600 banquet at Dallas. They drama
champagne from big goblets. Diamonds
as big as pecans which grow IN the Concho
country sparkled on the bosoms of the
baron's wife and daughters. When he
wanted legislation the baron went down to
Austin and got it. He shouted Free
grassl' 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 aud 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 a period of satisfactory lawmaking
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 hester"
begun te esael against the arrogance of the
barons came IN for hard raps, and finally
the governor In spirit of fair play called
for the oaiy newspaper man present to de-
fend his crsft. Nettled by the sarcastic
filings to which he had been listening. the
speaker replied, half angrily'
Gentlemen" said he, you nsy have
your sport tonight at the expense Of the
despised hester You may toirk 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'H
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 ali 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
1.-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 the man with the noe" Is
everywhere. He is a Texas proverb. As
you get of the cars at Fort Worth his pic
ture, ten feet nigh. confronts you.
THE CATTLR 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 Ras any market at all for them.
They were called dogles 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 so head and held that
for two years. There were 100000 of
them. Money poured in from the north
and east to buy at this advanced price.
Cattle companies were formed, more than
and left Blocks of it were taken with
avidity by men who had never seen Texas
and never expected to see 1t.
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 beaded men Nobody can tell
the amount OF capital which flowed in
from the north to be invested in cattle.
But it never flowed back. Everybody
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 III politics and his prestige in bust
ness departed faster Five years after Dali
las had given the baron a 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 a 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
aud to the southwest. 1t was a strange
transformation.
WHY TUE STATE DID NOT SUFFER-
And there are still several counties to
hear from Some of the SURPRISES that
are taking place in this new coGnUy are
almost Imaginable a man came Down
from the north and discovered that a Little
way out OF Fort Worth tb4le Was some
land naturally aiaprsa to r4e.ers. lie
named his product the STlvApiA cenasioup.
He is growing 2.Ol0 acres of Syivania carta-
loups and shipping them to tie Rocky
mountains Ihlnk OF trait i'll Texasl If
the Youngsters VINO now teseI the trains
at station after station with baskets of
peaches and pears that come around a few
years ago. the cow roys would have used
the fruit to do the William Tell act.
IL 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 leXas has gained these
grain growers Ane lost nothing in live
stock He mad n discussion not long ago
with some fellow capitalists who were
mourning the supposed decsdence OF the
cattle industry Mr. Hoxie dispayed their
forebodings and the assessors returns, for
county after county were examined 1--WE
found, said Alr. 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 The long
legged. racer built steer Is a thing of the
past in all this region which the grain
grower has invaded A stocky, short
horned animal mas succeeded TO the pos
session of what grass land Is left. And
this newcomer. instead OF raStlinF all win
ter until his ribs show, CONSUMES straw
and fodder ana cottonseed meal - st.
Louis Globe Democrat