St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-12
WITH THE TRAVELLERS.

graduates to become cowboys on the
Western plains. Theirs was an irresist-
ible sense of romance in the thought of
the life upon the wild and boundleSs
mountains. valleys and prairies, among
Indians and wild animals. OF course
the boys didn't come to roam animal
trails and pour out Greek and Latin
upon untamed nature for the fun of the
thing alone. They came with bright
dreams OF fortunes to be made i'll the
cattle business with no capital for a be-
ginning. Years have passed since the
craze died out, and some of the advent
urers have realized their hopes, and
others are still riding bronchoS over the
hills and valleys AT $40 month, bereft
of hope and finding enjoyment in shoot
ing at the shoes of tenderfeet to make
Them dance. One of the successful ones
was at the Ryan yesterday. lie is Il. NJ.
Allen, general manager of the Standard
Cattle Company of Wyoming and Mon
tana, a company with one of the largest
ranching interests i'll the world. AIR.
Allen graduated at Harvard in the class
of 1874
''Oh, yes,' said lie, II played cowboy
quite awhile after [ reached the wild
West. But finally managed to come
into the possession of small herd, and
by careful attention TO business finally
came out much better than great many
of the college boys who came out to
find their fortunes. l was born in Mas
sachuSetts. and was good specimen of
u do
pearance on the plains. But it wasn't
long until L became tough enough to
suit the toughest. | have had great
experience. and don't regret leaving
the refined East for my chosen career.
Where are our ranches2 Well, we have
two large ones, one in Northeastern
Wyoming and one in Montana. 150
miles north Of that. We have a great
many thousand head of cattle on each
ranch, but wont pretend to specify
how many. Our Wyoming ranch is used
principally for breeding, and the Mon
tana ranch is used more for fitting
cattle for The market. OF course we buy
great deal Of Texas stock and fit it on
the Montana ranch for the market But
the most interesting feature of our bust
ness is our farm of some SIX or eight
thousand acres at Ames, Neb. On this
we have barn with 3,00S stalls, in
which we fatten fancy beeves. Some
1,500 acres of the farm is devoted to
sugar beet raising, about 1000 acres to
corn, and most of the rest to raising
hay. There are two sugar factories not
tar from there. and to these we sell the
Juice OF the beets. then feed the pulp to
the cattle. The cattle are fattehed OH
pulp and corn. This pulp enables US to
ut the cattle for market very much
cheaper than as though we used only
corn.
1.-The Western cattle business is by
no means so profitable as is supposed by
thoSr not engaged in it," continued Mr..
Alien. "a dozen years ago it was very
profitable; but since then SO many have
engaged III it that the market is great
deal OF the time giutted, aud We are
obliged to sell when we are making no
profit. This year the cattle business
would have been unusually profitable
had not the stringent times struck the
country. The sugar beet enables us to
operate our farm at some profit. Were
we compelled to feed only corn, we
should lose money there. If congress
does not take off the sugar bounty we
Shall build sugar factory on the farm,
and thus build up another resource.
Our farm is supplied with electric light,
telephones, and every modern conven-
fence. n. Thayer, president of the Chi
cago StockyardS, is the president and
heaviest stakeholder of our company.
/. ID. Barroll, brutherin-law of Mr..
Thayer. and vice treasurer of the COM
pany, is with me at the hotel" At this
point Mr.. Barroll made his appearance.
He is young man from Maryland, who
has also left the refined East to live on
the plains.
Hon. George A Post, an ex-member
of congress from Pennsylvania. but
now resident of New York and vice
president and general manager of the
Standard Car Coupling company. IS at
the Merchants. lie is most agreeable
gentleman to meet, a man of wide eX-
perience and heavy business interests.
After his retirement from congress he
became a prominent member of the
New York World staff at the time Col.
COckerill was -in-chief, ana re-
manned with the paper for some time,
until he became connected with his
present company. Mr.. Post believes
that the financial Stringency is nearly
over. He says that in the East matters
are materially frightened. However,
he thinks it will be some months before
the West will realize much change. He
draws this conclusion from the feeling
among Western railway officials with
whom he comes i'll contact. He SAYS
their feeling is that times out here will
not be very bright before the beginning
of next year.
During half hours conversation Mr.
Post spoke Interestingly of his news
paper experience, and told why he left
It, He said: Il had not long been COLI
nected with the Worlds staff until be-
came interested in number of gray
headed men who were holding inferior
reportorIal positions. Their counte-
nances indicated more than ordinary in
teiIigence. so | made their acquaintance
to learn their history. [ found that one
of them had a few years back been
managing editor of the New York Her.
aid, and that the rest had been manag-
ing editors or editorS-in-chief of great
daiiies. They had all climbed to the top
OF the profession, and distinguished
themselves as most able editors; but the
wheel of fortune turned them to the
foot. where there was now no prospect
that they would ever get I'D
again, Most of them were able
to earn barely enough to keep
the wolf from the door. 1t was only d
question of few years until they
would be too feeble to perform the
arduous duties of reportorial life. All
we've dependent upon their weekly
| earnings. What would become of them
| when their strength failed? What was
true in the World office was true in the
| Office of every great daily of New York.
| And to make matters worse, these old
| time celebrities were down through no
! fault of their own. | was very 10th to
| give up the profession, for it was fasci-
| mating to me: but made up my mind
| that while | was young and strong it
| would be very wise for me to engage in
some lucrative and less hazardous 0ceu-
| patton, and accordingly cut loose. | am
| leading far more prosy life now, but |.
| | have not regretted my resolution.
| Since / left the World have seen the