The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1895-09-28
CAN'T VOTE, BUT
Mrs King, Of Texas, Controls at
Least One Member Of Congress.


s~--~~
q woman, says the Philadelphia Press.
She is the widow of Capt. Richard
King, and she owns principality in
southern Texas. Her landed estate
consists of about ], 1850, 600 acres-that is
to say, nearly 1900 square miles. For
taking care of this vast domain small
army of men is required. Their votes
are controlled by the mistress, who is,
to all intents and purposes, a queen.
The records of the land Office at
Washington reveal some extraordinary
facts with relation to that part of
southern Texas which seems on the
map to intrude into Mexico, terminal
ing in point at the mouth of the Rio
Grande. This region, nearly as big as
New England, comprises four great
counties and is owned by four families
the Kings, the Kennedys, the Col
linses and the Armstrong;. Much the
largest of the four shares belongs in
fee simple to Mrs. King.
The ancient road from San Antonio
to Brownsville has been closed by Mrs.
Kings fences, and there are no gates.
There is no road law in that country.
The only way to get from Brownsville
to Alice is by stage route of forty
miles. The stage carries mail for a
large part of Mexico In the entire dis
tance there is not single settlement,
because the territory traversed belongs
to Mrs. King. The region is wholly
wild, being used for cattle grazing.
Mrs. King occupies an area larger than
one of the eastern states-an area that
would in the east support a state capital,
with governor and legislature and
numerous small towns, with competing
railway systems and rival baseball
mines.
The owner of this principality is a
generous and liberal-minded woman
about sixty years of age. She does
much good and takes care of her peo-
pie. To each laborer on her estate she
gives cow. Her ranch of Santa Ger
trulis is the largest in the world. 1t is
bounded by Corpus Christi bay for a
distance of 40 miles, and by barbed
wire fences for 500 miles more. From
her front door to her front gate is Ii
miles, and she can drive in her carriage
65 miles in straight line without go
ing off her own premises. Her house
is like a castle on the Rhine-a typical
baronial mansion. It is situated on a
slight eminence, surrounded by the
modest dwellings of her dependents and
by fields of corn. Beyond, on every
side, is a green wilderness of mesquite
and cactus.
The chateau is as completely fur
nished and as handsomely equipped as
any mansion on Fifth avenue, New
York. No luxury that money can buy
anywhere is lacking to tie widow, who,
by the way, is the daughter Of the first
Presbyterian missionary to the Rio
Grande.
Corpus Christi is the terminus OF a
railway, and from that point con-
tinuous stream of wagons carries ice
and other necessaries to the ranch.
Mrs. King lives for several months of
each year in a palace at Corpus Christi.
Her son-in-lav, r. j. Kiebcrk, is gen
eral manager Of the ranch, on which
are 10000 cattle of improved breeds.
Long trains of freight cars are made up
at Corpus Christi to carry Mrs. Kings
cattle to the east.
To run the vast estate costs about
100000 year. For every twenty
miles of barbed fence there is man to
make repairs and see that no break oc-
ours. In the old days to cut fence
was an offense likely to result in the
death of the perpetrators of the act.
Three hundred cowboys are regularly
employed, 1900 ponies being set aside
for their use.