Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-08-06

cent Estate and Army of EmpIoyees-He
 Baronial Chateau.
 One representative in the next con gress will be nominated and elected by a woman. She is the widow of Captain Richard King, and she owns princi- pality in southern Texas Her landed estates consist of about 1,250, 600 acres that is to say, nearly 2,000 square miles. For taking care of this vast do- main small army of men Is required. Their votes are controlled by the mis- tress, who is to all intents and purposes a queen.
 The records of the land office at Wash ington reveal some extraordinary facts with relation to that part of southern Texas which seems on the map to in trude into Mexico, terminating i'll a point at the mouth of the Rio Granda This region, nearly as big as New Eng land, comprises four great counties and is owned by four families--the Kings, the Kennedys, the Collinses and the Armstrong;. Much the largest of the four shares belongs ill 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 8 stage route of 40 hours. The stage carries mail for largo part of Mexico. In the entire distance 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 is refer red to by Richard Harding Davis i'll one of his articles, who remarks that 1t is difficult to imagine solitary family occupying an area larger than some of the eastern states-an area that would i'll the east support a state capital, with governor and legislature and numerous small towns, with competing railway systems and rival baseball hines.
 The owner of this principality is generous and liberal minded woman, about 50 years of age. She does much good and takes care of her people To each laborer on her estates she gives COW. Her ranch of Santa Gertrudis is the largest ill the world. It is bounded by Corpus Christi bay for distance of 40 miles and by barbed wire fences for 300 miles more From her front door to her front gate is 3 miles, and she can drive in her carriage 65 miles i'll a straight line without going off her own premises Her house looks like castle on the Rhine-a typical baronial man sion. It is situated on slight eminenee, surrounded by the modest dwellings of her dependents and by fields of waving corn. Beyond on every side is green wilderness of mesquite and cactus
 The chateau is as completely furnish ed and as handsomely equipped as any mansion on Fifth avenue ill New York. No luxury that money can buy any where is lacking to the widow, who, by the way, is the daughter of the first Presbyterian missionary to the Rio Grande. Corpus Christi is the terminus of railway, and from that point a continuous stream of wagons carry ice and other necessaries to the ranch. Mrs. King lives for several months of each year in palace at Corpus Christi Her son-in law, Robert J. Kleberg, is gener al manager of the ranch, on which are 200, 900 cattle of improved breeds. Long trains of freight cars are made up at Corpus Christi to carry Mrs King s cattle to the east.
 To run the vast estate costs about $100, 900 year. For every 20 miles of barbed wire fence there is man to make repairs and see that no break oc- CUTS. In the old days to cut q fence was an offense likely to result in the death of the perpetrators of the act. Three hundred cowboys are regularly employ ed, 1,200 ponies being set aside for their use. Every spring all of the calves are rounded up for branding They are driven into Q pen through wooden chute, and as they leave the chute each one is caught by the leg and thrown upon it's side.
 Then one of a dozen irons that are kept redhot in an open fire is pressed upon the animals nose. All brands arc registered, and sometimes each member of family has one Mir Davis speaks of girl who came out ill society ill New York three winters ago, and who is known in Texas only as the owner of the triangle brand. D Nobody can get water in that country save by good will of the owners of the great estates, and no one can travel without their permis- sion, inasmuch as there are no public roads. Thus it comes about that the re- zion is entirely shut up and unused to any extent for agriculture, though it is extraordinarily fertile. = Washington Star.
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