The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-08-12
ELECTED WOMAN
A TEXAS I ,EEN WHO CONTROLS A
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.

Mrs. Richard King Owns Two Thousand
cent Estate and Army of Employees-He,
BaroniaI Chateau.
One Representatives in the next con-
gress will be nominated and elected by
a woman She is ~ widow of Captain
Richard King, and she owns a princi-
pality in southern Texas. Her landed
estates consist of about 1850, 900 acres
that is to say, nearly 1000 square
miles. For taking care of this vast do
main a 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 in a
point at the mouth of the Rio Grande.
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 in fee simple to Mrs.
King.
The ancient road from San Antonio
to Brownsville has keen 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 q stage route of 40 hours.
The stage carries mail for a large part
Of Mexico. In the entire distance there
is not a 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 in one
Of his articles, who remarks hat it is
difficult to imagine a solitary family
occupying an area larger than some of
the eastern states-an area that would
in h 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 principally is a
generous and liberal minded woman,
about so years Of age. She does much
good and takes care Of her people. To
each laborer on her estates she gives q
COW. Her ranch Of Santa Gertrudis 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
800 miles more. From her front door to
her front gate is ID miles, and she can
drive in her carriage 65 miles in a
straight line without going of her own
premises. Her house looks like q castle
on the Rhine-a typical baronial man
sion. 1t is situated on a slight eminence,
surrounded by the modest dwellings Of
her dependents and by fields Of waving
corn. Beyond on every side is a green
wilderness Of mesquite and cactus.
The chateau is as completely furnish
ed and as handsomely equipped as any
mansion on Fifth venue in New York.
No luxury that money a 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 a 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 a palace at Corpus Christi. Her
son-in-law, Robert J. Kleberg, is gener-
al manager of the ranch, ON which are
zoe, 900 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
800, 900 a e For every 20 miles Of
barbed wire fence there is a man to
make repairs and see that no break oc-
ours. In the old days to cut a fence was
an offense likely to result in the death
of the perpetrators Of the act. Three
hundred cowboys are regularly employ
ed, 1900 ponies being set aside for their
use. Every spring all Of the calves are
rounded up for branding. They are
driven into a pen through a wooden
chute, and as they leave the chute each
one is caught by the leg and thrown
upon its side.
Then one Of a dozen irons that are
kept redhot in an open fire is pressed
upon the animals nose. All brands are
registered, and sometimes each member
Of q family has n Mr.. Davis speaks
Of a girl who came out in society in
New York three winters ago, and who
is known in Texas only as 1.-The owner
Of the triangle brand" Nobody can get
water in that country save by good will
Of the owners of the great estates, and
no n can travel without their permits
sion, inasmuch as there are no public
roads. Thus it comes about that the re-
gion is entirely shut up and unused to
any extent for agriculture, though it is
extraordinarily fertile. - Washington
Star.