The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-22


Left to Hold the Bag-Bad $500 Worth
of Fun Free.
The Texas Cattle Queen has been
playing three nights star engagement
in Wichita with the most pronounced
success.
The Texas Cattle Queen is not dra-
matte company, as one might suppose
from the name, but If the hack men
get her in their clutches she may be the
star actress in a real tragedy.
Last Sunday morning, twenty min
utes after midnight, a buxom damsel
stepped off the Rock Island train and
ten hack men fairly fell over them
selves TO get to carry her." as the ex-
preston goes.
She strobe across the platform as
stately as a queen, stepped into hack,
smiled a most fascinating smile, was
driven to a hotel and paid the hackman
with a liberal hand.
Sunday afternoon she took a pot of
red paint and confidentially announced
to a credulOuS hackman that she intend
ed to decorate the town in manner
that no one has ever witnessed since the
days of RoWdy Joe.
man, lis no object. 1 have more than
what 1 can dispose of and 1 want TO see
the town regardless of expense" She
then told him that she would remain a
few days in Wichita, that she brought
up from her ranch in the Araphoe cOun-
try three or four car loads Of cattle, and
that she intended selling them here for
pocket money. She actually wrote out
a check for $500 and handed il to Nine
T1fv =, n ~
that he run down TO Mr.. Brown, the
Santa F'e agent to pay the freight on her
cattle. 1t is unnecessary to say that the
Santa Fe offices had been closed for the
day.
Now, then, If any woman or man with
loose purse strings comes from Texas or
any other state to daub the Peerless
Princess, the hackmen Of Wichita will
prove elegant entertainers, and what
ever they can't show a visitor is not
worth seeing.
There is a peculiar system of fellow
ship between hackmen. and in five min
utes after a swell guy strikes the town
they all know what kind of a chap he
is, howell LIBERAL he is with his money and
what he wants to see. Before this Tex
as adventures was here an hour all
the JehuS had her sized up and they eS-
ia blished a schedule of hack fare for her
chap who makes the freight rates for
interior Kansas points.
They not only hauled her swiftly and
tenderly over the rugged side streets
but they introduced her to the cham
pion high rollers of the town and actu-
ally steered her to where the finest
champagne is kept in stock. She ask
ed no questions as to expense either
for her transportation or wines but
wrote out checks on the Fourth Nation
II bank payable three days after date
and explaining that her cattle would be
sold the stock yards before that time
''PerfC tly satisfactory" said the hack
man, the wine merchant, and the res
tauranter with a giggIe as he pocketed
a check of So, SO or S25 signed by Mrs.
Wagner, the cattle queen of Southern
Texas.
She was a windfall for the late trade.
The oyster houses We're beginning to
see revival of the boom and the wine
merchants didn't care three straws
how much their legs were pulled by the
administration" so long as the cattle
queen remained in town.
After reveling a few days beneath
the queenly smiles and favoTs of this
feminine coal oil Johnny the hackmen
and a few more of the beneficiaries Of
this woman's liberahty began to think
they had accumulated too much paper
and preferred to have il converted into
cash. They presented il 10 the good
people Of the Fourth National bank
where il was rated at the market value
of waste paper. They then drove up
to the stock yards and some telephoned
to find out whether Mrs. Wagner's cat
tie had been sold and the reply was that
they never heard of Mrs. Wagner, the
Texas Cattle Queen and didn't know
anything about her stock.
Then there was a gathering storm
among the hackmen and Testauranteurs
and wine merchants which Mrs. Wag-
ner artfully lodged by leaving town or
at least cOncealing herself
She is supposed to have had about $500
worth of hilarity during her stay in the
city. at the expense of those who ac-
ceDted her checks