Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-08-06

planned a great western trip. Both OF
the young people had large fortunes,
but if de Mores had had the wealth Of
a Monte Cristo it would have been too
small for some Of the schemes he con-
ceived. When they got as far as Chi
cago the marquis toured the great
packing and slaughter houses. He dis
covered that the owners of these places
had amassed millions by killing and
dressing the cattle shipped to them
frcm all quarters of the great west. He
learned that the ranch men made
money, the killers and dressers made
money, the wholesale dealers and COM
mission houses made money, and, fin
ally, THAI the retail butchers made
money.
These items of information stuck in
de Mores' head and soon developed an
idea which at one time seriously
threatened to reYolutionize the ranch
ing, packing and butcher business. His
scheme was to raise his own cattle,
kill and dress it on the ranch, ship II
on his own refrigeratOr cars to the
eastern cities and there sell it to the
consumer over his own counters in his
own stores. To make his scheme ma
tional in scope he expected in time TO
build a complete chain of packing
houses from the Dakotas through the
great cattle countries to the Pacific. In
this way ne would buy up all the cattle
in the west as the 1anchman would
have only a comparatively short dis
lance to drive their herds to reach one
of his packing houses.
This was pretty big scheme for
man of twenty-three, but the marquis
always went in for big things. Just
south of the North Dakota bad lands,
and near the Montana line, is a beau
tiful stretch of country called the gar
den of Eden. There were $4,000 acres
in tais strip, and de Mores purchased it.
Then he mapped out town and called
it Medora, after his wife. He built
a hotel, stores, postoftice, houses, a
beautiful chateau for himself, and in a
few months Medora had a population OF
1000 people He also built a packing
house and made ready for business,
AS a trial he arranged for the purchase
OF 10000 cattle.
At each end of the valley is dehle
between the table lands. The dealer
who arranged to sell the 80, 900 head OF
cattle drove $4,000 through one defile
and they were counted in the middle OF
the valley. Then instead Of driving
them into the corral he took them out
the first one. He had continuous
chain of cattle and each steer was
counted twice. The dealer said after
ward that he could have palmed off the
Is, 900 for $4,000 cattle if necessary.
The marquis was considered fair
game for the whole country. When
he was in the market for horses the
dealers unloaded upon him the worst
lot of vicious, bucking ponies in the
west. But the marquis disappointed
them when he succeeded in riding the
toughest in the lot. He could not only
ride better than most of the cowboys
but he could shoot with delicate accur-
dCy. moreover, ne udu Ine courage VI
a lion. He made a great many enemies
among the toughs and bad men, but he
won scores of friends among the re-
spectacle people of the community. His
courage is best illustrated by the fol-
lowing little incident, related by a
witness of the scene:
/ One day de Mores had business in
Miles City, Mont After he was done
with his business he went to the hotel
to take a drink. The barroom was
we'll filled, but de Mores walked
/ straight to the bar, ordered his drink.
and asked never a one of those in the
room to join him. This was unpar-
! donable. AS he was turning away
from the bar the report of pistol rang
/ out The bullet passed a few inches
to the right of the Frenchman and en-
bedded itself in the bar. Another bull
/ let just grazed the Frenchmans coat
sleeve What does all this mean?"
cried de Mores, turning to the bar
keeper. That gentleman merely
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