The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-12-22
COWBOY GETS BACK
WESTERN KANSAS Is ONCE MORE
UNDER HIS SWAY.

Chased Away by the Homestesder aud ths
General Business Depression" Which
Almost Overwhelmed Him and the
Homesteader Ia One Com mon Ruin Fol.
lowing the Boom, He Now Returns
With His Long Horns for Which He
Pays Fancy Prices and the Short Grass
Country is Itself Again.
Dodge City, Kan, Dec. M.-Western
Kansas has a new era-a reign OF the
cowboy and beef. A trip through a doz-
en- counties of the western third over
land reveals a change that can scarcely
be comprehended by the outsider, who
has learned to think Of this part of the
state as the home Of "bursted booms''
and over-ca pitalized schemes. You may
drive for miles without seeing an occu-
pied cabin, and farther still apart are
the wheat fields; but the long-horned
Texas steer is in evidence. and the wide
hated cowboy is swinging his iariat
and snake-whip as OF old. Fifty thou
here in the past four months: as many
have been unloaded at a half-dozen
other points in the prairie counties.
Every settler has his bunch OF steers,
feeding on the kaffir corn or cane; here
and there is a creamery or cheese fac
tory. The people have pinned their
faith to horned animals. Only once in
several years can they raise a whea I
crop-the calf crop is never a failure.
The surprising part Of the method
employed in handling the stock is the
tleman Congressman Jerry Simpson.
has a farm near Medicine Lodge Ad-
Joining it is a section of fine pasture
land. On it are feeding the sockless
statesman's growing herds. Does ne
the agent of an eastern mortgage COM
pany so "quarter''-that is, $40 a Sec
tion-rental annually. He cannot afford
TO own it. The taxes are more than
that. So with thousands Of others.
They use, either with or without paying
rent, the lands belonging to unlucky in
vestors who were caught by the depres-
sion in properties throughout the state
A story that illustrates their attitude is
told Of the visit of dignified Bostonian
to Stevens county, where he owns a
quarter section, taken under foreclosure
He looked over the map, found his land.
and discovered that 1t was inside Of a
5,000-acre pasture, with a fence around
the whole tract. Angered, he sought the
settler.
what do you mean by fencing in my
land?" he demanded.
Had TO have it, mister
"Don't you want to buy it, cheap?"
"Nope; can't afford to-
''Then cut your fence and keep the
cattle off the grass"
''Too much bother, stranger; can't do
il" and the settler took another chew Of
plug tobacco.
The Bostonian fumed and fretted for a
while, then he went back to the cattle
man. 'Say," he blurted, will you allow
me to leave my land inside your pas
ture?' and he took the first train for
home.
The mose remarkable feature of the
tlCW NdttlC SlcZc 10 tlic HcISnE 10 WHICH
prices have climbed in the past few
The Texas and New Mexico
herds have practically been stripped OF
their 2 and 3-year-olds, and the prices
are such as were not dreamed of one
year ago. Feeders with long horns are
selling on western Kansas plains at
$3.50 to s25,which twelve months ago
would not have brought more than SIS to
SIS. Down at San Antonio few days
ago Kansas shipper bought 900 calves
at s17 head. Two years ago the calves
would haev been thrown in with their
mothers and not counted as Of any
value. The Eanchmen are experiencing
4 revival Of the old times, when there
were cattle barons, and they owned the
earth-or thought they did. The ''sea-
IONS" or 'dogieS," as the Texas steers
were called, rose from s6 a head to s12
and SIS, and then to $50, and there was
nothing good enough for the cattle own.
ers. At a banquet once in Dallas 100
cattle barons partook of a feast that cast
s., ,000 Their downfall came after that
Il was at that same banquet that a
young newspaper man whom they had
harrassed by their over-bearing ways
arose and retorted with a speech that
has passed into a classic of cattledom.
You own the earth now, with a fence
around it," he said, "but there is a man
with hoe looking through your barbed
wire fence. Kill him, and tomorrow
there will be two men with hoes looking
through. He will tear down your fences
and put your pastures into corn and cot
ton" It mas all come true, and the
Texas ranches have all been moved
farther west since that time
Here in Kansas the process is being re-
The men with hoes are being
iriven out, and the cowboys are coming
in. One young Kansan, aged 80 years,
went to Texas few days ago and bought
Is, 900 head Of cattle. He took with MIN
cowboy band, and it paraded the streets
Of Fort Worth and made the Texans
open their eyes. 1t went and came ir
special Pullman car decorated with huge
cattle horns and banners The band
stayed a. a s4-s-day hotel, and played
at the stock yards as the cattle were
loaded. Ten trains brought the first in
stalment OF the herd northward, and the
animals are now eating Kansas grass.
The people who have weatherei the
hard years in western Kansas are heroes.
They came 70 the state with high hopes
and ideals. They expected 10 find farm
ing an easy task. and their homes COM
Portable. Instead. they saw crop fall
ures, ana their slender means departed
IN spite Of themselves. OF course. the
first resource was a mortgage.
I'VE had a mighty fine system"
laughed a real estate man OF Garden
City. ''to make the eastern plutocrats
help US out. We put mortgages OF $500
:, s.nl on a ouarter-<,aetioa worth mar