The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-16

plicated for $780, Out of his annual income
of $87, 900 he spends less than 5000 of it
on himself He owns thousands of acres
Of land in the fertile spots of New. Mex.
leo, and still he lives no better-not even
so well-than a good part of the ignorant
Mexicans he employs to help herd his
cattle.
He has not been further away from his
range than to Kansas City in over thirty
five years, and he seldom goes further
from his shanty home than Las Vegas or
down to Albuquerque. His wealth is pill
Ing up in land cattle, copper property
and mortgages to the amount of tens of
thousands of dollars every year. One
hears homely speculation among the peo-
pie in Las Vegas and the white settlers
in San Miguel and San BernadillO coun-
ties, in Northern New Mexico, as to the
disposition this strange and taciturn mil
nCnaire bachelor cattleman is going to
make of all his money and property when
his hair gets whittier and his stalwart
frame Is broken by age and disease.
James Healey came to New Mexico from
Texas He was born in Sedalia, Mo, in
1885, and with his parents went to Aus
tin Tex in 1850. He has always lived
on the plains and has no knowledge OF
any other life. He never went to school
but three years, and that was on the
plains of Texas. But he was born with
rare sagtcity, a peculiar border shreWd-
ness that reads men at glance ana
knows a schemer instinctively. His chief
stock in trade is an iron constitution and
a bravado nerve that made him well
known on the frontier before he was
twenty. He became a vaQuero in Texas
when he was but. seventeen.
His associates have been Mexican va
0ueros. American cowboys, hardened
characters on the border and half-breed
Indians "All I know is MeXicans, In
juns cattle and ranges, and it amt no
use for me to try to put on dog, SAID
lin Healey recently to some who
wondered why the man lived so meanly
in spite of his fast increasing wealth.
When the NaVajoes were moved by the
government to Southern, New Mexico IN
the latter sixties, Jim Healey- and other
vauueros went northward with little
bands of cattle and settled on tracts of
land close to the Arizona Territorial line.
That was the beginning Of the Healey
fortune. In a few years he had several
hundred head Of steers. Then he had
several thousand. He spoke the Spanish
tongue as well as his own, and no Amerl-
can knew the border and its rude way so
well as Jim Healey did. With further
sales of cattle he bought more land. So
he has kept on buying land, trading for
cattle and water rights, occasionally dab
bling In sheep and WOOL until he has be-
come more than a millionaire.
Up to twenty-five years ago Healey's
sole unnecessary expense was gambling.
There are still tales in ancient Santa
20 Of the times when Jim Healey, re-
turning from a cattle drive to Trinidad
-. E,-.1
game for forty-eight hours at stretch
and lose or win 81 1000 and $1,000 at a sit
ting One night he saw the faro dealer
give a significant wink to asprofessional
player alongside Healey, and from that
moment he quit the tables. He has had
his ups and downs in cattle, the same as
all other cattle men. In the great freeze
Of 1878 he lost the greater part of a herd
that represented some $125, 600. At another
time he lost over $4,000 worth of cattle
by reason Of lung plague and the Texas
cattle fever.
ranges which set in at about 1890 and
eliminated in 1896, ruined many cattle
man, but Healey not only hung to his
herds and sold his cattle at little or no
profit for six and seven successive years,
but he added to his range by purchase of
land from discouraged men who abandon
ed the industry. For three years he has
been selling his steers at top-notch
prices, and he is the foremost cattle man
in New Mexico.
The present marvellous boom in copper
has also added to Healey's riches. Twen-
ty years ago when he was In Ell Paso,
Tex, with band of cattle he met an old
companion of his youth on the Texas
border. The old friend had turned pros
pector and had been among the Dragon
mountains in Southern Arizona. Among
the mineral properties he had located
was copper claim, the Ranger by name.
Healey IS seldom touched by the senti-
mentality of friendship. but this time
his friend told such tale of distress
that Healey gave him outright $500 for
two-thirds of the copper claim. At DIFF
ferent times Healey was persuaded to
put $500 and $500 more to hold his share
of the property legally intact. In 1892,
the mine began to pay, and when HeaIey
got 1900 for GB-third the mine, he