Arizona republican., 1900-10-04
The Gray Haired Cowboy Whose
 Cheek is Worth IA Million
He Has Wife, Home and Estates in Town, But He Prefers His Lonely Life and Rough Friends of the Plains.

he has never been inside of, nor patrOn- ized to the extent of sending in an order for suit of clothes.
 He wears overalls and a denim blouse instead.
 He has a beautiful wife whom he sel- dom sees. She loves society and lives in the fine house and spends money for a good time. He associates with cow boys out on the prairie and has no in clination towards the gayeties and comforts of civilization.
 He is one of the richest men in the Northwest, yet he goes about with empty pockets and lives the life of a common COW puncher at an expense of less than fifty cents a day.
 He owns $1O,OOO flour mill, which he has never seen the inside of: and two other stores that are run by agents whom he seldom communicates with.
 He has r million dollars to spend as he might please, but instead of spend ing any of it he does a laborer's stint on a cattle ranch and takes pot luck with the rough cattle drivers in as humble capacity as the next man to him a table.
 His name Is Abner Robbins, and his home proper is in the town of Union, Ore. There is where his wife lives. there is where much of his capital is invested: his railroad runs that way. and his flour mill stands in the near vicinity.
 But that is not where Abner Robbins chooses to spend the most of his life
 The neighboring town of Drewsey contains major part of the old mans holdings, yet he seldom goes to Drew sey. About six miles from this latter named town is log cabin 1OX12 feet in size-a cabin of one room, with chinks in the walls and no windows or doors except pieces of cloth or boards picked up by chance to serve the purpose. It is a crude habitation-so crude that only a wealthy man could live in it con- tentedly. A common cowboy would have improved it long ago. He would have put in windows and made hand somer door.
 Robbins Is a lover of nature-a lat ter-day Thoreau without the old Thor eau's theories to work out or to live up to, but with a more genuinely finished nature perhaps and a less artificial as piration in his reach toward the trees and the hills and the independent livelihood of huntsman.
 Is he q crank?
 Does a cfank accumulate a quarter of million and keep it?
 It isn't on record.
 He has made his fortune by hard work, and he is working hard today and making the fortune grow-making it feel the weight of a strong hand ana brain back of it. Yet he is no miser. A miser does not get out among the boys and take off his coat and become boon companion, with a hail fellow well met" and merry string of yarns to spin over the camp fire in the eve ming. So far is he from being Stingy that his friends know him throughout Eastern Oregon as a good thing for speculators and missionaries, and the following is but one of many similar stories they have to tell of him when you ask about the old mans tightness of fist:
 Abner Robbins has never refused to help a poor man both with money and supplies. And he will divide his last loaf with a friend. He spent $10,000 just to humor the whims of a friend.
 As yet there is but htle wheat raised in this section of country. A smooth talking drummer came along and con Vinced one of RObbinsS $ friends that a big Touring mill would pay at Drew sey; that if a mill was built the ranch CTS would turn their attention to rais- ing wheat. The friend became enthu siastic and sought Robbins's assistance. The latter explained that 1t would not pay; that it would be years be- fore wheat would be raised in this sec tion to any extent; that irrigation would be necessary, and that this would require time. But the friend saw all kinds of fortunes in a houring mill anI insisted. Robbins became impatient and said:
 Well. go ahead and build your mill and I'll pay for it, just to show you that you are wrong"
 The friend believed in putting in a good one while he was at it and ordered the very best machinery from Ohio. A four story building was erected, a ditch was dug along the banks Of the , middle fork of the Malheur river, and a turbine wheel was put in and as fine q mill completed as was ever constructed of the same capacity. Before the water was brought to the wheel the projec:or of the mill became impatient and pur- chased a large steam engine and the mill was started. It was run a few months at dead loss and then shut down. It now stands there. the win COW frames all knocked in by ms . chievous boys, the machinery rustin and going to wreck, without a dollars insurance on it. Robbins paid the bil. without a murmer, for he foresaw the end in the beginning. He has never been inside the mill and never speaks of it. although the road from Drewsey to his cabin lies along by the side of the mill.
 The bed in his cabin is a marvel of its kind; so is the arrangement for cooking the bacon and beans which Robbins lives on. Two sides of the cabin furnish the main support of the bed-one peg does the rest. fitted at the outer corner at the foot and nailed to the floor. A couple of rails complete the outfit. excepting the covering.
 which consists of a brdraSglcd mat