Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-08-09
OUR HORSES FOR BRITISH
aouNTS FOR THE CAVALRY THAT
CHASES De WET.

Than Ever Before and the Residents
Hope the Beers May Keep at 1t For
ever and Ever.
Every dispatch that tells of one of
DeWet's successful manoeuvres adds
anywhere from S. to SIS an acre to
farm land in this immediate vicinity.
Lathrop is in the heyday Of its glory,
and the fervent prayer of every man,
woman and child of its 1900 popula-
ton is that the Beers will fight for a
generation.
The military department of the Brit
ish Government has transferred its
headquarters for the purchasing and
stabling of horses for the Transvaal
war from New Orleans to this point
on the Burlington Railroad, forty
miles north of Kansas City, and the
activity which was noted In the pur
chase of horses at the beginning of
the war seems to increase with each
month. Horses are being shipped to
South Africa from Lathrop at the rate
of $500 week. The six veterina-
rians employed by the British Govern
ment brand and vaccinate between
400 and 500 horses day, and all Of
these are kept here instead of at New
Orleans, and shipped only as needed
| to load the vessels bound for South
Africa. To feed these horses the Brit
| ish Government pays thirty-fve cents
head day and the little item of
feed for the horses alone costs on an
average of $1,000 day.
But this is a small proportion of the
| revenue which Lathrop and the farm
ers hereabOuts are deriving from the
| necessities of war. Before the horses
| are inspected. branded and vaccinated
they are pastured by Guyton & Har-
| ringtOn, the st. LOuis-Kansas City
firm, which has five years contract
| to supply the British Government with
| all the horses and mules required In
| the South African war. This firm,
which has already grown rich. has
| bought something like 1000 acres of
land near its stables, and is negotiat-
| ing for more. But the land owned by
the firm is not sufficient to accommo-
| date more than a small percentage OF
| the 10000 horses and mules in stock,
| and all the available pasture land in
every direction has been rented. AS
their necessities increase, the farmers,
with true Yankee thrift, advance the
price of pasturage.
All of these clever financial coups
have sharpened the Clinton County
mind and as the wise men of the town
seek the shady corner Of what was
once bank, but is now barber shop,
one can hear repeated each half hour
| In the day this learned deduction: Now,
you see the British have got to keep
up the fight. 1t would never do for
England to admit that a handful of
Dutch farmers could lick the empire
So as long as the Beers continue to
fight the British will have to fight If
1t takes every dadgasted man in the
country"
Number Two-Ain't them Beers
stayers for you
Every. boy in town that knows how
to ride can get job breaking horses
brought from the plains of Idaho or
Wyoming. Every man with a team
can find employment hauling feed.
There are no unemployed who can
and will work. Although the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy Railroad has
miles of side track here it must build
more switches. There are no days
when gossip flags. What with the es-
Inmates of the amount of money Guy
toll & Harrington are making, the
possibilities of love affairs with the
English officers, the cockney accent OF
some of the doctors" stampeded
horses and negotiations for new tracts
of land, every day in Lathrop Is one
Of circus-day activity and explains
why the most welcome news that Is
brought to town is the report Of a
Boer victory.
Before the change was made trans
ferring the headquarters Of veterinar-
ians and inspectors Of the British Gov
eminent from New Orleans to Lathrop
the stables on the "Y" connecting the
Burlington and branch line of the San
ia Fe at this place were sufficient for
the business Of Messrs. Guyton & Har-
rington. On this tract they had erect
ed a mammoth stable for the accom-
notation of the horses and mules pur-
chased in Missouri and Kansas for
shipment to New Orleans. When the
indications began to point unerringly
to a continuation of the fighting and
experience had taught that the life of
horse in South Africa was on an
average about three months, tie Brit
ish Government began to prepare for
| q protracted struggle which included
C. fresh supply Of horses and mules.
Just as the big packers have located
their packing houses near the base OF
supplies, so the British established
their headquarters.
The horses supplied the British Gov
eminent do not compare with those
accepted by Uncle sim. The price,
too, is about one-half. Although the
contract between Guyton & Harring-
ton and the British Government is a
secret, the estimate here Of the price
paid is SO q head. Nearly oil the
horses now being shipped come from
the ranges in Idaho, South Dakota and
Wyoming. Nobody would ever offer
them for sale to the United States
military authorities. They come by
the carload almost daily. From the
time the horses are unloaded until
| thou nro incnnntod hrandpd and vac