Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-08-04
HeaIy's Career.

healy'S Aareers
James Healy went to New Mexico
from Texas He was born in Sedalia,
Mo, in 1888, and with his parents went
to Austin, Texas, in 1850. He has al
ways 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 sagacity and
peculiar border shrewdness that reads
men at one glance and knows schem-
er instlnctively. So, while he is ignor-
ant OF worldly ways and has not the
meagerest knowledge of the thoughts
and aspirations of the people in the
busy, pushing, progressive world out
side of the lonely southern spur of the
Rocky Mountains, where he has lived
for longer than a generation, he knows
cattle and sheep as thoroughly as any
man ever did, and he has the natural
rough skill to drive the best bargains
for anything he buys or sells. His
chief stock in trade is an iron consti-
tuition and q bravado nerve that made
him well known on the frontier before
he was 20.
He became vaquero in Texas when
he was but II, and he has been at it
ever since He never talks about his
possessions, and he is as close as an
oyster when anyone tries to get him to
tell what sums his semi-annual cattle
shipments to Kansas City yield But
he will sit all night and smoke and
drink whisky and claret mixed and
tell his ideas about breeding long or
short-horned cattle. about the relative
profit IN sheep or cattle and how he
has many a time saved n good critter
from death by disease and for ship
ment to the slaughter house. From the
meagerest beginnings and with only
a stout heart and two brawny arms as
his equipment for wealth production,
James Healy has come TO his present
wealth. The story Of his rise is as
thrilling as any border fiction. The
story tells how young Healy herded
cattle in a region infested by Apaches:
how he rode as 4 Texas ranger in the
last Comanche campaign and was once
picked up for dead on the scene of an
Indian ambush: how he has fought and
killed the most dangerous deSperadoes
I'm the cattle country at several times
In his long experience on the southern
border. and how he has traiied cattle
thieves and rustlers for weeks at a
time, all 20 TO make incidents in as
lively and veracious 4 biography as
was ever penncd.
That was the school this uncommon
millionaire of to-day was reared in
His associates have been Mexican va
queros. American cowboys, hardened
characters on the border and half
breed Indians. An l know is Mexi-
cans. InJunS, cattle and ranges. and it
Amt mo use FOR me TO try TO put on
dog" said Jim Healy recently to some
one who wondered why the man lived
so meanly. in spite Of his fast-increas-
ing wealth.
When the NayaloS were moved by
the government TO southern New Mex
leo. ID the latter COS. Jim Healy and
othes vaGueros went northward with
little fisz,.s OF cattle and settled on
tracts Of land close 10 the Arizona ter
ritorial line. That was the real begin
ming Of the Healy fortune. In q few
years he had several hundred head OF
steers. Then he hal several thousand.
he poke the Spanish tongue as wei
as is own. and no American knew
the border and its rude. rough ways so
Ell as Jim Healy did. When he sold
: cattle he bought more land. Then.
tn more land. he increased his tsrd.
With further sales Of cattle, he bought
more land. So he kept on buying land.
trading for cattle and water rights. oc-