Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1903-07-29

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 sagncity and a
peculiar border shrewdness that reads
men OF one glance and knows schem.
er instinctively. 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 generation, lie 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 n 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 ut 1t
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 time saved a good critter
from death by disease and for ship.
ment to the slaughter house. From the
meagerest beginnings and with only
q 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 MS any border fiction. The
story tells how young Healy herdcd
cattle in a region infested by Apaches
how he rode rs 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
in the cattle country at several times
in his long experience OH the southern
border, and how he has trailed cattle
thieves and rustlers for weeks ut a
time, all 20 to make incidents in as
lively and verncious biography as
was ever penned.
| That was the school this uncommon
millionaire of today was reared in
His associates have been Mexican va.
| queros, American cowboys, hardened
characters on the border and half.
breed Indians. "All know is Next.
cans, Injuns. cattle and ranges, and Ii
amt no 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 Navajos were moved by
the government to southern New Mex
leo, in the latter COS. Jim Healy and
other vaqueros went northward with
little bands of cattle and settled on
tracts of land close to the Arizona ter
ritorlal line. That was the real begin
ming Of the Healy fortune. In a few
years he had several hundred head of
steers. Then lie had several thousand.
He spoke the Spanish tongue as well
as his own, and no American knew
the border and Its rude, rough ways so
well as Jim Healy did. When he Iold
his cattle he bought more land. Then,
with more land, he increased his herd.
With further sales of cattle, he bought
more land. So he kept on buying land,
trading for cattle and water rights, &C.