The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-17
GIRL MANAGES RANCH
CAROLINE BoNNIvAL, A TEXAS
 YOUNG CATTLE QUEEN.
Her Own Care-She Takes up te Work Left by Her Dead Father-Rides a Famous
 White Horse.
San Antonia, Tex, special.


 Just one girl-but she controls the big gest cattle ranch in southern Texas; she has a clever business head on her pretty shoulders, she does a mans work daily in her own charmingly feminine way and she would rather round up a herd of stampeded steers on a gritty mustang than make a tour of Europe.
 Just one girl-but she has tackled big cipher to the value of the property that her father bequeathed her four years ago and placed herself in the millionaire rank of American heiresses; she employs more than 100 people, who live well and hap pily on her estate, and she can as easily lead raid on bunch of mescal snug glers when they cut into her seventy-five miles of fence wire any other American girl would lead d cotillion.
 If you have never heard of Caroine Bon nival 1t is because southern Texas is so far away that Las Floritas hacienda and its fair mistress live in a world practically apart. And pretty Miss Bonnival has not the slightest intention og quitting moun- tain and meadow and splendid remote ness to enter your artificial world of paVements and patents for even a flying visit.
 T would not give one little corner of Las Floritas,'' she says. for the finest palace on Fifth avenue in New York nor would 1 exchange the view from my win dows of the magnificent old Bravo and the boundless plains for anything scenic that Niagara can offer"
 Veritable Cattle Queen.
 Las Floritas is located in Zapata coun- ty, along the Rio Grande. When John Bonnival. cattle king. died 1t was SUD- posed that his motherless daughter would retire to San Antonla or some other city, live in luxury upon the rentals of the rancho and eventually amuse herself with society teas and kindred diversions But the spirited girl, though for time over come with grief, surprised her friends by declaring that life of idleness would be a reproach to her fathers memory and example. She was thoroughly famil- far with the management of the property, having been her fathers constant com panion and his bookkeeper. Las Floritas was her birthplace. She had even given the ranch it's name. Excepting three years at Hardin college. in Missouri she had known no other life than the free untrammeled one which she dearly loved.
 She was proud of her father, whose wisdom and valor had won high honors in the field and at the court of MaXimiian in Mexico.
 "I will stay here all my life" she an- nounced, quietly. but firmly Then she settled down to hard work.
 Fences have been required new pasture lands inclosed and numerously strong brightly painted gates supplied. A Sdi- tions have been made to the house and it has been refurnished in a style that dis plays the tase of thoughtful girl who has read great deal, though her oppor- tunities for seeing costly things and en- toying luxury have been limited.
 If there is a new line of wire fence to be constructed she rides with the foreman over the ground. When bridges or tanks have to be made she superintends the work. In all weather she rides with her little army of vaqueros when there is d roundup or herds have to be moved.
 Can Wield a Rifle.
 When smugglers cut fences or cattle thieves make a raid into her pasture she slings Winchester to her saddle and leads upon the trail in pursuit of the river front of thirty mines and is from ten to twenty miles in width, she has been known to gallop with an armed body of fence riders and make tour of the whole outside line of wire fence in a sin gle day. This necessitates a jaunt of lit tie less than seveuty-ilve miles. and that she could accomplish such a feat even by changing horses several times and taking advantage of short cuts certainly argues
 
 well as tireless energy
 The majority of Miss BonnivaIs em- ployes are MeXicans She is chaperoned by an elderly, refined and educated Amer ican woman, Mrs. Lundy. to whom she is tenderly attached and to whom she pays the utmost deference. always ad- dressing her as Mamma Grande"
 Early in Miss Bonnival's career as a ranch owner she taught the lawless ele- ment of the border a needed. lesson. Mes cal smugglers and thieves had been in the habit of cutting her fences and cross ing her pastures whenever they pleased The ranch foreman. who was doubtless msed by the Mexicans who rode with him, could never succeed in catching them, though his vigilance merited better luck Emboldened by repeated escapes, the smugglers became more daring.
 Miss Bonnival's indignation was arous- ed. Suspecting collusion between some Mexican vaquero on the ranch and the outlaws, she sent to San AntOnia for four American cowboys known to her as brave and trustworthy. They had worked on the ranch at various times and were familiar with the trails and crossings on the Rio Grande. They arrived the day after several head of fine saddle horses were missing among them a KentusNy l-year-old worth $1,OO0.
 Has Famous Horse. Mounted upon her famous white horse Moonshine. with a pistol slung to her saddle, Miss Bonnival joined the cow boys. They tried in vain to dissuade her from going, On the trail they were joined by Rubio trusty Mexican. and the fore man, who had been informed by an h.