The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-24
BY WILL T. SIBERIAN.

BY WILL IT. SIBERIAN. respondence. J-''The Ranch" is just what its name signifies.
 It Is 2,000 acres of Western life set down in the heart of the Black Belt. 1t is a cotton plantation transformed into a rich stretch of grazing lana on which HOO head of cattle are fatten- though the & it H was S but s, yesterday wide ex- panses of cotton fields cultivated oy negro tenants. a Western ranch with COW ponies. fence riders, COW puncn,, skin spurs and huge stringy saddles.
 On the back porch of the farm house on the hill, there no longer hang scto,er sottoe baskets Instead % of these em- blems of the cotton plantation there hangs suspended two long slender branding irons, the emblem of the new spot In Hale County. The brand upon the irons is the Flying P, the brand of W. M. Murphy. who left Hale Coun- sy yoIth ana G the catis returned to make his home in Greens boro and incidentally to introduce cat tle-raising on a large scale in Hale County.
 The Cattle Ranch.
 The place he selected is ten miles southwest of Greensboro. It is only two miles from the old ante bellum village of Cedarville, which still sur wives but which shows. the dilaplda- fion which time and adverse circum, , stances have brought about. A naiI mile to the west of The Ranch IS the old plantation of that strong anu able Alabamian Syndennam MoSrv, Sn the war broke out and who fell wnile bravely leading a regiment or Ala bama soldiers The Ranch was three years ago the Hill rIace, plantatlon that was for perhaps seventy-tiv years given over to the growth and cuttlVa- tfon of cotton. It Is in the very heart of the conservative cotton producing
 An old-fashioned. wooden screw; with a heavy cap of shingles, out oI which runs long black beams. stanas front of the ranch house. The gin house, its companion of other years has routed and gonekand the oid wooe- en screw Is fast following 1t into op-. Iivion. It has presscd Its last bale of cotton; It's heavy wooden beams have made their last circuit. The scenes that it knew for so many years. It VIII never know again. IL VII nsveb s tbs nnel ne. groes at work in the gin house on a Crisp fall morning, or the crack or tne mule drivers whip hen the pox IS S full of lint, nor give forth again U protesting creak when the mules rug at the long lever.
 The, Changed scene.
 It is a lonesome symDol Of an era that Is passed and soiie on the oio plantation. 1n the years past the old screw overlooked thousand acres or o. green and vigorous cotton waving iis the June breeze Today not stalk or cotton Is, in sight The old screw is surrounded by wilderness oI Neluan' n nothing but grass may be seen Ths old plantation has been crossed anu criss- crossed with wire fences Cot-
 fNaf A. In this one the mellilotus is higher than a horses back, in that one IS Johnson grass almost as hlgn ana little ways off is the bright green or a bermuda grass pasture.
 Behind tlfeA house the big lot of thi old plantation Is still in use, but U no longer shelters little army eI ol horses and cattle ponies brought from the plains of Texas. For eacn or tns riders according to the Western GUS. toms must have at least roTnding i0ur pr hnt nt the cattle, inspecting them at reguIai intervals and Keeping general super vision of the grazing cattle.
 And like a Western ranch, thls Ala bama ranch has with the exception So,i oi the cook no negroes at work upon It What labor is done Is done by wnite men, for the labor Is only the lapor ol riSina and of performance of certain duties accurately and exactly. The men who do the work are young men of good Greensboro families, who @ @mnl the open air work to their liking. The whole is under the management or " M Murphy, Jr., young man or stal- Wart stature who came from the law so oNas assume m charge of his fathers Ala bama venture and Is enthusiastic for its success.
 The Ranch Owner.
 The owner of this important enter prise and the pioneer of the cattle < t in has had a most interesting career. He bama family and has a large company 35 fh TslasIyei Black Belt. 1t He He left Gfeensbore thirty-ffve years ago on horseback and rode to St. Paul. Minn. The, ride wat taken at that time principally for his west and become a Texas ranger. hay ing in charge at one time company of those famous keepers of the peace
 He went into the cattle business on the Texas plains and succeeded from the first. A few years later he went to Wyoming and was one of the first If not the very first, large cattle rais. had a great ranch in Montana. Al one time he had under lease S00,O0C acres of grazing lands with cattle tC years he leased the entire reservation of the Crow Indians from the Govern ment and had 1,2O0 head of horses un- der saddle.
 On his ranch the battle of the Little Big Horn was fought and Custer and his command were massacred to q man Some of the scenes of Owen Wtster's fascinating story of Western life are said to have been laid upon the Mur- phy ranch.
 The Hale County Ranch.
 Some three years ago Mir, Murphy visited hls relatives in his boyhood home at Greensboro He found the home life of the old Southern town most attractive. He had then retired from an active connection with the cat He hnsiness. although he owned and