The Randall County news. (Canyon City, Tex.) 1908-1926, 1909-02-26
PEOPLE MUST FLEE THENCE.

v
of far more serious portent than
afflicted the land of the Pha-
raohs. a flight by night or by
day. it does not matter much
which, must come; and just now
we are advertising in the want
columns of the Daily Panhandle
for Moses to head the process.
sion and carry us away from a
country where grass groweth
not; where the child and the OK
cryeth for bread and get it not:
where the wall of the mothers of
men arise on high and plead for
mama that cOmeth not: where
the grinders have ceased their
grinding for there exists naught
to grind; where troubles and
cares multiply ten fold with each
rising sun; where curses of men
ascend as the sparks fly upward;
where the OK and the ass kicketh
their masters crib because there
is not tarnal grain in it.
And why all this weeping and
gnaShing of teeth among once
fat people? The anSwer-my-
riadS of short cared, flinty-tooth-
ed, ank-smelling, barking, jerk
tail prairie dogs have gorged the
substance of the land and then
sought their holes and pulled the
holes in after them-at least this
is what the wide. proved seer
known to the modern vulgar
world as William f. Curtis, he of
the Chicago Record Herald, has
handed out to the embling Lone
Star State, emblazoned it on the
first page, first column of the
blanket sheet which hoiSts itself
by the moaning lake with each
pink and yellow sunrise.
As we warned at the outset,
prepare to march forth from
Texas, because something woeful
is going on, for this patriarch
Curtis says so in the following
language;
1t is asserted that the prairie
dogs in the state of Texas alone
eat as much grass every year as
would feed a million and a half of
cattle. There are estimated to
be 100000 prairie dogs in
Texas, an average of twenty-five
to the acre, and 200 dogs will eat
as much grass as steer. Be
sides this, the value of the land
is very much injured by the dogs
because they dig up the roots of
the grass and destroy it. leaving
the ground perfectly bare around
their holes. Then. when they
have cleaned out all the vegeta
ton in their neighborhood, they /
migrate to another spot and con
tinue their work of destruction. .
The result is that entire town /
ships of land have been made /
barren by their rayages. "
Louisiana, Louis ana thy /
"crawtish" yellow mud we often
have libeled, but now We take it .
all back and ask you to get ready .
to take over en- maSSe the people .
of Texas, as We are coming, /
Father Abraham, near four mil
lion strong. We intend to turn
the great Panhandle over to the
fiendS of hades for devils play
ground: the shads of Roy Bean,
the old law west of the Pecos,"
must hike from the land Of high
bridges and high boots and get
him thence to the cane brakes of
the east; the Wichita Falls and
Vernon tribes may begin to turn
their plowshares into skillets to
be used on the march; people of
the Dalhart province may as well |
drop their railroad propositions
and get into the milling; the
south plains and Lubbock need
no longer sing a siren song to the
froSt-bitten people of the north.
Judge Callahan should begin to
the faithful in Swisher;
and Plainview, Canyon City,
Hereford, Clarendon, Childress
and other heretofore rich pro {
'inceS should begin to put things
n sacks. All is woe, all is vani-
y, and the armies of prairie ,
logs are worming over US in a
moving, wriggling mass fourteen ;
leep and four hundred miles l
vide. The jig is up, Bowie died {
n vain, Tamas need no longer q
Try for 2-cent fare, the capitol
)ile at Austin will soon be an :
archaeological wonder, and Texas l
S a whole will be divided into {
its and one bit each will rest in
he paunch Of We terrible prairie
log
Billiam Curtis! Billiam Curtis.