Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-02-17
LITTLE STORIES Of THE SOUTHWEST,
COW LANDS Of TEXAS
An Ell Dorado and Desert Both in Seasonal Land OF
Orouqhts Reptiles Spiders and Bad Men.

Little Valley, \. Y, Hub.
But it is the COW towns where ONT
finds interest and real wild west hu
man nature-the towns where tht
ranchmen, the cowboys and the Mex
leans constantly come and go.
| Nearly all writer's Of the COW coun
try slop over considerably in prais
ing the cowboys and ranchmen fol
their open and almost forced hospi.
tallty. Stop to ranch house and
1t is literally true that they cannot
do to much for you. It is a habit
born of earlier days, and becomes a
duty. But in the COW towns where the
visitor pays his way, and the people
know he is looking at them and ask
Ing of them from curiosity-weQ, it
has been my experience that these pee
pie have as thick crust around
them as you will find anywhere and
that the prejudice against a Yankee
sticks out palmer than I'M Mississippi
Their courtesy and accommodation is
too often mistaken for welcome.
The cow country takes a man on
trust and then waits for him to
make good. 1t is not a locality for
Chautauqua circles and ice cream
soclals. The man who can appreciate
the patronage doesn't go, and who
can fall in and mix it with the fell
lows ''just natural like" without play
ing short or stopping over-the
man who has discernment enough to
go far enough and not too far-such
a fellow will make friends here of
men who would die for him and who
will never forget him.
I never saw this more clearly il
! lustrated than in Sonora the other
day when a man from Utica, N. Y,
/ who claimed to be doing special mag
azine work, found that the cowboys
were not as warm as the Mexican
| breezes. Around the hotel he made
| himself obnoxious by ever-playing
| the tenderfoot. He was new to the
country, and he thought the play
was to proclaim it generally, take off
! his collar, go in his shirt sleeves,
i ask questions and spend his money.
Going into a saloon where bunch of
cowboys sPere Ioafing and nlaying
dominoes, he called everybody up to
| have something" and not a man in
the place responded. Luckily the
fellow had sense enough not to urge
or question, otherwise he might of
had some real life experiences to
have written of.
The man was OVERRIDING and didn't
know it. Someone had told him he
must be common and spend his mon
ey, and the COW punchers simply re-
sented this fellows too apparant
and unnatural patronage.
Time is the most abundant of all
things in this country, and tomorrow
Is the most convenient of all words.
Indolent, asy-going, the people live
In the today, and let Carnegie and
the Rockefellers do the worrying.
Comforts there are none-that is
according to our dictionaries. With
the one exception, meat, the people
| do not raise anything they consume.
Nothing will grow here except grass
and weeds. Not a vegetable, a berry
a tree of fruit, not a single green
thing that mans system Graves. No
| gardens, not an onion, a radish, a
vine-nothing, because of uncertain
rainfall. Every article worn, eaten
| or used, excepting meat has to be
| freighted in from the railroads, hence
the people have reduced their nee
essities to a minimum-beans, bacon,
and bread-and one could chase a
cat through the most of the houses,
if all the doors and windows were
closed
| oul lIcI z ID uCd1lA OuI AC1 = III l11C
thirsty land, health that money can't
buy and drugs can't give; there are
days of rare winter beauty and balm
mess that no place ON earth can sur
pass; there are twihghts with no cur
few calls in the evening glow, and
nights when great white moon
shakes down a soft light and makes
a scene so beautiful and afluring
that a cover over ones bed seems
sacrilege.
There are no pennies, ana very
few Yankee dimes" in this country.
Two bits is the smallest piece OF
change in ready circulation. Ask
for a postage stamp and tender a
nickle and you get two stamps and
a postal card. No one wants or will
accept penny pieces" and it is but
very recently that dimes and nickles
have come into the medium of cir
culation. Everything one buys is
bought into quantities Of dollars
halls and quarters.
To give you a little idea Of the
volume of business done in these
COW towns | would state that one
general store in Sonora does ar
average business of a thousand dol
lars a day, and there are a hall
dozen other stores 1t would Ger
tainly be interesting to get statistics
on the saloon trade here, but l viii
leave this rather delicate assignment
for the next man. With the temper
ance feeling here, I don't fancy the
job.
Sonora, Tex, Jan. 90.