Gunnison news-champion., 1911-06-16


:: ]: !: !; !: J: :
rate OF speed may be vastly
increased Cloads there sail
k4HW serenely against the wind.
ey/H The ~hip-poor- delivers
Ar its aiseonsoiste CRY with the
WHlllh notes exactly reversed from
those of his northern broth
-r Given a drouzhi and q subsequent
lively rain. and io' from . glazed and
stony soil viii spring In a single night
blossomed lilies. miraculoasly fair
Tom Green county sss once the stand
ard ef measurement ! have forgot
ten how many New JERSEYS and Rhode
Islands IL saS thai could have been
slowed away and lost IN It's chapsrrsl
Bur the legislative ar has slashed Tom
Green into . handful of counties hard
" larger han European kingdoms. The
legislature coBvenes al Austin. near
the center Of the state and. while the
Representative from the Rio GraBde
country Is gathering his palm-ieaf tan
ana his linen duster to set oai for the
capital. the Panhandle scion winds his
mufiier above his weli.buttoned over
coai and kicks the snow from his well
HItd6e0 UtDtr TeaIf tDf INV l3Nt
ney. All this merely to hint that the
big exrepublic OF the southwest forms
q sizable star on the flag. and % pre-
pare for the corollary that things
sometimes happen there uncut to pat
tern and sBfettered by metes and
bounds
The commissioner of Insurance. sta
tistics end history of the state of
Texas Was an official of no very great
Or very small importance. The past
tense In used. for he Is commissioner
Of insurance alone. Statistics and his
tory are no longer proper nouns In the
government records.
In the year 1ss- the governor ap-
pointed Luke Coonrod standifer to be
head Of this department. Standifer
was then ffty-five years of age, and .
Texan to the core. His father had been
one Of the states earliest settlers and
pioneers. Standifer himself had served
the common wealth as Indian fighter.
soldier, ranger and legislator. Much
learning he did not claim. but he had
drank pretty deep of the spring Of ex-
perience
IN other grounds were less abundant.
Texas should be well up In the lists ~
Story = the grateful republic. For
6gth q vepublic and state. II hes bust
" heaped h0nors and solid rewards
upou its soas who rescued It from tho
wilderness.
Wherefore and therefore. Luke
Coonrod Standifer, son Of Ezra Standi-
| fer, ex- Terry ranger simon pure Demo
crst, and lucky dweller In an unrepre-
sented portion of the politico-geograph-
ical map, was appointed commissions
q insurance. statistics and history.
etandifer accepted the honor With
some doubt as to the nature of the Of
nce he WAS to fll and his capacity Tor
Alling it-but he accepted and by wire.
Ne Immediately set out from the little
| country town where he maintained
| (and was scarcely maintained by) Q
somnolent and unfruitful sfhce Of sur
veyfnG ani map-drasing Before de-
partinG, he had looked up under the
rs, SIS end HIS IN the "Encylopaedia
Drittanica" what information and prep
srstion toward his oficial duties that
those weighty volumes Afforded.
A fsw weeks of incumbency dimin-
! AuAed the new commissioner awe Of
the great and important once he had
/ been called upon to conduct. An In
creasing familiarity with its workings
soon restored him to his accustomed
placid course Of life. In his ONCE was
On old, spectacled clerk-a consecra-
I .h hs hal
his desk regardless Of changes of ad-
ninistrative heads. Old Kaufman in
structed his nee chief gradually In the
knowledge of the department without
seeming to do so. and kept the wheels
revolving without the slip of cog.
Indeed, the department of insurance,
statistics and history carried no great
heft OF the burden Of state. Its main
work was the regulating of the bust
ness done in the state by foreign in
surance companies. and the letter of
the law was to guide. AS for statistics
we'll, you wrote letters TO county Of
ficers. and scissored other peoples re-
ports, and each year you got out re-
port of your own about the corn crop
and the cotton crop and pecans and
pigs and black and white population.
and a great many columns of figures
headed bushels" and acres" and
"souare miles" etc.-and there you
we're. History? The branch was pure
" q receptive one. Old ladies inter
ested in the science bothered YOU
sone with long reports of proceedings
OF their historical societies. Some
twenty or thirty people would write
you each year that they had secured
Gam Houston's pocket knife or Santa
sna's whisky-fask or Davy Crockett's s
rfne-an absolutely Authenticated
and demanded Legislative appropriation
10 purchase. Most Of the work in the
history branch went into pigeon holes.
One sizzling August afternoon the
commissioner reclined In his Office
chair. with his feet upon the long. Of
Ac.ai table covered with green billiard
cloth. The commissioner was smo
kfnG q cigar. and dreamily regarding