Macon beacon., 1917-05-04
CHAPTER ~.
At Las Palmas.

southwest Texas are fiat and badly
watered, they possess rich soil. They
are favored, too, by a kindly climate,
subtropic in its mildness. The Rio
Grande, jaundiced, erratic as an in
valid, wrings it's saffron blood from the
clay bluffs and gravel canyons of the
hill country, but near its estuary winds
quietly through a low coastal plain
which the very impurities Of that blood
have richened. Here the rivers banks
are smothered in thickets of huisache,
ebony, mesquite, oak and alamo.
Railroads are so scarce along this
division of the border that to travel
from Brownsville north along the in
ternational line one must, for several
hundred miles, avail oneself Of horses,
mules or mOtorcars, since rail transpor-
tation is almost lacking. And on his
way the traveller will traverse whole
counties where the houses are jacals,
where English is foreign tongue, and
where poems plow their fields with
crooked sticks as did the ancient
Egyptians.
That part of the state which lies
below the Nueces river was for time
disputed territory, and long after Tex
ans had given their lives to drive the
eagle of Mexico across the Rio Grande
much of it remained forbidden land.
Even today it is alien. 1t is part OF
our Southland, but South different
to any other that we have. Within 1t
there are no blacks, and yet the whites
number but one in twenty. The rest
are swarthy, black-haired men who
speak the Spanish tongue and whose
citizenship is mostly a matter of form
The stockmen, pushing ahead OF the
nesters and the tillers of the soil, were
the first to invade the lower Rit
Grande, and among these "Old Ed
Austin was a pioneer. Like the Other
cattle barons, he was hungry for lane
and took it where or how he could
Those were crude old days; the pio
neers who pushed their herds into the
far pastures were lawless fellows, ruth
less, acquisitive, mastered by the EN-
pire-builder's urge for acres and still
more acres.
As other ranches grew under th'
hands of such unregenerate owners, 81
also under "Old Ed" Austins manage
ment did Las Palmas increase ant
prosper. 1t comprised an expanse o
rich river-land backed by miles O
range where "Box A" cattle lived ant
bred. In his later years when the oil
man handed Las Palmas to his son
"Young Ed," as a wedding gift, tn
ranch was known far and wide for 1t
size and richness. Las Palmas hat
changed greatly since Austin, senior
painfully Scrawled his slanting sigma
ture to the deed. 1t was q dlfferen
ranch now to what the old man ha
known; indeed, it was doubtful IL b
would have recognized 1t, for even tn
house was new.
Alaire had some such thought 1
mind as she rode up to the gate O.
the afternoon following her departur
from the water hole, and she felt
thrill of pride at the acres of sproutin
corn, the dense green field of alfalf
so nicely fitted between their fence:
They were like clean, green squares
mating spread for the feet of summer
A Mexican boy came running to car
for her horse, Mexican woman gree
ed her as she entered the wide, coo
hall and went to her room. Dolore
fixed q bath and laid out clean clothe
with a running accompaniment of cha
ter concerned with household affair
She was a great gossip, and possesse
such talent for gaining informatio
that through her husband, Benito, th
range boss, she was able to keep he
mistress in fairly intimate touch wit
ranch matters.
Alaire, as she leisurely dressed he
self, acknowledged that it was good
feel the physical comforts of her ow
house, even though her homecomin
gave her no especial joy. She made
religious practice to dress for Dime
regardless Of Eds presence, thouG
often for weeks at time she sat