Synopses & Reviews
Text extracted from opening pages of book: CATTLE KINGS of TEXAS C. L. DOUGLAS Published by il % 5au DALLAS TEXAS COPYRIGHT 1939 By CECIL BAUGTI All Rights Reserved Published November, 1939 Reprinted December, 1939 Dedicated to TAD MOSES AND HENRY BELL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With the presentation of this book I wish to acknowledge the invaluable assistance given me in its compilation by the following: The Cattleman Magazine, official publication of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, for the encourage ment and technical advice offered by its editor, Mr. Tad Moses, Secretary Henry Bell, and Mr. BelPs predecessor, the late Berkeley Spiller. J. Frank Dobie, for his interest and assistance with mate rial relating to Shanghai Pierce and other Coastal Cattle Kings. John Mackenzie, manager of the Matador Land and Cat tle Company, for helping with material otherwise unavailable. Likewise Phil Maverick, John Hendrix, J, Frank Norfleet, W. D. Smithers and Erwin E. Smith. Miss Harriet Smithers, archivist in the state capitol build ing, for assistance in research. And, in particular, those last connecting links with pioneer cattle days who had a tale to tell and gave me opportunity to hear it Ab Blocker of Big Wells, Col. R. P. Smythe of Plain view, the late Mrs. George Reynolds of Fort Worth, the late Ike Pryor of San Antonio, the late A. P. Borden of Mackey, Jake Rains of the SMS, Willie Le Bauve, and others. C. L. DOUGLAS IX FOREWORD In the subconscious thought of the world Texas typifies the cowboy the last cavalier. At the very base of the tap root of Texas' weal is the cow. As has been said Other states were carved or born, Texas grew from hide and horn. When Austin's coloniststurned to cattle raising they found, between the Rio Grande and the Red, the greatest cow-pasture known to man. Nature understands no blackouts heifer calves became cows, they had calves and their calves produced and reproduced, wild and free and highly prolific in the prelude to the most romantic era of American history the decades of the trail drives. Of the South, overwhelmed by superior force and greater means but not ravished by civil war, bankrupt but bulging with cattle valueless at home for want of a market but worth a score and ten in the North, Texans drove their; only asset to the rail heads of Kansas and to the empty prairies of the West. Hills that for centuries had known only the bellow of the buffalo and the yell of the redman became the sounding board for the moo of the Texas cow the only tide of our civilization that flowed from South to North. Trail herds went North and cow-dollars came South to build the Texas we now know. Foreign money begged for a taker and the boom was on. Sod-busters, barbed wire and the windmill underwrote the doom of the open range. Out went glamour but in came better beef sires, greater range utilization and efficiency in operation. The old Texas cowman XI measured his kingdom in size; his 20th Century counterpart in vaulation he sought to improve what his fences enclosed. By and large, Texas is a land of powerful contrasts. She sprawls over ten degrees of latitute and there is an average temperature difference of 20 degrees F. from north to south. Rainfall varies from more than 50 inches on the east to less than 10 on the west. Of her landed area of 262,398 square miles, economists estimate that 70 per cent is devoted to graz ing, and for alltime to come over 50 per cent will nurture the best all-around and cheapest beef producer grass. Texas was the natural theatre of existence for the old cat tle king. The King is dead Long live the King TAD MOSES Editor, The Cattleman Magazine CONTENTS PANORAMA 1 The First Beef Barons Roamed the Banks of the Jcraan DON MARTIN DE LEON 9 Spanish Ranch eros cleared-w* y for American Stockmen GRIMES AND THE TRESPALACIOS 25 Texas Costal Plains cradled the Cattle Industry KING OF THE SEA LIONS 39 Shanghai Pierce as uncouth as the cattle he drove but at heart, one of t
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