Life in Texas.

Evening Star, Issue 6979, 13 August 1885, Page 3

Life in Texas.

The following extract, descriptive of life in Texas, taken from a letter written by the son of a resident in the Geraldiue district, has been placed at the disposal of the • Timaru Herald' :

Colorado, Texas, U.S.A., June 13,1885.

At this time of the year, the end of spring or very early summer, heavy storms are very common in Texas. Tho other day, pretty late in the afternoon, I noticed that the sky was beginning to look rather ugly ; however, I had had so many false alarms lately, when the weather looked just as bad and yet passed off without a drop of rain, that I did not take much notice of it But at length it got to look so threatening that I thought I had better make for my camp, which' was about half a-mile away, so I drove the sheep together, and was just starting them down in that direction when down came the hail. In two or three minutes I could not see more than ten yards from me ; it was just like being in a snowstorm. The hail seemed almost to be coming down in a solid mass. The stones were enormous, several being as large as a hen's egg. When first it began I had rushed for shelter under the nearest " mesqnite " bush ; but that didn't shelter me at all, as very soon the leaves and small branches were stripped off it. Every now and then a huge stone would come whoop down on my head and almost stun nv» I stuffed mv handkerchief into my hat to serve as a pad, and pulled my coat over my head ; but that did. not do much good. I just crouched there in pain, for I suffered most intensely. It waß just as if a man was beating me with a thick stick with a knob on the end of it. The stones actually exit holes in my clothes, and cut me until I bled. At this time I was on a flat, between a range of low hills and a creek, which is just in front of my camp, and very soon I was standing in about a foot of water and hailstoneSrushing down to join the creek. The Btorm lasted half an-hour, and when it stopped so that I could see, I waded down towards camp, sometimes over my knees s in

hailstones and water. It was like walking in a snowdrift. I could scarcely lift my Ws out of it. When I got to the creek I found that, though it was not even running iu the morning, it was now from bank to hank, and the only way to cross it would he tj swim. ~ I didn't care about trying that if 1 could help it, so I thought I would go to a shepherd's hut, between two or three miles off, and stop the niyht with him. So I waded hack to the hills, nearly half a-nule : sometime falling down iu the water and nearly sticking. It was bitteily cold all the time, and I could see the unfortunate sheep standing about on little hillocks-some of them knocked down and drowned. \\ hen I »ot on the hills I was all right, and I walked along the ridge till I got near the hut. I knew that I had to cross a creek there, but I thought it would very likely not be up. However, when I reached it I found that it was, and could only be crossed by swimming. As it was now nearly dark, aid I knew that if I didn't get across it would be a case of stopping out all night, in I went with all my clothes on, and swam it I reached the hut, which was just the other side, wet to the skin and bitterly cold, where I found the occupant of the hut snug in bed, and nothing cooked to eat but a little piece of dry bread, which I soon demolished. I borrowed a dry shirt and quilt from him and rolled in. Next morning we hunted up the sheep and found them without much trouble, several lamed, cut, and bleeding, some with an eye knocked out, besides twenty or thirty drowned outright. If I had been facing the storm I should have got my eyes or teeth knocked out, or my nose broken to a certainty. I never saw anything so terrific in my life before, and hope never to seo the like again except from a safe place. Texas is a pretty country in spring time, covered with " mesquites," a sort of thorny bush of a beautiful bright green color, and the grouud covered with long grass and weeds up to your knees, full of flowers of all colors. Many places are covered with sunflowers a yard or more high. But now all the bushes are stripped of leaves and amall branches, the bark peeled as with a knife, while the grass and flowers are beaten down and destroyed. The storm was quite local, and doesn't seem to have extended more than a mile on any side of m»—at least not with any severity. When I visited my camp I found everything in a fearful mess. To give you some idea of the force with which tho hail fell: I have got a sort of oven, called a "skillet" in this country, which is used for baking bread. It is something between a frying-pan and a saucepan, stands on three legs, and has a lid with a raised rim all round it for holding hot cinders. This rim, made of cast-iron, is about an inch high, and vaiios from a quarter to an eighth of an inch thick. It had one or two large pieces broken out of it, while a little tin wash-hand basin outside was crushed flat. However, beyond being dreadfully stiff and sore from my beating for a few days, I seem to be none the worse. There are dead rabbits, hares, prairie dogs, birds, and snakes lying about in all directions.

Texas has always been an enormous cattle and sheep country, but is now being settled up very fast by small farmers. None of the big ranchmen used to fence, but they worked together, and each man " rounded up," as they say, a certain extent of country, sorted the cattle out according to the different brands, and exchanged them. They paid nothing for the use of the land, but_ now they arc taking to leasing it, and fencing it up into enormous paddocks, or pastures, as they call them. Several men, however, object to this, and prefer the old free grass system, and it often happens that a man will wake up to find his fence, miles of it, level with the ground, and all the wires cut, a large gang of men having been at it all night. Cattle used to be of very little value here, because there was no market; but one day the idea struck some old chap of driving them up to the Northern States. Men had vast herds, and yet were comparatively poor, but they all took this idea np, and found it a grand success. And now every year herds consisting of hundreds of thousands of cattle are driven from here. They go in charge of a certain number of men, varying according to the size of the herd, but often thirty or forty to a herd. Sometimes the cattle are not driven out to sell, but merely for a change of pasture, and will be driven up to Montana or some other of those northern States. The men driving the cattle have several horses with them. They sleep in the open air, and have to sit up with the cattle all night taking watch and watch like sailors. Sometimes the cattle stampede during the night, and the men have to ride after them in the dark, often through thick bush, for days together. The men who work the cattle are called cowboys, and are generally a pretty rough lot. They mostly carry a pistol, and it isn't advisable to insult them. There is going to be trouble about driving cattle out of Texas this summer. Cattle from the Southern States are very subject to a disease called Spanish or splenic fevor. It is very infectious. Cattle that have it taint the water they drink from and the grass they travel over, and stockmen living in the other States have often suffered such loss to their own cattle from it that they have passed a law in New Mexico, west of Texas, and in Kansas north, prohibiting Texas cattle from tho south crossing the boundary. Texas men say they will come if they choose. Some people say it will lead to bloodshed.

Texas has always hitherto had the name of being the roughest and most lawless State in tho Union, and has been a regular refuge for murderers, horse thieves, and other outlaws. Indeed, it is said that a few years ago the first question asked a nowcomcr to Texas was: "What did you do that you had to come here ?" But this is all changing now, and it is becoming as respectable as any other part of the States. Still shooting affairs arc very common in which one man or both gets killed. It is very seldom a man gets hanged for an affair of the kind. They are often more severe on a horse-thief than a murderer. If horses have been stolen the " cowboys " will sometimes turn out in force and scour the country for miles, and if they catch the thief woe betide him. Up the nearest tree he goes. The cowboys think that good fun.