THE IBKIGATION AGE. 



panionable. We will devote some space in future issues 

 to the irrigation enterprises in which he is the leading 

 spirit. 



GEO. H. MAXWELL. 



Mr. George H. Maxwell is given the following 

 editorial notice in the Denver Republican of October 10, 

 under the heading: Mr. Maxwell and The Irrigation 

 Congress. 



It would be base flattery to assert that the sum 

 total of what was accomplished at the Irrigation con- 

 gress, whose session has just closed at Colorado Springs, 

 will hare any great bearing on the solution of -the great 

 practical questions which confront the people of the 

 West. Indeed, if we were called upon to express an opin- 

 ion, we should be inclined to say that it was of very much 

 more consequence in the exploitation of the feelings, 

 prejudices and ambitions of its ruling spirits than it was 

 calculated to promote the objects at which it was pro- 

 fessedly aimed. 



The power behind the throne and, indeed, frequently 

 in front of the throne, was Mr. Maxwell, who has for 

 a number of years been conspicuous in irrigation mat- 

 ters. Mr. Maxwell is a man of plausible exterior and 

 good address. He has a tongue between his teeth that 

 many good public speakers might envy. He lives in 

 good style and occupies himself exclusively in irrigation 

 matters. Precisely how he lives so well without any 

 visible means of support and how he can afford to devote 

 all of his time to such affairs without a private fortune 

 to back him is not too clear to an inquiring mind. But 

 the fact remains that he does it, spreading the irrigation 

 propaganda throughout the country not onlv through 

 his Washington weekly paper but through visits and 

 speech-making in the arid regions of the West. Just 

 where he always stands on the irrigation question is 

 not so self evident as a mathematical demonstration. 

 He opposed the existing federal irrigation law with all 

 his powers until he discovered that its passage was a 

 foregone conclusion, when he came in out of the wet 

 with such a sudden right about face as furnished food 

 for laughter to the ungodly. 



Since then he has apparently assumed full charge 

 of the work in the West, although not carried on the 

 government pay roll or in anywise in the employ of 

 Uncle Sam. He has been everything and all of it, 

 deciding where reservoir sites are to be selected and 

 when they are to be built. In some sections of the arid 

 region the impression prevails that he is a sort of foster 

 child of Uncle Sam, and whatever he says goes with 

 his gifted parent. There is no foundation in fact for 

 the impression, but Mr. Maxwell does nothing to destroy 

 the delusion. As a matter of fact, he does what he can 

 to encourage it by adroitness and indirection. 



It occurred to the astute and industrious Mr. Max- 

 well that so long as he was about it he would entirely 

 eliminate the agricultural department. If he needed 

 an official back door he would utilize the geological 

 survey. It was for this reason that he sent no invitations 

 to any of the eminent gentlemen connected with the 

 agricultural department to attend the irrigation congress. 

 Fortunately two weeks after the other invitations had 

 been sent out other people saw fit to attend to that duty 

 for him. But even when they came his fast and loose 

 programme was so arranged that they would be elim- 

 inated, and it looked as though they would return to 

 headquarters with their undelivered speeches quietly re- 



posing in their inside pockets. And he very nearly 

 succeeded in his design. But in such a gathering as an 

 irrigation congress such men as Elwood Mead and Wil- 

 lis Moore have many friends. These finally discovered 

 the conspiracy afoot to eliminate them, and under tha 

 skillful management of Ex-Senator Carey of Wyoming, 

 backed by a great majority of the Colorado delegates 

 (among others), Mr. Mead was briefly heard and Max- 

 well's scheme of fusing with the Transmississippi con- 

 gress was voted down with singular enthusiasm. 



Mr. Maxwell is doubtless a valuable man in his own 

 way and his own sphere, whatever it is, but so far he 

 has only succeeded in placing the geological survey in 

 a false attitude before the public and perhaps arousing 

 a- spirit of antagonism in the two branches of the pub- 

 lic service. If this should prove to be true, it would be 

 exceedingly unfortunate for the arid region and for the 

 cause of irrigation. Its baneful effects would be directly 

 traceable to too much Maxwell, for that gentleman with- 

 out any apparent official authority is assuming every- 

 thing and placing Mr. Maxwell in an odd and indefensi- 

 ble attitude before the people of the West who have 

 high hopes, even though they may never be realized, for 

 the reservoir bill that recently passed congress. 



The Queen Ranch Rider of the West is Miss Annie 

 Pantenburg, of Sidney, Nebraska. She is a tall, win- 

 some lass of nearly eighteen years and weighs one hun- 

 dred and thirty pounds. 



Her father was an old-time freighter between Sid- 

 ney and the Black Hills in the days when Indians, 

 buffoloes and road agents were as plentiful as jack rab- 

 bits. Later he became an extensive ranchman. As a 

 child little Annie was his right bower, because she was 

 a fearless rider and an expert in stock marks and brands 

 and all matters pertaining to the range. 



She took to this life as naturally as a young duck 

 to water, and never is so happy as when mounted on her 

 favorite saddle horse and engaged in the manipulation 

 of stock on the range. Since her father's death, three 

 years ago, she has had entire charge of the ranch ; buying, 

 selling, roping, branding and breaking her stock for 

 the eastern market. 



Coupled with the fearless disposition inherited from 

 her father, she has acquired a rare skill in horse wrang- 

 ling. Single handed and alone she will rope, hobble, 

 harness and hitch the wildest member of the band and 

 in a very brief time have him going a sober gait that 

 would put to shame the work of many a professional 

 masculine horse wrangler. She also loves a trotter and 

 any evening can be seen speeding a favorite black which 

 gives every indication of being heard from on the grand 

 circuit when his education has been perfected. 



Notwithstanding so much of her young life has been 

 spent in the saddle, she has found time to acquire a 

 good business education. She is a book-keeper, can 

 figure out the interest on a note, draw up a bill of sale 

 and mortgage, measure a stack of hay and figure the 

 number of tons, and write a beautiful letter in a hand 

 like copper-plate. 



Miss Pantenburg is a magnificent specimen of a 

 western ranch queen. She neither sings, nor does she 

 play the piano ; the only music in which she delights 

 is the jingle of her spurs and the rhythmic hoofbeats of 

 her trottor as she speeds down the avenue. She drives 

 the finest and fastest pair in Sidney and takes nobody's 

 dust on the course. 



