ON THE FRINGE 331 



given, not only to settlers, but also to educational 

 institutions, railways, and as rewards for services. 

 There was, and still is, ' plenty of land to the acre ' 

 in the far west. What was then chiefly wanted 

 was a civilized, enterprizing white population to in- 

 habit and develop this wide and fair territory. In 

 that same year of 1880 the density of the State's 

 population was 6*1 to the square mile. In 1900 

 it had about doubled to 11*6 to the square mile. So 

 there appears to be, from our English standard, plenty 

 of elbow-room yet. 



This Capitol Ranch, which I went in 1887 to visit 

 and inspect, consisted of a trifle of 3,000,000 acres 

 of fenced land in the Panhandle, given to the original 

 owners, the brothers J. V. Farwell and Senator 

 C. B. Farwell of Chicago, as the price for building 

 the Capitol or State Building in Austin, one of the 

 chief cities of the State, and its political metropolis. 

 The funds required for the double purpose of erecting 

 the State Building and also fencing the 3,000,000 

 acres and stocking them with cattle were raised by 

 mortgaging the land and stock to a confiding British 

 clientele, who, however, have had no reason to repent 

 of their investment. Since 1 880 Texas railway mileage 

 has increased from under 1,000 miles to over ten 

 times that amount, and the State has made gigantic 

 strides in material welfare and prosperity. It has 

 become the largest cotton-producing State or country 

 in the world, while it ranks first in all the Union 

 in the production of cattle and horses. 



But I fear I am digressing too much into dry 

 statistics. It was on that first Texas visit that I made 

 the acquaintance of a sterling and original western 

 character, A. G. Boyce, commonly known as Old Man 



