The Earl And His Texas Friends

From the Dalias Morning News: The Earl of Aylesford was especially well known in west Texas. He owned a ranch near Elg EJpringa and lived in the tovn. This vas in the days when steers were worth $20 a head, range count, and everybody had money. But even the brcxid farniliarity of the west halted af'Joey." They would not cali him by his title, so they called him "the Boss." Every cowboy in that whoie coun'.ry knew him by that name and all as'xrted that he was a prince of good fellows. The Earl was democratie in his associations, and preferred the unlicensed frontier EngIish of the plains to the conventional phrases of the clubs. He bought a hotel out there and a saloon. Whenever a cowboy loomed up there in a state of financial desuetude, he was sure to find a fiiend who would provide him with a first-class room, plenty to eat, aud all the "lioker" he wanted. As that was thï reneral oondition of the cowboys theii and now, the Earl's hotel and the E?,rl's barroom were costly luxciries. He did a big business, and nearly evet.v ether saloon in Big Springs was foreed to close, but he did not make any mbney. Hf did not want to make any. He much preferred spending it and buying whiskey and victuals lor cowboys, which was perhape a better way of turning money loose than buying brandy and sodas for the peggged-out aristocracy of London. And when he died on his ranch, all the cowboys mourned his loss, and the grief Tvas sincere.