To the Editor of the Eagle.
I see that my squib published in your paper of the 1st inst. seems to have aroused all of the ire and animosity of one
Zack Mulhall, and starts him off like an alarm on an eight-day clock, and, I am sorry to say, exposes either his ignorance
or the exceedingly small calibre of the man. I said that the wreck was south of Bird's Point in the Cherokee strip,
which is on the Rock Island road, and the above named road runs, I believe, about fifty miles through the strip, or crosses
it from Caldwell, Kans., to Hennessey, O. T., and the wreck was some nineteen miles south of Caldwell.
Now Zack may know a great deal more about the strip than I do, but that has always been pointed out to me as the strip.
Zack writes like the Santa Fe road was the only road that runs through the strip, and that one only some thirty miles, but I will now inform him
that the great Rock Island crosses the strip and is now completed clear to the Red river of the south.
Zack may have royal blue blood flaming in his veins, and he may be no mongrel, but his communication to the good paper would not so indicate, but
rather the worse. I have heard of Jerry Simpson, and will say that I am not built his way and that I still have an old
pair of socks that I am wearing, while he got all of his notoriety by being sockless and brainless. Zack states that there has not been
over 20,000 head of cattle on the strip this season. Great Scott! I did not think that there had been even half of that many. It has been
repeatedly stated the past season by such men as Zack that the strip was entirely clear of cattle and different newspapers have
published the statement to the unsuspecting people and was so believed by them. Who were the losers on cattle that Zack speaks of?
It was mostly the men who were holding their cattle on the strip illegally, and they not only injured themselves but worked a loss and wrong
on the honest cattle men of the adjoining states and territories. If the cattle interest had not have been so strong and powerful
the strip would ere this be settled by a happy and prosperous lot of people, and not by some 20,000 head of long horns that are,
as Zack says, being a loss not only to their owners but to the owners of other cattlemen. With the settlement of the strip
the Peerless Princess would feel the wonderful infusion of new blood that it would give her, and the Eagle could soar over a greater field than
she now does. I say down with such treachery and imposition as we have endured for the last two years regarding the strip. On to the
strip, throw it open for settlement by a happy and prosperous people, and not by 20,000 Texas cattle that are in there illegally, working
a wrong to their owners and to the honest settler as well. My former article seems to have hit friend Zack hard, for he flutters
like a bird that is bad hit. He lays it all to Jerry Simpson, which is all right so far as I am concerne3d, but when he
compares me to him and of being a mongrel and a coward I draw the line there and think that was entirely uncalled for,
ungentlemanly and not tending to elevate Zack Mulhall in the minds of the people.
Respectfully,
A. B. Snow,
Who is Enquirer of Facts