The Cattleman's Pages of History

The Cattleman cover used a photograph of a herd enjoying the cool water. No identifying information about the photographer or location was given.

After four long years, Germany had asked for an armistice [an agreement to stop fighting without actually surrendering] in early October, and World War 1 would officially end on Nov. 11. The Cattleman published the following quote by President Herbert Hoover:

“The Guns Are Silent. America held the Firing Line and the Food Line unto Victory, and now we must hold until the fruits of Victory ripen into enduring peace.

“The guns are silent, and our victorious soldiers will soon come marching home, leaving behind many comrades buried beneath the sacred soil of France and Belgium — the battlefield of world freedom from Prussianism.

“The guns are silent, but millions of our starving allies are crying ‘Give us food!’ and America must answer if the world is to be safe for Democracy. For Democracy is not a thing learned of books and written in constitutions, but a working solution of simple human needs.

“In memory of those who gave their lives that the world may be free from Prussianism let us dedicate our lives and our fortunes to make freedom and lasting peace a reality.”

“Artist Mark Storm of Houston depicts a typical feedlot scene of men and cattle on this month’s cover of The Cattleman. Mark visited the San Antonio feedlot of George Lucky one day not long ago and came up with this striking result.”

In another installment of Legends Almost Forgotten, we read: “The cracking of a cottonwood ridge pole in a saloon on a crisp cool night in June of 1874 cannot be over-emphasized in talking about the lives of 25 persons. For this sound averted the massacre of these 25 frontiersmen and triggered the beginning of one of the most dramatic Indian battles fought in the Texas Panhandle. This site was Adobe Walls, a frontier settlement in what is now Hutchinson county… Years later, a survivor was to remark of the giant timber: ‘Had it not have been for the cottonwood… the battle of Adobe Walls would have instead been the massacre at the Adobe Walls.’”

Readers of The Cattleman are nothing if not loyal, as proved by this Letter to the Editor: “Sirs: I thought you would appreciate this. This morning, shortly before daylight, a thunderstorm hit here and it started to rain. I awakened my wife and asked her to help me ‘batten down the hatches’ because it was raining. Before she even thought about the grandchildren’s baby pen that had been left outside, she said, ‘Get The Cattleman, it’s in a chair in the yard!’ We really enjoy your magazine.” J.W. Richards Jr., Fairfield, Texas.