r presentable, we started. We stopped a week at
my brother's in Missouri, and finally reached the Shenandoah Valley
during the last week in November. Leaving my wife to speak for herself
and the remainder of the family, I hurried on to Washington and found
the others quartered at a prominent hotel. A less pretentious
one would have suited me, but then a United States senator must
befittingly entertain his friends. New men had succeeded to the War
and Interior departments, and I was properly introduced to each as
the Texas partner of the firm of Hunter, Anthony & Co. Within a week,
several little dinners were given at the hotel, at which from a dozen
to twenty men sat down, all feverish to hear about the West and the
cattle business in particular. Already several companies had
been organized to engage in ranching, and the capital had been
over-subscribed in every instance; and actually one would have
supposed from the chat that we were holding a cattle convention in
the West instead of dining with a few representatives and government
officials at Washington.

I soon became the object of marked attention. Possibly it was my
vocabulary, which was consistent with my vocation, together with my
ungainly appearance, that differentiated me from my partners. George
Edwards was neat in appearance, had a great fund of Western stories
and experiences, and the two of us were constantly being importuned
for incidents of a frontier nature. Both my partners, especially the
Senator, were constantly introducing me and referring to me as a man
who, in the course of ten years, had accumulated fifty thousand cattle
and acquired title to three quarters of a million acres of land. I was
willing to be a sociable fellow among my friends, but notoriety of
this character was offensive, and in a private lecture I took my
partners to task for unnecessary laudation. The matter was smoothed
over, our estimates for the coming year were submitted, and after
spending the holidays with my parents in Virginia, I returned to the
capital to await the allotments for future delivery of cattle to the
Army and Indian service. Pending the date of the opening of the bids
a dinner was given by a senator from one of the Southern States, to
which all members of our firm were invited, when the project was
launched of organizing a cattle company with one million dollars
capital. The many advantages that would accrue where government
influence could be counted on were