Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 147, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1911 — Women Rule Roost in Lone Star State [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Women Rule Roost in Lone Star State

SAN ANTONIO. TEX.—A Georgia court may decide, as one did the other day, that poor, henpecked man is the head of the family and stand for that old custom of woman ■obeying in all things. That may be true in Georgia, where the sweet potato and the goober pea lead the procession and the “blind tiger” has a lair in every jungle, but it is different in Texas. A Texas court might hold that man Is the head of the family, but no court on earth could clinch such a decision. In Texas women have done almost everything in the catalogue of commercial possibilities. In a number of Instances women own large ranches and have operated them successfully for years. Women in this state lead the country in dairying. In a number of Instances women carry the mall on rural routes and a half-dozen or more of them have made the record of not missing a day in the year.

Women, many of them who ride as well as men, assist in the roundups on large ranches and are as handy with the whip and the rope as the men. The outlaw steer, which has escaped the cowboys, has a poor chance to beat it back to the brush when two or more Texas cowgirls get on his trail. One Texas girl has roped, thrown and tied a steer in less than one minute. Her feat became the subject for a painter of national reputation and she is done in oil on a canvas ten feet square in the Menger hotel in this city. Women in Texas operate oil wells and are moving forces in coal mining. Some of the steel skyscrapers in this city were built and are owned by women, these having taken the lead in twentieth century steel and concrete construction. Reverting to some of the rare things which Texas women have done and are doing, one young woman in this city has proved conclusively that the most refractory broncho can be ridden in perfect safety without a bridle. She rides a little native Texas horse through the streets of this city almost every day directed entirely by words. She has demonstrated that woman Is a conquering force when she exerts herself.