Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1920 — OLD RANCH HOUSES PASSING [ARTICLE]

OLD RANCH HOUSES PASSING

Their Disappearance to Be Regretted for Many Reasons, but the Change la Inevitable, Some people do not like to see the ‘old, historic ranch houses In southern Texas go. There Is a pity In it They are eloquent, even though many- of them are in ruins, of a romantic epoch tn the history of the state. Many of these ranch homes were built during the period of the Spanish control of Mexico and were of feudal type and on large land grants of feudal extent. These buildings were succeeded by the less pretentious but spacious and comfortable ranch houses of the later cattlemen. Every one of them was & center of pioneer life, the stopping place of cattlemen and travelers leasing through the country, and the hospitality of the occupants of them all Is a tradition. The great ranch regions are being broken up into’ smaller ranches and then into still smaller farms, and a new order of life but makes them an incumbrance. But It is as vain to sigh over them as over the disappearance of the oceans of prairie and the buffalo. The latter existence is tamer, but more profitable. The sub- ( stitution of herds of cattle In the hands of many proprietors for the herds of buffalo, and the plowing up of the wild prairie for the crops of the fixed settler represent an Inestimable gain. The wild and the picturesque vanish before plain utility and industry. but more people are served and made happier in the same territory. Those old days will always be Interesting to read about, hut they were Intermediary and had to pass away for the greater good of the greater number. Some of these ranch homes of the older and the later order are maintained in repair when their continued usefulness Is desirable and practicable. Some of the abandoned places go by accidental fire, some by the slow process of decay and some are removed for specific purposes. It is suggested that the memory of those that must disappear he preserved In photographs and that notes of the stirring events and life of which they were the centers be taken for extension into annals. This -is tlie best that can be done. The new cannot be grafted into the old and the old must pass into history.—-Omaha World-Herald.