Swimming-holes—Hunting in West Texas—Fishing in Nueces River—Jim Conners—Foreman Betner—A runaway car.

About a mile above the Cline mines there used to be a splendid swimming-hole, some 12 or 14 feet deep, with a sandy bottom, and a large flat rock on the bank to dress on. Many an exciting game of catch and water polo we had there during my first year at the mines.

But I shall never forget my first swim in this hole. A week or so after I arrived, I asked where a man could get a swim, as the creek at the mines was shallow, with a muddy bottom. A young fellow offered to show me a good place, and, as no one else seemed to want to go, we started off together, and he took me to the hole I have mentioned. When we arrived, he “guessed” he would not go in, so I stripped and dived in by myself, while he sat on the rock and watched me. After I had been in some ten minutes he drawled out, “Say! do you know why I and the other boys do not want to go in swimming?” “No,” I said.

“Why?” “Well,” he said, "we’re some scared of the alligators." I was out of the water in a flash, 105and then he began to laugh, and laughed all the way back to camp, where he told all the other boys, and they certainly had lots of fun at my expense. It turned out that there was not an alligator nearer than 100 miles of us.

But “water-moccassins” (a species of snake that lives in the water and is claimed to be poisonous) there are in plenty, though I never saw one bother anybody. They tell a story about a New York tourist in Florida who wanted to go swimming. His guide took him to a pool where there were lots of moccassins. The Northerner, in spite of his guide assuring him that they would not touch him, refused to go in, and demanded to be taken to some place where there were no snakes. The guide then took him over to a bayou, where there was not a snake to be seen. Here the Yank was satisfied, stripped, and went in for his swim. When he got out, he asked the guide if he could account for the fact that there were no snakes in the bayou when there were so many in the first pool. "How come there ain’t no snakes in hyah? Why, the ’gators keeps them et up!" the guide replied.

Later on the company built two large dams, with a capacity of about five million gallons each, one below and one above the camp. The upper dam then became our swimming-hole, as it was closer to the works, and 106on it we also used to sail canvas boats or canoes that some of us made. Fish were very plentiful, mostly catfish, rock-bass, perch, and sunfish; though some years later I got black-bass from the government hatchery, and stocked the entire river with them.

This part of West Texas is an ideal hunting country for small game. There are plenty of rabbits, both the cotton-tail and the jack-rabbit, or hare; quail in thousands, both the Mexican and bob-white varieties, also at certain seasons of the year wild pigeon and duck of all kind abound; deer are plentiful of the “white-tail” variety, and a few “black-tail,” and these are increasing, owing to the new protection laws passed by the state, whereby the sale of game is practically prohibited. Coyotes, javelines (the small wild boar), wild cat, fox, coons, and possum are plentiful in the lower part of the country, and up in the cedar brakes and hills in the northern part of the country there are still bear and panther to be found; these sometimes come down into the plains, one of the latter being shot about two miles below the mines, and on another occasion I saw two. Of turkey there are still a few left, but they are very wild, wilder even than the coyote, which is saying a good deal.

The fishing on the Nueces (Nut) River, about nine miles from the mines, is very good, and the water is of 107crystal clearness; there I have caught bass up to 12 lbs., and alligator char up to 4 feet in length, and have seen others over 6 feet long. Although these latte are no good for the table, they are well worth trying for, as they are one of the gamest freshwater fish I have ever hooked; they have given me splendid sport, much to the disgust of my camp partner, who could not see the sense of catching fish that were not good for the pot, and then throwing them back again. They are a species of pike, with a much longer mouth, like an alligator, hence the name. Catfish also have been caught, weighing as much as 45 lbs., and a blue cat of that size will give a man all he can handle on a light rod.

Our new foreman, Betner, was a well-built man of about forty-five years of age, of the stamp known as “raw-hider” in the States, and his boast was that he could get more work out of a gang of men than any man he had met. He was of the stamp of the famous Jim Conners. Conners was put as boss of a gang of rough longshoremen in Buffalo; before he started work he decided to call his men altogether and give them a talk. When he had them all there he roared out, "Now yez are to work for me, and I want every man to understand what’s what. What I sez goes, and whin I spake I want yez to jomp, for I kin lick 108any man in the gang!" There was silence for a minute, then one burly fellow stepped out and said, "You can’t lick me, Jim Conners." "I can’t, can’t I?" bellowed Conners. "No, you can’t," was the reply. “Oh, thin go to the office and get your money,” said Conners, "fer I’ll have no man in me gang that I can’t lick." So it was with Betner; he would not have any man in his gang who would not lick his boots.

His history will give some idea of the man himself, and also of what extraordinary chances some men get in this extr............