The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 35, July 1931 - April, 1932 Page: 200
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Southwestern- Historical Quarterly
thing and everything until the manager might see fit to place them
on the payroll. Such spirit usually had its effect, and the boys
were allowed to stay." It is to be remembered, however, that such
cases were rare exceptions, and do not in any sense typify the mass
of restless, swaggering, country boys who left home bent on be-
coming punchers.
The Spur ranch seriously tried to maintain certain standards of
conduct among its hands. The managers made it a policy never
to employ knowingly a hand who had been discharged for question-
able conduct. They insisted that all their employees pay their
honest debts. Time after time we find a manager, at the insistence
of a creditor, bringing pressure to bear on a hand to get him to
pay a debt. A foreman in charge of the leased White Deer pasture
was discharged on the grounds that he "was not truthful.'" Sev-
eral men were "fired" at one time or another because they were
strongly suspected of being in connivance with thieves.10 It is
interesting to note that the Spur ranch was one of the first ranches
in Northwest Texas to become bone-dry so far as intoxicating liquor
was concerned. Prohibition came about by a decree of Manager
Lomax and was rigidly enforced so far as outside appearances were
concerned. Several freighters were discharged and forbidden ever
again to come on the ranch for attempting to boot-leg liquor in to
the hands. Horsbrugh, upon becoming manager, repealed the pro-
hibition decree. One of the hands celebrated the return of liquor
in 1890 by getting drunk, falling out of a buggy, and breaking his
neck."1 In 1896, a veteran bookkeeper was discharged "because of
drunkenness."'1 There is a bit of irony in the fact that Horsbrugh,
who imbibed more or less Scotch whiskey himself, should discharge
the bookkeeper for doing the same thing.
From the time of the organization of the ranch to the spring of
1889 the morale of the hands seems to have been low. On several
occasions Lomax and Horsbrugh expressed fears to the effect that
a majority of them were in sympathy with lawlessness-not that
the hands themselves were bad, but that they were indifferent.
They would ride far out of their way in order not to see a rustler
8Spur Records, VIII, 241.
9Spur Records, V, 683.
"Spur Records, V, 225.
"Spur Records, VI, 70.
"Spur Records, VIII, 36.200
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 35, July 1931 - April, 1932, periodical, 1932; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101092/m1/204/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.