William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[326] armed and mounted men; yet nowhere have we seen much evidence of devotion to the chase. Wild game abounds. On every side, except the side-board, we see elk and antelope, snipe and quail, leveret and prairie-fowl. Nature has done her part, and done it well; but man has not found time, as yet, to use her gifts. The fight for life is still too hard for men to ask for anything more dainty than campaigning fare.

“ Game!” cries a comrade in the dining-room; “guess the only game we Texans care about is poker.” Dine where you may-at prairie ranch, at roadside inn, at railway restaurant — the beef is all leather, the bacon all fat; and when you ask for another dish, you are served with more beef all leather, and more bacon all fat. From Denison to Hearne, from Hearne to Galveston, the plains of Texan are dotted with cattle. Steers browse on every knoll, heifers make pastorals at every pool. “ Here now,” you whisper to yourself, “ is a country of wholesome food-fresh meat, pure milk, new butter, native cheese; here, after courses of jerked antelope and alkaline water, we shall have a chance of growing strong on simple meat and wholesome ”