"In the carefully edited official records, known as the "Chinese Year Book", which was written some fourteen hundred years ago, a circumstantial account of a visit to Mexico by a party of Buddhist Priests is given. These priests saw in the country two breeds of cattle. One of these breeds was described as having very large horns which would hold ten measures. These were probably the earliest ancestors of the present race of Texas cattle, while the other breed with shorter horns was, it is likely, the ancestors of the bison that later roamed over the ranges of the western plains. Those ancient travelers were too well accustomed to seeing cattle and horses in their own country to be in even the slightest degree likely to mistake any other animal for kine. The generally accepted belief, however, is that the Texas cattle are descendants of cattle brought to America by the Spanish invaders, although no definite proof seems to have been brought forward to show that those roistering, plundering explorers ever imported any cattle to this continent, and turned them loose in such numbers as would have produced the vast horde that covered the Southwestern plains before the Civil War. "To western people, especially in those parts where Spanish or Texas fever has caused the destruction of stock, Texas cattle are so well known that a description of their peculiarities will appear unnecessary. There are many who do not know that the chief purpose of the Texas bullock, pure and simple, seems to be the lugging about of a prodigious pair of horns. To this end, a big head and coarse shoulders have been given him. Behind these are a flat ribbed, thin chested, light body, held up at the hinder end by a pair of cat hams on thin, deer-like legs. The whole outfit, unburdened by flesh or fat, is muscular, nervous, and active. Such of them as lived through alternate roasting, starving, and freezing during the early years of their lives, found their way to the northern markets to be fattened and slaughtered. These rangers fattened very readily in the northern feed lots and those that were not too old and tough made very good beef. Thousands of them were driven from Texas in the early forties and fifties to Illinois feed lots, where they were fattened and then re-driven to the markets on the seaboard. In later years, they were slaughtered in Illinois and shipped in refrigerator cars, in the form of dressed carcasses, to the Atlantic States. Choice parts, as steaks, roasts, and tenderloins, were sent to health resorts, watering places, and to hotels and restaurants. A vast quantity of their flesh found its way into tin cans, to feed hungry humanity, in the hut of the laborer, at the picnic of the aristocrat, in the camp of the miner, and in the forecastle of the sailor in every corner of the world. It will be seen that the mission of the Texas steer was to raise the standard of living, to add to the comfort, and preserve the health and strength of people the world