The old Texas motto, "Fight your own fight and bury your own dead," is still respected along the Border although there has been no cause recently to put it into practice. Even in this day of automobiles and paved highways and telephones, a ranch dweller is sometimes conscious of an isolation that couldn't have been much different forty years ago. Then as now he has to do most things for himself, from dosing a sick calf to repairing a dynamo. He may have to travel forty miles to see a neighbor- seventy-five miles to buy a can of beans or a yard of calico. He may be able to hear soap opera on a radio set but such luxury doesn't temp him to quit being self-reliant.
from pages 311-312, The Texas Border
from pages 311-312, The Texas Border