Fifteen Western Tales, March 1954 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a =<% a ieerd ¥ a .' ote wr eA Ae we * Peer tye « : Fees iye © Beer Sizes ee ys gh tee % » whe wend a . OR das en ee CATTLE CASH | By BESS RITTER ” * MODERN American cattlemen think their taxes are too high, let them be consoled, if possible, by the following. Around 1700 Spanish ranchers in New Mexico and Texas were required to pay to the viceroy a local tax of one out of every five heifers, a tax of ten per cent on all cattle sold, a tax of about four dollars per year for every ranchhand and two dollars for every house servant. Additionally the crown received another ten per cent of one’s “es- timated”’ revenue plus a fixed tax of about three-fourths of a cent for every vara, about one square yard, of ground owned or rented, thus collecting twice on rented ground. In parts of New Mexico there were also special taxes on every bull one owned, a tax on the number of rooms in one’s house, a tax on wines, and a tax of about one dollar twenty per year for every animal owned. : There were also special taxes for such incidentals as marriages, — births, and even funerals. Certain roads could be used only by paying _a toll tax, and certain dwellings housing a particularized type of popular entertainment, then as*now, could be built only upon pay- ment of a lavish sum and entered by non-residents only if they owned a certain type of costly permit, renewable monthly. 12 : cOmichoolks.com