The office felt small as a cattle stall. Hat in hands, Billy stood peering at the framed paintings of horses and prize bulls. None bore resemblance to any living creature Billy had seen.
“Mr. Groom will see you now,” said the man in the glasses.
B.B. Groom sat small and hunched behind a vast wooden desk in a dim room lit by kerosene lanterns, heavy drapes covering the huge windows.
“Won’t waste your time on preliminaries,” said Mr. Groom. “Mr. Thut’s going back to Switzerland. The foreman job’s yours if you want it.”
“Yessir,” said Billy.
And that was that.
The Francklyn Land and Cattle Company was an English syndicate chartered in 1881 to invest in the “Beef Bonanza.” It was headed by and named for Charles G. Francklyn, a son-in-law of E. G. Cunard, owner of the Cunard Steamship Line, who helped finance the venture. The syndicate purchased a total of 631,000 acres of land in the Panhandle counties of Carson, Gray, Roberts, and Hutchinson, and also in Greer County, Oklahoma, then considered a part of Texas. The purchase price was $880,000. For a resident manager the syndicate acquired the services of B. B. Groom, a relative of Francklyn, who for several years had bred cattle in Kentucky. The Route 66 stopover of Groom, Texas (pop. 574) is named for him.
Dear Josh,
Short and sweet job interview. Well done. Thank you for sharing the history behind the story.
Shalom,
Rochelle
There are a million stories in the naked city, but ten million along Route 66. I was surprised not to see you do a take on that show.
I eschew the expected. ;)
Eschew! Gesundheit!
Great snippet of history. Nice for Groom to have left his mark on the land.
Great atmsophere, Johua
I love the brevity of the interview, and the story behind the story. Terse, clean writing.
A neat story with an interesting footnote. Nice one.
‘Retribution’, my short story.
OH, history!! I love stories with trivia! :) Nice!
Since there were pictures of horses on the wall, i thought you had made up the name Groom. . Foreman of that huge a piece of land sounds like a big job for inexperienced Billy. Good luck to him!
I can just imagine this was exactly how things were done. None of that lollygagging and farting around that goes on today. Get to the point, get the job done.
Especially in 100 words! ;-)
True dat!
That interview couldn’t have gone any better! I guess if Billy doesn’t work out, there are plenty more to choose from.
Would be nice if all job interviews were as swiftly and smoothly executed as that.
Indeed!
True cattlemen. The neighbor I grew up with is a cattleman. He says about two words a week. Well captured.
They didn’t talk much, did they? Nice glimpse of history there.
Thanks!
Interesting story. Love the interview process.
Good Billy go the job. Is Mr. Groom a good employer? Something fishy about the man.
Interesting piece of historical fiction. Wish I could get a job with so little experience and few words.