Texas Siftings, an independent weekly humor magazine, was started in Austin, Texas in May 1881 by Alexander E. Sweet and John Armoy Knox. From 1886 to 1891, Texas Siftings ranked as one of the most popular illustrated American publications, with a circulation of 150,000. Sweet and Knox compiled columns from Texas Siftings into three books, "Sketches from Texas Siftings" in 1882, "On a Mexican Mustang through Texas, From the Gulf to the Rio Grande" in 1883, and "Texas Siftings" in 1883.