The Placer herald., 1874-03-14
LETTER FROM SHERIDAN.
SHERIDAN, March 9, 1874.

ED. HFRALD:-
Diamond cut diamond. The railroad monopo-
y against the sheep monopoly which is bit
of phrasing that may need explanation. Sup
pose man has a few thousand sheep; has rath-
er scant range for them; is ambitious, and is
making money. Suppose that among his
neighbors there are certain worthless, lymphatic
men squatting quarter-section each which
they don't mean to pay the Government for,
and which the high taxes would forever prevent
them from paying for if they did-but which
they are all the while stripping of the timber,
by the sale of which. and little stock, they
pull through from year to year on their marrow
bones. Suppose they rent this land to the
sheep men right up to their doors, thus leaving
their own stock to range other men. Sup
pose, more than that, they 'fe on" section
of railro AL land and rent that too. 1t is no
tori oua nat as soon as sheep Craze few days
on ange all other stock abandon it. Sup
pose, further, that another man here and there
has little range which he is trying to preserve
for the use of his own stock. But all the stock
Of his neghbors, who rent their pastures to the
sheep men, comes huddling in upon him, being
driven in by the sheep, and he is eaten up to
the skin of his teeth. Now is not this infa-
nous? 1t is damnable, and there is no other
word to qualify it. The sheep men of Placer,
far as am acquainted with them, are honora-
BILE men. and they have sense enough to be able
to make some money. But these eeches; these
little sycophants, who pre-empt land for them
oy preying, who pretend to acquire title to rail
road land for them, and thereby cause their own
herds to poach on their more scrupufous neigh
bors--California could very we'll dispense with
their personality. Their existence is not ap-
preciated. They remind one of the bird de-
scrbed by natur alists, which perches on the
head of the rhinoceros and gives it warning of
approaching danger in return for the privilege
of picking the vermin off the head of the
mighty brute
Now comes the railroad company and puts a
finger into the cake. 1t is rumored they have
established the rule that no moro of their land
shall be sold to any man who cannot give salts
factory evidence that he wishes it for his excln-
sive personal bona fde occupation or usufruct.
This is we'll Let the rule be vigorously and
impair tally enforced. The railroad land is the
source of infinite contention and wrangling in
neighborhoods. 1t is curse to the country so
long it remains in their possession and until
it passes into private ownership it will continue
to be- There is more jangllng, five times over,
about The railroad land and the right of occu-
pying it, than there is the government land.
Stock men will quarrel over it to the end of the
chapter until it is finally put at rest by bling
sold to some man or other.
One thing more while am on this topic. 1t
is pitiful business, this botheration and bck-
ering about the wretched pasturage that grows
on these eaten-out, gnawedout old bones Of
hill, when men, by simply sowing little crop
of barley, or by driving their stock for few
months down on the great grain ranches, could
have an abundance of straw that now is burned
up every year. When will stock men ever com
pass the knowledge that the day of wild grass,
shoulder high and of cattle fat the round year
on the uncultivated and unsupplemented range,
is over, and that they have got to commence
feeding as in the East if not so long, at least in
the pinch of the season? am sick unto death
of the miserable, miserable spectacle of the
phantom cattle that reel and stagger from No
vember to March through me foothills and over
the wind-swept, hard bitter plains. And the
devilish GOODNESS with which their owners will
| speculate on the probable term OF their exist
ence! They will tell you to day, almost to m
hour, when they will make an end. The lop-
horned one will GO tomorrow; the spotted one
may last week yet. This is murder reduced
to a fine art The poor brutes, with their great
| hollow eyes, beat up and down tie hills, ana IN
an uncautious moment sink in ravine 'o 'he