The Portland daily press., 1878-06-03
MONDAY MORNING, JUNE 8.

10 tCidAOhCCO Wy tuo lcepUuSlVe Calls Oh
the mothers. An extra number of men are
employed, and the sheep that have lambed are
divided according to the age of their progeny
into small tiocks and are herded near the ranch
10 save them over-travel. The land in view is
Dotted with the little detachments each under
lhe care OF shepherd There is nothing 80
inconsistent and impractical as a sheep, and at
this epoch its foolish traits intensity so that
very few ewes and lambs fdrnish business for
good deal of man. Especially is the fore
man, always busy man, driven hither and
thither by calls for his attention, and confronted
with the difficult problem of doing hundred
different things at once.
The position OF foreman on sheep ranch is
one OF the hardest and most exacting that
man can be called to. This is particularly the
case on large estate like this one. Tho differ
ent tiocks are widely separated over two hun
ored square miles of territory, and are be-
slowed according to the season, and the condi-
tions of pastarage The shepherds who are
expected not to leave the sheep day or night
are TO be looked after, and supplied with fuel
ana provisions. Camps or corrals must be built
or repaired in dozen localities, and wells
Is
water. There is coal to be mined on ths es-
tate, and lumber, frewood, grain and stores
OF all kinds to be hauled from points many
miles away. The foreman has to depend
largely on inexperienced labor to do the work
OF Inc ranch, and with extemporized imple-
ments must be ready to turn his hand to apy
trade. Unforeseeable difficulties are ALWAYS
Likely to come up, and he must decide iustan-
taneously in matters involving great response
bliity The sheep business in this country is
TOO recent thing to have gathered many ira
aitional maxims to help one out of difficulty.
In fact the amount of certain knowledge pre-
Vaiiing on the subject both in its general and
special aspects is extremely small, and in
doubtful cases he can only proceed expert.
mentally, estimating chances from such data
as he possesses, and depending mainly on what
my old friend Albion Dudley calls "the COM
poand-rule of Gumption." On Hollis Ranch
The foreman is Mr.. Alfred A. Bolton, formerly
OF Brewer, Maine, who fills most satisfactorily
this responsible position. Instead of the many
pleasant things might truthfully say of him
after companionship of five months, will
repeat the remark of an old Coloradan who
meant to pay the most tremendous compliment
IN the power of man to bestow. "You'd think
hr. Bolton had lived here half his life." Be.
tides the work teams which comprise half-a-
dozen pairs of horses and mules, he has always
several saddle horses at his disposal for the
quicker getting about the ranch To ride
twenty or thirty miles daily and do days
work at the stopping-places, eating and sleep.
ing at the camp where he happens to be; to di-
rect the varied operatio rs of this great estate
and keep the work running smoothly-is pretty
well Tor man who came here two years ago an
invalid and unused to this work.
The ranchmen of the Plaius include widely
differing specimens of humankind, from the
"Tenderfoot just from the East and full of
sanguine projects for the attainment of an i'm
mediate fortune, to the weatherbeaten "Old
Timer who came here in the gold excitement
OF 80 aud has survived the vicissitudes of
twenty years on the frontier There are men
who sojourn on the Plains only long
enough to raise stake, or tide over q dull sea-
son for work in town, and there are others who
would not live anywhere else. But however
mixed the elements may be that make up a
ranch-crew there is uniform behavior of
generosity and good-fellowship toward one
another. A quarrel is rare occurrence, and
cases OF dishonesty are almost unknown. The
cowboys" who are most distinctively the
Plainsmen, are fond of an uproar and ALWAYS
ready to defy the outside world to the death.
put among themselves they are gentle and un-
selfish and considerate. A common character
istic OF these men is their disregard of little de-
tails of every kind. The practice of overlook
ing wide landscape and the preoccupation of
guarding against rude and dangerous contin-
gencies units them for smaller matter. One
who has lived in the open county long enough
to have caught its spirit feels limited and con-
strained in mountainous or closely settled
region. lie wants room to look around him, and
mas feeling that some enemy may creep near
him underlcover. Such man forest and the
sighing of wind through the trees inspire with
melancholy and distrust though the bleakest
day on winter prairie would not abate his
cheerfulness.
In the force of. raHch so large as this there
are always men with history, as Mcclure,
who owns a silver 'lead'' in the San Juan
Country and is here earning stake with
which to develop it; the old Mexican, Jesus
pronounced Ha-soos and corrupted by the bows
into Kossuth), who passed his boyhood in csp-
tlvity among the Comanche Indians; and the
ranch cook, James Sheridan, commonly
known as 'The General" who is one of the
widely known men of the Plains. He has had
adiversified experience of hazardous adventure.
When mere boy he was one of the two sur.
vivors of shipwreck, afterwards campaigned
in India in the war of the Mutiny, and as min.
sfQoa-drivcr hnu
mas participated in the most stirring events of
the last fifteen years on the Western Plains.
In the Black Hills, he discovered the valuable
Sheridan "lead'' which was named for him.
lie has twice been shot through the BODY with
out breaking up his constitution, and now, in
his fortieth year, is as good a man as he ever
was; which is, in every sense of the word,
very good man indeed.
In leaving the ranch after residence thereon
OF i've months 1 notice what home feeling
attaches to the place. OF experiences which at
nrst seemed rough there remains the memory
only of substantial comfort, ani of the mel
who have been my associates so long can re-
call only admiration for their hardihood and
faithfulness, ana liking for the good-fellowship
winch is the rule OF their behavior. The force
employed on Hollis Ranch has stability that
is uncommon in this restless country in which
changes are go frequent. There are men who
have worked in the cattle outfit ever since the
present ownership began. five years ago. The
management is such that good men like to stay,
and there is saying at the ranch that men
who go away from here to improve their pros.
poets elsewhere, are almost sure sooner or later
to desire to return. Every year goes on the
planting of trees, reclaiming of land and gen.
eral improvements of every kind and in time
to come the Valley of Horse Creek will be even
more than now an Oasis in the wide arid spaces
of the Great American Desert, C.P.