Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-04-28
had crowded and trampled each other

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We hauled down our shed directly.
It is far safer to let the cattle shift for
themselves and get into the runs and
hollows when the storms come. Texan
herders are now agreed that it is better
for their stock to go unhoused.
These six 2-year-olds made fine
feast for the cayotes and Indian dogs,
after we had hauled the carcasses on to
the prairie. If we had had strychnine
we might, no doubt, have destroyed
numbers of them.
Many herders keep strychnine to
poison the wolves with. Sometimes,
however, they will not pick up bait
thus seasoned and the cayote is not a
creature easily caught in trap.
But we hit on method of Kidding
ourselves of our cayote neighbors, less
laborious than drowning them out. Or
rather it was Zofe Whiting who hit on
the new plan. I will give the fellow his
due, for he was not worth much to us
in any other way,
Zofe left us in the latter part of June.
Where he went we did not know; nor
did he know where he was going. But
we learned afterward that he went to
Las Animas, and after time got Job
digging holes for telegraph posts, along
the new railway, not very far from that
place.
They had way of digging these
holes that may be new to one. Instead
of putting an Irishman to work with
spade, they sent one man along with
an iron crow, to punch holes in the
ground three feet and half deep, at
the places where the poles were to be
set.
Behind the man with the crowbar
came a second man with bucketful of
dynamite cartridges. On coming to a
bar-hole, he lighted the fuse of cart
ridge, dropped it to the bottom of the
hole-and moved on.
Presently there came an explosion,
which blew out the earth all about the
hole, leaving a,pit as big as a -four bar
rel. The men with the posts had now
only to heel them in and fill in the dirt.
Two men with those cartridges could
sink $50 holes in day, whereas two
men with spades could not dig more
than fifty holes.
Zofe had the job of carrying and
lighting the cartridges, at $40 month.
1t was rather dangerous business, but
it had this advantage-it was light work
and nobody imposed upon him, or came
fooling around while he was in dis
charge of his duty.
Zofe had rather liked us, and the
next spring, in March, he came along
one day with his old glazed-cloth vaise
stuffed full of his togs; the same old
Zofe. That evening, as we sat round
the fire, he inquired for our old friend,
the cayote. 1--we got something" said
he, "that'll hist him."
We, of course, wanted to know what
it was.
He said he would tell us in the morn
ing.
fine next morning, after breakfast, he
undid his valise, and pulled out ten or
fifteen of these dynamite cartridges
They were lying loose in the bottom of
the bag, together with specimens of ore
an old revolver and three or four stubs
of matches.
The foolish, careless fellow had been
carrying those about in that manner for
weeks, on the cars and in stages, and
his old valise had set within six feet OF
our open fire all night! That was Zofe
We had a crowbar for setting corral
posts, and Zofe told us to take it and
come on.
We crossed over the creek and went
up to the cayote's hole. This burrow was
much like the first one, having two or
three entrances. Zofe looked it over,
and, choosing point about midway Of
the entrances. told Ed to punch hole.
Ed worked the bar down, till at length
it broke through into the burrow and
went down nearly the whole length of it.
"Thats just the thing" said Zofe;
pull it cut"
He struck match, remarking that we
had better go off "a few steps,"
We were already going making good
time, too. He lighted a cartridge,
dropped it into the hole, then sauntered
away.
1t did not make as much noise as we
thought it would. There came kind
of heavy bunk in the ground, and the
smoke and dirt few up. But it tore out
a pretty large hole, and showed the cay
ote's nest, down in the burrow.
There was den as large as bath
tub, half-full of dry grass. We could
discover nothing of the cayote; but we
always supposed the explosion killed the
creature, for we never saw him after.
ward.
zofe said the idea of blowing out cay
otes came to him one day while he was
making telegraph post-holes, and he had
put aside some cartridges to try the ex-
pertinent with.
We blew out ten or dozen holes
At one, the cartridge nIew the cavote
out and sent him neels over head in the
ar Tor htaeen or twenty yards. We
plcked him up, oaite dead.
AT some of the other burrows, the
cayotes would dash out, after the blast,
their hair full of smoke and
dirt, and run for life. Ed generally
popped those with heavy charge of
deer shot.
One, IN particular, remember, which
seer ,nH 70 Dtoor a nF foot