Morning journal and courier., 1881-03-17
Price Four Cents.
A Cow Boys Life.
crossing the Rocky Mountains with
 Four Thousand Cattle.

| A Cow Boys Life.
 ! Crossing the Rocky Mountains vx,,h | Four Thousand Cattle. From the San Francisco Chronicle1
 Gabriel will require 8 large club attach ment to that horn of his, or else he will never
 be able to rodeo the mountain COW boys"
 remarked Ben Haywood, Utah cattle dealer. Why so asked the reporter
 | Because" replied Haywood ''there are no circumstances under which a COW boy will
 not sleep if not physically molested In the l midst of amountain storm when the crashing l thunder comes simultaneously with the glar- I ing sheets of lightning, the COW boy sleeps l peacefully; in a dry creek bed, with his head down grade, he slumbers sweetly: in view of I tarantulas, rattlesnakes, and centipedes for bedfellows, he closes his eyes, and dreams of heaven of unlimited plug tobacco and un- stlnted sleep. Gabriel's trumpet would in- deed sound in vain when the time came to check off drove of COW boys. Last spring was driving four thousand head of cattle over the Rocky Mountains by the South
 wyoming Pass, and 8 run'-the terror of
 cattle drivers-took place under circumstances
 which showed just how sound is the sleep of
 cowboy. I had fifteen boys-a boy with
 the cow prefix may mean & forty-year-old
 man-with me. It takes nearly that many
 to start drove of four thousand cattle
 though half dozen boys can take care of
 the drove after the first week on the road
 By that time the cattle know what is ex-
 pected of them, and give us very little
 trouble.
 Well, we were campsd one night on the
 very summit of the mountains The sleep
 ing ground for the stock was in little five
 acre patch Of grass; all around were sage
 brush and rocks of volcanic formation You
 understand that after cattle are quietly set
 tied at night on good sleeping ground three
 or four men slowly ride in 8 circle arsg A
 s, l<,,. l.
 watches, the watch being changed at mid
 night. I have many time seen COW boy
 on broncho, riding round and round the drove at night fast asleep in his saddle On the night in question happened to be stand ing the first watch myself, and only had two boys with me. The night was overcast and dark, the few stars which shone between the rifts of driving clouds just serving to outline the mass of sleeping cattle. The air seemed surcharged with electricity, and though there had been no lightning it was jsst such a night in which runs always occur. have heard no end of scientific and practical ex- planation of stock runs or stampedes-gen- orally by men who never saw one in their lives, It is well enough to say that some- thing frightens them, if you know nothing about it, and want to explain it but that don't explain it, way.
 s'They say that coyote, or some other proving beast frightens one of drove, and that one infects the others with panic and the stampede begins. We'll, it ain't SO. If you have drove of 8 thousand or ten thous- and, the panic affects every one of them at exactly the same instant. It is something harder to account for than by prowling coy ote; and because run never occurs except on such night as have described. I leave it to those who know all about atmospheric influences and such to tell just what it is. Anyway, was little uneasy that night, for one of the two boys on watch with me was H. L1.I .Ia-f f11 1A. la..- to the business, and fresh from the East. It was nearly 12 o'clock, and had just turned my horse's head toward camp, which was about fifty yards in the rear of the sleeping ground, to make up the relief watch, when the run commenced. Every one of that drove of 1000 cattle was on it's feet like flash, and exactly at the same instant. With a rush like whirlwind which levels forest they were off in the darkness, the strong and heavy ones in the lead, of course. The rat tlings of horns and the laundering of hoofs was deafening. The effect it has on per son who experiences it for the first time was shown by the action of the tenderfoot.
 "He turned his horse's tail toward the buried his spurs into his broncho's flank, and never stopped until he was out of hearing. He was crazier with fright than he widest steer in the drove. Well, seeing 68o, 900 worth of stock running away from me, and having had thirteen years expert snce, I naturally acted different. By the spectre starlight could see the cattle out ined as black, rushing, clattering, thunder ng stream, rushing wildly and at each in- 'tant becoming wilder, over the rocks and stretch of sagebrush. My horse was trained n the business, and knew what was the trou- ole as well, and just soon, too, as I did. I lid not have to guide him. I followed along y the side of the stampede and soon over ook the leaders. It don't do to try and turn . run too quick. I kept by the side of the eaders and quartered on them striking heir Hanks and pushing gradually against hem on the left, slowly turns the leaders slightly to the right. If that can be done it s only matter of time before the line of ,attle will mill itself The leaders only need oe turned-the rest all blindly follow. By constantly keeping them turning to the right he leaders were swung clear around finally md overlook the flag end of the line.
 "There they were rushing around in .ircle, the centre of which soon closed up md they were milling ; that is, they had ormed solid wheel, and kept going round md round themselves in the same space of round. I tell you that COW boy and myself lid some tall riding around that mill to ,eep the outside stock from flying off at a angent, as they will do sometimes. Little y little they slowed down, and soon as we ould make our voices heard we quieted them y singing and talking to them. There is lothing which will bring crazy steer to his
  'oice, and if you can only sing little, you an do the work all the quicker. The clash ng and crashing of horns and the pounding if hoofs grew less and less deafening; one fter another would recognize our voices and low down, until finally, almost suddenly s it had started, the run was at an end, and, he cattle as quiet and well-behaved as ever. n the morning the circle where the mill had ,een was as devoid of vegetation as dancing all. The sagebrush was ground to powder, nd the ground looked exactly as though it ad been prepared for circus ring. Through he sagebrush where the stock had run, traight, smooth swath was cut, as if by a 1owing machine with potato digging at- started to say how COW boy ould sleep; throughout that run, through ut the excitement, the deafening noise and he danger, those COW boys in camp slept as ney might if in a feather bed in the Palace otel."
 Hfs HumOr Never Deserted Him.
 From the Milwaukee (wis.) Republican,