Middletown transcript., 1881-04-01
A COW BOYS LIFE
CROSSING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
WITH FOUR THOUSAND CATTLE.

| CROSSING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
WITH FOUR THOUSAND CATTLE.
Gabriel will require large club at
tachment to that horn Of his, or else ht
will never be able to rodeo the noun
tain COW boys" remarked Ben Hey
wood, a Utah cattle dealer.
'tWhy so ~ asked the reporter.
Because, !" replied Haywood, "thert
are no circumstances under which {
COW boy will not sleep if not physically
molested. In the midst of mountain
storm, when the clashing thunder comes
simultaneously with the glaring sheets
Of lightning, the COW boy sleeps peace.
fully in a dry creek bed, with his head
down grade, he slumbers sweetly ir
view Of tarantulas, rattlesnakes, and
centipedes for bedfellows, he closes his
eyes, and dreams Of a heaven of unlim.
tied plug tobacco and unstinted sleep.
Gabriel's trumpet would indeed sound
in vain when the time came to check off
a drove Of COW boys. Last spring was
driving four thousand head Of cattle
over the rocky mountains by the South
Wyoming Pass, and a srun'--the terror
of cattle drivers-took place under cir
cumstances which showed just how
sound is the sleep Of a COW boy. | had
fifteen boys-a boy with the cow pre-
fix may mean forty-year-old man
with me. Ittakes 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 expected of them, and give us
very little trouble.
t'Well, we were camped one night on
the very summit of the mountains. The
sleeping ground for the stock was in a
little ive-acre patch Of grass; all
around were sagebrush and rocks of
volcanic formation. You understand
that after cattle are quietly settled at
night on good sleeping ground three or
four men slowly ride in circle around
them This is done by relays of men
in watches, the watch being changed
at midnight. l have many a time seen
a COW boy on broncho, riding round
and round the drove at night fast asleep
in his saddle. On the night in question
I happened to be standing the first
watch myself, and only had two boys
with me. The night was overcast and
dark, the few stars which shone between
the riffs of driving clouds just serving
to outline the mass of sleeping cattle.
The air seemed surcharged with cleo
tricity, and though there had been no
it was just such a night in
which runs always occur. Ihaye heard
no end Of scientific and practical expla-
nation Of stock runs OF stampedes-
generally by men who never saw one in
their lives. 1t is well enough to say
that something frightens them, if you
know nothing about it, and want to
explain it but that don't explain it,
no way.
'EThey say that a coyote, or some
other prowling beast, frightens one of a
drove, and that one infects the other
with panic, and the stampede begins.
Well, it amt so. If you have drove
Of 4 thousand or ten thousand, the
panic affects every one Of them at ex-
actly the same instant. 1t is something
harder to account for than by a Prov
ing coyote /; and because a run never
occurs except on such a night as / have
described. | leave it to those who
know all about atmospheric influences
and such to tell just what it is. Any
way, I was little uneasy that night,
5or one of the two boys on watch with
ne was only tenderfoot understand ?
a man knew to the business, and fresh
rom the east. It was nearly II O'Clock,
md had just turned my horse's head
.oward camp, which was about fifty
7ards in the rear of the sleeping ground,
o make up the relief watch, when the
'un commenced Every one of that
lrove Of 1900 cattle was on its feet
ike flash, and exactly at the same
Instant. With a rush like a whirlwind
which levels a forest they were off in
he darkness, the strong and heavy ones
n the lead, Of course. The rattling of
lorns and the laundering of hoofs were
leafening. The effect it has on a per
on who experiences it for the first time
vas shown by the action Of the tender
oot.
He turned his horses tail toward
he stampede, buried his spurs into his
flank, and never stopped un-
il he was out Of hearing. He was era
Ter with fright than the widest steer
n the drove. Well, seeing $4,000
worth stock running away from me,
nd having had thirteen years. expert
nee, ! naturally acted different. BY the
pecter starlight / could see the cattle
utlined as black, rushing, clattering
stream, rushing wildly and
t each instant becoming wilder, over
be rocks and stretch Of sage-brush.
~ horse was trained in the business,
nd knew what was the trouble as well,
nd just as soon, too, as I did. ! did
Iot have to guide him. I followed