The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1881-04-30
A COWBOYS LIFE
Crossing the MountsIns with 1000 Cattle
"A Stampcde In the Mountains on a Dark
Nigh

a Utah cattle dealer, to Chronicle re-
porter
'Why sop inquired the reporter.
Because" replied Haywood, ''there
is no circumstance under which cow
boy will not sleep If not physically mo-
Tested. In the midst of a mountain
storm, when the crashing thunder
comes simultaneously with the glaring
sheets of lightning, the cowboy sleeps
peacefully; in dry creek bed, with his
head down grade, he slumbers sweetly;
in view of tarantulas, rattlesnakes and
centipedes for bedfcllows, he closes his
eyes and dreams of heaven of unlim-
tied plug tobacco and unslinted sleep.
GabriePs trumpet would indeed sound
IN vain when the time came to check off
a drove OF cowboys. Last spring was
driving 1000 head Of cattle over the
Rocky mountains by the South Wyom-
ing Pass, and run'-the terror OF cat
tie drivers--took place under circum-
stances which showed just how sound is
the sleep OF cowboy. | had fifteen
boys-a boy with the cow prefix
may mean a 40-ycar-old man-wth me.
1t takes nearly that many TO start
drove Of 1900 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 campcd one nighton
the very summit Of the mountains. The
sleeping ground for the stock was in
little iiye-acre patch of grass. All
around was sage brush 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 a circle round
them This is done by relays Of men
in Watches the watch being changed
at midnight. have many time seen
a cowboy on a broncho, riding round
and round drove fast asleep in his sad
de On the night in question hap
pencd TO be standing the first watch
myself, and had only 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 electricity, and
though there had been no lightning, it
was just such night in which runs al
ways occur. ] have heard no end of
scientific and practical explanation of
runs or 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.
"They say that coyote, or some
other prowling beast, frightens one of
drove and that one infects the others
with panic and the stampede begins.
Well, it amt so. II you have drove
Of | 900 or 10000 the panic affects ev-
cry one OF them at exactly the same
instant. 1t is something harder to ac-
count for than by a proving coyote,
and because run never occurs except
on such night as have described. |
leave it to those who know all about
the atmospheric influences and such, to
tell just what it is Any way, was lit.
| tie uneasy that night, for one of the two
! boys on watch with me was only ten
derfoot; you understand? A man new
| TO the business and fresh from the East.
1t was nearly II o'clock, and had Just
turned my horses head towards 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 was on
its feet like flash, and at exactly the
same instant. With rush like whirl-
wind which levels a forest, they were
otf in the darkness, the strong and
heavy ones in the lead, of course. The
rafting of horns and the laundering of
hoofs was deafening. The effect it has
on the person who experiences it for the
first time was shown by the acton of
| the tendcrfoot.
''He turned his horses tail toward the
stampede, buried his spurs in his bron-
cho's flank, and never stopped until he
was out of hearing. He was crazier
with fright than the widest steer in the
drove. Well, seeing $4,000 worth of
stock running away from me, and hav-
ing had thirteen years experience,
naturally acted different. BY the spec
trail starlight could see the cattle out
lined as black, rushing, Gathering,
laundering stream, rushing wildly, and
at each instant becoming wilder, over
rocks and stretch Of sage-brush. My
horse was trained in the business and
| knew what was the trouble rs well, and
just as soon, too, as did. did not
have to guide him. followed along
by the side of the stampede, and soon
overlook the leaders. IL don't do to
try and turn a run too quick. | kept by
the side of the leaders and quartering
on them, striking their tlanks and push
ing gradually against them on the left,
slowly turned the leaders slightly TO the
right II that can be done, it is only
matter of time before the line of cattle
will mill itself. The leaders only need
be turned, the rest all blindly follow.
BY constantly keeping them turned TO
the right, the leaders were swung clear
around finally, and overlook the fag-
end of the line.
There they were, running around in
circle, the center of which soon closed
up and they were milling; that is, they
had formed solid wheel and kept go
inc round themselves in the same space