The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1881-07-16
WHOLE No. 2,O14

back. and the nameless mounds that dot
the sides Of that broad path bear mute
but powerful testimony to the danger
that every hour surrounds the COW boy
Whether they fall by shot from some
hostile savage lurking in ravine neal
by, or are dropped by a six shooter in the
hands of fellow herder. they are hastil,
buried and soon forgotten. Entirely free
from the restraining power of the law
men give free rein to their passions, and
the six-shooter or Winchester rife-the
mseparable companions of the stock
drivers-is freely resorted to to settle
disputed questions. 1t is very common
for two bosses having charge of different
herds to jump down from their horses
and proceed to crack away at each other
until one has bitten the dust. When a
violent storm, accompanied by thunder
and lightning, stampedes the cattle, they
will probably get mixed up with two OF
three other herds, and much labor and
confusion results, and considerable
amount of tall swearing and fighting
takes place before they can be separated
and each herd gotten to itself Every
animal, besides the regular brand of the
owner, has his tail bobbed and "road
mark put upon him during the drive,
and in mixed herd the rider goes in and
"cuts out" all the cattle that bear his
| brand and runs them into 4 separate
flock.
| When cattle are sleeping it requires
very little to stampede them. \ loud
| breath, the clank of chain tied to the
leg OF wagon mule, or the galloping of
Il horse, will sometimes cause them to be
up and gone in the twinkling of an eye.
| They will run over whatever is in their
path, and the only way to stop them is
to get them to milling" or travelling in
Il circle, when they will wind themselves
up like a ball and stop. 1t is instructive
with them to run when anything else is
running, and away they go at the slight
est noise, with the COW boys in wild pur-
| suit after them.
Living on Sinking Creek in the Indian
Territory, just off the great trail, is an
Irishman named Fitzpatrick, who came
to this country not many years ago, a
common specimen of the bog -trotting
Tipperary Paddy. Floating on the tide
of ,,J ln
into the Indian Nation, and, building a
cabin in the timber where the trail cross
ed Sinking Creek, he proceeded to gath
er up the cattle that dropped from the
great herds going through or were lost
in some big stampede. His business
thrOve, and in time he married Chloe
taw wife and went to housekeeping, and
to-day he is the owner of many thousand
beeves, and is regarded as a rising stock
man. He still collects the stampeded
cattle in the creek timber-a striking ex-
ample of the strange ways in which men
become rich. More than one big stock
man i'll Texas began his career by brand
ing the mavericks, or wild, unbranded
and unclaimed heifers found in the river
timber. AS an instance of the manner
i'll which they worked up herd. it is re-
lated of Il successful stock man that he
started with solitary steer, which he
turned loose on the prairie, and the first
year he branded forty calves!
Killed by the merciless northers. the
cattle lie by the thousand OH the plains:
yet few of the owners of the dead beasts
ever skin them. nor will they allow any
one else to do it, and thus millions of
dollars worth of hides rot annually on
the prarics. Full six per cent of all the
cattle in Texas die every Winter. not
withstanding the mild climate Where
the fires sweep over the prairieS. there
grows up in the Spring short, green
grass. The cattle get on these burns"
and thousands perish while trying to de-
rive a scanty subsistence from the short
green growth.
Cattle are like buffalo in their habits,
and wander from place to place in search
of fresh pastures. They drift down
through the State from the Red River to
the Rio Grande: and one of Richard
Kings great sources of revenue is de-
rived from the large numbers of drift
cattle and mavericks that find their
way to his pastures. He pays the Mexi-
cans who live in the Sands AN arid
desert between Corpus Christi and
ownsville-twenty-fi cents apiece to
put his mark and brand upon these
strayS. Close to the Sands :" is the
rancho of the only Mexican stock raiser
Of any prominence in the State, Pablo
Parras, who owns thirty thousand horses
and is an instance of what can be done,
by the much despised Mexican polouse.
He is the largest horse raiser in the State.
The tide of emigration gradually sweeps
the cattle westward, following in the
trail of the buffalo and the wild game.
Perhaps one of these days the broad
ranges of Texas, instead of being dotted
with herds of grazing cattle, will be cut
up into farms and plantations, and the
chief charm of Texas, the grand i'm
mensity of its plains, be gone. The
frontier line has advanced over one hum
bred miles within the last year. and
comparatively short space of time must
elapse before it has pushed itself to the
ultima Thule, the Mexican border.
Whether it will brush aside the flimsy
barriers of national courtesy and absorb
Mexico with it mongrel population, is
mooted question. Stock men and Next
cans regard with equal disfavor the
heavy immigration to the State. Many
of them. us the strangers begin to multi
ply and increase, take their cattle and
remove further west, where in the green
valleys along the Pecos the cows can
roam at will and accumulate talIOw I'M
disturbed by the snort of the locomotive.
1t was with a feeling of sincere regret
that the writer of these lines, meeting
with severe accident, prepared to re
turn to his home nestled in the Allegha-
MES, after a Soiourn of eighteen months
with these wild riders of the plains.
Lest the impression be conveyed that
these are irreligious and goddess men, let