Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-10-02
A COWBOYS LIFE.
Crossing the Mountains With 1000
CattIe--A Stampede iR the Noun
tafns ON n Dark Night.
San Francisco Call.

Gabriel will require large club
attachment to that horn of his, or else
he will never be able TO rodeo the
mountain cowboys" remarked Ben
Henwood, a Utica cattle dealer to a
Chronicle reporter.
why soin asked the reporter.
Because, replied Henwood, there
is no circumstances under which q
cowboy viii not sleep If not physical
ly molested. In the midst of a noun
tain storm, when the crashing thua-
der comes simultaneously with the
glaring sheets OF lightning, the cow
boy sleeps peacefully; in a dry creek
bed, with his head down grade, he
sluMbers sweetly; in view of terantu-
lus, rattlesnakes and centipedes for
bedfeliows he closes his eyes and
dreams of heaven Of unlimited plug
tobacco and unstinted sleep. Gabriel's
trumphet would indeed sound IN VAIN
when the time came to check OFT a
drove OF cowboy.
Last spriag I was driving 1000
head of cattle over the Rocky Noun
tains by the South Wyoming Pass,
and 'run'-the terror of cattle
drivers-took place under circumstan-
ces which showed just how sound is
the sleep of cowboy. | had fifteen
boys-a boy with the cow prefix
may mean a 4G-year old man with me.
1t takes that many to start a drove OF
1000 cattle, though half dozen boys
can take care of the drove after the
first week On the road. By that time
fhn aaftla hot 10 Aynnatld ~
them and they give us very little
trouble.
"Well, we were camped one night
on the very summit of the mountains.
The sleeping 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 settled at night on good
sleeping ground three or four men
| slowly ride in circle round them.
This is done by relays of men ia
watches, the watches being changed
at midsight. I have many a time
seen cowboy on broncho, riding
round and round a drove at night
fast asleep in his saddle.
"On the night in question happen
ed 10 De standing the first watch my
self and bad only two boys with me-
The night was overcast and dark, the
few stars that 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
lightning, it was just such night in
which Iuns always occur. l
have heard no end of scientific
and practical explanations Of runs or
stampedes-generally by men who
never saw one i'll their lives. 1t is
we'll enough to say that something
frightens them, if you know nothing
about it; but that don't explain it, no
way.
''They say that cayote, or some
other proving beast, frightens one
of a drove and that one infccts the
others with panic and the stampede
begins. Well, it amt so. If you
have drove of 1000 or 10, 600 the
panic effects every one of them at ex~
actly the same instant. tits some
times harder to account for than a
bowling coyote, and because run
never occurs except on such night
as I have described. I leave it to
those who know all about atmospher''
ic influences and such, to tell just
what 1t is.
Anyway, was little uneasy that
night, for one of the two boys on
watch with me was only tenderfoot
understands a man new to tae bus
mess and fresh from the east 1t was
nearly twelve o'cloc'l, and l 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 a
rush like whirlwind which levels a
forest, they we're off ia the darkness,
the strong and heavy ones in the lead,
of course. The rafting Of horns and
the laundering of hoofS was deafen-
ing. The effect it has on the person
who experiences it for the first time
was shown by the action Of the tender
foot.
"He turned his horses tail toward
the stampede, buried his spurs in the
bronco's fianks, and never stopped
until he was out of hearing. He was
crazier with fright than the widest
steer in the drove. Well, seeing
$50, 900 worth of stock running away
from me, and having had thirteen
years experience, l naturally acted
different. By the spectral starlight l
could see the cattle outlined as a
black, rushing, gathering, laundering
stream, rushing wildly, and at each
instant becoming wilder, over rocks
and stretch of sagebrush.
MY herse was trained in the busl>
ness and knew what was the trouble
as we'll, and just as soon, too, as [
did.
81 did not have to guide MIN.
followed along by the side of the
stampede, and soon overlook the
leaders. 1t don't do to try and turn
a run too quick. l kept by the side OF
the leaders and quartering on them,
striking their TANKS and pushing
and pushing gradually against them
on the left, Slowly turned the leaders
slightly to the right. II that can be
done, 1t is only a 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 flag end of
the line.
They were running aronnd in a
circle, the center of which soon closed
up and they were milling that is,
they had formed solid wheel aud
kept going round and round them.
selves in the same space of ground. 1
tell you that cowboy and myself did
some tall riding round that mill to
keep the outside stock from flying off
at a tangent, as they will do some
times. Little by little they slowed
down, and as soon as we could make
our voices heard we quieted them by
singing and talking to them.
There is nothing which will bring
a crazy steer 10 his senses as quick as
the sound of Juman voice, and if
you can only sing a little you can do
the work all the quicker The clash
ing and cracking of horns and the
pounding of hoofs grew less and less