Morning journal and courier., 1885-03-17
COWBOY FUN,
An Incident of Winter Life on the
 Plains of Wyoming. Sherman (Wy) Letter in Pittsburg Conmer

An Incident of Winter Life on the Plains of Wyoming.
 Sherman (Wy) Letter in Pittsburg Commer- cial.l
 On Tuesday of last week we had visitors. Six Of fthe boys from Hardman's ranch de- scended on us like wolf on the fold. They meant to stay, they said, until they had eaten Us out. From the way they handled the dinner that day it looked as if their visit
 would be mighty short. As they brought sundry fasks of western kill at -a-hundred yards, they were received with open arms. After dinner everybody was feeling good and the fun began. In our ranch there are only three rooms-kitchen dining-room and sleep ing apartment. The walls of the dining room are covered every inch with pictures from illustrated papers. Worthies of ali | races and condition lend their august pres ence to our meals, and beauties of all styles look down upon the admiring faces of the
 COW punchers.
 ''Say, Hank,' said the leader of the visi- tors to our cook, ''that old duffer in the wig is too snide Watch us bore him." There upon, that irreverent herder pulled out his six-shooter and shot Benjamin Franklin square in the eye. That opened the ba l. Our foreman was away, and our boys and the
 
 crowd began to blaze away at the pictures on the wall
 There was @ picture of Guiteau posted above the kitchen door. 1 believe that every fellow in the room shot into him. "That
 pretty girls nose is tootlong," one would say,
 and then proceed to stave off pieces with his revolver. The ballet girl received especial attention. After the shooting there was
 mighty little left of their scant clothing. When they had paid their respects to the picture gallery the crowd ripe for any l mischief The ranch we live in was built
 last fall. Up to the severely cold weather
 half of us had lived down at tue old ranch, ! set in it was deserted. The boys feared that when spring opened the old ricketty
 building might be fixed up and again made habitable. Now that the foreman was away l they determined to spoil the chances of ever having to live in it again, and at the same whole crowd mounted their mustangs and ran race down to the old building. Some
 of the boys wanted to burn it, but that was decided too tame a way of disposition of it. Hank Carson, our cook, and the mischief
 maker, proposed that it be blown up. The plan was hailed with shouts of delight. One
 of the boys was sent back for bag of pow der. When it was brought, train of pow
 der was laid along the floor against each of the walls, and carried out of the door down the path. Then the whole party, with the exception of Hank, mounted their mustangs
 and drew up off at safe distance. Hank
 touched light to the train, then vaulted in
 to his saddle and dashed out of danger.
 That building just bumped itself in the md
 dle and the roof sailed skywards, while the four walls went skipping about over the prairie. How that crowd did cheer and howl
 with delight They all agreed that it was the
 biggest picnic they had had since the lynching of horse-thief in the summer. Then the
 parties separated and rode home. The own CTS of the building now about to send a
 bill of damages to each of us. On the whole
 the winter is not perfectly uninteresting season out here