Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-08-27
HAPPY MONTANA COWPUNCRERS.
The Easy and Delightful Life ofHerd-
ers I'm the wild West.
Live Stock Journa


For the past few days / have been
punching COWS with the northern
Montana cowboys; that is, they call
1t punching cows, but veteran Texas
cowboy woald Call it picnicking. They
round up little bunch of COWS in the
morning, brand the calves by noon,
and then lie around On buffalo robes
In their palatlal tents, and read novels
or amuse themselves as they see fit.
Gamble2 Why, yesterday saw $500
change hands on a scrub pony race.
If someone had entered a brindle
Texas cow [ should have backed her
for my entire Doodle, and won, too, by
the holy poker, for neither of the
ponies could have headed a Spanish
cow. It would delight the heart of
the average Texas cowboy to be hired
by Montana cowman, and there
shown the horses from which he was
to select his mount-great, big, tai
Lowry horses, sleek as livery horses,
and very few Of them but what are
gentle as a dog. And [ may add that
when Montana cowboy gets back
from roundup, his horses are still
fat.
In the first place he has plenty of
them, and these men do not allow their
hands to dash horses around just for
the fun of the thing. And the cattle
here are SO different here from what
they are in Texas that there is really
very little hard riding to be done.
Boys who have worked GA both ranges
say that while the average Texas cow
pony can not compare with his Mon"
tana brother as to looks, yet when it
comes to doing hard work, and heap
of it, he is far superior to the latter.
He is quicker and harder, and better
adapted to such work. In the past
four days have seen over seven thou
sand horses that have been on the
work for over a month and there
is not one of them but what is mud
fat. Live! Why these cowboys live
higher than anybody. They have
everything to eat that money can buy,
and q cook with a paper hat on to
prepare it. The cook is SO neat and
polite that you could eat him If you
were right hungry; but, in fact. do
not believe he would object if you
were to do SO. He is too we'll bred,
too obliging, to object TO anything
you desire to do. They have fresh
beef all the time One man kills a
beef, keeps a quarter, and sells the
rest to the other outfits that are along.
That is not strange, for remember
that q beef here is worth about $50.
Cowboys get about the same wages
here that they do in Texas, but one
dollar in Texas will buy as much as
three in Montana, and the boys only
get work about three or four months
in the year.
Say, do you know that away up in
this high altitude we hardly have any
night at all at this time of year? The
sun just seems to loiter along ia the
sides of the mountains and forgets to
go down until you get discouraged
and go to bed and leave him to do as
he pleases about it. But you can
safely bet that he will be attending to
business at the old stand bright and
early the next morning. It is not
good dark here until II o'clock, and
at half-past 2 daylight begins to ap-
pear. Up a little higher on the
mountains it even beats that record.
Two boys went up on a high peak
about 10 o'clock the other afternoon
just to watch the sun monkey about
awhile. One stood on the western
edge of the peak to see him go down,
and the other watched the eastern
side to see him rise. After some
time the one on the west said:
''There he goes down, Jim, guess
it's about supper time"
eyes, darn him, here he comes. "
was the reply, land we might as well
go to breakfast"
It's all nice enough 10 poke fun st
the boys up here, but you can't buy
herd of average Montana cattle for
$35 per head. And then when they
apply a branding>iron to a calf On
this range it is about the same as
stamping $50 gold piece.
HENDRICKS AND A DUMMY.