News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-02-05
RASCALLY CATTLE MEN.
some OF Their DRsturdIy Tricks tn Drive
Away Settlers,

Inc American and British cattle-erow-
ing companies, which operate in the arid
zone, are becoming entirely too arrogant
ana iawless, says Frank Wilkeson. They
have unlawfully erected barbed wire
fences along the life-sustaining water
courses, fences that prevent American
citizens who may be travelling in the
country from quenching their thirst or
procuring water for their horses. They
nave arrogated judicial power, and deal
out death to alleged horse thieves, men
whose only crime it may be was that they
were American citizens in search of
home. They have gathered gangs of
warlike cowboys, men paid from the treas
ury of the cattle growing associations,
and, arming them, have launched them
age sust men they have conde mned with
out trial as horse thieves, and after kill
ing the alleged thieves have taken pos
session of the stock and other personal
property the dead men owned. They
have formed murder-robber bands, as
did the barons of old, so that now trav-
elers or settlers take their lives in their
hands if they enter the land unlawfully
claimed by these men as theirs. What
more easy than to denounce a man who
seeks a home ana who has team of
horses, and presumably some money in
his pockets, as a horse thief? Then
for the pleasures of the chase ! Hunt
him down. Riddle HIM with bullets
from Winchesters, for tine capital crime
of presuming to enter the sacred region
held, it may be, by an English cattle
company, in search of home for his
wife and children, and after he is dead
divide his effects among the cowboys.
They have also provoked war with
friendly tribes of Indians whose grazing
land they covet.
Years ago, when the iron on the Kan
sas Pacific Railroad had been laid to
Sheridan, a vigilance committee was
formed in that town for the purpose of
ridding the country of stock thieves.
This was speedily accomplished. Then
the choice spirits of these regulators
banded together under the leadership of
New York Irishman named Ryan, who
was engaged in supplying meat to the
workmen and soldiers, for the ostensible
purpose of suppressing horse thieves.
This band OF murderers did a prosperous
business. They acquired considerable
property. and became influential citizens
on the frontier by watching the strangers
who rode into town and carefully noting
the amount of money they exposed
when paying for drinks or settling hotel |
bills. If the amount exposed to their
greedy eyes was satisfactory, they in
spected the horse left at the stable, and
if it was valuable they met the stranger
thu next day at a convenient spot on the |
outgoing trails, and hanged him for
horse stealing. The booty secured was
divided ancng the hangmen. Knowing
this fact, am naturairy sGsp piciosss oi tne
purity of the motives that animate cow
boys who are engaged in hanging stran-
gers in the wilds of Montana. 1 should
like to hear the other side of the story.
the side the hanged ones could have
told.
These cattle-growing companies need
to be sat upon heavily, and some of their
officials, who have organized the mur-
derous gangs of cowboys who shoe. al
legged horse thieves to death in the re-
mote valleys of the mountains, deserve
hanging.