Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-04-15

renewed before he goes on the range |
the next year.
Ihe average pay of cowboy, tax
ing the work as it runs, on the north |
and south ranges, will not exceed !
twenty-five dollars month. A great
many OF the cowboys have families Of
their own, or perhaps parents or other
relatives, to support. By no possible
stroke OF fortune can a cowboy have
more than six months work in the
year on the ranges. The average Is
below that, especially in Wyoming and
Montana. His rations-corn meal and
bacon--are found by the ranchers. The
cowboys principal personal expense is
tobacco. That he feels unable to get
along without, and it will cost him all
OF five dollars month. So, admitting
that ne has six months work, he takes
one hundred and twenty dollars home
with him to keep himself, and probably
others, through the long and rigorous
winters OF the great West. As rule.
the cowboys live in the back towns,
far away from the railroads. This is
especially the case with those native
born, as great majority of them are.
The cowboys seen lounging around the
railroad towns are mostly young men
who have gone from the East. There
is nothing to which the great body of
the cowboys can turn their hands in
these isolated regions during the win
ter. A few are hired by hunters and
trappers to accompany them to their
hunting grounds. Some, from choice,
remain on the ranches, and help take
care OF the home stock, but for this
they receive no pay, as the ranchers
have their hired men for that work.
1t may easily be seen, then, that
the cowboys have a. serious struggle
| against actual want, and, such is the
system of the Ranchers' Society, they
dare not protest Experience has
taught them that to ask for an increase
in wages means immediate discharge
from the service. But that is not the
worst of it. The moment man Is dis
charged by any member of the Ranch
| ers' Society his name is sent to every
other member. The name is turned to
in the books of each ranch, and black
mark placed opposite it. That is called
black listing the cowboy. He might
as well leave the country at once.
These facts about the Ranchers' So
ciety have only recently been found
out, and then only by the bitter expert
ences of men who had protested, in the
name of their families, against the
starvation wages the ranchers paid
them. More than that, members of
the ranchers' clique have issued orders
to their men that they must not spend
any time in reading books or newspa-
pers. / don't know what this means,
unless it is desired by the ranchers that
the cowboys shall not keep themselves
informed as to the labor movements of
the day. Such of the cowboys as are
able to read-and even to them the OPP
portunity to do so rarely comes-re-
a gard this order as tyrannical in the ex-
IRENE.
s'The despotic system of the Ranchers'
Society has slowly awakened the iso-
lated cowboys to the necessity of hav-
ing league of their own, or of becom-
ing members of some labor organiza.
ton, by which they may be enabled tc
act in unison and compel compliance
j. with their just demands. They are
talking the matter up all they dare
but, scattered as they are over hun
dreds of miles of almost uninhabiteG
country, the possibility of their organ
izing in a special league by themselve,
is remote. They have heard in gen
eral way of the Knights of Labor. l
is part Of my mission here, unofiicially
4 to see whether the ten thousand COW
boys of the West can not be admitted
1 to that organization and have the ben
l. eft of its strong arm in fighting the en-
- croachments of the millionaire cattl,
~ owners monopoly.
g .'The great billiards and snow
g storms of the West are among the bes
n agents the big land grabbers have il
IS Montana, Wyoming and other Terrific
n ries. In Montana especially the cattl
= of all brands are turned loose in tn,
! fall after the beef gathering has takel
IS place and the fat cattle sent off t,
r market. When winter comes on tn
l. herds drift together until there win b.
IS may be twenty-five or thirty Thousand
: cattle punched. By and by there come
q a snow storm, and the bunch grass i
e covered up beneath two feet of snow
a The storm is sure to be followed by
" big fall in temperature. The mercur
i will 60 to may be thirty degrees beloy
"a zero. Then all nutriment leaves tn
- tall prairie grass on which the cattl
4 have fed since the bunch grass wa
~ showed under The herd become
!. crazed with hunger, and stamped
If follows. The great body of the stary
" ing cattle start south like an ava
II lanche, heading straight for Local
i tiles where homesteads have bee
n taken up in the greatest number
A. They bear down on the settlement
e and besiege the homesteaders, VIII
- vainly try to keep them off with thei
" rifles. They shoot the hungry animal
4 down by the hundred, and sometime
a. manage to hold them in check unit
~ their ammunition is exhausted. The
:. the fight must end. The cattle swee
70 down on the homesteads, and not onl
ID eat up every vestige of hay the home
:. steaders have stored up for their ow
"a small herds, but tear down the house
Il. and outbuildings which the settle
Va builds out of the prairie sod, and d.
ia your the roots of the grass that renal
a. a. succulent in the sod. Homestead
70 hundreds at a time, are cleaned up b
Of a.herd of hungry cattle, quickly an
thoroughly, on single stampede
40 Then the herd continues on its wa,
70 taking the homesteader's herd of tw
~, or three hundred with it, and leave
a him homeless, ruined man. He ma
a. have his homestead all clear of tf
~ Government claim, but be in debt fl
e cattle or supplies. He can't pay, an
! the creditor comes on him, takes b
vs saddle and whatever he may have lief
III THE homesteader is discourage,
ey The wake of the stampeding herd
IL S<>1l h. h. of a h