The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-05-01
CATTLE AND cow BOYS
Bill Nye, in Chicago News


 No one can go through the wide ter ritory of Montana to-day without being strongly impressed with the wonderful growth of the great cattlc-growing and grazing industry of that territory And yet Montana is but the northern extrcm- ity of the great grazing belt which lies at the foot of the Rocky mountains, extend ing from the British possessions on the north to the Mexican border on the south. extending eastward too, as far as the arabic lands of Dakota Nebraska and Kansas
 Montana. at this season of the year, Is the paradise of the sleek, high-hcadcd twe-year-old Texan steer, with his tail over the dashboard, as well aS the stock Nearhng born on the range, beneath the glorious mountain sky and under the auspices of roundup No. 2l
 do not say thi, to advertise the stock growing business, because it is al- ready advertised toe much, anyway. So many milionaircs have been made with free grass and the carlv-rsing automatic brandngiron, that every man in the | nited States who has COW that can stand the journey seems to be about to take her west and embark in business as q cattle king
 But let me warn the amateur cow man that in the great grazing regions it takes il good many acres of thin grass to main tain an adult steer in atiurncc for twelve months, and the great pastures at the base of the mountains are being pretty well tested Moreover believe that these great conventions of cattle men. where free grass and easily ac- quircd fortunes are naturally advertised will tend to ovcrstock the ranges at last and founder the goose that now lays the golden egg. This, of course, is really none of my business, but if didn't now and then refer to matters that uo not concern me would be regarded as rctlccnt My intention however, in approaching the great COW industry which, hy the way, k anything but an industry being in fact more like the st. ductlV" manner whereby a promiSsorV note acquires two per cent per month without even stopping to spit on its hands, wa, to refer incidentally to the proposition of an English friend of mine. This Friend. seeing at once the great magnitude of the COW industry and the necessity for more amt more cow boys, has suggested the idea of establishing d cowboys college or training school for selt-made young men who desire to be- come accomplished The average Eng lishman will most always think of some thing that nobody else would naturally think of, Now, our cattlemcn would have Gone on fur years with his great steer emporium without thinking of establishing an institution where a poor boy might go and learn to rope four year-old in such d way as to throw him on his stomach with sickening thud.
 But now that the idea has been turned loose l shall look forward to the time when wealthy men who have been in the habit of dying and leaving their money to other institutions will meet with a change of heart and begin to en- dow the cowboys college and the may erick hotbed of hroncho sciences.
 We live in an age of rapid advance ment in all branches of learning, and people who do not rise early in the morning will not retain their position in the procession look forward with confidence to the lay when no cowboy will undertake to ride the range with out d diploma Educated labor is what we need. Cowboys who can tell vou in scientific terms why it is always the big. gest steer that eats pigeon weed in the spring and why he should swell up and bust on d rising Chicago market.
 l hope that the day is not far distant when in the holster of the cowboy we will find the Had instead of the killiad, the unabridged dictionary in stead of Mir. Remington's great work on homicide. As it is now on the ranges you might ride till your Mexican saddle ached before you would find cowboy who carries dictionary with him. Foi that reason the language used on the general roundup Is at times grammat ically incorrect, and many of our lead ing cowboys spell cavvy-yard with ak"
 A college for riding, roping, branding cutting out, corraling loading and un loading, and handling cattle generally would be great boon to our young men, who are at present groping in dark and pitiable ignorance of the habits o the untutored COW. Let the young man first learn how to sit up three nights ir succession, through a bad March snow storm, and hold herd of restless cattle. Let him then ride through the hot sun and alkali dust week or two subsisting on chunk of disagreeablt side pork just large enough to bait q trap. Then let his horse fall on him and injure his constitution and pream ble. All these things would give tn, COW student an idea of how to ride the range. The amateur who has neve, tried to ride a skittish and sulky range has still a great deal to learn.
 The young maverick savant could take kindergarten course in the study ot COW brands Here wide field opens up to the scholar The adult steer in