The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-03-19

ket price for the strays. and branded
them as his property. The money was
divided pro rata among the party.
| Nowadays this is all changed. All I'M
branded cattle taken up are sold, and
the money received for them is placed
in the treasury of the Ranchers' So
ciety. The amount raised il that way
pays the entire expense Of running the
society.
| 'It is surprising what trifiing thing
will start a stampede that may cost
many lives and the loss of hundreds OF
cattle before it can be controlled.
was coming up the Texas trail once
with party of cowboys. We had four
thousand cattle in the bunch. One OF
the boys opened his tobacco pouch to
get chew. The wind blew shred or
two of the fne-cut out of his fingers.
The tobacco foated away and lodged
in steers eye. In moment the eye
began to smart, and the steer got wild.
Its antics started others, and in ten sec
onds the whole herd was surging and
dashing about, out of all control. 1t
was two days before we got the herd
working quietly again. Two of our
best boys were trampled to death and
four hundred cattle were lost.
"Hail-storms are greatly dreaded by
cowboys on the trail, especially if they
come at nightwhen the cattle are sleep
ing. If Maidstone happens to strike a
steer in the eye stampede is sure to
follow. He springs to his feet, and in
thrashing around tramps on the tails
of others. They jump up in pain. The
herd is alarmed, and before any thing
can be done the whole lot are off like a
flash. The bark of coyote, when
every thing is still at night, is sufficient
to stampede herd. A blade of grass,
blown along by the wind, frequently
strikes a steer in the eye. The pain
that follows will set him wild, and he
can soon have the herd on the run
across the country at a twenty-mile-an-
hour gait.
at is during stampedes that the
cowboy has work to do. His one great
object is to keep the flying herd to-
gether. He urges his mustang dead
against the advancing column of fran
tic cattle at the constant risk of his life,
and works the cattle gradually in a
circle. The cowboys all ride to the
right around stampeding herd. Ii
they can get the cattle to running in a
circle, the first important step in con-
trolling them is accomplished. I have
been with party in stampede when
we were obliged to ride around herd
for distance of over two hundred
miles before we got it under control,
and then it was only twenty-five miles
from where the stampede started. In
all that time not one of us took a mo-
ment's rest or a bite to eat. Such
things can't be thought of during a
stampede.
"Next to stampede, the cowboy
breads the taking of herd of cattle
across a stream. The cattle are taken
across in punches OF twenty-five OF
thirty. The cowboy strips all his cloth
ing off, and swims his horse along with
the cattle. Sometimes the bunch may
be taken across and landed on the
other side without any trouble, but the
cowboy is always expecting to have a
case of milling on his hands before he
gets the bunch across. I have before
now brought bunch of cattle safely
to almost within reach of the opposite
shore, when the sudden appearance of
Jack rabbit on the bank would scare
steer, and back he would turn. In a
moment the whole bunch would be
swimming wildly, round and round, in
the middle of the stream This is
called milling, and it is the work of
hours to break up the mill and get the
cattle started for the shore again. In
doing this it is often necessary for the
cowboy to plunge from his horse and
| swim about among the cattle, often
getting on their horns or astride of
them. The water is generally filled
with running ice. but the sun is scorch-
ing hot. The bunch drifts down stream
sometimes for miles before the milling
is broken. The cottonwood trees along
these stream are usually loaded with
| hornets nests. The moment hornet
sees the cattle floating down the stream
under the trees he drops down on them,
followed by numbers of his fellow COL
onists, and they plant their singers
wherever they drop. I have been SO
badly stung while fighting mill that
my head would swell SO that [ could
not wear my hat. A raid of hornets
generally breaks up the milling of the
cattle attacked, for the animals can't
stand the stings and they make for
shore. Many a good cowboy has been
drowned in trying to break up a mill
in mid-stream. 1t is not uncommon
for party to spend three weeks or a
month in getting a herd of four thou
sand cattle across a stream.
! "These are only a few of the hard
ships cowboy has to undergo in doing
his work. Besides these, he has to
fight hostile Indians and bands of
white marauders, who frequently seek
TO stampede herd and run off bunch
of cattle before the cowboys can pre-
vent it. He finds another dreaded en-
envy in terrible prairie fires. The days
and nights that he is sometimes COM
PEELED to spend in battling with these
are filled with untold dangers.
"a rancher expects his cowboys to
defend his herds with their lives, if
necessary, and cowboy would as soon
think of killing his mother as to desert
his herd, even in the face of certain
death. The delivering of herd safely
at the dead line is not sufficient to sat
isfy its owner. Every animal must be
heavier by large percentage than it
was when it left the ranch. If the
herd has not been handled with good
| Judgment on the trail, such result
| will not follow. The rule is that the
cowboy must fatten his cattle on the
trail, no matter how thin he may
grow himself. ~ Y. San.
Tiilable Lakes.