News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-12-09
CATTLE ON THE PLAINS.
LITTLE LEAF FROM THEIR LIES
HISTORY.
As Seen by One Who Has Been for Years
Among Them.

| Among Them.
A severe storm on the plains, where
| there is no shelter for cattle. is exceed
inglv destructive to animal life, and is
| especially hard on cows and on
Through cattle'--that is, cattle that
have Just been driven to the range, from
Texas generally. The severe storms on
the plains are always from the north.
The air is thick with snow and ice.
The exceedingly cold wind blows
fiercely. The mercury ranges from zero
to fifty degrees below zero. The cattle,
unable to stand against the wind, drift
with the storm At first, with active
steps and many bellows, they walk
bravely down the storm. But, long be-
fore the strength of the blizzard Is eX-
pended, they become weary and dis
| couraged. Their loud bellows are sup
plemented by means. They become
sullen and apparently indifferent to their
| fate. They travel until they fall or until
| they find shelter, CT until the storm Is
passed After drifting down the wind
for hours yes, for days after crossing
desolate divides, after staggering over
the trackless plains for many miles,
staggering singly or In pairs or IN fam
lilies on Journey the horrors of which
cannot be described, these animals may
come to a barbed wire fence, unlawfully
erected by gready cattle owners to keep
other mems cattle from water. The
miserable, starving animals hal at the
barbed wire fence, and there many of
them die The intensely cold wind
sits through their bodies SO quickly
that they stand motionless, head down
the wind, and die rather than
turn their sides to the death dealing
blast. Once, during q frightful storm
which swept over Western Nebraska, l
heard the faint moaning of cattle in dis
tress; the sad sound vibra ed mournful-
ly through the steady rythmical beat of
the st I'm l opened the door of the
dugout in which l had sought shelter,
and saw large herd of cattle walking
down the storm. Their heads hung
low; the snow and ice particles were
packed solidly into their hair; their nos
trils were ice-coated For foot above
the earth the air was packed with drift
ing snow, which hid the lower portion
of the cattle's legs from my vision.
They looked like the white spectres of
cattle floating with a snow-laden arctic
wind to a frozen hades.
Unlike a stampede of cattle in the
summer. when the herd can be turned
and made ''to mill, - or can be gathered
at the bank of some river, nothing can
be done to intercept the flight of cattle
during a blizzard on the plains. The
extent of vision is but few yards. The
cold is intense. To leave the huts, dig
nified by the name of ranch houses, is
exceedingly dangerous. Snow alters
the appearance of the plains so greatly
that no man who is caught out in a
blizzard can tell where he is. To get
lost on the plains during blizzard is
most serious misfortune, and one that
has cost hundreds of strong men their
lives. The cattle have of necessity to
be allowed to drift whittier they list.
have seen cattle branded with Wyoming
irons grazing in southern Indian Terri
tory. They had drifted that great dis
lance in one winters storms.
The maternal instinct is strong in the
half wild cows of Texas. They love
their calves They defend them from
the attack of carnivorous animals as long
as they have life. They feed and pro-
tect them until they are pushed from
their sides by younger calves. During
the winter they wander over the snow
clad, wind-swept plains, nursing the
calves which bleat at their sides, daily
they grow poorer after the first severe
storms. Seen to -day, and again in two
weeks, they are hardly recognizable.
They look as if they had been planed
down with a cunningly devised jack
plane, that gouged the flesh from be-
meath their skins. That plane is the
north wind and the ice PARTICLES which
fly almost horizontally through the air.
l have ridden in billiards., my head
blanket wrapped, when the air was filed
with snow and sand and ice, and when
the mercury had retired from business
when it would have been almost certain
death to have lost the trail, and in
storms of this character / have repeated
ly seen cows stand trembling in the lee
of willow bushes, poor wretched crea-
lures, with the death stare in their eyes,
trying to protect their calves from the
arctic-like storm, and the calves hungry,
cold, almost starving assiduously trying
to draw nourishment from the shrunken,
frosty udders of their dams. Later in
the season, when the storms were less
severe, have frequently seen cows that
were too weak to rise after giving birth
to a calf, struggle to rise, and fall, and
fall, and fall, until they bruised them
selves into resignation. The unlocked
calf would straddle around its dying
mother, vainly attempting to draw
MOI rishment from her ribs or her ears,
and she, faithful and loving, licking it
whenever 1t came within reach, SO as to
dry it that it might not freeze. And
yonder, sitting on rocky knoll, there
might be a cruel cowardly coyote, that, !
when he became convinced that the COW
could not rise, would give tongue, call
ing other cruel, cowardly coyotes to his !
aid, and together they would kill the !
calf and eat it before the eyes OF its
mother. She might struggle desperate
ly to rise, and loudly voice her anguish,
but it would be of no use. Her doom
after giving birth to her offspring. The
wolves would eat her alive They would |
devour her hind quarters while yet she
breathed and suffered.
The cattle that Craze on the arid, |
plains, and in high lying |
parks and valleys, have been
subjected, by their greedy owners who
desire to grow rich rapidly, to the most
revolving and wicked cruelties ever prac-
tised by civilized men toward dumb ami
mails. and the men who have caused all |
this suffering make light of it, and say
that it cannot be avoided.
FRANK WHKEsoN.