Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-10-22
JOAQUIN AS A sroRY-TELLeR.
The Poet of the sierras Writes OF Half
wild Cattle and Rattl esnakes

The Poet OF the sierras writes Of Half.
wild Cattle and Ratt1 esnakeA
My present letter is from Eugene City,
Ore, where my father settled down
nearly forty years ago, and where have
done more work with the hand that pens
these lines than any man | know
worked like g. man while still lad.
Lord! those days when my brotl
and used to rise with the sun and go
out and milk the half-wild Spanish
COWS! What battles we poor barefooted
lads did have! These Spanish cows were
terribly vicious brutes. They had long,
sharp horns, and would fight like bulls.
In fact, l have seen my poor brother
have much more perilous fights in the
corral with these sleek, long-legged,
sharp-horned and vicious cows than ever
saw in all the bull-fghts of Mexico or
Spain.
These cows had been brought up from
Mexico for the Missouris. Their long
battles for their young, generation after
generation, with wild beasts, had made
them trim-limbed and sharp horned as
antelope, almost. No wise or well-regu-
lated people ever attempted to milk them
before nor after. But we were isolated
immigrants, and no one came by to tell
us better. Besides that butter was 81
a pound. And we were very poor. You
see we got these wild cattle from the old
settlers for tanning them. We tanned
them, but they bored good many holes
in us before we got them subdued. Kick2
Il 1a, Id ~, tha
corner for an hour at a time like jack
knife, But as for butter you might as
well milk strap. The milk was thin,
and watery, what little we got away
with.
Oh, those cows! l tell you, candidly,
an old blue COW with big white eyes
which l had to milk, used to watch with
her big eyes till l got the dipper full.
And then, just as l would let go of her
to go and pour the milk away in the
pail, she would hoist her right hind leg,
and-whack! On my honor, that whole
spring through, we three boys, were
none of us without skinned nose,
peeled shin, or a broken rib. But
after all, the worst part of the whole
business was the hunting up of those
wild cattle twice day and driving them
into the corral. They would run for
miles and miles every day. They would
let their little caves starve and never
come near them. And run! They would
run like deer. Only deer run from you.
These Wild high headed and sharp
horned COWS would run toward you.
And this is the way we would get them
home-run like whiteheads toward home,
and the cows after u.s.
And yet this was not really the terrible
part of hunting them up. The whole
land was alive with rattlesnakes. The
grass was tall and thick, and we poor
boys We're on foot, and barefooted No
money had our parents to buy either
shoes or horses. And such rattlesnakes!
Were l tell you that have seen knots
of rattlesnakes as big as barrel roll
down the little rocky hill known as
"Rattlesnake Butte" you would hardly
care to believe me without the solemn
assurance that the fact is not a Jest.
Yes, the truth is, we used in spring to go
in great parties, Indians and all, >. to kill
rattlesnakes. But now snakes, wild
cows tall grass, and all are no more.
The cows could never be tanned, and as
time went by all the old spanish" stock
of cattle was driven to California and
butchered, and what was called Amer
lean cattle" took their place. AS for the
rattlesnakes, strange to tell, they began
to disappear as soon as hogs were intro
duced into the county. A rattlesnake
will fly for his life from hog. l doubt
if a snake will strike at hog under any
circumstances, for | never saw one try
to bite a hog. But l have seen hogs
pursue, capture, and eat rattlesnakes
dozens of times. joaquin Miller in Chi
cago Times.