Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-13
IN A BIG STOCK YARD.
WHERE THERE IS LOTS OF FUN
 AS WELL AS BUSINESS.

AS WELL AS BUSINESS.
 Playing the Wild Steer Joke-A Lesson
 in Yelling-Transferring Stock from One
 Pen to Another-Hospital for Injured
 Cattle.
 There's lots of fun as we'll as business about a stock yard. The old hands, the buyers and commission men, and also the stockmen who come often enough to learn the ropes, enjoy nothing better than joke on green visitor, one with kid gloves and boots with patent leather shine preferred, but the verdant, with flannel shirt and collar and his pantaloons in his boot tops, if he be the only object at hand. The jokes take various forms, often there are new ones, but there is a standard joke, the use of which is always indorsed. The victim is walking down one of the large passage ways through which the cattle are driven from pen to pen, or to the scale house, look ing from side to side to see which way he will turn or through which gateway he will pass to come out where he wants to. Sud- denly there is loud cry:
 "Clear the way! Here comes a wild steer !''
 Funnys Yes, very, for the spectators. The cry has been given by some one who is ''on, :"
 
 taken up by the crowd scattered along the alley. They all know what it is, and though the greenie may be friend or customer, they as readily join in the cry and sport The poor victim does not know what it is. He has probably seen, or may be experienced, what it is to be tossed by wild steer, and as soon as he hears the dread cry he begins to make way, and makes it very rapidly. He plunges ahead by as long strides as possible, and he is lucky if he does not go head first into the mud
 The most interesting thing about a stock yard is the yell. The rich buyer or commis- sion man, as we'll as the salaried agent or speculator, knows it-or rather them, for the yell is as numerous almost as the people in the yards. The farmer and small stock grower knows the "whoopee" or sswhoa-oa- oa-oaer' and ''sukie'' used on the range or farm yard, but when it comes to the combi. nations of letters and sounds used here they are as much at sea as one of the gentlemen using them would be in attempting to con- vey an intelligent idea of them on paper. The most familiar sound to the countryman is a long one something like this:
 "Wha-whoap-oa-oa-oap -woap'erer' and re- peated as rapidly as possible, with occasional variations as they suggest themselves.
 This is not an exact reproduction, but it is something near it, and if the student pa- tiently twists his vocal organs until he finds the right contortion he may produce the sound If he anticipates going into the busi- ness, the ''1nay'' will be changed to 'must," for this driving sound seems to be the begin ming point of all-the one taught in the pri- mary department. A yell following it seems easier, but it is not. It runs:
 "Hi-i-i-yi-kieyiea-ye yea-ea-ea-hi-yi-yi-yi-yi 1" and carried out without limit, until it's ob ject is accomplished.
 This yell may be made very musical, and then it becomes something more than yell. Those who are perfect in it run the scale up and down, centerwise and every other wise, and a professor of music could better then express it in notes than any one else could represent it in letters
 There's another sound which sounds like an auctioneer repeating "going goingong" SO rapidly that it soon becomes @ sound with something like ''g'' as the first letter and he winds up with an abrupt "gone to John Smith, who has almost forgotten that he had bid
 Another musical spur to the live stocks movements is built on the plan of Joe Elm mett's warble, which everybody who thinks he's an Emmett tries to initiate. This is be- coming slightly popular, but it's commercial value in its effect on the cattle has not yet been definitely determined These, with many more yells, are all told in the sales pens and scale yards In the unloading and ship ping yards another style prevails, something not so sharp. Variety is the rule there, too, but as in the first case there is common approved yell which may be attempted after a few lessons. To produce it the lips must be fixed just so. Then comes:
 w-haw-ho-ha-ha-ha!"
 In producing the last part of this sound the student will profit and progress more rapidly in this work if he carefully studies the pecu- iarities of the heavy villains stage laugh in a second class variety show. He will soon discover the peculiarities which he may use, and will then have little difficulty in sand wiching it properly between some other sounds. The last lessons must be taken with the aid of an eight foot pole, weighing about twenty pounds, with which the student will prod bag of sand, if nothing more con- venient answers, giving more emphasis with each prod. After couple of dozen prods the voice will have toned down until the last sound is like the ending of the despairing cry of an emotional actress.
 So far as the Stock Yards company is con- cerned, it takes a few risks in its responsibili- ties. It stands good for the stock from the time they leave the car until they are loaded in again or are driven away by the buyer, speculator or butcher. As soon as the stock is loaded into the pen the gate is closed and locked and the pen watched. The market is open from to 9 o'clock, during which time the gates opening into the passageways are unlocked. Promptly at 3 o'clock the gates are all again locked, and to get anything out of pen it would be necessary to lift it over, rather difficult matter. Under this ar rangement such thing as transferring stock from one pen to another, taking out choice animal and substituting an inferior one, is impossible. The stock is counted into the pen, then into the scale house, and then out again, and that reshipped counted again into the cars. Every car and every bunch is kept separate
 But few cattle or other animals are injured in the yards, but for the benefit of those fall- ing victims to overcrowding or rough trav- cling, hospitals are provided in each division. To these all injured animals are taken, though first sold to spectators. In the hos pitals the animals are given dry, sheltered places to sleep, and good food to eat, and water to drink. They become the care of the speculators then, and the profits of the latter depend upon their skill as veterinari- ans. An animal with broken leg is never taken to the hospital; there must be some show for it's getting on it's feet, and if it don't d +b;e n 1rool> for, days fha inh is ciror