Omaha daily bee., 1888-09-09
knights of the Lariat in the Past
and Present.
THE co WBOY IN ALL HIS GLORY.
Fifteen Hours n Day in the Saddle
Origin OF the Maverick-Life
Along the Trail and at
the "R~ound-Up."
E co WsoY IN ALL HIS GLORY.
A Cow PnncLer's Life

those last mentioned. Texas was the
first state to make n business of grazing
cattle on the public domain, and so
great was her success, that she was i'm
itated by all the states and territories
west Of the Missouri river as soon
as they began to settle up and
could be supplied with stock. During
the civil war, however. the cattle bust
ness was neglected to such an extent.
that numbers of them grew quite wild
and were never branded. The word
maverick was first applied to cattle
during this period: it was derived from
q man of that name, who unlike his
patriotic ~neighbors. stayed away from
the battle field and enriched himself at
the expense of the rightful owners by
branding their young stock as soon as
they were weaned.
At the conclusion of the wal the sur
vivors returned only to find the stock
they had left considerably diminished
by death; n as for calves in their own
brand, there was none. However, by
strict attention to business things began
to improve, and so favorable were the
surroundings for successful cattle
breeding that they were soon in a posi-
WIN W oNll IIltiI sur DluS NOuDp SlOtk 10
the people OF the territories mentioned
in the commencement of this chapter.
This was the starting Of the new his
toric Texas trail.
In the sixties" there we're, of course.
no railroads in Texas, o r,indeed, west of
the Missouri, and all cattle sent out of
Texas had to be driven a distance of
from 300 to | 200 miles. This was "a long.
wearisome, and often very dangerous
- ~ 100 .a ,, ,1,-A 4.1
try swarmed with hostile bands of In
dians, who.seemed to consider the cow
boys their special prey; although at the
same time they had more respect for
them than for any of the other white
men with whom they came in contact,
the cause of this being that an Indian
always admires pluck, and that was one
OF the most essential qualifications of
'cow p~unchers" in those days.
a herd of---let us Say---3 900 cattle
would be started on its long journey
with about ten men, including Il cook
and horse herder, and they were sure of
mover being attacked by less than fifty
Indians, as the reds" were modest
enough to consider one "cow-punchern
equal to five braves. With United
States soldiers, however, it was quite
different, as quite II small band would
not hesitate to plumber twice their num-
Der of soldiers (f niger soldiers, five
times their number), not that the white
soldiers were deficient in pluck, but
that their movements were so slow,
through red tapeism," that a band of
Indians could travel at three times their
speed. With cowmen it was quite diff
%ferent, as they were just as essentially
"plain men, as the ''reds" themselves,
and could break camp and start on their
trail in less time than it would take a
soldier to pack his knapsack. Every
nan with the Through" herd was fur
nished with a Winchester repeating
rifle, two 45-calibre Colt revolvers and
IN abundance of ammunition. The mess
wagon. containing the ''chuck, mems
beds these last generally consisted of
three or four pairs OF blankets
and a canvass wagon sheet was
driven by the cook. in the hind end
OF the wagon was fixed a mess box, which
looked something like a small clothes
press from the outside, with the lid
opening at the end and the hin ges at.
the bottom. 70 the lid was attached a
stick which served as a prop, so that
when the lid of the box was let down it
served as a table for the cook to work at,
just the height OF the bottom of the
wagon bed. The wagon was usually
drawn by four mules, although horses
and cattle were often used, but mules
We're the best, as they could stand hard
ship better than the horses, and were
Of course, far faster in their movements
than oxen.
The horse herder would always stay
close to the wagon when on the drive,
50 that in the event OF the wagon get
ting stuck in "a mud hole IN not at all
unusual occurrence or breaking down,
he would be able to assist the cool in
getting things straight.
In the "ramudu" (horse herd) there
were for ten men about sixty to seventy
horses. as each man was allowed from
six TO eight head of horses in his mount.
This may seem to eastern people n
great many horses for one man, but
when you remember that they don't
average more than fourteen hands high
and have to pick up their food on the
trail, and that the men are in the sad
die on an average of about fifteen
hours in the twenty-four, it may not
seem so many. At night, if there was
no suspicion of Indians being in the vi
Clnity, these horses were hobbled and
turned loose to Craze and it was the
horseherder's business to hunt them up
before daylight in the morning, and
having taken off the hobbies, drive
them to the wagon so that the men could
catch fresh horses for the mornings
drive. When, however, Indians were
supposed TO De In the ~nelghOOrhOod the
horses were herded by the men all
night long, each man taking his turn of
from two to three hours. Sometimes,
even then, an Indian would slip up un-
see through the grass and stampede
the horses, in the hope of cutting some
OF them off and appropriating them for
his W use. | have known horses that
were, as a general thing, quite gentle,
to get scared and stampede, and run
from twenty to thirty miles without
stopping.
In case OF a stampede the best course
for the man on herd to do is to try and
keep in the lead OF the horses, and after
going with them a while to endeavor to
circle them around camp, instead Of
letting them run in a straight line clear
out of the country. This is the proper
course to take with cattle, also, for it is
quite useless Especially with cattle) to
ride across and try to stop them until
they get over their scare.
The cattle have to be herded every
night when on the trail, as they would,
II turned loose. scatter SO WILDLY that it
would take the greater part Of a day,
and often much longer, to get them to-