Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-11-23
CATCHING WILD HORSES.
An EXCITING OCCUPATION ONCE
FOLLOWED ON THE PLAINS.

victory-The Patriarch of the Band Out
witted at Last-The Captives Driven Into
th.s Corral.
Usually the occupation of capturing the
1ntamed steeds was followed by three men
working together They used four or five
hardy, fleet, well trained horses. When the
section of the country the wild animals fire.
quented was reached, the first thing was to
select a suitable location, at the entrance of
ravine, generally, for corral. This the
catchers knew how to construct, using great
quantities of rope, very speedily. Then near
this corral, on the most slightly eminence,
one man stationed himself. A distance be-
yond it, on the apparently most natural run
way, another man with one of the fleetest of
! the saddle horses takes his station. The
J work of the most skilled man of the three
then begins. Mounted upon the picked horse
of the lot, with a pair of field glasses, a
water bag, and supply of food, he swings
away in the earliest dawn on an easy lope
1t may be ten or twenty miles before his
keen eyes, aided by the glasses with which he
sweeps the broad expanse of rolling plain,
detect grazing band of horses. He APP
proaches them by the easiest course which
will permit concealment as long as possible,
and then, within few hundred yards, he
dashes into sight and the sport is begun
The affrighted animals stand for an in
slant, the morning breeze tanning their lux
uriant names and tails. They snort in alarm,
turn and trot off, at first, and then, as it is
apparent this strange creature is pursuing,
break into run. lids no.ttthat the race is
to both the swift and the enduring. The
trained horse, on which the man is astride
knows his part of the work and he does it in
telligently With head we'll down, swinging
out on a long, swift lope, he follows the flee
ing band They run madly, becoming more
and more affrighted as they perceive that
they are indeed pursued. The first wild burst
of speed carries them far IN advance, but
not out of sight. By dexterous engineering
the rider and horse behind shorten the dis
lance as much as possible The band ahead
are to be kept on the move.
Mile after mile is rapidly covered. The
sun comes up hot and scorching in the cloud
less sky But there is no stop for restful
Craze, nor opportunity for a drink from a
chance stream. The fright of the wild horses
has grown into veritable terror. They throw
bits of foam from their mouths. They are
| worried, half crazed by this merciless, con-
tinuous, unreIenting pursuit. But the man
behind has rested his horse at every oppor-
tunity Whenever there was a chance, his
faithful animal has been given a nibble at
the succulent grass and had sup from a
spring or little stream. Ridden though he is,
the tough and experienced plains pony is
fresher than the fleeing equines ahead They
| now show signs of the greatest perturbation.
Their stomachs are empty, their wind is
"blown," their tongues are dry. But fear
makes them half unconscious of these suffer
ings, although they are gradually wearing
under them. At length, when they have gone
forty or fifty or perhaps sixty miles, the pa
triarch begins to run in an eccentric way.
He is not as sure of his course as he was He
wheels and turns and then goes ahead again,
but with uncertainty.
They drop out Of sight for moment be.
hind ridge. The stallion, his nostrils dilat-
ed and quivering and his eyes flashing, makes
a sudden run, and in another moment, with
his band of faithful spouses, he is galloping
back over the track he has come. Now is
the race in earnest and to the bitter end.
The nervy, gamy, swift horse behind knows
that his energies have been saved for the task
that is yet before him. As he feels the spur
he springs ahead with the racing blood
aflame in his veins. 1t is terrific chase.
New terror at this extraordinary, this I'M
looked for denouement of what the fleeing
animals ahead had thought in their brute in
stinct was successful ruse to throw the pur-
suer off the track, gives them desperate
strength, too; but they are worn and fretted
and starved and burning with thirst. They
run for their lives. Nearer, mile after mile,
they approach the starting place. The sun
is ablaze after MONDAY, but still the hot race
goes on.
The man left behind on the eminence is
sweeping the plains with his powerful glasses.
He has watched an hour, perhaps two, or
even three. At last his range of vision be-
comes conferred upon something away in the
distance. He trains the glasses intently until
at last he can see behind the running ami
! mails solitary horse, and that horse has
rider. He is in the saddle with bound,
calls to another horse grazing near, and
| away they fly towards this approaching cav
alcade He runs the horses as swiftly as he
can, and at length spies plainly, perhaps two
or three miles away, the fleeing bunch, and
behind them in hot chase the gallant horse
| and rider A signal tells him he too has
| been seen, and then, Selling the Topographic
cal features of the intervening space, he
skulks swiftly behind the ridges and eleva-
lions to cross the course. The trick is well
done, and while the wary but still dauntlsss
stallion and his following mares sweep
around the base of an elevation the tired,
gamy pony and the two fresh horses and men
meet As quickly as saddles can be trans
ferred the gallant horse that has made run
of seventy-fve eighty-fve, or possibly
ninety miles is free and rolling on the grass,
and the iron muscled man who bestrode him
is on another fleet and fresh horse and again
hot after the quarry.
Now follows the most skillful maneuvering.
The terrorized band cannot 1.1n much farther
They have almost exhausted even their we'll
nigh tireless vitality. They again become
confused and resort to their last device.
Their straightaway tactics are deserted and
they commence running in circle. At first
it is two miles in diameter. The pursuer
makes his circle in a little less space. The
diameter reduces to mile. Gradually this
grows less. The poor, painting, exhausted
creatures stagger around determined to die
in what they think is their only means Of
escape. They have entirely lost their reason,
if such it might be called. Narrower and
narrower becomes their course, until at last,
with the sun sinking low in the west, they
stand, painting, weaving back end forth, con-
quered for the time. They may have run
100 miles. The three men close in on them
end skillfully drive them toward the corral.
Among them aud in their lead now has come
strange saddleless horse; but they are too
bewildered to know it, This horse slowly
marks the course guided by the men driving,
and at last leads the prisoners within the
half concealed seclusion.-Coloredo Cor.
Chicago Tribune.
What Some Poets Look Like.
Iobserve that paragraphists, mostly Of the
female gender, scarcely ever mention Mr..
Brownings name without an expression Of
surprise at his personal appearance. They
wonder to find him clean, well dressed, trim,
like an ordinary English gentleman. They
say he looks ''more like a physician than a
poet" What should poet look like? Like
Lord Tennyson, who is a cross between a
Guy Fawkes and the mysterious recluse of a
transporting melodrama; like Lord Hough-
ton, who resembled jolly old Silenus; like
Lord Lytton Owen Incredibly, who looks
Hebraic and modest, and is neither; like
Mortimer Collins, who might have passed
for handsome head gardener; OF Q. w.
Holmes, who has touch of the wizened
groom; or Frederick Locker, an Anticipated
Lord Verisopht; OF William Morris, like
Longfellow's blacksmith without his good
temper; or Longfellow himself, of whom I
have portrait in his prebarbed days, which
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