Omaha daily bee., 1888-08-26
A Farm Hands Wild Ride for Life

New York Sun: Hiram Cass, a farm
hand in the employ of Abner Whitney
of Clifton township, Pa. had a thrilling
experience. Since the latter part of
May Farmer Whitney has been pastur-
ing drove of large steers in fifty
acre field on the mountain about three
quarters Of a mile from his house. The
lot is separated from the main part of
the farm by a strip of woodland. and
there is forest on the south and west
sides Of the field. There are four good
springs in the pasture, and all the at
tentiOn that has been paid to the steers
since they We're turned out was to feed
salt to them once week. Owing to
some neglect no salt had been given to
the cattle in more than fortnight, and
last Wednesday Farmer Whitney told
Cass to take pailful of it up there and
feed it to the steers.
The moment the cattle saw Cass en-
ter the field they galloped toward him at
the top OF their speed, and, before he
had time to place the salt on the ground
in little heaps so that they could all
get lick, the greedy, long-horned ami
mails completely surrounded him.
They were so hungry for salt that half
dozen of them tried to stick their
noses in the pail at once, and Cass had
to kick them in the jaws and yell at
them to keep them from goring him
and trampling on him. While he was
doing all he could to make passage
between the uneasy prutes, the largest
steer in the herd rushed up from behind
with his head down, and, in his eager
search for salt on the ground, he
knocked Cass's feet from under him.
Cass lost his balance and tipped over
backward, sitting squarely down on the
steers head between his long horns,
and dropping the pail as he did so. Up
went the frightened steers head, and
Cass, fearing that he would be thrown,
grabbed n horn in each hand.
The steer then started to run like
wildiire, and Cass clung to the horns
for dear life. The other brutes became
frightened at the strange spectacle, and,
with heads and tails up, they ran bel
lowing after the atfrighted fugitive that
also beloved at almost every leap.
Cass's legs prevented the runaway steer
from seeing ahead very well, and three
times in his terrific circuit around the
field the steer came within a few inches
of running his head against trees. The
hired man is a strong fellow, and gen
orally courageous, but he said that he
had never before in his life been so
thoroughly terrified, and he knew that,
while he was in danger of having his
brains dashed out against Il tree at any
moment, he would be trmpled to death
by the moving herd behind him if he
threw himself from the steers head.
On he hung with all his might, pray
ing that the steer soon would stop, and
round and round the field the whole
drove dashed like a herd of frightened
bison.
At the end of what Cass said seemed
to be half an hour, but what he supposed
was In reality not more that ten min
utes, the steer painted as though his
wind was giving out, slackened his
speed little, and dashed straight
toward strong brush fence next to the
woodland. He leaped part way over it,
became entangled in the mass OF limbs
and sapplings, and fell upon his right
side, where he lay struggling and kick
ing long enough for Cass t) spring into
the thicket at safe distance from the
sharp horns of the scared and half-eX-
hausted beast. The other cattle did not
follow the fugitive steer, stopping in
their mad dash just as he fell into the
brush. Cass said that he was as weak as
a cat for several minutes, and that his
nerves were unstrung from fear and the
energy he had expended in clinging to
the steers horns. 1t was the most peril
GUS position he was ever in, but he was
not permanently injured, and in the
course of half an hour the steer was
uone the worse for his long run.