Fergus County argus., 1890-05-29
LocoED HORSES.
Singular Effects Of the Loco, or Rattle Weed,
Upon Horse Sense.

| Col. .Junan d. Mccarthy of Cali
fOrnia sat alone at n table i'm the Hoff
man house cafe yesterday, says tn,
New York sun. nervously lingering tn,
big quartz links of his watch chair
and wondering what had become OF al
the men OF his acquaintance. ii,
wanted somebody to help him with q
small bottle and hear him talk, and
he was just about to send for Billy
Edwards and ask him to bring some
body in 10y main force when his eye
fell upon a man who was known to
him a. "a good listener. The colonel
showed his slouch hat back, made his
glass ring by iilliping it with his
nail, and cheerily said: "Hi, there!'
Then he added: "Your just the man
wanted to see."
Ibid you ever see a locoed horse ?"
said the colonel. "Of course you never
did, but ] was reminded of the subject
by seeing the term used in last Sunday g
Sun. It's u subject that causes more
argument and row among the stock.
men Of California than the price OF
beef ever did. A lOcoed horse is the
worst piece Of property a man can
own, next to a corner lot in an addi-
ton to u busted boom town. You
never can tell what the critter will do
nor when he will do it. He behaves as
though he were half-asleep most OF the
time, but just when he ought to lie
asleep he II do more fool things than
you can keep cases on. II you stake
him out near camp he'll wind himself
all np in the stake-rope until he can't
walk, and then he'll suddenly pretend
that sonnet hing has frightened him and
oegln to Kick and snort and tuin
sOmersaults. The racket awakens
you, and, snppOsing that a panther
has jumped the horse, you rush out to
help him. 1t takes you ten minutes
to untangle the horse, and as soon as
he gets upon his feet he kicks ut you
or knocks You down with his stupid
old head. And then you're sorry "a
panther hadn't tackled him.
''Fhe lOcoed horse may have been
used under saddle all his life, but some
day when you want to saddle him he
will discover that the blanket is a
ravenOus monster that wants to de-
YOUR him, and you can't get anywhere
near the brute. Ii he's tied up you
have to cut the rope to save him from
his neck i'm his efforts to
escape from that blood-thirsty saddle
blanket. Such tricks as lying down in
the middle OF "a creek or tumbling heels
over head into u bunch of cactus
you We got to be prepared for at any
time.
81 remember a lOcOed horse that |
Sam Beacham had when we were pros
pecting on the Castac. Sam thought |
that plug was a Jim dandy, and |
wouldn't admit that he was lOcOed. |
Billy had the meanest gait you ever |
saw, omething between Looping and |
pacing, and he snorted with every |
breath he drew. II you tried to lead |
him he'd fall down in more ways than |
a circus clown could think of, and |
when he stuck his nose into |
a pan OF barley his lurid imagination
would transform each grain into a
sea-serpent or roaring wogglybob,
and away he'd go, snOrting like a loco
motive and tumbiing down hill over
MS own feet
You want to know the cause of
oco? Well, that's what the stock
men quarrel about. Most people be-
eve that the loco plant is responsible
or the disease. 1t is a low plant that
,rows IN plenty all over the semi
barren land of the west. Ii bears
pods that become very dry in the
and rattle when the wind
moves them. ] don't know the bo-
.anlcal name but one OF the popular
names is rattle weed 1t Is not good
orage, but stock will eat it when feed is
scarce.
"Some stockmen declare that this
will make IA horse crazy,
'lve him the Jim Jams, so to speak, but
others scout the idea, and protest
hat the loco property OF the rattling
BOD Is all superstition. A cattle man
n Southern California assured me
hat his horses had eaten rattle weed
or twenty-five years, or at least had
,ad free opportunity to eat it, but he
lever had n lOcOed horse on the range
until after the sheep began feeding over
he country in big bands. His theory
vas that the sheep-tick crawled in the
lorseS ears, burrOwed and laid eggs,
md affected the animals just as spider
night affect Il man by crawling into
MS ear and waltzing around on his
Ii You have ever had a
'ug in your ear you know how that
eels. And, by the way, if a bug ever
ets into your ear, whisky will fetch
'lm. Cock your head over to one
lde and till your ear with the liquor,
md out comes the bug, as dead as .
ivi-service reform. | always carry
Whisky when go into the mounts aims,
BECAUSE bugs are thick there. Come
o think OF it, perhaps that is
Why some folks speak OF whisky as
bug-juice.'
"NOw, ldOn't know how much truth
here is in the tick theory about locoed
'orses, although the cattleman swore
le had found ticks i'm the ears OF his
razy broncos. You see every cattle ,
nan hates sheep with religious fervor,
md attributes everything bad to
hem. asked a Kern county cattle
nan one day how he accounted for
arthquakes in California, and he
eplied: It's them - sheep, /
eckon."
Philosophy Of the Street.