Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-29
ROUND.UPSI
An 0ld-Time Cattleman Talks of the
Trail in Past Years.
Indications of an Increased Interest in the
Swine Industry-Brown Hal's Record.
General Stock Items.

1.-THE railroads, - remarked an old
time cattleman to q GAZETTE reporter
Yesterday, ''have worked wonderful
change in the cattle business, and they
have almost RELOCATED to the rear the
COWBOY, around whose character such
charm was thrown by dime novel litera-
ture. The sections that once knew him
so we'll now know him no more, and as
trail after trail is closed up by the adj
vancing tide of civilization and the
imam with hoe the cowboy becomes
more and more scarce. They, like the
buffalo and the Indian, are going, and it
will be but few years before the typical
cowboy will be a thing of the past.
Thousands AID thousands of cattle are
moved now on railroads where only few
hundreds are moved over the trail.
al guess that it is the best as is now
is, but when look back to the days
when L was cowboy and followed the
herds hundreds of miles over the trail,
almost wish that those days were here
again. -
"Was the life such pleasant one, -
asked the reporter.
pheasant in q measure, but full of
hardships and danger, and 1t looks to
me now as if il was the dangers to be en-
oountered that lent charms to the life.
The dangers in my young days consisted
frequently in encounters with the In
dians, storms on the prairies and expos
ure to the weather. Sometimes, though,
the boys were dangerous to each other.
and generally settled their differences
with the six-shooter or the carbine. L
remember the death of friend of
mine-a young fellow from Tennessee
that occurred near where Ranger now
stands and who was killed by another
friend of mine in 1867. The COW business
In Texas then was lively.
"What was he killed about?'
"Nothing, really; but it just grew out
of game of poker, the stakes in which
were pecans. We were out on a round
up and some of tie boys, myself among
the rest, engaged in card playing after
supper, the stakes, as / said were pecans
which we could gather almost anywhere.
A dispute arose among these Two young
fellows about the ante, and as it pro-
gressed it was plain to be seen that there
was going to be trouble. No one at
tempted to stop it but just let things take
their course, as it would only have re-
suited in more being involved had an at
tempt been made to stop the trouble.
"Well, to make g long story short,
pistols were drawn and in less than five
seconds one of the boys lay dead in the
camp. Els slayer, who was not par
ticularIy popular with several of the
boys, attempted to escape and made
break for his pony which was hobbled
nv He in fa
the hobbies off, and was in the act of
mounting when the sharp crack of a
pistol was heard and he fell in his tracks.
As he fell, however, he made an effort
TO pull his pistol, but 1t was too late
he was a goncr.
rWho shot him?' asked the reporter.
''That can t tell you. 1t was never
known who fired the shot; in fact no
effort was ever made to learn who did
1t. The slayer had simply given the
other slayer frontier justice and there
the matter dropped.
"Did the courts never take the mat
ter up?"
''There were no courts out there then
aud the cowmen generally settled their
little differences without their mid. These
two men who were killed as have told
you were both buried in one grave "a
shallow one it was too) and to-day no,
man eau point to the exact spot where.
they were laid to rest. Their bones may
be still under ground, but it is mGrB
than likely that some varmint unearth@
the bodies and left the bones TO bleach
on the plains. This is only one incident
out of many know of, and hundreds of
unknown and forgotten dead occupy
nameless graves all over what was tAs,.
the cattle range of Texas. Some of tt4s
men who were killed were simply mug
dererd, while others deserved to disskhe
deaths they did.
''Those were wild and exciting times,
the like of which will never be kno n in
Texas again. The cowboy occupation
is falling into disrepute, both on account
of it being so tame now, and the small
wages earned. A good cowboy used TO
get as high as SIS per month, with his
grub thrown in; now S25 is about as
much as they get.