Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-05
ROUND-UPS.
Tales of the Range Told by an Old Time
Cattleman.
Frontier Justice in the 'ong AgO-Cattlemen
Have no Hope of Extension CrOwting
on and Starving Another Market.

alt used 20 be the case on the cattle
range in Texas that through ticket on
q fast train to the hereafter would be
furnished any man on proof that he had
been illegally handling other peoples
stock. For a man to be caught killing
cattle for the hides, stealing horses or
cattle meant sure death. -
"How about branding the calf of some
one else. in your own brandt"
'Well there was a good deal of that
done by people who are living and doing
well to-day, but there was many a man
who was sent to his last resting place on
account of it. 1t was all right to put
on your brand provided you owned cat
tie on the range, on any unbranded ami
NAL, provided it was not a calf following
it's mother. The fact of the calf
sucking a branded COW is a notice
that it is the property of the party who
owns the COW. There were IN early days,
however, men who accumulated big
herds of cattle by this illegal work, but
many of them were eventually detected
and then swung up or shot down by
stockmeu, with but little ceremony. 1
once knew young fellow-and he died
yOung-who came out to Texas just after
the war from Georgia. He was an ener-
getic young fello~, and was am bitious to
become a cattleman. He took the right
steps, and hired out to one of the big
cattlemen on the range. He had not
been angaged as cowboy but q
short time when he began to
pave the way for his rapid race
to eternity. He bought a bull calf from
his employer, put brand on the brute,
and turned him loose on the range.
''Now this was the beginning of one
of the most rascally careers that l ever
heard of. The bull calf was not weaned
when he bought it, but in less than q
month this young fellow began branding
calves right and left. He did it openly,
too, and even while working for other
people he would slap his own brand on
about every tenth calf. He was spoken
to about this matter by some of the
boys and warned that he would come to
grief if he did not let up.
:" 'Oh, they all do it, he said.
Yes, but they have cattle on the
range and have some excuse for brand
ing a maverick now and then.
80 We'll, haven't l bull cali on the
argue that he was just as much entitled
10 the get of the bull calf as the owner
of the calf's mother was, and | will be
hanged if 1 don't believe the fellow
thought he was right.
rs would be devil of a wav' he
would say for my bull to be helping TO
increase tbs herds and doing more in
that way than twenty cows, for the
owner of the cows to get evs7ything, and
l get nothing. No sir, that won't do: 1
ought to have half the calves at least
and L IL be id if l amt going TO get
them If can
mo amount of talking would do any
good or stop this duck from branding the
offspring of that bull calf, so at last, to
put a stop to it without having to kill the
young fellow, one of the men killed the
calf, told the owner about it and paid
him what it was worth. This done no
good, however, as the fellow claimed
that no doubt his dead calf had male de-
sceudents on the range, and he kept on
branding the same as ever.
''Did the cattlemen ever succeed in
breaking him of this practice?''
"Oh, yes, they stopped him after
awhile by resortlng to what they did not
like to. He was u popular young man
personally and was the life of any party
he WAS with. His friends tried to save
him. but he was like lots of sinners l
know now-he wouldn t be saved; so he
had to be got rid of. He was found near
Deep creek by a lot of cowmen one day
and that was the last of him. He was gwen
a decent frontier burial, and his grave
can be seen to-day under big bur oak
tree near the banks of the creek. -
'Dld 1t never happen that an innocent
man was punished2' asked the reporter
to whom the cattleman was spinning thu
yarn.
Eyes, once that l recollect of. In
this case the man was not suspected of
cattle stealing, but he was looked on as a
horse thief until after his death. You
see he was stranger in our section-no
one knowing him-and as he acted very
suspiciously the stockmeu kept a sharp
eye on him. he had two splendid horses
with him, one of which he tried to sell.
This led some people to believe he had
stolen them, and one night he was taken
out by lot of men who told HIM he had
to die.
80 An right he said; Il have been
expecting it for some time, and it might |
as well come now as any other time.'
"He made no attempt TO beg of and