Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-03
RANCH LIFE IN THE WEST.
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt's Entertaining
Talk on the Subject.


Talk on the Subject.
his ADDRESS AT THE MEETING AT CoNGREGA-
rIOSAL CHURCH HELD BY THE LADIES INTER
EsrED IN THE CURRENT MOVEMENTS FOR THE
BENEFIT OF SEwsBoYs AND POOR CHILDREN.
At the open meeting held Tuesday night in
HE Congregational Church in the interest Of
,he Newsbovs Aid Society, Hon Theodore
Roosevelt civil service commissioner, gave an
interesting talk on ranch life.
Mr. Roosevelt said that he agreed that there
was little connection between his subject and
the purposes of the association except that he
took q great interest in both. Then, after a
word of commentator for the practical work
that is being done for the newsboys, he started
in to describe Ranch life in the far west"
with earnestness and enthusiasm that car
ried his audience along with him He spoke
without notes of any kind and very rapidly.
He said that he had spent about
EIGHT TEARS on THE RANCHES
OF the west and had seen the gradual disap-
pearance of The frontier. The frontier, he
rather sorrowfully told the audience, is gone
absolutely. So are the buffalo and all the
other marks of the plains of the west. man,
unless he comes Immediately from the atmos-
phere of cities. cannot get lost in the west it
Is today. He may strike a stream and 60 down
1t a couple of days and he will come across a
house. There is just about room left to halt
and that is all. For the next two decades the
life on the ranches with all Its plcturesqueness,
will be most interesting. but not beyond that
period. The buckskin-shirted trapper, with
all his equipment for the hunting of animals in
the wilderness. was formerly the type of the
great west but now the cowboy stands as the
typical figure OF that region. The suddenness
with which
THE BUFFALoEs HAVE VANISHED
is appalling. Thev made their last stand in
81, and since then there have been scarcely
200 animals OF the plains. All sorts Of people
find their way out into the western country
and soma do not find their way back again.
There tin peddler said the speaker, who
wandered to his ranch and was trying with
indifferent success to sell his wares when he
fell into the han 5 of the Indians and he was
killed The Indians thought that his tins were
some kind of bad medicine and scattered them
all over the plain over IA tract of country COW
erlng two square miles. The year that saw the
end of the buffalo sew also the beginning of
ranch life proper. for the cattle raisers began
to come into the country over which the
buffalo used TO roam and staked out their claims.
COW OUTFIT,
as ii is called, is started by two men going
ahead of the main party to cruise, to pick
out favorable spot for the grazing of cattle.
They find bad travelling, and 1T sometimes
takes them days to make any visible progress
at ALL When they have lighted upon a spot
that looks well for the future they malt. and in
a short time the main body of the outfit has
come up and work begins. A Cow, in the
parlance of the plains, Is anything of a suitable
size that has four legs and two horns and has
no reference to sex whatever. Everything of
that description Is either Cow" or a
"critter." The ranch consists of hut either
built of adobe or logs, and each one has, on an
average, two rooms. In one of which everybody
sleeps and in the other the cooking is done.
As soon as the hut IS built the herds are staked
out into the plains loose for pasture with men
the outer edge OF the herd to keep the COWS
from wandering away. They have habit of
growing homesick and drifting southwark if they
have been driven to the north or to the north
if they have come from that point. 1t is quite
embarrassing to the owner il his cattle drift
anywhere an Indian reservation. When
the cattle have been herde6 in this way there
Is held what is called
THE ROUNDUP"
which is simply a general pasturage. where
each owner picks out his cattle from the mass.
This is necessary in the region where the cow
boy and the branding iron take the place of
the fence. The roundup often covers territory
over forty miles long. 1t Is done IN the spring,
and the first preparation Is to get IN the
horses, which have run wild all winter. They
are very rough, in coats well a temper. and
the process of reducing them to civilization
again after weeks of freedom is one of the
most difficult tasks of the cowboys work.
Each outfit has from six to eight men, and
each man has from eight to twelve horses, SO
that an ordinary outfit would have a herd of
half a hundred horses 1t is during this pro-
Cess Of breaking the horses to saddle again that
THE eUcKIsG HORSE
gets in its work. He either bucks or plays the
game Of sun fish," which is done by going up
into the air with his feet in one direction and
coming down on them when he has changed
them into another position. This horse is the
past grand master of bucking horses and the
owner of one would much rather have someone
else who likes that sort of thing do the breaking
for him. 1t takes week to get the horses in
order, and then the start is made for the
roundup, in which all the ranches join. Each
outfit travels on horseback, with hugh prairie
schooner to carry the traps. The extra horses
are herded and driven along together. The
teamster is the cook and every man has plenty
10 do of the toughest sort of work. 1t is very
interesting, but tIresome for there nights
when one gets no sleep at all, and under the
best circumstances few hours rest is all
man can obtain. The work begins at three in
the morning, and after breakfast has been
bOlted in the quickest possible order the
horses are driven in and each man goes into
the rope corrall and gets his own. He is
armed with lariat. and it is
a TRYING TIME FOR THE TYRo.
II is very unhappy work for the young and
inexperienced man who thinks that it is all fun
on the plains. When the horse is saddled
start Is made at about dawn all the riders
going forward in the shape of a fan, taking up
all the cattle that are to be found on the plains.
There may be 300 or there may be 5000 taken
up in a day, and when they have been driven
into corner then comes the time to work
the herd" This is the process of picking out
from the mass of cows each mans property,