Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-07-23
OUR STORY.
THE eCAPITALJoURNAL will contain regu
larry q story, completed In one or two num-
bcrs
YERvY EXPLOIT OF A COWBOY.

]
But all the time the great living
mass is moving northward with an
irregular motion, while a score ol
wide-hatted herders, mounted OH
wiry, excitable broncho ponies, hang
on the flanks and sides.
1t is the annual cattle drive.
a barren path, from forty rods to
a quarter-mIle wide, stretching
over hill and dale, across prairies
and through the underground Of the
river bottoms, extending nearly six
hundred miles from the plains OF
Texas TO the foothills Of the Rockies,
in Wyoming Territory, with scarce
Iy a blade of grass aloug its eHtirt
length-that is the famous cattle
trail of the West.
Il Is the track over which hun.
dreds Of thousands of cattle art
driven annually to and from the
feeding-grounds of tie north and
those of the soIth.
1t also serves as the read from the
ranges to the railway stations
when the marketable stock is to be
shipped TO an eastern destination.
1t was such an object that in.
duced the drive from the Harlan
ranch, in September, 1887. The
cattle were to be loaded aboard the
cars at Dodge City, Kansas, and
shipped to Chicago's great packing
houses.
The herd moved slowly, and il
was not difficult for the campers
wagon, or prairie schooner, that was
accompanying it, to keep close to
/ the cattle.
The driver of the wagon was "a
mover he had been trying for a
few months to make a living in
Texas, but had not succeeded, and
was going north to spend the
winter with his "wife's folks"
BY accident he had overtaken the
herd, and was following it for the
sake of the chats he held daily with
the score of cowboys who rode like
skirmishers upon the edges of the
army of cattle.
1t was in the midst of the Indian
Territory that there took place an
incident which gave a never-to-be-
forgotten thrill to every man in the
company.
"Well, stranger, are you thinking
ofjoining the army for good ~ asked
one of the cowboys, riding beside
the emigrants wagon the day after
it joined the herd.
"We-uns is goin' to Nerbrasky,"
was the surly reply.
"We're goin' to see gran'pa an
gran'ma," piped a CHEEKY voice.
And the fiaxen head of a six-year-
old peeped out from the canvas
cover.
"Oh! you are! Well, little one'
where'd you come from ?' laughed .
the cowboy.
"Oh Just in here! Pm papa's lit
tie girl, you know" the child re-
piled.
1t was the beginning of a friend
ship between the prattling little
Julia and rough, reckless Mack.
The herder had been for years an
exile from the society of children,
and this fresh, sweet bit of human
ity was like an angel from Heaven
in his eyes.
He was her constant companion
very moment that he could snatch
rom his duties, and often she rode
with him around the herd, perched
n front of his great leathern saddle
Dn the wiry broncho's back. II
SOFT was with considerable pleas
are that both Julia and her friend
earned that u stop would be made
or day when about halfway
through the Territory to allow the
'attle to rest. When the place was
cached the usual proceedings took
)lace,
The cowboys spread out their cir
lie until the herd covered an area of
wo or three square miles, then be-
gan riding around the animals, /
keeping their ponies constantly
and remaining at equal
distances from one another. In this
way, and this way only, could so
ew guards restrain the vast num-
lers of stock.
The emigrant stopped, too, well
pleased to have a resting spell.
"Looks some like a Storm said
Mack, rs he rode up to the wagon.
THE cattle seem uneasy Then as
he looked around for his pet, he
added, "where's Julie?"
Don't know" said the father de-
Iectedly. "Guess she must be
about. She was around
here awhile ago"
They looked in the wagon aud
beneath il. She was not TO be
found. The father and mother be- .
aa p,a alarmed aud saaraloI Mill /
their eyes the prairie. spread out .
like great grassy sea, in the vain
effort to find the missing child.
Mack rode away TO the herder's
camp, thinking she might have
wandered there. While he was
peenng among the low tents aud
the other panphernalia Of the
outtita low rumble was borne to his