The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-16

ing his lifeinto his hands, rusnes in to "cut
OUT the required brands of cattle.
The dash of these various parties increases
the madness and the excitement of the herd.
Soon the vast herd begins to sway, but the
ircle-holders rush In with quirk and oath
and drive them back. And now the ''cut-
out" cattle begin to appear at every point
of the circle, and, with their drivers behind
them, are driven off to a distance on the
plain, where each owner holds his own
bunch" in a little Gordon Of his own. Soon
the prairie is dotted with these various
punches, where small force of one or two
cowboys suffices to hold them, for
rarely will a COW or bull leave the little
groups and break away TO the main
herd. Once there, they seem TO be contented
and give up their fight. But what a scene
does the main herd present by this time
The air has become filled with small parti-
cles of alkali, eyes are infiamed and red,
the throat seems clogged with dust and
painful, and still you have to be more
careful than at the start. Your horse has
Joined In the excitement, and stands CULVER
ing in every limb. The bulls and steers
have become enraged by the constant
cutting out, and now no longer limit
to be driven, but are ION the fight" Quickly
they turn upon their pursuers, and with
lowered horns and frightful roar they
dash upon their enemies. See, there, that
steer turned SO quickly upon his foe that he
has gored the morse before his rider has
time to escape the plunge; moment the
poor horse stands, then falls, and before the
rider can escape the bull Is on him, but a
dozen lassos leap into the air, and before
the man is gored the bulls horns are caught
in one rope, his hind legs in another, and,
with the other ends of the ropes tied around
the pommel, cowboys have thrown him
and are dragging him over the prairie
IA a Una
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
Now my turn comes. So interested had
l become in watching the last fight that |
had lost all sense of danger. A warning
cry falls on my ear, and, turning quickly,
see dangerous steer bearing down upon
me. Thank heavenl | am magnIficently
mounted, and with a pressure ON the bride
the well-trained horse turns aside and the
mad animal misses his mark, and before he
can turn my fieet-winged horse is after
him, and, with the quirp falling on his
headquarters, | drive hin over the prairie,
now turning quickly to escape his thrust,
but never letting up for moment, until
we have brought him safe within the limits
of the circle where he belongs, where the
''holders" take charge of him and relieve
me Of my dangerous burden. Friend con-
graduate me, and on the spot l graduate
from the degree of tenderfoot to that of a
cowboy. In the excitement men lose all
sense of danger, or rather they are so
Injured to such scenes that they have no
sense of danger. And yet, l have seen
a Spanish bullfight, and bear
witness that that tame contest
with one mild, inoffensive, stabbed
creature bears no comparison with these
cowboy engagements with maddened bulls
and steers on every side of them A whole
week this 'cutting out" continues, until
every owner has secured all of his cattle;
then, having paid his bill for their winter
pasturage lat the rate of twenty-five cents
a head per month, he marshals his outfit,
takes his cattle out of his kraal and drives
them peaceably home over the prairie.
Here, taking out the mich cows for his
farm use, and branding the young calves,
he turns them out upon the commons, and
this troublesome part of the ranchman's
life is over for the time, until he gathers up
the steers in the fall for the market
The care of his horses gives infinitely
less trouble, and the rounding-up of the
mares and their colts every spring involves
no danger, only some hard riding over the
plains. On this account, and owing to the
small prices paid for cattle, it seems to be
the ambition of most of the ranchmen in
the San Luis valley to go out of the cattle
business into that of horses exclusively.
A ranchman's life on these dry prairies is
exceedingly bard, and during the last three
years, with their excessive drought, none Of
them have made any money. Today the
ground is as dry as a shingie In winter,
the ground being covered with snow and
ice, the cattle can find but little pasturage,
and they die by the hundreds. You cannot
drive over the prairies for any distance
without seeing the dead bodies of dozens of
cows and steers. Weakened by hunger.
the starving animals make their way to
some stream, and there in the water they
lie down and die, polluting the streams and
making them breeders of disease. No
poor man and his outfit should
ever come to this country and yet, caught by
rosy advertisements of fine agricultural
lands in the San Luis valley" they come by
the hundreds, only to find dry, dusty lands
for their cattle and starvation for their
families. An outfit passed by here on the
prairie the other day, and this was the in
scription printed on a canvas around the
wagon: "Leaving the San Luis udlLeu, the
garden spot of the edrth. going back to old
Missouri. to Gods country, aUhere dried
apples amt a luDury." This pathetic
legend tells the story better than any words
of mine. The soil is poor. but the climate
is magnificent. Light air that fills the
lungs and makes breathing a pleasure and
delight. Warm, balmy days aud nights in
which ice forms into the middle of June.
Sitting by window that looks out on the
grand range of the Sangre de Christie, ]
cannot but muse on the strange contrast be
tween the plains and the mountains. Tue
| one so poor and dry and barren that man
can scarcely get support from it for his
| family and his herds; the other filled with
iron, lead, gold and silver. that any day ht
may stumble on a fortune and become ont
of the silver kings of Colorado. c. H. S.