Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-28


KNIcKBRBockEH, Tom GREEN !
Co., TEX, Dec. %
This place 10 on the northern edge of
great sheep and cattle range-that Of
PeOos and Devil river. Through A1so
runs one of the principal routessileo thi:
range, SO that hundreds of ting snds OF
sheep and cattle pass through here
yearly, or come to be watered and the
sheep sheered and dipped. Here thSe
is abundance of water. dipping watts Stnd
was. until recently burned doWn, q
great wool barn and shearing shed ..sff
| II ere are some features OF this West
eru5 stock business that are very distress
ing to tenderfoot. For instance, it is
not uncommon to see great punches Of
cattle brought from twenty miles away.
during a dry time, to water here
| at Dove creek. Here they come,
poor creatures, lowing and looking
| gaunt and sunken with thirst. They
| drink and drink, then lie down or stand
| about in the heat and dust su hour or so.
| then back again with their weary feet
the long twenty miles, the poor little
bleating calves that can but just
ST. uSSAAhS uAoaO
Then, at the shearipg sheds aud dip
ping watts the stranger has his feelings
| narrowed up occasionally by what seems
the unnecessarily rough way the poor
sheep are yanked about and cut by the
Mexican shearers.
The dipping vat Is long, narrow tank
filed with dark, evil-smelling, sinister
looking fluid called sheep dip. 1t is COM
pounded of tobacco, sulphur, and other
dainty and savory substances, mixed in
water, aud fellows that are chipping
are about as much cut off from society as
q man that's had stormy interview
with polecat.
Along one side of the vat stand Mexi-
can herders, and, grabbing a sheep by
horn, leg. an ear or a tail, pile them
into the vat pell nell. II one gets
down in under and seems likely TO
drown, he is hooked up bit and helped
out with great long shepherds crook
such as one sees In pictures. If oH(e3
drowned-which doesn't often haR6f
he is hooked up and pitched to 2Fe de.
On the other side of the vat HrAn the
dippers an incline leads up 4t9e pens
and up this incline it is at lice ptifpe
and ludicrous to see the poor sbe6p
crawl, exhausted with their rich co16red/
anu ul2Uly .5ceuteu Uatu, sire III = U04
hind them. They are dipped aftehg9sh
shearing, spring and fall, TO cure and
prevent scab.
Twelve or fourteen years ago all this
country about here was a cattle and horse
range. / was talking the other evening
with gentleman who was a member of
the firm, who first brought sheep here.
and he told me some stories showing
what q tough time they had of it, and
how the oattlemen kicked about the
sheep.
''My chum and I came on ahead
horseback, leaving the sheep with the
herders down toward San Antonio. We
were just fresh from New York, and
wouldn't think of going and squattlng
upon land unless we had some sort of
right or title, SO We went in to Ben
Ficklin and leased some thousands Of
acres right about here
"When we came back we pulled of
our coats and were working away like
Trojans, building corrals, when an old
fellow about six and half feet tall, and
with a long-barrelled rifle across his
arm rode up and said: ''HslIo, what
are you fellers DOM?
''Building corrals, said 1. Eve
are going to bring our sheep here.
"'What,' said he, that won It do
that won't dol 1 can't have you bring
ing sheep In here! Why, my oattle'n
all run away; cattle won't eat over u
range where sheep have been-not for
months! Can It have sheep here. Icon-
troll all this country round hers-have
for twenty year an more
90 WE'LL said, we found fellow at
Ben Ficklin that said he owned this land
and we've leased it from him, and we
reckon we've got right to run our |
sheep on our own land.
eel Leased! Leased it, said the old |
man and he seemed stumped. well, |
it e bad havin' sheep brought in here; |
but l control all this land. You havn't
leased-its my range-and you must |
keep your sheep on your own land.
'Well, we brought our sheep, the
cattle failed to run away or make any
at all, and we bad no
only occasionally some fellow
tried to bluff us.
.'For instance, several years later, 1
bought little pecan mott over here
where there s always water and here the
next day came a cowboy with a note
from Billy Williams, manager of the
outfit, stating thar he couldn t
have any such doings as those; the Thir-
teen cattle had run through that land
and watsred there ever since It had been
a brand, aud he couldn't have US COM
ing in buying it. But he said he wanted
to be perfectly fair about the matter.
he understood We had paid good money
FOR the land, and now he would pay US
back whatever We gave and let us deed
he mott to the Thirteen company.
al was pretty hot, and l wrote him
back sassy note, saying we certainly
had right to buy such land as We chose
Ind run our shsep on 1t, and on the out
Tide too, If we wanted to, and 1 never
heard any more from him.
This place, as said, is on the edge of
he Devil River country, where coyotes,
,avilenes (wnd hoes), wild cats and deer
and an occasional panther or
Me- ican lion is shot.
The get-up of my room is quite bar
luxurious. In the middle of
he floor is a Mexican lion skin, with ex-
ended tail half q rod long aad claws
worse to step on than taoks. In front of
he open fire is q handsome deer skin,
While before the bed and in every possi-
lie place they can be used are spotted
at skins and hsvilene skins. Mexican
lair quirts hang upon the walls, Mex lean
pottery stands upon the shelves. and an
head looks down reproach-