The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-02

w reached the seclusion
of SWEETS Bar. We
invested all our spare cash in cows and
waited for results. Cattle were spoken
of as sure card for fortune. Keep cattle.
Buy improved breeds. Raise them.
"Cross" them. Feed them for nothing
On the native grass. Buy COWS. Cows
give milk. People can live on milk.
Milk then to Us was luxury.
1t paid no milkman to travel up and
down the rough and rocky lodges of the
Tuolumne ringing his bell at miners
cabins half a mile apart. Indeed he
could not so travel without carrying his
milk a la panier on donkey's back, and
by the time it had reached its place of
destination it would have been agitated
to butter. So all Of us miners went in
for cows. Improved cows. We bought
each an improved COW. We hauled this
COW by ropes across the raging, eddying.
furious river to our side. Frequently
she arrived more dead than alive. Then
came season of hope and expectation
as to fortunes through COWS.
the fire for breakfast, went out and
sought our cows, generally feeding or re-
posing mile or more from our cabins,
caught these cows, MIXED them, returned
to the cabin, finished the cooking of either
burned or cold breakfast, went forth
and labored in the claim till noon, came
home, cooked dinner, went forth again
| ot1 lob h., 10 he
cabins, chopped wood for fuel, travelled
500 feet or yards to the spring for water,
returned, mixed our bread, put it in the
oven, went out and MIXED the COW, then
bent over the hot stove for an hour until
bread was baked, and then, heated,
flushed, perspiring, exhausted from the
days labor, and with nerves quivering
by reason of such exhaustion, we ar
ranged the miners table, sat down to
the meal, and wondered why we had so
little appetite.
Keeping cows proved laborious work
for miners. When in addition to kim
ding the fire in the morning, cooking
your own breakfast, coming home at
night wet and tired after working all
day in the ground sluice, then hacking
away at some old stump to get wood
enough to cook the supper, travelling
maybe an eighth of q mile to the near
est spring for a pail Of water, and bend
ing and bothering with meat frying and
bread making, you add chasing night
and morn, milk pail in hand, some con-
trary cow all over the fiat in order to
milk her you pile too heavy load on
any mans back, because in the matter
Of housekeeping we had ceased the CO.
operative system. We dwelt all apart,
each hermit in his own cabin. We
were diverse in habit, and could not get
along with each others peculiarities
The neat man couldn't abide the slovenly
man. The economical man couldn't sit
patiently by and see his partner cut po-
tato parings a quarter of an inch in
thickness. The nervous man was ex-
hausted by his partners whistling or
snoring, and all these and numberless
other opposing peculiarities at last caused
each man, hermitlike. to retire into his
own cell.
We had other trouble with our cows,
for they were ravenous after salt We
neglected to salt them" Result: Ii
any article containing the least incrusta-
ton of salt was left outside our cabins
the entire herd would gather about it
at night, lick it, fight for its possession
and keep up steady grunting. stamp
ing, lowing and believing. They would
eat clothing left out over night on the
clothes line TO dry. In such manner and
for such reason also would they eat
through the cotton walls of our houses.
Once, when away for three days attend
ing county convention at Sonora, on re-
turning to my cabin | found it a scene
OF ruin and desolation. A COW had eaten
through the cloth wall on one side, and
taten her way out at the other, and had
stopped long enough inside to eat up all
my flour, rice and vegetables Once, when
moving my household effects from one
cabin to another on a wheelbarrow, |
left it near the middle of the fat for a
few minutes.
On returning / saw COW making off
with my best coat. She held it in her
mouth by one sleeve. On seeing me she
started off on a run. still thus holding
the sleeve IN her month and making vio-
lent efforts to eject il. The coat sleeve
was ruin when l did get it, She had
chewed 1t for salts sake to the likeness
of fish net. Keeping cows did not
make our fortunes at Swett's Then
everybody said: Keep hogs They
VIII feed on acorns and increase very |
rapidly. In few years the plains and !
hills viii groan under the burden of |
your pork" oIbought hogs. bought
SOW and seven pigs They gave ne
nrch 70 think of
Before mad owned them week COM |
plants concerning them came from |
uelghboring miners, who owned no hogs.
These pigs of mine broke through the |
cloth walls of the cabins, and would COP
sumo the miners entire weekly stock of |
provisions in few minutes. Then they |
would go outside and root from out the |
hot coals-his Dutch oven, wherein his |
bread was baking while he labored afar |
in his claim. and this bread when cooled |
they would also devour. | had, on buy
ing these animals, engaged that they /
should find themselves"
There yx-aS w,