, 1891-05-23
A SCOUTING TRIP.
Billy Lykins Home From a Trip
Through the Country.
StOckmen are Suffering From
Thefts of Young Calves.
A Time When Thayer Was Less
Particular Than Now.

Billy LykIns. The well Known detective,
has returned IRON a scouting trip Of sew
eral weeks length through Nebraska,
South DakotA and Wyoming. He re.
ports grass good in all parts Of the country
he has been in and reports stock in good
shape. He saw no dead cattle.
Mr.. Lykins is naturally much interested
in the letter which the Omaha papers
have said Governor Thayer has written
and will send to Governor Barber. Not
outstanding the peremptory tone of the
letter, Mr.. Lykins thinks Kingen will re.
main where he is.
When KinRen was captured some of the
Scots Bluffs county friends of the cattle
thief attempted to run a bluff on
Lykins by threatening to have him ar
rested for kidnapping. Mr.. St. Raynor
who Is a legal power in that part of the
country was asked what he thought OF
the scheme. He said if they had Ly-
kins arrested he would be very willing to
undertake his defense. THIS rather dis
; coursged the movers in the matter and
it was dropped.
Governor Thayer's demand recalls Wv
idly to Mr.. Lykins and other old-timers a
time when Governor Thayer was not so
great a stickler for the strict letter of the
law. 1t was about eight years ago when
cattle and horse thefts became so numer-
GUS in Western Nebraska, and the stock
men were so oppressed by the operations
of a gan of r%ustlers that they appealed to
Governor Thayer for special state aid in
protecting their property. Thayer said
1--WE can't reach those ~renegades. protect
yourselves. you know how to do it
And so they did. A vigilance commit
tee was organized and six or eight of the
r~ustlers were hung. The band was broken
up and no effort was made by Governor
Thayer or any other state or county Off
cials to interfere with the work of the
vigilants. 1t seems rather strange that
now the governor should insist on so strict
an observance of the letter OF the law
when in protecting the ranchmen and
stock owners a technical violation Of it
may have been made.
1t is computed by very conservative
Wyoming stockmen that at least I,5OO
head of stock have been run off and
stolen by the Nebraska m~arauders during
the rast two or three years. The con-
viction of Kingcn and Mckinney has
pretty effectually broken up the gang
which has been doing the stealing, and to
release one of them would be a bad blow
at the interests of stockgrowers and
ranchmen in Eastern Wyoming and
Western Nebraska. The best people of
Scots Bluffs county are glad to get rid of
the gang. One of them said to Lykins
on his last trip. "Kingen had us buff
faloed' and we hope he will never come
back"
Mr.. Lyklns says it is easy to tell which
is the work Of a granger and which that
OF a cowboy in hunting stolen stock. The
granger kills a beef and takes it either for
home consumption or sells it to some
butcher. He tries to cover up his traces
ny purylng the niue Ut throwing IL GOWN
some well. The COW puncher runs off a
bunch and tries to change or blotch the
brands.
At the present time very few grown
cattle are being stolen but there is a con-
tinual theft OF young calves going on.
There seems to be a feeling among r~ustlers
and many small stockmen that 1t is per
fectly legitimate to adopt all the calves
that may be secured from the big herds.
1t is hard to locate these appropriations of
young stock as their work Is very quietly
and cleverly done, but Mr.. Lykins has
sharp eyes and some OF the men doing
the work who imagine they are perfectly
secure. NAV vet be broupht tn grief