The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-03
ROPING WILD HORSES.
WHEN TIE COWBOYS DO DARING
RIDING.

They Roam over Two Counties In
Eastern Colorado Every Year - A
Number of Them Are Lassoed by
the Cowboys, when sport Ensusa
From the Denver Netos
The famous band OF wild horses which
have ranged in what are now Cheyenne and
Kit Carson counties, In Eastern Colorado,
since time inmemoriAl has lost twenty five
of its finest young family members. The
pale, intellectual tourist coming into Dem
yer from the east over the Union Pacific
road has bean seen to curl his cultured lip
when the brakeman opens the door at the
windy end of the car and shoots the ex-
plosive station announcement, "Wild
Aorsel" at the helpless passengers.
The man from the east thinks the long
tailed equine aborigines OF the plains exist
now only as q memory of other days But
in this he Is fooled a trip. There are hun
hundreds Of wild native horses still bound
ing the great open ranges OF the state in all
the untrammeled freedom which they have
acquired in the years when their primitive
ancestors first hit the trail out Of Corona
dos camp one night over 500 years ago and
left his outfit Of Spanish 'sdelantados" to
foot IL back to camp.
The junction Of Wild Horse creek with
the Big Sandy, 100 miles east Of Denver, has
always been q favorite resort for wild
horses, which in former days congregated
there In great herds numbering thousands,
but on the coming OF the dude and cigar
cite into their domain these nomadic inhab-
itants have very sensibly given up the bulk
Of their kingdom TO the culture OF the red
Durham bull and the cultivation of the
sweet root OF the saocharine beet. The cow
boys and sheep herders, who occupy the
country with their stock, occasionally are
considered bands Of these, and many efforts
have been made TO round them up by en-
terpr1sinR COW punchers.
The efforts generally came to naught.
The wild horses spin out Of sight across the
plains. and the cowboy can only console
himself, as he philosophically rolls a cigar
cite and watches his badly blown pony
come back to life, with the subdued observa-
ton that
"Lightninrl never strike that bunch of
bronoos If they git about foah jumps the
start They only hit tn roal high places,
n IL does beat hi how they git tibet lope
off.n
The cowboys who have just come In from
that section of their district spring round
up had little matinee Of this variety last
week. As they were breaking camp at the
close of their work, north of Kit Carson,
one Of the outside circle riders came Jump
ing into camp on Wednesday morning,
when the boys were putting away their
jerked beef and coffee breakfast, with the
information that he had located a big bunch
of about 300 horses, quietly grazing in
draw only a few miles away. The rest Of
that mornings breakfast was eaten by each
cowboy while skimming over the plains on
the hurricane deck OF his pony.
Each man knew his business, and by
slowly working around to the lee Of the herd
and making large circle the roundup out
fit gradually drifted toward a common des-
ignated center, and were rewarded with see
ing as fine bunch Of wild horses as ever
tore up the bunch grass. Then commenced
the work Of what the writer in the fifth
school reader would call ringing the wild
horse" but which the cowboy of the plains
calls "a piece o. - tirssome ridin'"
The great circle. embracing several miles,
being proved sec ure and guarded by trusty
riders, the boss of the round~up gives tia
egnal TO start. The next move in the game
when the band of wild horses, which for
isme time have been susptoiously shifting
thsoair, see little COW pony and rider leis-
urely riding toward them.
This is enough. The big black stallion,
who is king OF tha heuds gives a snort and
stands an instant motaonlessz-a magnificent
piece Of animate statuary against the sky
as be sweeps the plain for a second view OF
the intruder. 1t only takes a second, butin
that second every mare of the herd has
sprung to the aide OF her colt, and, suddenly
turning, the whole band, with the sire at
the head. goes sweeping across the sandy
reaches like a whirlwind. But far in from
Is seen a second human form surmounted
by a spreading white hat. With another
snort the leader stops, and at this command
the whole band comes 30 rest in his rear
Another veer and the band Is crashing
over the stunted sage brush at right angles
to it former course. still another cowboy
is seen by the alert leader, and once more
the course is changed AT every turn now
there breaks forth q cowboy as the band
approaches the limits OF the circle, and the
result ia that the herd passes back over to
its trail of starting. The now frenzied ami
mails tear msdly on In their course, and
soon a fleet-footed mustang bearing a
bronzed rider breaks out from behind them
from an arroyo in which he has been quietly
laying for them. His pony, which has
caught on to the fun, needs no guiding aud
while a startled crack bursts from his riders
6-shooter he ia laying off the furlongs in
Joyous bounds In wild chase after the
fuRitives.
For mile after mile the Jack rabbits and
coyotes scatter on either side as the whirl-
wind sweeps on It's course, until the quiver-
ing sides OF bis favorite pony-for which
cowboy will fight any day-show the rider
that his horse is becoming winded. Another
shot from his pistol acts as signal for an
other man to take the chase with fresh
pony. And so il goes.
The light OF day declines into starry night,
and the hours measure twelve and then
twenty-four, and the rising sun glows again
In the east on his return trip, but still the
merciless pursuit goes on. Behind the fly
ing band is that amazingly fresh little pony
and its determined rider, still fresh as at the
start, 30 the unspeakable wonder of the
&c uine philosophers among the pursued, IL
such there be.
All day long the grim messenger of death
to the boundless liberty they have known
continues in their wake. The circles around
which they whirl is smaller now, and the
plains sand is heavy and deep from former
laps, tho dust hangs over the plains In dense
clouds, blood mixed with the fiecks of foam
flung from the torturedl nostrils and the
blood-shot but defantly cleaning eyes of
the melted rovers Of the pampas, ali show
that il is only the fire and the strain of csn-