River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-06-30
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CATTLE TRAILING.
An Interesting By-Gone Feature of West
eFn Life.

cru Life.
The barb-wire fences shut off the
great trails that stretched from Corpus
Christi through the Pan Handle of
Texas, and ON up through New Mexico
and Colorado and through the Indian
Territory to Dodge City. The coming
of the railroad also made this trailing
of cattle TO the markets superfiuous,
and almost destroyed one of the most
remarkable features of the west. This
trail was not, of course, an actual trail,
and marked as such. but a general
driveway forty miles wide and thou
sands of miles long The herds of cat
tie that were driven over it numbered
from three hundred to three thousand
head, and were moving constantly from
the early spring to the late fall.
No caravan route in the eastern coun-
tries can equal this six months journey
through three different states, ano
through all changes of weather an6
climate, and in the face of constant
danger and anxiety. This procession
of thousands of cattle ON their slow
march to the north was one of the most
interesting and distinctive features of
the west.
An outfit for this expedition would
consist of as many cowboys as were
needed to hold the herd together, a
wagon. with the cook and the tents,
and extra ponies for the riders. In the
+ orning the camp wagon pushed on
ahead to a suitable resting-place for the
night, and when the herd arrived later,
moving. on an average, fifteen miles a
day, and grazing as it went, the men
would find the supper ready and the
tents pitched. And then those who
were TO watch that night would circle
slowly around the great army of cattle,
driving them in closer and closer to-
gether, and singing as they rode, to pct
them TO leep This seems an absurdity
to the eastern mind, bat the sound of
something familiar quoted and salts
fed these great stupid animals that can
be soothed like a child with nursery
rhyme, and when frightened can not be
stopped by a river. The boys rode
slowly and patiently until one and then
another of the herd would stumble
clumsily to the ground, and others near
would follow, and at last the whole
Bile in sleep But the watchfulness of
the sentries could never relax. Some
chance notes.-the shaking of a saddle,
some cry of wild animal, or the scent
of distant water carried by a chance
breeze across the prairie, or nothing
but sheer blind wantonness-would
start one of the sleeping mass 20 his
feet with a snort, and in an instant the
whole great herd would 90 tearing
madly over the prairie, tossing their
horns and believing, and filled with a
wild unreasoning terror. And then the
skill and daring of the cowboy We're put
to their severest test, as he saw his mas
ter's income disappearing towards a
canyon or river, or to lose itself in the
brush. And the cowboy who tried to
head off and drive back this galloping
army of frantic animals had TO ride a
race that meant his life if his horse
made misstep; and as the horses feet
often dad slip. there would be found in
the morning somewhere in the trail OF
/ the stampeding cattle horrid mass of
1 blood and flesh and leather.
/ Do you wonder, then, that after this
4 half-year OF weary, restless riding by
day, and sleepless anxiety and watch
ing under the stars by night, when the
/ lights of Dodge City showed across the
prairie, the cowboy kicked his feet out
of his stirrups, drove the blood out OF
/ the pony's sides and ''came into town
with both guns going at once, and yell
ing as though the pent-up speech of the
past six months of loneliness was striv-
/ ing for proper observation-disclosures
1 Harding Davis, in Harper's Weekly.