The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-12-23
A TEXAS LOCHINvAR.

The eastern idea of Texas horse is a
eve necked, low headed, narrow chest
ed, cat manned little beggar, with
blood in his eye and as many devils in
his disposition as there are cookie burrs
in his tail.
wish some Of the people who imagine
that droves of such little beasts are the
horses generally raised on Texas ranches
could see Jim McQueen's Cinco. His
sire was four mile horse whose ances-
try ran vaguely back toward kentucky,
and he unites with the beauty, speed,
smooth coat, good temper and larger
size of this stock the indomitable pluck
and hardihood and the inexhaustibie
bottom of his native Texas blood.
Jim traded five ponies for him when
he was a raw, slim legged yearling, and
called him Cinco in commemoration.
He is 6 years old now and has never
known the feeling of a collar. It is true
that if some uninstructed outsider should
insist ON putting him into harness Cinco
would probably end by kicking the We
hicle into kindling wood and himself
clean of every scrap Of harness, but
protest-a forcible explanation Of tho
fact that he wasn't built to haul loads.
Cinco is the best horse in this, a coun-
try of good horses. His qualifications
and accomplishments are varied. He is
an inapproachable COW horse; finished
expert in all the horse maneuvers Incl
dent to rounding up, roping and cutting
out; a perfect mine of endurance and
good spirits on the trail, and always
wins all the long distance and handicap
races at the county fair. He won his
last handicap about a month ago under
circumstances of thrilling interest to a
romance loving frontier society.
Jim is the junior partner at the
bachelor Gillespie 81 Mcqueen sheep
and cattle ranch on Doggy run. Their
nearest neighbor, five miles above, is
the Austell ranch, at Crocl1etts we'll
Miss Chummie Austell, when she came
out to the ranch a year ago from some
east Texas school, had as easy a walk
over of the undisputed belleship of the
whole county as Cinco would have had
in an open race against a field of CO..
ponies and without an ounce of handi-
cap. 1t was Jim, with his good looks,
boyish spirits, and what Wade Keener
bitterly styled "his blame winnin ways"
who first gained her maiden preference
and held it so long in the face of so
much and such spirited, not to say des-
perate, rivalry that it looked as though
the course of true love might be going
to run smooth once, just to show its
west Texas originality.
But now came upon the scene the
cause of discord, misunderstanding,
jealousy and reproaches, spirited retorts
and secret tears and finally angry sepa-
ration in the person of a sheepman's
"drifter," from somewhere up in the
Panhandle. Spur was a most unro-
mantle figure, about five or six feet in
height and three across, with q sort of
air of good fellowship about him, and
giving vague impression somehow of
great and Astounding wealth.
Now a drifting" sheepman is, gen.
orally speaking, not very kindly taken
to by cattlemen or even by sheep ranch
ers. He is a man who may have 10000,
$4,000 or 10000 sheep, and grow rich off
the wool and mutton without ever own
ing foot of land. But old man Austell
and Mrs. Austell were undeniably i'm
pressed by the atmosphere of wealth
that went about with Spur, and when
he laid violent siege to Chummie's affec-
hons he got more or less support from
the family-even the boys, who were
Jim's special friends, standing off neu-
trail. Jim, hurt and angry, rode over
TO see Chummie and demanded that
she give that chumr his vamos right
straight.
It's hard for pretty girl who knows
her power to accede gracefully and
promptly to an order like that, even
from the man she loves, and the result
was an angry rupture.
For some weeks they never met, and
all this time Spur was staying at the
Austeu ranch or camping close to it,
pushing his suit with Chummie, and
Chummie, with the indiscretion of the
weaker sex, thinking to scare Jim into
repentance, allowed herself TO be drawn
into sort of promise, which Spur i'm
mediately fastened upvn, sent to San
Antonio for an immense diamond soil |
taire, and with the support of the old |
people hurried on the marriage, so that |
before she realized where she stood the |
frightened and unhappy girl was actu- |
ally putting on her wedding dress.
And Jim?
The season was bad, there had been |
no rain for long, Doggy run was run
put, the grass was dry as finder and the
stock was beginning to suffer. The |
sheep could do where they were-a we'll |
regulated Texas sheep can come as near
dispensing with drinking water as a
Kentucky colonel-but the cattle were
rounded up and started out on the trail
for ''the territory Jim, who usually
staid with the sheep, took charge of the |
cattle this year. There was a most I'M
comfortable soreness in the region of
his heart, which it seemed somewhat to
nim might be more or less worked off in
the toll of managing a herd of trail cat
tie, lamming recalcitrant steers, fighting |
to keep the bunch to the trail in the face
Of norther, or struggling to prevent or
TO quell an incipient stampede.
They had been out on the trail nearly
2 week, and were pretty well up toward
the state line, when Bob English rode
into their camp one evening. After sup
per, when Jim's two cowboys were out
riding around the herd, getting them
bedded down for the night, Bob re-
marked confidentially to Jim: 1.-The we'd
din's a-comin off next Thursday. You
done the very thing to jest skip. She's
3rry enough Good God, Jimi !
thought you knew all about i'll"
IN two hours time Jim was far from
his camp and Bob's, headed for Doggy
run ON the best pony in the saddle band
and leading another, cursing his folly
for thinking Cinco too good for so hard
a trip. Four days later, on Thursday,
he rode up to the ranch house door at
Doggy run about noon am New him
self rlron the he'd without a word while
Gillespie, equally speechless with amaze
ment, arose from his solitary dinner
and attended to the used up horses.
That evening Jim was saying to Gill
lespie Ian older man and q hard headed
ecotohmanl, while hs BACKED his boota
vigorously, turned the iittla ranch |
house upside down and drnRRsd ont ~
hia own end Gilleanlssa 3ntars WaFdsSt9