Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-12-16

crossing arid districts, TO cattle aud
horse thieves. hostile Indians, and
sometimes unfriendly, greedy and not
over honest people along the route.
who exacted all sorts of tolls and tli-
butte from passing herds.
If a man had pretty good horses, six,
eight or ten trusty men with plenty OF
nerve and ammunition and proficiency
with shooting irons, whom he could
count upon to stand up to him in any
emergency, he might with fair hope of
success refuse the demands of these
various kinds of sharks and bandits,
not otherwise
A favorite trick was to secure from
the State ferry and bridge privileges
on some treacherous and difficult river
which the trail crossed, then buy, lease
or otherwise obtain possession of and
fence in the land all up and down the
river where the stream could be ford
ed or landing made. Under the laws,
at least as they then were, man could
charge so much pasturage per had
for all cattle going through his fenced
pastures.
of an experience with this sort of modi-
fed highway robbers at the Lampassas
river, returning once with his outfit
that had taken trail herd up to Dodge.
They came to the Little Lamnassas
at point where they had never before
been, There was a rickety, wabbly
old bridge which they paid no attention
to, but forded or swan their horses
across, and We're about to go through
a gate ON the further side, and upon
their way, when an old pirate-lool1ing
fellow came out of a shanty near by
and told them to hold on.
/ "YOu havn't paid your toll.
/ But we didn't cross OF the bridge"
''That don't make no difference, the
bridge wuz thar fur We to cross on.
/ Yer pasturage'd come to about the
same, or more. Better jes' pay yer toll,
ten cents apiece for the horses an for
. ty cents fer the teams"
! The men were about to go ahead.
when the old man, turning toward the
door, said: ''Here, boys" Out SLOUGH
ed three great shambly boys, about
six and half feet tall, barefoot and
with long Winchesters at their should
ers The cattleman's men had thei,
pistols and Winchesters back in the
wagon; the pirates had the drop on
them, SO they paid the toll, four or five
! dollars, and went Their way, boiling
with helpless fury.
A trick of rustler thieves and ban
diti was to stampede the horses OF
cattle. at night. and even sometimes in
open daylight. This might be done for
the purpose Of stealing them. or (where
the thieves did not want to taka too
much risk, and make the trail so dam
gero1ls and popular as to cut off the
source of revenue-passing herds-or
call the rangers out after them, of
being hired ''help hunt the cattle.
/ 1t was in Randera county that the
eN-cattleman had an experience OF this
sort. Going through that rough, billy
, country with Il good big herd, and
horses pretty poor and ridden down,
the whole herd was mysteriously STAN
peded one night The next morning,
after the outfit had gathered, counted.
! tailed, and found the herd 800 head
short some ordinary looking strangers
rode into their camp on fine, strong,
well-bred horses
Had some bad luck last night-Stam-
! peded."
eyes, we're $50 head short
That's mighty bad, In this rough
! country. too. We amt got much to
! do right now, and we'd like the job of
helpin' yoa hunt EN-
! NO" said the cattle-nan. his anger
rising. eve are going to hunt them and
find them ourselves"
But your horses is poor an rode
down, an you don't know the country
Ours is all fresh an fat, an we know
the whole country perfectly. Wen
help you-or we'd rather just agree to
find 'em fer We fer fifty cents head;
that's cheapern you can cit 'em your
selves searchin' round in a strange
country OH poor horses; an We won't
| be able to git 'em all either
The cattleman knew that there was
!, truth in this, but he was mad, and
couldn't bring himself to tamely pay
/! the tribute or ransom they demanded.
so he sent them away angrily, and the
| outfit hunted tie cattle themselves.
/, finding only 300. The sixty lost, at a
| rough guess, would represent 5000 to
$1,000; the fifty cents per head de-
manded by the rr1stlers for finding the
$50 head would only have been $3.50:
to that the cattleman's angry resent
ment, though just, cost him $500 or
$1,000.
When cattle are driven too hard or
are wanting water, they are very hard
to bed down at night or even to hold
They ''mill'' around and mutter and
moan and the smallest thing will STAN
pede them When once cattle that
have been suffering for days, maybe,
for water, scent it. they are absolutely
frenzied. and there is no turning or
stopping them If it is a Doggy stream
or a sharp bluff they will rush in. mire
UP and some of them drown or fall
over and break legs and necks If it
is salt water-ranky salt, as there is in
some places in Texas-they will stand
and drink as long as they can swallow.
and the weaker and more susceptible
ones will fall over dead where they
stand. In this way Mr.. Goodnight told
me he had seen GOO of his die in one
little salt pond down on the Rio Pecos
The fresh water of the river was in
sight and the men got most of the herd
turned into it, but this bunch got sight