The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1896-12-12
j EFF.

longing 10 the ranch of one of the West's
great cattle kings. His duty was
along with the other men--to tend the
cattle brought into corral for the winter
and ride over the country to see if the
line drivers were doing their duty. With
Jeff and the other two, he occupied a
low, leg building, known as the ranch
house consisting of one large square
room and a rough board "lean to" or
she'd
The cattle king who owned this ranch
with several others in different localities,
was neither better nor worse than other
men of his class. He had thousands OF
head OF cattle, and counted his yearly in
come by the tens of thousands Of dollars.
His herds, in common with those oil
other cattle kings, roamed the ranges
all the long winter through, without food
water or shelter; save what they could
procure for themselves was very
little.
We have said this man was no better
nor worse than others of his class; but
perhaps he was better, for he had son
studying theology at Princeton; and
every autumn, as soon as the winds
began to blow cold, he, with his dainty
wife and daughter, went East to spend
the winter-they could not endure the
rigor of the Western climate.
His family occupied costly pew in
one of New York; most fashionable
churches, read their prayers out Of a
gold clasped prayer book, and OCCASION
ally headed popular public subscription
paper with a princely sum.
Whether any vision of his starving,
freezing herds ever rose before him, tc
mar the pleasing picture of his self-righ,
teousness, we cannot say, but presume
not as they were only dumb brutes; what
did 1t matter that they were as capable
OF suffering as he, SO long as they could
not tell it? They were his "stock in
trade each moan OF agony had turned
to The Clink of gold ere it reached his
pocket; each mute appeal in their dying
eyes, had changed to the glitter of a
diamond ere it gl=amed on his daugh,
ter's white arms-aye, surely what mat
tered il?
But to return to left.
FIT l,l II,
boy. When the lad was six years old
the family had moved from the East and
took up claim in Montana. His
mother was delicate refined woman,
wholly unlike her husband, and the little
boy was like her.
Two years Of hardships, privations and
neglect followed, and then at the close
of the second severe winter, she meekly
folded her tired hands and gave up the
unequal struggle; not however until she
had made the hoy promise to try to be
good and meet her in Heaven.
81 know you will have it hard, Jeftie, .
she had whispered tenderly, "but have
prayed God not to let you grow up to be
wicked man."
After that the father gave up trying to
hold the ''claim, and, one chilly spring
morning, packed the boy and his few
belongings into crazy old wagon, drawn
by two equally unreliable looking horses
and set out-he knew not whittier
One longing look Jeff cast back at the
lonely brown mound where his mother
lay-then, creeping down into the bot
tom Of the wagon, he gave himself up to
his grief.
Three years later we find the father in
the service Of the cattle king, as chiei
herdmen or cowboy of the ranch. They
are far removed from the lonely mound
now, but the poor boy has not forgot.
Ten it,
Poor little Jeit'had not a very pleasant
life among the rough herdsmen-whon1
no amount of newspaper eulogizing car
make fit companions for children of re-
lined natures.
Our little hero had never heard o.
Boston, or the society with the long
name, IS. p. c. A. but no truer love
for the dumb creatures which God has
made, burned in the soul of the immortal
Henry Bergh, than did in this untutored
boys breast.
He knew nothing of the word humane,
or its meaning, but he was loving towards
all the animals on the ranch-hc was
their one earthly friend.
"When | get big I'll have a ranch and
CATTLE" he would sometimes say, adding
Indignantly, "but won't let 'cm starve
and freeze, while m off on a bum"
Then the men would laugh and call
him names, but he did not mind, as he
vas used to it,
No wonder that he dreaded the APP
proach of winter, filled as that season was
and is, with gross neglect and abuse of
the helpless cattle by the cowboys; and
no wonder that he grew faint and sick
when, in the spring time, he saw the