The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-01
wHALEN's SHEEP RANCH.

| PtSNSiGletl, lilO AoSLS hStO AS-
 corded are but specimen page from
 the book of his experience.
 When the Consolidated Canal com-
 pany went into insolvency it's assets
 consisted of a mortgaged right of way
 through the sagebrush and several com-
 pleted but detached sections of a big
 ditch.
 MT. Brick Whalen, the contractor on
 section No. 8, had finished the heavy
 Work there and was preparing to move
 camp to section No. 6 when the com
 pany went broke. It was, in fact, upon
 the very day the suspension was posted
 that Whalen, having had his contract
 work Inspected took the engineers cer-
 tlhcate up to headquarters to get his
 check He received instead a state
 ment that the company was in tempor- ary difficulties and an assurance that it
 would soon resume.
 Whalen had before this worked for
 shaky corporations; he knew better, ana lost no time in acting on his knowl- edge.
 NO good howlin' over a broken pipe or tryln to save the pieces" he said to hlmself. To his gang of twenty men he sald; "Bys. the company's broke and so am l. can't pay ye and I can't reed ye. Ye got to rustle."
 Whats the matter with us taking the mules?" said one,
 Them mules and scrapers don't be- long to me, as I've often told ye," said 1 Whalen, whose custom it was to refer to legendary packer. This dttchin' outht Is the property of Martin, of San franclsco, and any man that meddles with it will get the sheriff after him."
 I'll take one, just the same" said Shorty, "and tell the sheriff he can nave him when my wages is paid. That's about fair
 few others took the same view of | the equities involved, and took mules to which Whalen made only a wordy resistance. Most of the men were in- duced to accept orders on the defunct company for the amount due them. 1 payable with large interest And if you don't get it very soon, the interest will double your money" said Whalen.
 When the last man had gone Whalen went out to the corral and counted the mules. "Forty-one head that was close call' said he.
 It was late in the season to find an- other job of scraping, but the mules could not live on sagebrush, and were at once started for the railroad On small stream where camp was made one night a band of trail sheep was also camped. Whalen eyed them dis dainfully
 T see the beggars eat sage" said he.
 Why, certainly" replied the sheep- man. That's the finest kind of feed 1 for sheep
 I wish work-mules would do that" l said Brick. T never was so near a l sheep in my life," he continued; the smell of 'em a mile away is enough for me. Funny little fellows, and they look | some like mules, with ears and tails cut off. What do you do with them?" I Double our money on them every twelve months" was the reply, l No extended description of sheep farming would have impressed the fam cy of the veteran mule-skinner, but double your money" was his own fa- miliar phrase for describing any hope ful venture. and on that evening he smoked many pipes of black plug over it. brute that can thrive on brush diet and double your money every year is an interesting creature. At daybreak Whalen was in the sheep camp negotiating trade of sheep for mules on a basis of fifty to one. and prepared to accept much less. Three days later he sat in the door of the shack that had long done duty as mess house on section 3 of the canal as many an evening before he had sat watching the mules come in from water. To- might there was never mule in sight. Down the breeze came pun- gent odor and tinkling of little bells. Over the crest of an adjacent hill ap- peared the flock browsing on the rank sage.
 They do look some like mules," he soliloquized "and I'll bet I'm the only Irishman in America ever owned a herd of sheep"
 Winter came and passed, and the only Irishman prospered. By roofing in a cut with brush he had commodious | sheds, and cross-sectiorfs of poles di vided the broad ditch into as many corrals as he chose. The sheen were | fat and carried heavy 1eeces.
 Whalen had for help two boys who had wandered there. and asked for work. He had proposed to hire one of them, but the boys protested that they had never been separated and that if they got jobs at different ranches "the other one wouldn't know where the other one was" a contingency which they could not abide. So Whalen of fered to take the two at the price of one, and on that basis they shared with him the shack, herded the flock and cooked the grub. They soon knew as much. or as little, about sheep as | Brick himself, and the proprietor found opportunity to break the monotony of camp life by occasional trips to the railroad and once to San Francisco.
 I'm going to see my friend Martin" he told the boys Now tend to busi- ness and don't let any get away" And the boys gave their word that not one should escape
 During Whalen's absence in the city he went out of the sheep business even more abruptly than he went into it the previous autumn. The instruction to the boys was fulfilled to the letter-not any got away.
 It happened on hot day in June. when, contrary to usual custom, the boys brought the flock to camp and the shade of sheds at noontime. It never rains in that arid region, but sometimes pours This was one of those times Charged with ice and |