The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1897-11-24
SCORES SOME SHEEPMEN.


There was one excellent law passed by
the Nevada Legislature some years ago,
just such law rs was needed in Nevada,
but like many other good laws it has
evidently become dead letter. | refer
to the scab Ian. If there is anything
calculated TO prejudice the public
against eating mutton it is scabby sheep.
Had the law in question been faithfully
carried out, | venture to say there would
not be a ssabby sheep in Nevada to-day.
But what do we find to be the case? |
have had occasion to see several bands
of mutton sheep heng fed for the mar
ket and also some in corrals preparatory
to shipment, and the sight l beheld
simply filled me with disgust. The in
nocent creatures were tearing away at
themselves, gouging out wool by the
mouthful, until the blood actually trirkl-
ed down their sides. Others were
scratching away with their feet in the
most vigorous manner, reminding one of
savages rubbing two sticks together to
make fire, while others were upon their
backs on the ground, tortured into
spasms so that it was impossible to make
the poor dumb brutes get upon their
feet again ROUTE while. One band be-
ing driven along the public road and pre-
senting all these repusive features would
have excited pity in the breast OF anyone
possessing the least particle OF feeling,
nevertheless the owners of such animals
seemed to be perfectly Indifferent to
their sufferings. What care they for
them save for the dollars they bring?
Callous hearted mortals as these sheep
owners be, do they not know that i'll
their sighte,iness their sordid souls
are defeating their own ends? What is
more palatable than piece of whole
some mutton, what more loathsome
than the meat of sheep suffering untold
agonies from the countless acari burrow-
ing into and gnawing away ut their flesh
Those who are posted will not touch
such Objectionable food; but the public
in general are in ignorance of the Facts
"and Simply wonder why the chop or the
roast is SO dry and tasteless and unlike
what it should be, and then content
themselves by changing to some other
kind of meat. Had they only seen the
scab-infected animal before it was killed
and hung up in the butcher shop, it is
likely they would eschew mutton for the
rest OF their lives. l have known OF
such cases. Where is the Dockery then
to take this matter in hand, (too busy
flushing the sewers with impure milk? p
Certain it is that = Dockery is greatly
needed to seize these poor suffering ami
mails as they arrive at market and have
them quarantined at the expense of the
owners, for in no way can, you bring Il
certain class of offenders 80 speedily to
their proper senses as by striking at
their purses.
Another great evil in this connection
is that the innocent sheepmen suffer
with the guilty. The former, time and
again at considerable expense, have
cured their sheep of this scourge but
what is the good when others roam their
scabby focks over the same ranges,
travel the same roads, occupy the same
cars, etc., leaving behind the seeds OF in
lection wherever they have been.
There is nothing more calculated to
give genuine sheepman the ''c4eeps'
than to detect scab breaking out among
his sheep. we'll remember on one oc-
casion, in the course OF my duty, bring
ing to the notice OF a large sheep owner
the all too palpable sign that scab was
among his tiocks, lit was in another
hemisphere than this) and although now
thirty years ago the appearance of that
man still often haunts my memory. His
face turned pale, the perspiration stood
out in beads upon his brow and his
hands trembled as he parted the wool
and noted the fatal yellowish crust; and
as he rubbed the place and the animal
turned its head around and nibbled at
his hands, he pathetically exclaimed,
"Well | do not know whether my heels
or my head ls uppermosl." That was a
man though VINO was engaged in sheep
husbandry in tine best sense OF the term.
What would have happened here, Il use
the adverb in restricted sense,) with
our pot hunting sheepmen? "Halloa,
Joe, bring some dip and doctor this
sheep. The confounded brute has got
the scab," and thereupon dismissed the
matter from his mind.
Ii sheepnen are so blind to their own