Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-09-09
DAMS PRIVATE MARK
FOUND ON A MOSQUITO, 1T SAVED
tiARDIN's LIFE.

tNStNsS Wv = mOo2OtiOg IL oAVEO
tiARDlN's LIFE.
Neither Knife Nor Branding IRON Was
Used ON That Ranch, as the Owner Was
= Pretty Fair Shot and Always Kept In
Practice.
sThem was pretty good shots, . said
the old sheep raiser when the boys had
finished telling about some glass ball
shooting they had done at the gun club
tournament, bat folks nowadays don't
do no shootin like they did few years
ago. There was Dan Hardin now, who
run sheep ranch in west Texas in
1881; he could shoot y
Pretty good shot, was hep asked
the boys, to draw the old man out.
'sWell, he was a good, fair shot for
them times and locality. A Colts 40
was Dams favorite. He run about &, 900
sheep and good many cattle and
horses. The ranchers all marked the
ears of their stock, each man in a diff
ferent way, to distinguish their proper
ty. Dan mark was hole in the left
ear and an underbit in the right, and
he never allowed knife to be used on
his ranch. He marked every animal
himself with his six shooter, and he
never made mistake 1t was sight
to see him gallopin across the prairie
on his mustang after a bunch of lambs
or round up of spring calves, a-placin
his marks with his 40 andnever varyin
a sixteenth of an inch from where they
belonged. Dan marked more mavericks
than anybody else in the country put
together.
From practicin SO much Dan got to
be a first rate shot, He used to ride
along in his pasture and put his mark
on the coyotes and jack rabbits just to
keep his hand in. It got so that nine
times out of ten when man killed a.
deer with his winchester he would find
hole in its left and an underbit in its
right ear, and he'd always send Dan
over a quarter of yenison when he got
it home. seen Dan win a bet Of $50
one day from tenderfoot. We was
ridin along the road and we seen the
ground a-humpin up where a mole was
shown along out of sight under the
earth. Dan made his proposition, the
tenderfoot took him up, and Dams old
45 went off a couple of times. We dug
the mole up, and there was the marks
in his ears right where they belonged
After awhile don't think there was a
living thing on Dan S ranch except his
wife's that didn't have his mark in its
ears.
''This habit of Dams got him out of
pretty bad scrape one time. Along
about 1882, when free range commenced
gettin scarce, the fence cutters got to
cuttin the wire fences around the pas
lures and give the sheep men lots Of
trouble. Dams had been cut half a
dozen times, and he was mad. One day
he rode out without his gun and saw
low down rustler named Tompkins
slicin his wites like fiddlestrings with
a pair of nippers. Tompkins got ON his
horse and let out, and Dan rode back to
his ranch and got his gun. He struck
out on Tompkins' trail and oyerhauled
him about sundown in the little town
that was the county seat Dan shot him
quietly and was about to get cup Of
coffee and start back home when be
was surprised by the sheriff's arrestin
him. Yon see, that was about the time
the law and order gang got to raisin
Cain in the west and tryin to set down
on promiscuous shootin and personal
liberty. They scared up judge and a
7osreA nd hold <1e
right away to try Dan. Tompkins had
lot of friends in town, among the hoss
thieves and free grassers, and they
come in by the dozen and swore that
Tompkins hadn't been out of town for
a week, and that Dams story about his
euttin the fence didn't go Dan had no
witnesses, and it began to look kind of
funny for him. They had To1npkins
laid out on table in the courtroom.
Directly Dan went over and looked
pretty sharp at Tompkins, and then he
asked one of the deputies to go out to a
little jewelry store across the street and
bring magnifying glass The deputy
went and got it, and Dan handed it to
the judge and asked him to step down
and look at something minute. There
was mosquito with his bill fast in
Tompkins' ear, and Dan asked the judge
to take a good look at it with the glass.
The judge did SO, and blest if that mos
quito didn't have hole in its left and
an underbit in its right ear, as shore as
I'm sitting here. Everybody knew
Dams mark, and the court was con-
vinced that Tompkins must have been
prowlin round his ranch. 1t was what
you would call good circumstantial evil
dence, and ten minutes afterward Dan
was on his way home.
There was little silence among the
boys, and then the one who had broken
40 glass balls out of possible 90 sug-
gested that some lemonade be handed
around at his expense = Washington
Star.