Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-08-15
DAMS PRIVATE MARK
 - FOUND ON A MOSQUITO, IT SAVED
 HARDtN'S LIFE.

Neither Knife Nor Branding Iron Was
 Used on That Ranch, as the Owner Was
 8 Pretty Fair shot and Always Kept In
 Practice.
 etThem was pretty good shots, D said the old sheep raiser when the boys had finished telling about some glass ball shooting they had done at the gun club tournament. but 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. ,
 Pretty good shot, was he?'' asked the boys, to draw the old man out
 Well, he was a good, fair shot for them times and locality. A Colts 45 was Dan s fayorite. He run about G, GOO sheep and good many cattle and horses. The ranchers all marked the ears of their stock, each man ill a diff ferent way, to distinguish their proper ty. Dams mark was a hole in the left ear and all underbit in the right, and he never allowed a knife to be used on his ranch. He marked every animal himself with his six shooter, and he never made mistake. It was a sight to see him gallepin across the prairie on his mustang after bunch of lambs or a round up of spring calves. a-placin his marks with his 45 and never raryin a sixteenth Of an inch from where they belonged. Dan marked more mavericks than anybody else in the country put together
 From praoticin so much Dan got to be 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 a man killed a deer with his winchester he would find a hole in it's left and an underbit in it's right ear, and he'd always send Dan over a quarter of venison 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 shoyin along out of sight under the earth. Dan made his proposition, the tenderfoot took him up, and Dan's old 40 went e!f 6 couple of times We dug the mole Up. and there was the marks in his ears right where they belonged After awhile I don't think there was q living thing on Dan s ranch except his wife's that didn't have his mark in its ears.
 'Hfhis 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 euttin the wire fences around the pas lures and give the sheep men lots of trouble. Dan's had been cut half a dozen times, and he was mad One day he rode cut without his gun and saw a low down fust1er named Tompkins slicin his wires like fddIestrings 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 overhauled him about sundown in the little town that was the county seat. Dan shot him quietly and was about to get a cup of coffee and start back home when he was surprised by the sheritf's arrestin
 
 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 a judge and 8 jury goaewere and held kind of court right away to try Dan. Tompkins had lot of friends in town, among the hoss thieves and free grassers, and they come iii by the dozen and swore that Tompkins hadn't been out of town for a week, and that Dams story about his outtin the fence didn't go. Dan had no witnesses and it began to look kind of funny for him. They had Tonpkins 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 Q little jewelry store across the street and bring g nagnifying glass. The deputy went and got it, and Dan handed it to the judge and asked him to step down and look at something a minute There was mosquito with his bill fast in Tompkins ear, and Dan a.ked the judge to take a good look at it with the glass. The judge did so and bles5 if that mos quito didn' n't have a hole il it's left and an underbit in its right ear, as shore as I'm sitting here. Everybody knew Dan's mark, and the court was con yiucad fhat FoY0Df5iDs I49ugt have hean