Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-08-17
DAMS PRIVATE MARK
FOUND ON A MOSQUITO, IT SAVED
 HARDtN'S LIFE.

%NeieheF 4Anlie NOT t5randtng Iron was
 Used on That Ranch, as the Owner Was
 a Pretty Fair shet and Always Kept h
 Practice.
 Them 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, 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.
 We'll, he was a good, fair shot for them times and locality. A Colts 45 was Dams favorite. He run about 6, 900 sheep and good many cattle and horses. The ranchers all marked the ears of their stock, each man in diff ferent way, to distinguish their proper ty. Dams mark was a hole in the left ear and an 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 a mistake. It was sight to see him gallopin across the prairie on his mustang after bunch of lambs or round up of spring calves. a-plaoin his marks with his 45 and never varyin 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 i'll. It got so that nine times out of ten when 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 quarter of venison when he got it home. 1 seen Dan win bet of $50 one day from tenderfoot. Ne was ridin along the road and we seen tho ground a-humpin up where mole was shovin along out of sight under the earth. Dan made his proposition, the tenderfoot took him up, and Dan's old 45 went off couple of times. We dug Al4o 14iQAA U F. sSA&t1 bt1CAO Na t1lC 1lslhS in his ears right where they belonged. After awhile I don't think there was a living thing on Dan ranch except his wife's that didn't have his mark in it's ears.
 This habit of Dams got him out of pretty bad serape 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 8 dozen times, and he was mad. One day he rode out without his gun and saw low down Iustler named Tompkins slioin his wires like fiddIestrings 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 i quietly and was about to get cup of coffee and start back home when he was surprised by the sheriff's arrestin him. You see, that was about the time the law and order gang got to raisin l Cain in the west and tryin to set down on promiscuous shootin and personal 1 liberty. They scared up judge and a l jury somewere and held kind of court right away to try Dan. Tompkins had lot of friends ill 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 week, and that Dams story about his cuttin the fence didn't go. Dan had no l witnesses, and 1t began to look kind of l funny for him. They had Tompkins laid out on table in the courtroom. Directly Dan went over and looked 1 pretty sharp at Tompkins, and then he i 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 1t, and Dan handed it to the judge and asked him to step down and look at something a minute. There was a mosquito with his bill fast in Tompkins' ear, and Dan asked the judge 1 to take good look at it with the glass. The judge did so, and blest if that mos quito didn' have hole in its left and an underbit in it's 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. It was what you would call good cireumstantial eri- 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 45 glass balls out of possible 90 sug- gested that some lemonade be handed around at his expense. = Washington Star
 Antwerp's Bells.