The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-02

Ing Them Up.
Special Agent of the Treasury e. q
Grain siezed 1,61S head Of cattle, val
ued at about $4,000, up in Dakota the
other day, and they will presently be
sold by the government. being subject
to conf1scation by reason of having
been brought into the country surrep-
titiously and greatly undervalued by
the importers.
Inc Seizure took place early this
week, and Inspector Grain had a touch
of life In the bounding West in getting
possession Of the cattle, which are still
roaming about ON the prairles of North
and South Dakota, all unconscious Of
thu fact that they were seized and are
now held as cOntraba The cattle are
IN two punches, one near Sutherland,
s. D.. and the other in the Deep creek
country north of Minot, N. D. The
first bunch was owned and imported by
E. HI. Hyneman, of Lexington, ILL.,, the
second were brought over by William
Hill, of North Dakota There are 948
head In the Hyneman herd and $40 in
the Hill bunch. Messrs. Hill and
Hyneman, If it is proved that they
entered the cattle unla wfully, are each
liable to lose the cattle totally and to
pay a fine Of S., 900.
inspector Grain returned from the
West after bringing off the seizure on
Thursday. The work done by himself
and Assistant Inspector Forsman, Of
Fembina, N. D., in following up the
cattle and finally securing them, reads
like suggestion OF the days when this
was the wild and woolly West. The
inspector got Information of the bring
ing In OF the cattle over a month ago
end went Immediately to work on the
case. The pursuit Of the animals has
lasted ever Size.
The cattle were bought up In Mani
toba. 1t Is alleged, by agents Of Hill and
Hyneman. The Hyneman lot consist
ed OF three and four-year-oIds that
mad been raised on the Canadian side
of the line and all Of them came from
the one herd originally. The Hill cat
tie were bred by the same man and
were bough. in one bunch They were
driven across the line at a North Da-
ko.a point May 16. The people who
brought them In reported the importa-
ton and declared the ages and valua-
ton OF the cattle. They were declared
to be yearlings and calves The ap-
praisal Of cattle for the purpose is
made according ito the age of the ami
plols, and by the process of reducing
the age Of these two herds the impor-
tiers saved something like $4,0O0-pos-
s1bIy more. AT least that amount
would have been saved but for the fact
that 1t came to the ears Of some of the
treasury agents that false report had
been made. Mr.. Grain took the case I'D
and went up to the boundary.
a month ago all COWS looked alike to
Mr.. Grain. Now he can tell the Age of
a beef "critter" at distance of mile
on the prairie, and he knows half the
brands in use by the cattle breeders in
The Dakotas. He took Assistant Fors-
man With him and the frontier eXper-
fence of the latter was invaluable. The
only information they had about the
cattle was to the effect that the
Hyheman lot of cattle were marked by
o. Silt In the right ear and the other
bunch was branded with bar on
the lower Jaw. Along the international
boundary, on both sides, the ranchers
use the slit ear for a brand very fire.
quently, so 1t was not easy to pick
out the right bunch of slit ears. The
only thing for the customs officers to
90 was to make the trip along the
boundary and hunt up all the cattle
in sight.
There are SUPPORTS Of entry at sew
eral points along the North Dakota
boundary. They begin at Pembina .
there is one fifteen miles west at
Neche, there is another about twenty
miles further west at Walhalla, and
the agents of the government are sta
toned about that distance apart for
the first hundred miles west of the Red
river. Further on the settlement is
sparse and the customs agents are not
so numerous. 1t would occur to the
unintialted that there would be no
trouble in running stock or other con-
traband across the boundary any
where, but the ramifications of the
customs office are many and when a
farmer brings over even a single horse
some one is likely to talk about it, This
is more to be anticipated along the
Eastern end of the boundary than
along the Western part Of the north ern
state. 1t was comparatively easy for
the treasury agents to satisfy them
selves that the cattle had not been
run across in the Eastern part of the
state, and they went West.
couple of weeks ago they got the
clue they wanted. They narrowed the
possible territory in which the cattle
had been run across in the West OF
course they knew the SUPPORT at which
they had been entered, but the agent
there had not seen the cattle.
Starting with the clue from the point
at which the animals had been brought
over they struck across the country
south until they reached the line of the
Great Northern railway, where they
found that the people who were herd
Ing the cattle said they were going
into South Dakota. The treasury man
went into South Dakota by rail and
made the state in the neighborhood Of
Frederick. A little inquiry developed
the fact that a large bunch of cattle
had been recently brought into the
country and were located on "a ranch
belonging to one Howells, a ranchman
who ranges cattle for nonresidents. and
has some stock of his own. The
Howells ranch is located near Suther-
land. The officers went out to the
ranch and soon rounded up the cattle,
with the aid of a couple Of COWBOYS.
Howells knew nothing Of how the cat
tie were imported. He had only been
hired to take care Of them. Inspector
Grain swore in couple of deputies
and left them in charge of the stock.
This seizure included the largest bunch,
the Hyneman cattle
From Sutherland the officers went
straight north to Minot, and began
looking for them in the Mouse river
country. At Minot the officers got
clue that led them to believe that the
cattle were being ranged in the Cut
Bank creek country, about twenty-five
miles northwest of Towner. They got
horses ait Mfnot and went out to scour
the range. The country has very little
sign. of haibitation. It Is possible to
see twenty miles over the prairie from
any Of the knobs about Cut Bank, and
the officers had many a long ride that
was fr7ntless. They slept ON the
prairie and they rustled among the
herders and cowboys for their food. Mr..
Grain says he did mot suffer in the
least from the exposure and rather en-
JOyed the experience
Last Saturday they met a man who
said there was a new bunch of cattle