Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-06-20
DAMS PRIVATE MARK
FOUND oa 4 MOSQUITO, IT SAVED
 RARDiNtS LIFE.

3ARDIN'S LIFE.
 Neither Kaife Nor Branding Iron yvas
 Used on Tint Ranch, as the Owner Was
 Pretty Fair shot and Always Kept rn
 Exnctice.
 ''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 q sheep ranch in west Texas in 1881: he could shoot. <"
 Pretty good shot, was he?' asked she boys, to draw the old man out.
 "Well, h. was good, fair shot for shem times and locality. A Colts 46 was Dams favorite. He run about 1000 eheep and good many cattle and horses. The ranehers all marked the ears of their stock. each man in | diff ferent way, to distinguish their proper ty. Dams mark was hole in the left ear and an underbit i'll the right, and he never allowed knife to be used on his ranch He marked every animal never made mistake. 1t was sight So see him gallopin across the prairie on his mustang after bunch of lambs pr a round up of spring calves, a-placin his marks with his 40 and never varyin sixteenth of an i1ch from where they belonged. Dan marked more mavericks shan anybody else ill the country put together.
 From praeticin 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 Il man killed deer with bis winchester he would find q hole in it's left and on underbit in it's right ear, and he'd always send Dan over quarter of yentson when he got 1t home I seen Dan win a bet of $50 one day from tenderfoot. We was Fidin along the road and we seen the ground a-humpin up where a mole was shovin along out of sight under the earth. Dan made his proposition, the tenderfoot took him up, and Dams old 45 went off 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 living thing on Dan s ranch except his wife's that didn't have his mark in it's ears
 '.tFhis habit of Dams got him out Of a 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 8 dozen times, and he was mad One day he rode out without his gun and saw low down rustler named Tompkins slioin his wires like fiddlestrings with pair of nippers. Tompkins got on his horse and let out, and Dan rode back to ais ranch and got his gun. He struck cut 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 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 Cain in the west and tryin to set dowa on promiscuous shootin and personal liberty. They scared up 0 judge and jury somewere 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 in by the dozen and swore that Tompkins hadn't been out of town for week, and that Dan s story about his cuttin the fence didn't go. Dan had no witnesses, and it began to look kind of funny for him. They had Tompkins 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 . 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 a minute. Thero was mosquito with hia bill fast in Tompkins' ear, and Dan a. -ked the judge to take 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 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 "i~eulostantial e-i- dence, and ten minutes afterward Dan was en his way home ]"
 There was little silence among the boys, and then the one who had broken a5 glass balls out of possible 50 sug. gested that some lemonade be handed around at his expense. - Washington