Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-10-25
SHEEP MEN ON SOUND BASIS.
How the Capitalists Used to be Worked by
The Flock Owners.
(Kansas City Star. }

(Kansas City starr
The sheep business in the northwest
was the best lay for a fellow without
any money in the early days when wool
sold for 26 cents pound and wethers
brought SIS a head. A man could hang
wool sack over his shoulder, walk into
a bank and get loan to start him with
band Of sheep. He needed no indors-
ers, no property or anything else All he
had was his nerve and gift of CAB, and
that was all he needed. One per cent
or even two month was the interest
charged for the money, but that was
the going rate, and no one thought it
high.
Good locations for sheep ranches were
still open to the pre-empter. He squat
ted on the land near spring or stream,
built light corral, figured on patch
of willow brush for a winter shelter,
and was ready for the sheep business.
All he needed then was the sheep. Find
ing bunch for sale, he went to the
bank, told the cashier where his ranch
was, of the bargain he had found, and
ten to one the bank would buy the sheep
FLOR him and let him have money enough
to put up bunch of hay and carry him
until Wool-selling time. The wool buy
ers sought his favor1the bank was most
polite, and in few months he was re-
Eerred to as a "Well-knoWn sheep man."
Hundreds of the live stock men Of the
ncf-
lion to-day to such start. With some
It worked all right and the banks made
money on their investments; with 9TH
ers the experiment was a failure, and
the banks footed the bills.
If the man had any savey about him
1T all it was difficult for him to fail, be-
cause prices We're high, range was free
and expenses We're comparatively light. |
fhs scheme was carried out usually on |
a moderate scale, but none too fragrant |
of several big plungers in this
line are still part of the traditions of |
che northwest. Whisky was high in
price and villainous in quality, and stud
poker was then played for high stakes.
Even band of sheep could not stand
everything, though it looked at times
as if it stood the limit.
In those days a sheep man was a
much sought after man. Banks crowd
ed money upon him, wool commission
men entertained him with the best
money could buy, and merchants sent
drummers hundreds Of miles overland
to get his trade on any terms. Then
wool went down and mutton followed.
Bank cashiers assumed a naughty air,
wool commission men did not care
they bought or not, merchants
inquired impertinently as to when goods
could be paid for. Then came the
squeeze. The dumbheads were crowded
out Of the business, the fellows with
small margins of their own found them !
selves on the outside. Then cash talked |
and shrewdness was necessary to hold
on. Hundreds of men failed, and the
banks scrambled for their money. Some
got it and some did not. The latter
cases helped on the failures of 1898. Now
the business is on bed rock. 1t takes
money to buy sheep as it does whisky.
Those in the business on a sound basis
are making a living and the others do
not stap long. Knowing what we do
now about the way things were done
then, every live stock man who is strug-
Cling to-day on a salary or in close
margins kicks himself because he did |
not go into sheep fifteen years or more
ago, for those were the palmy days sure
enough.