The Chipley banner. (Chipley, Washington County, Fla.) 1893-1943, 1899-12-23
TIE SHEPHERDS LIFE
HANGERS AND HARpsAIPs ENDURED
ON THE WESTERN PLAINS

....i~-- Toii-yictims OF the hecoht
RI,,zard-rhe shearing sesson-Mar-
veiously Intelligent Dogs
People who put on heavy wooiens
have little idea Of the dangers faced
by the men who make 1t possible for
them to have these garments to'wear-
Only a week or two ago the dispatches
told Of the heavy loss OF lite IN the
blizzards which swept over Northern
Montana. Many aheep herders wens
caught out in these terrible stor
and persisted rather than desert the
fiocks they were hired TO tend. One
OF them, William Graham, after try
ing hard through fearful night to
get his herd into camp, came back 10
his tent about midnight, exhausted
Thoroughly conscious of what hisfaAe
would be were he to venture out
again, he wrote note, telling OF his
condition and his determination to
return again into the night and seek
his sheep. When the blizzard had
absted in force the searchers found
him stretched upon the snow, dead.
One Of his dogs had stayed to guard
his masters body, and the other had
gone in search Of the, herd. Many
other pitiable tales Of suffering are
told, and still many more never will
reach the ears OF Eastern folk.
For the greater part Of the year the
life of the sheep herder on the plains
is one OF monotonous, hard, uneeasing
toll. In Kansas rain seldom falls,
and in summer, even, day follows day
in q constant succession Of eloudless
blue sky and fervent sunshine. The
shepherd has nothing TO- look at,
therefore, but sky and earth, blend
ing vaguely in the distant horizon,
his flock forming the only object
which diversiies the prospect. He
hears no sound except The plaintive
bleating OF his sheep, and the only
things to interest him are the insane
~ merry gambols of his lambs and the
readiness with which the ewes pick
out their own offspring merely by the
ability to distinguish the cry of their
own young, even though it be among
the bleating OF 500 others.
When "the scab" breaks out among
the flock every sheep must be sheared,
washed and anointed with some medi-
cament to destroy the disorder.
When the sheep-shearing season ar
riyes the shepherds, who have led
such lonely lives all the rest Of the
year, find themselves in the midst OF
a crowd. Men in all OF the railroad
towns in the vicinity Of sheep-raising
districts who make business OF
shearing the animals come out to the
ranches in great companies. Camps
are formed and the lonely corrals are
transformed into busting, humminp
villages. Nothing has been found as
yet which will do the work of shear.
lug o sheep 80 we'll and satisfactorily
as the old.fashioned shears which
were in use in the days when the mas.
tiers painted their first pictures and
the poets sang their first songs oil
beautiful shepherdesses Ind hand.
SEINE shepherds provided with crooks
and pipes.
Sheep shearers are paid for thei,
work at certain rate for every sheer
they shear, 80 they work rapidly. Or
every sheep ranch is a large, lens
wooden building, the wool shed, In
which are openings communicating
with the pens where the sheep or,
kept while shearing is in progress.
shearer goes into one OF the pens
seizes a sheep by one of its hind legs
drags it into the wool shed through
one OF the openings made for the pur
pose, and with dizziness as swift in
it's results as the "presto, changed" Of
the magician, transforms the creature
from thickly covered, woolly sheer
into a shorn, naked.looking, chilled
and quaking spectre, which, permitted
to escape from the hands OF him who
despoiled it 30 ruthlessly OF its fleece,
runs through door at the opposite
side OF the wool shed and again re.
sumes its nibbling rsmbles over the
prairie.
An important functionary at this
time is the tar boy, O Lad with q buckle
OF tar and brush. While there is
nothing whatever which the most
fanatical advocate OF kindness to dumb
creatures could construe as cruelty in
the shearing OF sheep, nevertheless,
even the most careful shearer coca.
sionally ships the flesh with his shears.
When such IN accident happens he
yells "Tarl" With his brush the lad
smears q little tar over the nipped
place, for nothing is so healing to
wounds on sleeps back as pine tar.
A first.class shearer on q Western
ranch will shear from eighty to 100
sheep between sunrise and sunset.
Experts frequently shear 1875 in a day.
but the average for shearers is tome.
where between fifty and sixty o day.
OIe OF the diversions Of shearinr
time is fight between rams. Many
OF these creatures, Notwithstanding
their timidity in the presence Of
other animals, are extremely puena.
cious toward one another, and quar-. |
reis among them are frequent, the |
principal cause being a rivalry for a |
particular ewes favor. When n cba,.
lenge has been issued and accented |
the rivals back away ten or twelve |
PAGES from each other and then both
lower their heads and make for escb
other In a straight line with n force
ma speed which one would hardly
iccradik N fbac, ~,