The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-07-20

TT was not pretty story; il was more.
1t was fraught with that primi-
tive ruggedness one gets an impress
sion of along with cutting prairie
winds, bucking broncos. the crack of
a revolver. the whiz of a bullet
The fellows name was Thompson,
and ne could handle a bunch Of steers
with the best of them, but there was
an air of metropolitanism about him
that assorted i'll with his surroundings.
And although he drank harder, swore
better and went rougher than any man
of them, he had never been able TO live
down his nickname of "East-Sidc'
Thompson. Under the influence OF roll
ing prairies, the boundless sweep OF
cloud and sky, an intimacy with the
elements, and reliance upon nothing
but his own wit and courage, man
grows to be a strong, sagacious. vital
creature, so different from our cir
cumscribed ideas Of a man that, for
want of a better term, we call him
'cOw-puncher."
The Three-X outfit Of cow-punchers
had been on the trail more than n
month. and, according to all precedent
and reason. the rains should have set
in weeks before, but they had not. The
grass that had sprung up with the first
early showers had scared and died be-
fore the next rain came to keep 1t
alive. The shallow, sluggish little
streams Of brackish water that crawled
along the bottom of their beds, which
the year before had been swollen be-
yond their banks, finally gave out ut
terlv. In every direction the white
aIkaH plains glistened away to the
meeting line of the sky in an infinitude
of isolation. The oldest inhabitant III
all the country round could not recall
n winter that equaled this in dry
ness.
Howbeit Nevada was then new state
and the population migratory VII
son. the boss of the outfit. had hoped
10 get out of the sagebrush country
and strike the California line some
where above Bodie by the end of the
first month out. but there was no raln'
no water. and the plains lay in open
cracks. Day after day the sun arose
smiled down upon the parched little
bunch of men and cattle IA long hours
as he sailed across a clOudless sky Sc
renely unconscious of the maledictions
hurled against him, while the bare,
burning prairie stared back IN un-
blinking defiance. There were gor-
oeous sunsets every evening-moments
when the great fiery bah seemed almost
10 stand still TO give long backward
glance before dropping out OF sigh''
and with n Midas touch turn all the
world TO molten gold. But to the
plaved-out cow-puncher sunset means
nothing but bedtime-bedtime after
hard. parched. hopeless day. lhere
were clear. chaste moonlight nights
Of wondrous radiance. too. but the
moon was seen only in the carly morn
inc. when they rose 10 another day,
more hard. more parched. more nope
less. The cattle -- mere anatomical
charts bv this time-went staggering
about in crazy circles, too weak ID
need watching, the three Us on their
nonlxs reduced to half the original size
bv the shriveling Of the hide or fell
heavily TO the earth to rise again, AFTER
many seasons Of sun and shower, as
prairie flowers and salt grass. Their
berowing was reduced TO moan at
most human in its misery. for the one
voice common to all created things,
animal or human. is the voice OF suffer-
ing.
The Missourian, a great. hulk'ng
Young fellow, was first of the men TO
show signs of weakening That is the
most terrible moment in all like expert
ences. when the men who have held on
crimlv and endured together see one
of their number losing his grip. This
had been an ill-sssorted outfit when
they started out with the cattle across
the plains. but standing together
shoulder 20 shoulder, defying death
against fearful odds knits a man deep