Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-26

that for want of a better term we call
him a Cow puncher."
The Three-X outfit of cow punchers
had been on the trail more than a month,
and according to all precedent and rea-
son the rains should nave set in weeks
be fore, but they had not. The grass
that had sprung with the first early
showers had scared and died before the
next rain came to keep it alive. The
shallow. sluggish little streams of brack-
ish water that crawqed along the bottom
Of their beds, which the year before had
been swollen beyond their banks, finally
the white alkali plains g%listened away
to the meeting line of the sky in an 'nfln-
itude Of isolation. The Oldest inhabi-
tant in all that country round could not
recollect a winter that equalled this in
dryneSs.
Howbeit, Nevada was then a new state
and the population migratory. Wilson,
the boss of THE outfit, had hoped to get
out OF the sagebrush ountry and strike
the California line somewhere above
| Bodie by the end Of the first month out,
but there was no rain, no water. and the
plains lay in open cracks. Day alter
day the sun. arose, smiled down Ipcn
the parched little bunch. Of men and
cattle fourteen long hours as he sailed
across the cloudless sky, s%erenely W.
conscious of the maledictions hurried
against. him, while the bare, burnins
! prairie stared back in unbiinking deli
duCc Z WcIG 6OI s-S
cry evening-moments when the sreat
fiery ball seemed almost to stand still.
to give a long backward glance before
dropping out of sight, and with a Midas
touch turn all the world 40 molten
gold. But to the played out COW punch-
err sunset means nothing but bed-tim -
bedtime after a hard. parched, hopr.ass
day. There were clear, chaste MOON
| light nights of wondrons radiance, too.
but the moon was seen only the early
morning, when they rose to another day.
more hard. more parched, more LESS.
The cattle-mere anatomical charts "
this time-went staggering about in crazy
4 circles, too weak to eed watching, the
three Ks on their flank reduced to half
the original size by the shrive1ing OF
THE hide, or fell heavily to the earn, to
rise again. after many seasons sun
and shower, as prairie flowers and saH
grass. Their believing was reduced to
a moan almost human in it's misery, for
the one voice common to all Created
things, animal or human. is the voice OF
suffering.
fellow. was the first of the men to show
signs of weakening. That is the most
terrible moment in all like experiences,
when the men who have held on grimly
and endured together see one of their
number losing his grip. This had been
an ill-assorted outfit when they started
out with the cattle across the plains. but
J standing together. shoulder to shoulder,
) defying death against fearful odds, knits
, a man deeply into THE life of his fellow,
) Among these men there was no spoken
) sympathy, no overt act OF kindness, but
| in their very s~ullenness was that grim
= NEST of all sacrifices. each man endur-
ing in stole silence IN order tn It he
: might not intrude his own sutferings up
I on his already -overcrowded neighbor'
The 'clinching of the lips, to suppress
4 a groan when one is thirst-madd;ne nee
. may require more heroism than facing
= N~o VT fha ~ vii, mi 1rrrSn
q beating ina smuchs as ''he tina ruleth hi
: own spirit is greater than he that taketb
e a CITY"
> buildsin sthe hsHt place. but his splendid
t Workmanship and enthusiasm had In
duced Wilson, the boss. or Yankee Bill,
as he was called, to take him on. II
day and night. HE blubbered and beg:
a ged for water, and called upon the name:
4 Of those he had known in his childhood
q Every maj went about his own business
y vent and eloquent oaths anent the heat
- which was largely, the formulating of fer
. the drouth and the delay: and appar
emily no one heard his cries. Waite
~ was the one thing he wanted, and tn
- one thing they could not get. So. afte
~ they had put his boots under his hea'
- to make him comfortable, they let hin
alone. Under ordinary circumstance
"a Missourian more or less was o. H.
Il great consequence to Yankee BILL. bu
" this break in the ranks shattered tn
" have been done after that in the effort I
. keep up their spirits was mere bravade
for each man foresaw the end.
- The Missourian had been a quiet sor
= him talk much, but drawl of the south
- And always of home scenes, of the mem
.s cries of boyhood that whetted the adG
y of their torture till it was beyond d
y enduring. Now he was fishing alon
- some stream and swearing in roun
&, terms at same "lathead niger" f.
Y, soaring the fish: now he was in schoe
~ struggling with some problem he coul
~ never solve beyond carry severn A
&c ways coherent enough to call up mem
ories in their own minds of a youth mi.
q spent for the most part. They coul
not move further away because the
were camped under the only shade i
, sight. They thought OF dragging NJ,
u would awe been glad to have 1t don,
mo mar could do it himself. The
:. horny hands had grown gentle in the,
Nv ninistering touches.
Escape was long since out of the qlei
zion. for the horses were worse off tina
10 the men: not one of them could carr
a saddle, much less a rider. Zach ma
d had saved a last charge in his ravolve
knowing that that perhaps would I
their only deliverance from a death tt
horrible ito name. All but East Side
lir who, when a decision had been made b
tween himself and his horse, had led h
nd out behind a little activity and ut n
er last charge through her game 1T
I'M heart. Now he must make his exit
his some way, if he would let his Olsen
m. bodied spirit pass u~nincumbered by
es ~n-parche frame. The knife he ca
", ried in his boot was a miserable hae
Of a thing, FIT only for shaving tobac'
- or %chunking bacon. He felt a momel
I tary regret as he ran his fingers alor
its jagged edges that a man with h
record should be obliged to make h
end with so mean a weapon. The b