The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-30
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months al a time on monotOnOuS round
of tea and mutton.
The west still rings with the stories Of
the conflicts between the cowmen and
the sheepraisers. When the hocks began
to grow in the west the cowmen fought
the herders as individuals. Their resent
ment was at first merely personal
Whenever cowboy found a flock of
sheep On the range he stood Of and with
his rife picked of sheep after sheep until
he had exhausted his ammunition. When
he could shoot no more he rode off great
~ pleased to think that he had LETT be-
hind a badly scared Shepherd and had
caused loss to the sheepowner. If the
herder showed fight, he, too, was killed.
A clever cowboy discovered a sure meth
Cd Of scattering a flock of sheep and
making it move on. He gathered up a
few hundred head Of wild steers and with
his companion drove them peIl nell
through flock This maneuvre was US
ually so successful that it became a "a
vorite source Of amusement for the
'9unchers."
Poisoning a water supply used by sheep
IS frequently practiced by the cattlemen,
and after a flock had visited such a one
as many as thousand Of the 'fwoolhes''
lie dead. Cattle will not touch saltpetre,
but sheep viii. Thus cowboys often scat
ter it in the advance OF a feeding flock,
and frequently every sheep dies.
The feuds that exist between the cat
tlemen and the sheepraisers are frequent
ly as fierce and deadly as any that have
ever been forced to an issue in Kentucky
In Montana the cattlemen have fought
the herders individually for a long time
but as soon as a shepherd Is killed an
other takes his place, while the sheep
continue to increase
Sometime ago the cowmen determined
to form an organization to drive the
sheepmen out. It vas thought that any
bold OF concerted action on their part
would be fatal to their success, so they
formed a secret and oathbound party for
the final extinction of sheep and shep-
herds.
They held a meeting at which forty-two
cattlemen were present. It was decided
that a committe of six men sheould be
chosen by lot to carry on the warfare In
the event Of the interference Of the au-
thOrides none was to know his fellow or
the committee, nor were any Of the other
members to know who belonged to it, so
that none could bear witness against the
other, and no man could be forced to tes-
tify against himself
Forty-two slips Of paper were placed in
a hat, thirty-six Of which bore numbers.
while six were blank AS each man drew
a blank, he looked at it and tore it up.
Those who drew the blanks gave no ev-
idence that they had done 50, but at a
certain time they met at place previ-
ously agreed upon, each closely disguised
There they planned their campaign
against the sheeDmen.
From that day forward the sheepmen
were harassed with such ingenuity and
persistency that for a time they were
compelled to give I'D the unequal strug-
gle A strenuous effort was made by the
authorities and by the sheepmen them
selves, to discover the offenders and put
a stop to their depredations, but to no
avail
The sheepmen finally armed a hundred
men and sent them to protect the ad-
vance of a huge flock Of sheep. The flock
and its defenders were permitted to ap-
proach a rocky pass across a stream.
Suddenly, from the concealment of the !
rocks on the other side, a heavy rifle fire /
began to pour into the focks and thous- !
ands were killed.
The armed herders returned to the fire. |
as they could not see their enemies their /
shots were without effect and they were
compelled to retreat, leaving their dead |
and wounded behind. Not a sheep Of the !
entire flock was saved.
Sheep herders and owners were daily |
shot, either from ambush, OF in open at
tacks on the range by masked men /
Wells and waterways were poisoned and !
sheep were driven off and forced over
precipices. In this way thousands of the
sheep were destroyed and the loss to the /
owners was so disastrous that they We're /
compelled to move on with their hocks |
But their absence was only temporary |
and after the cattlemen's organize ton |
had broken up they gradually returned. !
until now the grazing country is again I.
covered with their focks.
From the recent destruction Of a large
bunch Of sheep, by the old trick of killing /
the shepherd and driving the sheep over
a precipice, 1t would seem that the cat
tlemen have again come together for a
last stand against the wool and mutton
men
keep the herders down. They have tried
force, politics and every plan that inge-
nuity could suggest to do it. and yet they
have failed.
When the aggression becomes too press
ing or feed runs short, the sheep men viii
simply move on.
Where the cattlemen could not stand
such enormous losses Of their stock, the
increase Of a flock Of sheep is SO great.
about forty per cent a year, that the
sheepmen are never utterly ruined, for
he has two sources Of income from his
Lockwood and mutton The few cattle
that stin remain viii be driven from. the
free range, surely. II but slowly. because
under the unfavorabIe conditions with
with which the business is carried on.
there is a profit in fattening steers on the
farm
And so the cattle business which was
once in the west carried on with a free
dom and with such enormous profits
that business considerations were not so
closely considered as they might have
been, is rapidly becoming a prosaic and
carefully financed business. conducted
usually by great companies on private
grounds surrounded by miles Of fences.
The cowboy Of romance, dashing devil
a registering blade, half work
man and half desperate, is bec0m-
Ing nothing more than q farm hand. who
drives cattle inside Of fences
The great plateau country. which the
,attlenan has always considered his own.
which erroneous belief in the past led to