The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1900-06-14

TT was not pretty story; II was smore.
1t was fraught with thst print
i've ruggedness one gets an impreI
sion of along with cutting prairie
w1nda, bucking broncos, the crack OF
q revolver, the whiz Of o bullet
The fellows name was Thompson.
and he could handle bunch OF steers
with the best Of them, but there was
al air of metropolitanism about him
That assorted Ill with his surroundings
And although he drank harder, Ewore
better, and went rougher than any man
Of them, he had never been able 70 1--we
down his nickname Of "East7Btde"
Thompson. Under the influence OF roll
ing prairies, the boundless sweep OF
cloud and sky, TN intimacy with the
elements, and reliance upoh nothing
but his own Wit and courage, B man
grows TO be a strong, sagnciohl, vfssl
creature, so different from our cf-
cumscribed ideas Of man that, for
want Of n better term, We call him a
"cow-puncher."
The Three-X outfit Of cow-punchera
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 f,rst
early showers had scared and died be-
fore the next rain came to keep II
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
tcrly. In every direction tho white
alkai plains glistened away to the
meeting line OF the sky IN an infnitnd>
OF isolation. The oldest inhabitsnt In
all the country round could not recall
a winter that equnled this In dry,
ncss.
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 eome
where above Bodie by the end Of the
first month out, but there was no rain
no water, and the plains lay in oper
cfscka Day after day the sun arose
smiled down upon the psrched little
bunch Of men and cattle ~ long hour
a. ne sailed across a cloudless sky, 50
renely unconscious Of the malediction'
hurled against him, while the bare
burning prairie stared back In un
blinking defiance There were gor
geous sunsets every evening-moment'
when the great flery bah seemed almost
to stand sti1t TO give long backward
gfance before dropping out OF sight
and with q Midas touch turn all the
world to molten gold. But TO th'
played-out cow-puncher sunset meani
nothing but bedtime-bedtime after d
hard, parched, hopeless day. There
were clear. chaste moonlight nigh.'
of wondrous radiance, too, but th'
moon was seen only in the early morn
ing, when they rose to another day
more hard, more parched, more hope
less. The cattle - mere anatomica
charts by this time-went staggering
about In crazy circles, too weak tc
need wntching, the three rs on thei'
flanks reduced to half the original siz'
by the shriveling of the hide. or fel
heavily TO the earth to rise again, afte'
many seasons OF sun and shower, n
prairie flowers and salt grass. The'
believing was reduced to a moan a!
most human in its misery, for the on
voice common to all created things
animal or human, is the voice OF suffer
ing.
The Missourian, great, hulkinl
young fellow, vas first Of the men T.
show signs of weakening. That is tn
most terrible moment in all like expert
ences. when the men who have held o'
grimly and endured together see on
Of their number losing his grip. Thi
had been an ill-assorted outfit whel
they started out with the cattle acros
the plains, but standing together
shoulder TO shoulder, defying dealt
against fearful odds knits man deep