El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-19
Written Especially for the HERALD.

$3.50
| He don't know who his daddyis.
| In fact he doesn't care;
He was rails ed some years ago all by his
self.
| He's been cowboy, ranger, scout.
| Turn ed the country inside out.
| And for ten years he was sergeant in the
| twelfth
| He has like not been sheriff,
| And he wouldn't take a dare If
| If the whole Apache nation stood around.
| When the time comes to go under
| He won't stop to cry or wonder.
But he'll pa IS his chips, and never m AXE a
| sound.
| If the country goes to war
| He's as ready as before,
| When he grabbed gun in April '6l;
And wb atever his side then,
| It's the Union now, Amen,
| And youth find his fightin days have just
begun.
Rhine of the Texas Cowboy.
| "I've killed more than ten thousand
buffalo in my day." unused Perk the
Wolfer when we had been silent for q
long time, and the night wind from the
mountain seemed to be whispering to
herself and the mesquite bushes were
stirring unessily in their sleep. 81 amt
never counted them, but 1 know it's
been that many; it might have been
more. 1 don't know. It's been long ago
now.''
The stars were shining bright in
cloudless sky. the air was filed with
an iudescribable fragrance that is
characteristic of the southwestern
plains, and that smells soclean:while the
horses stood out against the sky llue
like two pieces of ragged black paper
pasted on q board. The old timer lay
on his blanket and drank in the dark
ness and the mystery and the hundred
silent-sounds like a man who has been
thirsty, and found q water hole.
Eyes, it all looks the same now:
I've laid out under this sky many
night and watched the moon and the
stars and wondered about what comes
after all this. Somehow 1 never could
find out much. 1 know there's some
thing though after we all pass up and
get planted down here. What else
could it be but that? Strange, ain'tit,
how this old prairie don't change;
keeps on looking the same year after
year. Same old cactus, same old mes
quite bushes, same old everything.
"But It's different, though. You
ought to have seen it thirty years ago,
when the Winchesters was for two
legged game and there wasn't no need
to take nothing to eat from the post
mean the town,-only tobaccer and
whiskey. The prairie was black with
buffalo In those days. They travelled
from Texas to Manitoba, great big
herds of them that belonged to any
body that wa ted them. They didn't
seem to be no end to them.
Snow they're gone. The govern
ment's got few in the Yellowstone,
and 1 hear there's some scattered
around at places for people to look at.
They ought to have seen them before
the COS, and there'd have been some
use. The Indians is mostly RESPONSE
BILE for that. Indians and white men
too. The white men were more to
blame than the Indians 1 reckon, be-
cause they knowed better. I've killed
more than ten thousand myself. II
might have been less, but 1 guess it's
been ten thousand.
"Jim White has killed about ss many
buffalo as any man on the plains mas,
I reckon. He was always after them.
1 guess Jim has killed more tnan one
hundred thousand of the finest animal
that ever walked on four legs. You
think that's an exaggeration, but 1t
amt. You didn't know the plains then.
It sounds like lot OF animals, and you
might think I'm just talking, but I
amt. It's the truth.
"There's men alive today who have
killed their thousands of buffalo.
Course like that they couldn't last
forever. They used to kill 'em for
their hides and most of the meat was
just thrown away and wasted. The
Indians, and the white men too, would
shoot q buffalo, cut off a handful Of
meat and maybe take out the Rtongue
q I'D 60 on and leave the carcass to the