The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-11-28
TALES OF cATrIEMEN-

The advanced guard OF the hundreds
Of delegates who. are expected 70 attend
the cattlemea's convention during the
first week in December are beginning 70
drop into town, says the Chicago Tribune
They come on palace cars and. as
rule, they mourn the passing OF the pic
turesque days when the cOw-puncaers
came in straight from the ranges with
their herds and scattered their money
everywhere they went with prodigai
hands.
\ good many Of the old cowboys are
now cowmen, a change OF title which
comes when an employee becomes an
owner. Some of them got a start by
saving their money and some started out
with a branding iron and rope. as the
cattlemen put il. Most of them are good
fellows and whenever three or four OF
them get together they start TO tell sto-
ries about the old-tiIne celebrities OF the
wstern cattle ranges.
You know 'Ramrod' Johnson, don't
your asked the man from Indian ter
, ritory. 'Ramrod's Texas ranch is all
htted up with folding beds. you know.
though he's got room enough TO put a
four poster IN every one OF them 1t
happened like this:
" Ramrod' went down 10 New York,
and, going to one OF the big hotels
asked how much they charged. Three
3
hotel was run on the European plan, but
'Ramrod' paid it under protest. but
promptly moved over TO another hotel.
where he get a room for S1.5. He went
straight up TO the room and half an
hour later there came from Il a call for
boy
q" What do you all mean?" asked Ram
rod, putting me in a room without any
bed in it, I've looked all over the blamed
IN / nj vx-fi inc haf
looks Ike even a shakedown.
The boy showed him a folding bed and
demonstrated how il worked. For some
reason it tickled the old man half 70
death First thing next morning he went
out and bought half dozen folding beds
and had them shipped TO his ranch In
Texas. Now he won't have any other
kind Of sleeping apparatus in his ranch
house. though, as I said before, it's got
a good many square miles of prairie TO
spread over and has room enough in Il
to accommodate a whole furniture store
'Sug" Robinson Is another Of the old
time western cattlemen who fourished
in the days when all of Texas was an
open range before the state got to leas-
ing its land and the ranchmen began to
fence up pastures containing several
square miles of land each.
In common with the rest of the old
guard" said q man who once worked for
him, " 'Sug' never was comfortable when
there was another bunch of cattle with
in fifty miles of his. ] remember one
incident which illustrates his idea Of
getting crowded
1T was along in the middle of the
summer and 'Sug' and I were out with
a bunch Of several thousand cattle in the
western part of the state. Il was open
territory, legally free 20 anybody.
though 'Sug had ranged it for several
years and had come to look upon II as
his own preserve. So far as we knew
there wasn't another herd of cattle with
in fifty miles Of US, at least
"One afternoon a cowboy riding across
country stopped at our shack and brought
news that the 'X-Y-Bar' outfit were down
on Santos Greek with a bunch OF 1900
cattle. Sug' was angry. He put me on
a pony and sent me riding down 10
Santos Creek TO interview the men in
charge. At the nearest point Santos
Creek was twenty-five miles away as the
crow flies.
4 made the ride over in a few hours
and had a talk with the foreman. He
was polite but firm in his determination
TO keep his bunch of cattle on the range
where ne then had them. Nothing 1
could say could move him and 1 rode
back and reported TO Sug. lie was fu-
rious.
Wen he said finally. If that blamed
hog wants to crowd US out of this coUn-
try l reckon we'd better move. It's get
ting too blamed thick for me here. any
how
when the next cowman got within
twenty-five miles of another herd in
those days there was always talk about
overcrowding the country. It's no wonder
the life developed a broad-minded and
breezy lot Of men"
good many Of the delegates have