Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1901-10-24
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{: BILLY BRAG:
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minutes conversation with him would
To say that he was opinionated is
drawing it very mild, and to state that
the chiefest of his opinions was the
particularly excellent one he held OF
himself is superfluous.
Those were humdrum, monotonous
days at the ''IIN," and there was scant
opportunity for Billy to exhibit the
courage, prowess, skill, ability and so
forth which-we had his own oft re-
peated statements for 1.-THE possessed
TO a remarkable degree.
Once in awhile something would
happen to relieve the monotony. but
Billy somehow or other was never on
deck to show what he was worth He
always turned up afterward with:
Huh! Ye galoots jes' make me ache
all over! Wy, any bloomin' tenderfoot
cd IA toll We better'n thatp' or, "That
wuz a fool trick. Now, eff I'd been
thar I'd "a did so an so;" or, Huh.
Dye call that anythin' ter menshun?
Wy, back thar on tn Keya Paha we
used ter let tn kids an wimmen do
that kind o. work.
And so it went for nearly a year,
and, though we invented many a plan
to give Billy an opportunity to show
his worth, he managed on one pretext
OF another to keep out of our snares.
One day Gale Smelling, who was out
looking up some stays, fell in with
maverick steer feeding in a coulee and,
thinking at first that it was an "HX'
critter, rode toward it. But the beast
was what Is known as a bad un,"
and, horns down and believing with
rage. he turned and charged on the
startled cowboy. Gale tried to turn his
pony and run, but the animal was
green and only reared and snorted.
Gale thought he was about to take
place herding clouds, but he yanked
his gun and let CO. catching the steer
right between the eyes and dropping
1t not more than ten feet away.
Gale was a bit new in the business,
and he was rather pale when he rode
up TO the ranch and related his expert
ence, but there was triumphant tone
in his voice as he told of his successful
shot from the back of a bucking pony.
Billy listened with a superior air.
''Huhr' he remarked disdainfully.
''What We wanter kill i'm fer? Ye cd
Jes z well creased an roped i'm. Some
folks never hev no rgard fer propty.
Waste not, want nothin."
We all groaned and proceeded to con-
graduate Gale on his luck. but Bill did
not seem to care. He was getting used
to our irreverence. 1t may be noted.
however that when we tried next
morning to get Billy to take a galloping
shot at the stripe in a blanket nailed
on to a shed door, to see how near he
could have come to "creasing'' a mad
steer from the back of fool pony, our
proposition met with scorn. There We
go agin." said Billy. whats tn blame
use o. wastin' er whole lot o ca'tridgeS
jes' ter convince er mess o gabbln'
egiots that err thing kin he did? Aw, go
off an try poundn' san in er rathole
fer yer wits. Bet We carn't even do
that" And he rode off. much offended.
When Joe Fleming. brother of the
boss. and Hank Barr had a brush with
half a dozen Indians and just escaped
with their lives. leaving a bunch of fat
cattle to be run off by Uncle Sans
dear, sweet proteges, Blly's opinion
was at once forthcoming. Huh! Ye
mout ies' y well saved mos O. tn crit
tiers an got them thievin' red cusses
too. wy didn't ye, wen We seed 'em
riGin' down on We. jes' kill three or four
critters an pile 'em up fer er barricade.
That'd ben better'n losin' tn hull
bunch
When Bob Hall, a cowboy from the
"3 Bar" the next ranch-one of the
meanest, ugliest. most quarrelsome bull
lies who ever fiourished a gun-got kill
ed at the hotel in town by an unoffend-
ing tenderfOot whom he had tried to
compel to take a drink. Billy. as usual,
had something to say. Huh. That's
them tenderfeet all over. They think
eff er man tries ter hev fun with 'em
hyar that they've got ter shoot, an
shoot quick TIL galoot oughter've jes'
took Bob Hill by tn scruff o. tn pants
an kicked or throwed i'm out an Bob
'id've pollygized too quick. Bob Hall
never had no sand"
All the same. there was an old story
to the effect that once VIXEN Billy had
been unaccountably absent from the
ranch for three or four days. he had
been in town. devoting considerable at
tention to keeping ont of the belligerent
Mr.. Halls way.
But Billy's opportunity came one day.
He had been laid up a week and was
still lame as the result Of being on the
side next the ground when his pony
stumbled and fell one day and was sit
ting at the door one morning about
1,30 when the stage came along. Sew
eral of Us were in the raRchh0use and
We're somewhat surprised to hear the
wheels outside. for tie stage road was
two miles from the ranch. A. we
crowded TO the door we saw some