The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1902-04-17
TERms.( Shopper year. in advance
Six Months 80 cents.

the climax came. In the outfit was a
young Irishman who drove the mule
attached to the rake. This mule. by
the way, was character; he was so old
that his birthday was lost in the mists
OF antiquity; his teeth were worn down
to the gums. He would stay around
camp and watch for an opportunity to
steal bread, bacon, sugar, flour, in fact
anything and everything. He was onto
the Dutch oven in which the bread was
baked, and he seemed to have an un-
natural fondness for half-baked bread,
as he would shove the cover off with
his nose and then stick his muzzle into
the hot dough and try to eat it. The
effect on his muleship was always dis
astrous; he would get sadly burned.
This asinine creature would then
back off, open his mouth to cool off,
lay his ears back, stick his tail out
straight and holler loud enough to wake
the dead. But he never learned his
lesson for at the next opportunity he
would do it all over again. The young
Irishman went to camp one evening to
get supper, and while he was parieying
with the mule about side of bacon
which the latter was trying to appro-
pirate, the fire got into the grass. In
latter day slang "the stuff was all off,"
In five minutes that fire was going be-
fore the wind like race horse coming
under the wire on Derby day. We tried
to fight the fire but it was no use. It
was a magnificent sight that evening
and we watched it for hours as it licked
up thousands Of acres of buffalo grass.
Well, our job was burned up and in
the morning we packed up and hied
back to Fort Benton feeling rather
dubious about the reception we would
meet with. told in previous article
about how the miners told my friend
and self few things in regard to the
setting of fires, but that was little
Sunday school palaver compared to
the lurid talk thrown into that poor
Irishman and not only that but his an
cestors were cussed, individually and
collectively, clear back to the time of st.
Patrick. Ireland tried to lay the blame
on the mule, but was told that particu-
lar mule was marvel of sagacity, one
of the oldest and best known citizens
of those parts and would never have
been such fool as to
burn up his job.
Once more was on the labor mar
ket, but only for few hours, for that
afternoon I hired out as cowboy.
Two of us were to take ten head of
horses to Helena, a distance of 100
miles, and there join the herd coming
through from Oregon, and assist in
driving them to the range on the south
side of the Little Snowy Mountains.
Now had never ridden on horseback
to speak of, but l mustered courage
enough to mount a big blue wicked
looking Mexican horse which the FORE
man declared to be as gentle as the
proverbial kitten. In just twoseconds
after had hit the saddle would have
given everything had to have been
able to have ''hit the grit" l believe
that horse went at least twenty feet
straight up in the air and when he
came down he struck stiff-legged with
all four feet punched together, with his
back curved like rainbow; and he
kept this up. Part of the time was
on his neck, then back by his tail, and
when Istruck the saddle [ would re-
ceive a jolt that would loosen all my
teeth. When finally went over his
head and plowed up an acre of soil l
had received my initiation. This animal
was noted "bucker" and every new
man was introduced to him.
All my troubles after this were as
nothing. We made the 100 miles in
about three days and joined the herd
which was awaiting us.
My experience as cowboy shall re-
serve for some future paper, as it was
q strenuous episode and will require
strenuous labor with pen and ink to
depict this life as it was found by
tenderfoot in the early SOS. F.
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