Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1902-05-01


asleep. We're i: not for one of his
whimseys the cowboy would find life
upon the plains burden because of
these same rattlers. 1t is generally
believed among the fraternity that a
rattler will not, under any circum-
stances, crawl over a hair 1ariat. It
is this reason, more than any other,
which makes the hair lariat so popu-
lar among the cowboys. To be sure
there are other advantages which may
be claimed for the hair cord. It will
not swell when wet nor shrink when
dry. 1t will not kink like the ordinary
kind. 1t is much stronger than other
lariats, but more than all, it will keep
off rattlers. At least, that is what the
cowboy believes. When he spreads
his blanket upon the ground prepara-
tory to going to sleep, he encircles his
couch with the hair rope and goes to
sleep in the peaceful assurance of i'm
munity from his deadly enemy. A
skeptica1 tenderfoot recently deter
mined to test the efficacy of this pre-
among the rocks and tied live rat
near the hole in the rocks where the
snakes entered their home. About
the place he laid the coils of the hair
lariat. Then he waited until several
of the reptiles emerged from their hid
ing to work their creepy charms upon
the rat. He then fired his gun di-
rectly over the convention and a cam
era fiend caught the result. The snakes
didn't wait 10 return into the holes
from which they emerged, but regard
less of the hair lariat fence they fled
in all directions. Nevertheless, sew
eral thousand cowboys will continue to
fearlessly trust themselves to the pro-
lection of the hair 1ariat whenever
duty compels them to lie out Oh the
snake infested plains.
Next to the rattler the centipede is
most dreaded by the cowboy. He
seems to believe that these members
of the ''poison people" live solely for
the purpose of attaching themselves
to sleeping cowboys. He also believes
that to stir when one of these Great
ures is crawling over his anatomy is
to insure its sticking its hundreds of
venomous claws into his flesh.
An Arizona cowboy awoke early one
morning to the realization that some
thing was crawling over one of his
feet, which happened to be outside the
cover of his bed. His fist thought
was of centipedes. By the light which
filtered into his shack he could see
something crawling on his feet to-
ward the toes. The cold sweat oozed
through the pores or his skin and
stood upon his forehead in true dime
novel fashion. He dare not move his
foot to shake off the creature, for ac-
cording to all traditions that would
cause it to make the move which
would result fatally to the aforesaid
cowboy. 1t seemed hours before the
crawling thing reached his toes. Then
instead of passing off his foot, as he
hoped, the obstreperous thing turned
and seemed about to take the back
track down the foot. This was too
much for the terrified cowpuncher, and
snatching his revolver from under his
pillow he fired at the creature. He
dislodged the Cause of his terror, and
incidentally removed one of his toes at
the same time. The centipede proved
to be just an ordinary innocent cater
pillar. That is how one cowboy came
to be known as "Centipede Joe.''
The cowboy will tell uor tha+ 4Lo