The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-24
SO,O0O MAD STEERS.
FRENZTED BY FEAR, THEY MA D E
 4 WILD STAMPEDE.
The Peril of the Cowboys Who Had Cb.rre of Them-What Happened When the Great Herd Game to Deep
Canon.

When the Great Herd Came to Deep
 Canon.
 Every one who has lived in the west
 or southwest is more or less tamlllaf
 with the freakish tendency of large
 body or herd of cattle to become
 frightened and stampede, often upon
 apparently slight provocation. It IS
 also we'll known by COW punehers
 that when a herd has once started on
 it's mad flight it is as irresistible and
 dangerous as a Kansas cyclone. In
 this connection Colonel William F.
 Blount of the Indian territory, now in
 Washington for the purpose of promo
 ting the cause of single statehood for
 that territory, and Oklahoma is au-
 thority for the following description of
 what was in all probability the big
 gest and most disastrous stampede of
 Texas steers ever recorded.
 Tn the early summer of 1SS9,'' said Colonel Blount, ''I was employed with a dozen or more COW punchers from the territory and western Kansas by the Wilson Brothers, who were noted Texas cattlemen, to assist in driving
 upward of thirty thousand head of the
 big Texas steers from the rendezvous in northern Texas across the Indian territory to the vicinity of Dodge City,
 Kan. The pace at which we were
 obliged to travel was quite slow as a matter of course, for the reason that We allowed the cattle to graze along the entire route, and from eight to ten miles
 were a fair days journey. This i'm mense herd was being taken up to Kan sas to pasture and otherwise fatten for the eastern markets.
 We had been on our northward jour-
 ney for about two and a half or three
 weeks, perhaps, and had crossed into Indian territory some seventy-ilVe miles, when one evening just before dark we encamped near a small stream of water on a sort of rolling prairie where there was an abundance of grass. In the distance to the west about eight or ten miles could be seen the shadoWy outlines of low line of hills, and be- tween our camp and these hills, about three miles distant, was one of those canons peculiar to that region and which was not visible until one ap- preached to within half-mile of it, and even then no adequate idea could be obtained of it's width or depth. All of the members of our party knew Of it's existence and locality, and for this req son we had given it, as we thought, sufficiently wide berth. This canon at the point nearest to our camp that night was fully one hundred and fifty feet deep, from fifty to sixty feet wide, and Its walls were nearly perpendicular. Its direction in that locality was nearly north and south
 During the entire afternoon he air had been hot and 'muggy' with not a suspicion of breeze, The sky was over- cast with hanging, fog-llke cdouls, which in the distance appeared to touch the earth. As darkness came on the cattle ceased feeding and all lay down as quietly and contentedly as so many lnilch COWS, and everything bade fair for a quiet night. The animals ap- peared to feel the oppressive heat quite as much as we did. I had staked my horse some distance from the herd spread my blanket near him, and gone to bed so to speak, using my saddle for a pillow. l couldn't go to sleep for some unaccountable reason, although it may have been on account of the ex- hausting heat of the days work. l was awake at ten o'clock when one of the Wilson boys came over where I was ly- ing and said:
 "'Bill, don't exactly like this death ly quiet It makes me nervous. It seems as if something out of the ordi- tn hnn ticed a considerable amount of heat lightning, and it's beginning to make the steers restless. I wouldn't be bit surprised if there was a big thunder storm here before morning, and if there 1 is there's going to be trouble with them critters. I've told all the boys to sad de their ponies and be ready at mo- ment's notice, If the steers get on a | rampage, to turn them eastward away | from that big hole in the ground over | there, pointing in the direction of the 1 canon.
 "The atmosphereic electricity, as I | had already observed while Wilson was l talking to me, was becoming more ire | quent and lighted up the smooth, pol | ished horns of the reclining animals l WILL SOII ul esiipotiS SicN, PAoteiNtiS a decidedly weird effect, I could also | see that the steers were becoming more l and more uneasy, and here and there l | noticed big steer rise up and act as if | he shifted danger of some sort. In the meantime I had saddled my horse, and | was waiting whatever might turn up | The silence still remained unbroken ex- cept by the low, intermittent, maudlin | of young Mexican half breed, who had, earlier in the evening | broken into the stores in l the commssary wagon and helped him. self to an overload of red liquor which the Wilson's had brought along as an antidote for snake bites.
 'It is a fact well known to all old eattlemen that whenever animals stam- pede there are always score or more If steers known as leaders which | make the first break, the balance of the herd blindly following their lead IGv cry man in our party carried at least | me six-shooter, and some had a pair of .hem and they were instructed, in the I event of a stampede to ride alongside hese leaders, on the side opposite to the I direction in which it was desired to | urn them and to fire in the ground ] near their hoofs, in order to turn them 1 rom their course