Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-30

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 EMSay less of life and limb, felt
 IM sentimental regret over
 the passing of the cowboy and the decline of cowboy wars. To- day, the great range is ngain in fer ment, and again is the cowboy called upon to be quick with his gun. Which may be interesting to those in the eastern and middle states that read of his exploits, but is dernoralizing and devastating to the inhabitants of the region where the lawlessness is in progress.
 Three factions are engaged in the present warfare of the range, where as in former days there usually ex- isted but two, cattlemen against cat t1emen, cattlemen against sheepmen; the settler now is an element to be taken into account, the man who has filed Q "claim" and is going in for agriculture. fa
 Tn the days of the big boom in the cattle industry, many of the cattle barons thought the governments s lands would forever continue bring ing in to them large incomes, so much of the land being considered unfit for agricultural purposes, and sheep rais- ing not yet carried on extensively in their part of the country. But the high price offered for wool back in the eighties sent fortune-hunters scurrying into the sheep industry, and then the cattle found their rights contested by large bands of woolly intruders. Now both cattle and sheep C.. T shape of the settler. The settler, who has come to cultivate his own lit- tie portion of land, it is needless to say, is no friend to the free range.
 Several influences have been at work in attracting the homesteader to the country under discussion. The pos sibility of turning arid lands into fruitful soil by, means of artificial ir- irrigation has been much discussed, es- pecially of late years; and has been eagerly considered by the landless. The dissemination of knowledge in the way of other improved methods of agriculture, also has had con siderable effect in this matter. An other influence has been the 'boom- er," whose mission it was to adver- tise the great undeveloped resources of these regions uncrowded by hu- mans. @%2%
 Not only have the plains of the southwest (the southern portions of Texas and Oklahoma, the eastern por- tion of New Mexico and localities in Arizona and Kansas) been great feed ing grounds for the herds, but herds and f1ocks have loverrun the grazing regions of the northwest. Charles Moreu Harger, writing in the Out look, says: 'grhe shepherd is in evil dence from the Rio Grande to the mountains of Montana and Idaho, the home of the blizzard. Over the vast 'unoccupied reaches of Wyoming the .herders wander, in Texas they have their home, and in Oregon they vie with the cattle owners for the pos session of the range" The western states, along the Canadian border, and Wyoming, Nebraska and Colo rado to the south, have offered pas- turage for the hordes of wandering animals, some of which wander clear across the continent.
 1t would seem, with such a wide territory, there need be little cause to pick quarrels; but we quote some figures which show the territoHy is becoming narrowed. and that Every fast, the settler rushing into regions once entirely given over to grazing. "The fact tl.2t something like 2o0,- GOO people moNd into Oklahoma and northern Texas last year, the immi- grafton of 16O,Ooo to the northwest this spring, and the steady western tide of settlements from the middle states to the territory of Kansas and Nebraska, have been 8 menace to the cattIemen."
 2 The catt1emen did not at first sub init tamely to the settlers encroach- ment With the lawlessness bred of their isolation and occupation, they endeavored to settle matters in a high-handed manner, and without waste of words or time. They made things hot for the newcomer and in- vited him to leave, but the latter stayed on. They persecuted him with all the skill in their employ, but still the stubborn settler refused to de- part. They destroyed crops, and the pioneer farmer went on raising new ones. Then the government stepped in and provided protection for the small farmer, the man who had gone out to develop the country. It gave him lordship over the acres on which he had filed, and the cattleman at last had to recognize the fact that