The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-02-27
STEER-TYING IN ARIZONA.
Cowboy Sport That Some People Say
Is Cruel, Stirs Up Movement
for Suppression.

| IOr suppression.
Arizona sportsmen and cowboys are
anxious lest the amusement of steer
tying may be placed in the same cate
CORY with bull fighting and prohibited
by law. Their anxiety is not ground
less. A number of visiting fasteners
witnessed the mountaineering and
bone-brealling exhibition here on
Christmas day, and they have begun
fight to stop the sport, says a Phoenix
report in the New York Sun.
On that day Joe Bassett, the cham
pion cow puncher and bronco buster of
this territory, broke the worlds rec
ord for two consecutive throws, and
incidentally broke the horn of one
steer and the leg of the other. At this
sight some visiting members of the
Humane society rose up in wrath and
left the grand stand. Three other con-
testants inflicted injuries upon their
steers, and now letters have gone to
the east calling for aid in the suppress
sion of a sport which it is declared
exceeds bull fighting in cruelty"
When Joe Bassett gave each steer
80 yards start and then caught, roped,
threw and tied them, one in 331h and
the other in 40 seconds, so rapid was
his work and so hard did he throw his
steers that both were injured, but
these, as we'll as subsequent hurts to
other steers, were very unusual acct
dents.
For nearly half a century steer tying
has been the most popular sport in the
southwest. Until few years ago bull
fights were almost as common on this
side of the Mexican line as in old Mex
leo, but the butchery attendant upon
the Spanish game has never appealed
to an American lover of sport.
On the other hand, steer tying pos
sesses elements which call into use
every atom of brain and muscular
power in man, in horse and in steer.
Not only that, but it is a practical,
everyday vocation put on exhibition
under such conditions as will urge the
COW puncher to his best efforts.
Nor is it a sport confined solely to
western frontiersmen. Joe Bassett is
college man, and he attributes his
ability in the saddle and with the rope
to his earlier athletic training on the
gridiron and the diamond at Lawrence
vile, and later at Princeton.
Oscar Roberts, Bassett's closest
rival, began his athletic career on the
high school and normal university
grounds of an Illinois town. So with
Ed Horrell. another crack COW puncher
whose skill in the line of his school
eleven came to his aid when, on Christ
mas day. his steer arose before he
could make his tie.
Head down, the mad brute went ION
the prod" and only Horrell's great
agility saved his life. Leaping aside,
he grasped one horn of the brute and
then. with the other hand on the steers
nose he twisted the steers neck until
the animal went down with Horrel's
knee on his neck, and tie rope was
thrown around his front legs.
1t is not likely that any other sport
in the world requires greater agility
of brain and Drawn, or involves so much
that is likely to unstring the nerves of
the player. To rope and tie steer
calls for the finest craftsmanship and
the most exact cooperation of the
horse and rider. Indeed. the rapid rop-
ing of steer will avail the puncher lit
tie unless the horse lends its aid at that
critical time. With rope held taut by
the horse, the steer is held down until
the cowboy reaches him and puts the
"hogtie" around his legs.
Steer tying, although practiced as
sport wherever the cow-puncher is
necessity, has reached its highest state
of perfection in Arizona. A puncher,
here, who cannot give 30-yard start
and rope and tie in less than one min
ute is considered a very slow worker.
Sometimes, from cattle ranges, come
reports of remarkable ties in II, Is
and 20 seconds, but such time can only
be made under conditions that are ac-
cidental.
On the mountain ranges experiences
with the RATA is useful not alone in
capturing cattle. Not infrequently, in
the wilder districts, the COW puncher
will rope bears and sometimes a mule
ear deer will fall under the whirling
1oOD