Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1903-07-04

"A Kansas Gopher Story.
The paying by the county of a boun-
ty on gopher scalps viii recall to any
one who may have passed through the
drouths of '93, "a and '95 in western
Kansas some events connected with
the payment of bounties. there. The
writer spent those days in Wallace,
county and, il his memory serves him
right, once had six gopher scalps, val
ed at five cents apiece, which lie lost
on a bet. Gopher scafps those days
were legal tender. No SHOWS fell in
the winter of 1928 and no rains fell in
the spring following. :As aresult there
was large surplus in the production
of gophers and cotton tails None
of them were drowned before they
were able to care for themselves. Go
pliers were as thick as English spar
rows. Entire fields of corn and cane
were taken up by them Something
had to be done. Some scattered poiS-
.oned corn around their fields but this
was expensive since the fields contain
ed from ten to fifty or more acres. Ed.
Guilbert, a son of W. ID. Guilbert, re-
recently renominated for the third
term for Auditor OF State in Ohio, who
was trying his luck in that country,
when asked what success he was hav-
ing with poisoning replied that when
ever he poisoned one hundred came
to it's funeral and boarded in his corn
field
AS the summer advanced and there
No nrocpoctS snrt- s.rnn
the county commissioners decided
that bounty on gopher and cotton
tails would bea good way to distrib-
ute aid and at the same time get rid
of pest And it worked. A man
would put a barrel of water and some
buckets in his wagon, take the child
rem, and very often bis wife, and
start out gopher. hunting. When a
gopher was sighted he run in hole.
the gopher would soon appear some
what dazed by his unexpected bath.
He would be caught just as he stuck
his head out and his scalp was soon
ready for the MARKET. If a man went
to town or to call on a neighbOr he
nearly always took barrel of water
hoping to pick up a few scalps on the
way. In this he was seldom disap-
pointed. The scalps were taken to
the county clerk who issued scrip in
payment for them. This was cashed
by the merchants. At first it was
worth ninety cents on the dollar, but
the great amount issued Overstocked
those who had money to invest and it
became so cheap that it was almost
worthless. Many who invested were
never able to gettheir money out of it.
This, with the continued drouth, al
most bankrupted the county. Many
their living by hunting gophers. As
usual in such cases, Wallace county
paid out a great deal for scalps taken
in neighboring counties, for all coun-
ties were not paying the bounty. 1t
was an easy matter to pass them over
to some one who could testify that
they had been taken within the
bounds of Wallace county.
A few years before this, Wallace
scalps and Greeley, tire adjoining
county on the south, thinking that
tails would be more easily counted
than scalps, offered bounty of five
cents on tails. Both counties soon
found out that along the border be-
tween them there was wonderful
supply Of gophers, and as suspicion
aud well founded evidence proved
that the scalp OF a gobher would be
taken la one county and tail OF the
same animal in the other it was
promptly decided to stop paying boun-
New Leaf.