The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1905-05-28

good Western story in his dustin Win
gate, Ranchman." 1t gives vivid de-
scriptions of cowboy life; it contains
some good love stories; the conflict be-
tween the farmers who wished to till the
range lands and the cattlemen, who
wanted open range. makes complications
or business, political ambition and love
that give interest to the story; and per-
haps best worth while of all is his en-
deavor to make the world know what he
well calls 1.-The tragedy OF the range
That tragedy of the range comes when
the cattle by thousands starve, freeze,
die of agony or, probably worst of all,
endure the prolonged torture of a winter
on the unprotected plains in emaciation,
thirst. hunger and shivering cold because
there is not food enough on the ground
to keep them warm and their owners
prepare no stacks of forage for these
frequent severe winters. The stockman
estimates that If only 20 per cent of his
cattle die outright and the so per cent en-
dure living death all winter, but re-
vive in the spring. then there is still
money in the merciless treatment Of the
brutes committed to his care.
Some day public opinion will brand this
great cruelty which makes the tragedy of
nearly all the plains of the West as a
national shame and force a change in the
system of our beef production. II the
book had no other purpose that just to
make widely known the horrors of the
Tragedy of the Range" it would have
been worth its writing.
Justin Wingate Is waif taken from
prairie wagon and nurtured for while
by a preacher who had been left strand
ed In the wreck Of what once had been
boom town. The preacher is q dreamer
and with pitiful faith looks forward to
the time when the unfruitful wilderness
OF the arid plains is to be made blossom
as the rose, even as the Scripture text
he quotes. Later the waif finds friend
in doctor. Curtis Clayton, who is one
of the chief characters Of the story.
Clayton is a scholar and he sees to 1t
that Justin Wingate gets good oduce-
ton, and so he grows up into a cowboy
with all the strength of the strenuous
outdoor life, but yet with the culture the
Eastern scholar gives him.
He develops into thoroughly fine char
acter and the tale shows his marhood
put to proof In many ways. His life is
so linked with both the cattlemen who
favor the open range and with the small
farmers whose interests antagonizA the
stockmen that he Is able to understand
the feelings of the contenders and to
sympathize with them all. However. he
takes most kindly to the welfare of the
oCt~c0SC
system of letting the stock suffer so ter
ribly in the winters cold has made a
strong impression on his young mind He
is in love with a fine girl and he becomes
ambitious to be something more than
cowboy His ambition is gratif1ed by his
election to the Legislature. and he goes
earnestly into politics to protect the
rights of his constituents. His love for
the daughter of one of the big cattlemen.
whose business interests are opposed to
those of the farmers, makes it difficult
for him to resolve how to act.
The story of the unhappy love AFFAIR
of the doctor, Curtis Clayton, who ed
ucated Justin, is of almost as much
interest as the hero's career. Clayton
gives the love of his whole life to a
beautiful woman who is false to him.
and at last he voluntarily goes to a
terrible death for her sake. After she
finds herself being neglected she wishes
to go back to Clayton, whose wife she
had once been, and while he is strug-
Cling with the problem whether to
trust her again there comes upon the
pair the exciting danger of a stampede
of cattle, and Clayton's answer to her
wish to return to him is that he dies
to save her. The chapter describing 1t