Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-04-06
STEER ROpfNG in AUTO
Record Feat Accomplished In
Thirty-one Seconds.
BEAST THROWN AND TIED AS WELL
Unique Performance at a Convention
of CattIemen Was the Outcome of a
Bet-AutomobiIe Enthusiast Proved
Horseless Machine Can He Useful
on a Ranch.


Pursuing n steer from standing
| start across 4 large arena roping,
throwing and tying it all in the re-
markable short time of thirty-One sec
Onds. Is a record that stands alone in
the history of the motor car, says the
Motor World.
This was accomplished in the full
view of thousands of spectators at the
last convention of the National Asso-
citation of Cattlemen, recently held In
was the outcome of bet of $500 be-
tween two wealthy cattlemen of the
! state one of whom was an automo-
! bile enthusiast having unbounded con-
fidence in the ability of the motor car.
| C. j. CorkhiIl, who was attending
/ the convention In the interest of an
! automobile company. was induced by
| the cattlemen to make the attempt and
| tells of its accomplishment as follows:
THE first that l knew of the idea"
said Mr.. Corkhill, was when E. b.
| Walters and A. II. Wharton talked
mobile and the pony. Walters was
saying that the machine could not be
used on the ranch and consequently
it was of no use to him. Wharton, who
has owned an automobile for several
years, replied: Now, l know better
than that. You can catch and rope a
steer just as well with a bubble as
wifi nm will 10 hot
money on it,
LII just take you on that. You
cannot catch steer in an automobile
, TO save your life,' was Walters an
swer The conversation went on in
this wise for half an hour or more, and
sums ranging from $40 to $1,000 were
mentioned. Finally, however, $500 was
agreed upon as a bet. The next thing
was to pull the affair off as soon as
possible, and 1t was decided that the
feat should be tried the next day,
some time during the roping contest. i
knew both of them we'll, but of course
Il was up to Wharton to make the ar
rangements, as he was the one who
had to prove that it could be done.
Il was standing near, so he turned to
IL,
Corkhill. guess it's up TO you to help
me put this through. Will you take
your runabout into the ring tomorrow
and make try at a steer? Don't he
afraid OF the machine. Smash 1t to
smithers if you have to-
"First'of all l looked up Bill Dilling-
ham, one of the best ropers on the
ranges. explained what 1 wanted,
and he readily agreed to do anything
he could. Wishing to mak0sure of it,
the next morning we took a car, which
was an ordinary seven horsepower run |
about, and went out to experiment a
little. We cut Il steer out OF a bunch |
after a little maneuvering and sue |
ceeded in roping him. Thus encour- |
aged, we waited confidently for the |
afternoon to come around. The steers |
were penned In a corral at one side of |
the grounds and let out one at time |
by means of a narrow chute When |
about ten or dozen had been roped
in the usual way by the cowboys one
of the judges strobe over to us and
said. with broad grin. We'll, get your
cow pony out, and let us see what you
can do
Without further ado we drove over
to a position alongside the chute, and
a steer was Let out. We took up the
chase Immediately, but were handi-
capped more than would be pony,
for he can attain full speed In q couple
of jumps, while we had to warm up
more gradually. So he had a pretty
good lead when we hit our gait. 1t did
not take US very long, however, to
close up once we were started. We
the steer across the enclosure,
but had to come quite close, for Dill
lingham always works with twenty
eight foot rope.
Just as the steer commenced to
turn Bill gave the lariat a swift fling.
landing the moose squarely over the
horns. AS 1t settled along his flank l
turned the machine sharply at right an
giles with the course, gave the rope a
twist around the steering post. and
then, sudden as streak of lightning,
you might say, came the strain. The
machine spun half way around, some
hing snapped, and the frame quivered
md shook, but the steer was thrown
hard and fiat on the ground / can
still hear the thud as 1t struck.
The crowd set up cheer that !
nave never heard equaled. They stood
IN top of the chairs, waved their hats
and yelled as il mad. Without waiting
o look around Bill jumped out Of the
EAR, ran over to the steer, hog tied 1t
Ind held up his hands for time. From
he instant that the steer had been let
Dose until he was thrown and tied the
stop watches had been held on us, and
he whole operation had consumed but
hirty-one seconds, while the best time
made with a pony was one minute and
eleven seconds. A just comparison Of
he two cannot be made. though. for
MY one can work with pony, while
n the car there were two of US, one
o run 1t and the other to do the rop-
ng.
"On carefully examining the car
hnf or,a of <1,,l In ko