The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1906-01-31


The outfit ate its SOW belly" soda
biscuit and coffee three times day
and smoked Its pipes. but was little
shy on yarns round the campfire.
This yere outfit don't lather none"
commented the cook to the horse wrnn-
gler over the smoke OF an early morn
ing fire.
Don't lather no more than chunk
of wood" agreed the horse wran sier
That's the trouble with picked up
outfit like this. Catch w-square men
kotowlDg to n xxx bvss, even IL he
Is only acting foreman"
Simpson. the origin OF whose connec-
ton with the xxx was rather sensl-
tive subject with that outfit, had begun
to take his duties as cattleman with
grim seriousness. He was untirlng In
his labors. he spent long hours IN the
saddle. he tool; his turn ut night herd
ing. though he was old for this kind
Of work. lie condemned the sheepinen
Will foul moutllcd denunciatlons, scofl-
cd nj their range rights. said the sheep
| qrcstion SHOULD be dealt with in INC
b:s!ncsl!sc manner in which the In
dian question lad been settled.
lie was an advocate Of violencc-,n
short. II swaggcring. bombastlc wind
bag. He talked much OF Ibis ouf>,t"
and his men" what was good
enough for them was good enough for
him. he would announce Mt meal
time, in n snlyclng tone, when the
food happened to be particularly bad
He split the temporary outfit, brought
together for the purpose of handling
the beef herd. into factions. He put
the xxx in worse repute than 1t al
ready enjoyed-he was, In fact. the
discordant spirit of the expedition. The
men attended to their work sullenly
DlscOr,l was rife. The one thought
they shared in common was that of the
wages that would come TO them at the
end of the drive; of the feverish Joy of
blowing in" in n single night per-
chance of forgetting in one long riotous
evening the monotony, the hardship,
the lack of comradery that made this
particular drive one long to he remem-
bcred In the mind OF every man who
had taken part In it,
I Meanwhile the herd trailed It's half
mile length TO the Strengthening pens
day after day, all unconscious of its
power. When the steers had tralled
for about fortnight the question of
finding sufficient water for them be-
gan to be q serious one. The preceding
winter had been unusually mild, the
snowfall on the mountains averaging
less than In the recollection of the old
est plalnsman. Summer had begun
early and waxed hot and dry The
earth began to wrinkle and cracked
into trenches, like gaping mouths
thirsty for the water that came not
Such streams as had not dried shrank
and crawled among the willows like
Shiny things, that the herd, thirsty
though 1t was from the long drives.
had to be coayed to drink from
Discomfort grew. The acting fore
man, WHO was n XNX man and n
comparative stranger to that part Of
the country. refused to consult with
the Wsquare men in the outfit. who
knew every inch Of the ground. Tie
acting foreman thought the Wctmorc
men looked down on him. put on dog"
and, to flaunt his authority, ne ordered
~ herd driven due west instead Of
,,;ht,ng u The north by the longer
route, where they would have had the
advantage of drinking NJ several creeks
before crossing Green river. More
over, the acting foreman was drinking
hard ana he insisted upon his order in
| ~
lions.
The character of the country began
10 change; the soil took on the color OF
blood; even the Omnlpresent sagebrusl
began to fail the landscapes; sun bleach
ed bones glistened ON the red soil
white as ulcers: all the animal trails
ed back from the country into which
hey We're proceeding; the sky, vivid
cloudless blue, paled as II dipped earth
ward; there was no sign of life In all
the land; even the grasshoppers had
left II to the sun, the silence and the
desolation. Above the angry below OF
the thirsty herd the men strained their
ears again and again for this familiar
sound of life, but there was nothing
trampling of their hoofs and sometimes
the long, squealing whlnny of a horse
as he threw back his head in seeming
demand TO know the justice of this
thing.
Across theSred plain snalled the herd
like n many jointed, prehistoric rep
tile wandering over the limitless spaces
of some primeval world. A cloud of
red dust hung over them in a dense
haze, trailed after them a weary length
then all was featureless monotony
What We're a thousand steers, hand
full of men and horses, in the land OF
the red silence? 1t had seen the com
ings and goings of many peoples, and
once 1t had flowed with streams, but
that was before the curse of God came
upon 1t, and in its harsh, dry barren,
ness il grew to be a menace to living
things.
| tn hn continued