The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-22
STEER ROPING WITHAN AUTO.

Pursuing a steer from a standing start across large arena, roping, and tying it in the remarkably short time of thirty-one seconds, 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 Cattleman held in Fort Worth, Tex, not long ago. The per ] formance was the outcome of a bet of $500 between two wealthy cattlemen 1 of the State, one of whom was an outo- mobile enthusiast having unbounded confidence in the ability of the motor l car.
 | c. J. Corkill was attending the con- vention in the interest of the Olds- mobile Company, was induced by the cattleman to make the attempt, and tells of its accomplishment as follows: | The first that I knew of the idea," said MT. Corkhill, was when E. B. Walters and A. H. Wharton talked about the relative merits of the auto 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 f orseveral years, replied: Now I know better than that. You can catch and rope | steer just as well with bubble as with a pony, and I'm willing to bet money on 1 it.
 '"I'l just take you on that. You cannot catch a steer in an automobile to save you life,' was Walters answer.
 The conversation went on in this wise for half an hour or more, and sums ranging from $1O to $1,OOo were mentioned, Finally, however $500 was agreed upon as bet.
 The next thing was to pull the af. fair off as soon as possible, and it was decided that the feat should be tried the next day, some time during the rop- ing contest knew both of them well, but, of course, it was up to Wharton to make the arrangements, as he was the one who had to prove that it could be done
 T was standing near, so he turned to me at once with the remark: Well, Corkhil, I 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 steer? don't be afraid of the machine; smash it to smithers if you have to-.
 First of all I looked up Bill Dilling- ham inc of the best ropers on the ranges. I explained what wanted, and he readily agreed to do anything he could. Wishing to make sure of it, the next morning we took the car, which was an ordinary horsepower runabout, and went out to experi- ment little. We cut steer out of bunch after little manoeuvring, and succeeded in roping him.
 Thus encouraged, we waited con- fidently for the afternoon to come around, The steers were peened in a correl at one side of the grounds and let out one at time by means of narrow chute. The grand stands and the bleachers were packed by thou sands of people from all the surround ing territory. The bet had circulated throughout the whole town, for it was different from anything that they had ever heard of and naturally they fav- ored the broncos, having always been accustomed to place their faith in them.
 When about ten or dozen had been roped in the usual way by the cow boys one of the judges strode over to us and said, with a broad grin: Well get your COW pony out, and let us see what you can do."
 Without further ado We drove over to position alongside the crute, and steer was let out. We took up the chase immediately, but were handicap ped more than one on pony, for he can attan full speed in a couple of jumps, while we had to warm up more gradually. So he had pretty good ] letad when we hit our gait. 1t did not take us very long, however, to close up once wee were started. We followed him across the enclosure, but had to come quite close for Dilling- ham always works with twenty-eight foot rope,
 Just as the steer commenced to turn Bill gave the lariat a swift fling, landing the moose squarey over the horns. As it settled along his flank turned the machine sharply at right angles with the course, gave the rope twist around the steering post, and then, sudden as a streak of tightening, you might say, came the strain The machine spun half way around, some thing snapped and the frame quivered and shook; but the steer was thrown hard and flat on the ground. l can still hear the thud as it struck, I "The crowd set up a cheer that have never heard equaled. They stood on top of the chairs, waved their hats and yelled as if mad. Without wait ing to look around Bill jumped out of the car, run over to the steer hog tied ] it and held up his hands for time. From the instant that the steer had been let loose until he was thrown and tied the stop watches had been held on us, and the whole operation had con- sumed but thirty, one seconds, while the best time made with pony was i; ii. A comparison of the two cannot be made, though, for only one can work with a pony, while in the car there were two of us, one to run it and the other to do the roping.
 "On carefully examining the car | found that one of the lamps had been broken off, but no further damage was |