The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-11-14
Glover Leaf JOllS0l'S
Grizzly.
By HERBERT COOLIDGE.

Tff1F7"fT7s
One of the minor cattle kings of
California bears the title of Glover
Leaf Johnson. The neat mark of his
brand, the conventionalized clover
leaf, is indelibly scared on the TANKS
OF two thousand cattle that range over
the mountains and deserts Of three
large counties.
1t is my good fortune to have met
Johnson and to have heard from him
the following story of the days when
the clover-leaf brand was young:
THE proudest hour Of my life was
when ] sat on a horseshoe key and
watched a blacksmith as, with deft
manipulation of fire and hammer and
anvil, he fashioned the original clover
leaf brand. / told the smith to spare
neither time nor expense in its MAX
ing, and the figure came out with thin,
even edges, and as true as a die in
outline Then, by indiscernible weld
Ing, it was made the end Of three
foot rod, the other extremity Of which
was bent to form a handhold The
finished product was suited for long,
hard service, and, what is also of i'm
portance, was one that would brand
cattle without mutilation and with a
minimum of burning.
'SThe next day / started for the high
mountains with five hundred cattle,
which was running on shares. Every
fourth calf was to be my own, and be-
fore the season was over a number of
the small fry were wearing the clover
leaf
Duplicating the graceful imprint of
my iron gave me such pleasurable
thrills that in the long waits between
calves, | sometimes fell to decorating
the lightning-scarred trees and fallen
logs about my camp.
THE other cow-men called my at
tention to this weakness by roughshod
and well-taken jests, and have ever
since called me Glover Leaf Johnson
AS this name was also given to dis
tinguish me from my nearest neigh
Dor, whom they called Cattle Thief
Johnson, l did not in the least object
to the title
Some Of my jocular friends de-
clared | put several brands on each
calf, although this I denied emphati-
cally. Before returning to the foot
hills that fall, however, / did go to
just such an extreme Of art for arts
sake under conditions that were
somewhat unusual.
'The cattle | was running were al
lowed to roam at will over the noun
'tains, and my principal business, after
getting them haunted was to keep
the salt-licks filled and to look out for
animals that were sick or crippled.
Late one evening found cow and
steer that seemed to have been torn
by some wild animal, and with the in
tention Of treating their wounds the
next day, ran them into corral
that had been built near the huge lone
oak under which I camped.
Before dawn the following morn
ing ! was busy cooking breakfast
when pitiful bawling arose from the
corral. Thinking that one of the cow
my branding-iron, which happened to
be the only weapon near at hand, and
rushed to the rescue.
Il could not see what was happen
ing inside the enclosure, as the stock
ade was of logs piled five feet high;
but without hesitation I vaulted, clear
ing the top log neatly-under the cir
cumstances far too neatly, for as my
legs swung downward / caught sight
of the unoffending steer covering in
the farther corner, and not fifteen feet
from the spot where / must alight the
cow lay PROSTATE and bleeding, with
a big grizzly walking round her.
Ordinarily am not a scatterwit,
but on this occasion certainly at
tempted a backward leap from foun-
dalton of light mountain air, and in
consequence, landed fat on my back,
with arms and legs sprawling.
My plight demanded action swift
and strong, for the moment | hit the
ground the grizzly made for me with
just such an up-and-over hop as a
spider executes when jumping a fly.
Just how evaded his charge I could
never say. know only that got out
Of the corral very quickly, and with
the bear close behind, raced for my
lone oak
The lower limbs OF this old giant
branched some five or six feet above
my head, and the great girth OF the
trunk offered little hope Of ascent by
the Shining process should GER
tainly have become meat for the grizz-
II had It not been for the branding
iron, which I had forgotten to drop,
and the thought that might hook the