The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-03-07
THE MYSTERIOUS MALADY
OE Eng nMfNH eAE

Or WlN6 SHGETs
Now, what gifts me and allus mas
got me- said Bill as he sp-read-eagled
his legs under the table al the. Holy.
Cross, 'is why a man allus goes crazy
after he follows sheep for a while. 1t
looks like he Just nacherly can't make
his getaway, no matter how he fights
the loco"
Collingwood, the Englishma1 two
years in the COW country and there
fore wise in his day and generation,
says, a writer in the Kansas City
Star, made reply:
Maybe it's because none of the
sheep herders have any too much
sense to start with, therefore they do
not have to go very far to the loco
station"
Bill surveyed him with scorn. Now
whoever put that idea in your noggin
and where did you learn so much
about the business anyway? Must of
brought a little primer book along
with you from the old country and
studied some of nights"
After that Bill went it alone. They
all go daffy," he resumed, sooae or
later. Some gets daffier than others,
but they all wi0i up in the foolish
house or with a bullet hole in taeir
heads, according to the disposition of
the man. Now, you, Collingwood, l
know of a young Englishman like you
Fresh out of college. Thought it
bloody fine sport to follow a o. of
sheep. Said he used to make twenty
or thirty miles a day back in the old
country just to stretch his legs. One
of these cross-cou1try sports. you call
'em. Laughed when he heard the
sheep only made five or six miles.
Sort of morning p~ipe-opener for the
liI-Ac nf him IJn ctnFfn1 ont lilo a
gay boy with a dog and the sheep and
his fancy toys on. Used to see him
plugging along wnen we were working
the Lazy S. bunch over on the Pecos
He would wave his a ~ laugh
at us and we would holle- back. He
seemed to get peekier and peekier in
the face, but stuck to the job. Then
he got to coming to town and loading
up on aguardieate.
ForegtfuIness a Symptom. -.
That's when they get going. Then
az got to forgetting things. Just lit
tie things at first. See you in the
evening tell you he hadn't seen you
before for weeks. The aguardiente
demand was brisker and brisker. The
same old way. Then he got to mis-
counting the sheep. Forgot where he
was. Came to town and slept around
a bit. Seemed to get better. Went
back again. You know o it is with
you English with your hard heads.
One day we found him going around
and around and around. Drooling at
the mouth, talking to himself. think
ing he was back in the country. He
talked bou things none of us had
heard about and got nae as the devil
ecaus we could not see the faces
which were all round nim. And then
we found him one morning behind
a little clump of mesquite dead as a
door nail"
Colli1gwood threw his drink down
his tAroat and s~huddered. Poor old
chap" he murmured.
It's just that way with all of them
Billy went on, remorSely, whether
they are good men or a men, SUN
day School chaps or otherwise. Some
others say that it's the desert and the
sage bruSh, the eternal same old face
of the map. But what gets me is why
don't that loco feeling ever get mold
of a cowman? I've followed a herd
for week at a time without seeing
a face and nave see nothing but
cattle, cattle cattle and sand and sun
and sage. It's the same old map the
sheepman sees and yet | have never
beer caught out talking to people l
left back in Texas or wandered
around like a human pinwheel. No
body ever had TO lasso me to get me
back to camp or have any doctor man
thump my mead to see if the wheels
got tangled. But you take a
binary, -good-se1sed man-and put him
after a flock of sheep, and if the
sheep don't get him then I'm the big
gest liar ever
Mexicans Stand it Longer.
But the Mexicans stand it longer
the red eyed man chirped, TT don't
appear like it hurts them much"
1t does kinder seem to take long
er for the loco to work on a Mexican
tnal on a white man. resumed Billy
still it gifts the Mexicans, too. I've
hog-tied EN- and brought IN into
camp crazier than a bat. Hundreds