The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1907-11-01
FARMS PRESSING ON WEST
CATTLE RANGE HAS SHORT TIME
YET TO LIVE.
WILL BE EXTINCT IN FIVE YEARS

Big Rangemen on South Dakota Plains
Say That Their Reign over Limit
less Prairie Domain viii Soon be
Thing of the Past.
Five short years more and that pic
turesque figure of the western from
tier, the "big" ranchman of the bound.
less range, will have made his exit for
ever from the stage of real life.
Ever since the white man learned
that America was a continent extend
ing a little way west of New England,
this quaint character has been with
us. He has all this time been king Of
the frontier borderland, monarch Of
the all beyond, a pioneer in its most
literal sense, pluckily and fearlessly
pushing on and on westward beyond
the limits of civilization He has lived
a reckless perilous, big-gauged life.
He has ventured into the midst of the
redmen when they had their old time
strength and war paint, and he has
stood his ground with a nerve of steel
a skilled aim and a reliable weapon
against the cunning and cruel design
ing of that red race. He has been a
free lance, and his world of thought
and action, shut off completely from
the world of normal men, has ranged
from Canada to Mexico and from civil
l2ation's western boundary to the blue
waters of the Pacific. He has been a
rugged, alert type of man-this from
tier rangeman. He has fought the cat
tlethieves and the horsethieves and
has hanged them without ceremony.
At times he has fallen in love and
when he has, it has been a love Of
depth and permanence. Off on the
limitless rolling plains, tucked away
in a little ranch house just under the
protecting wall of a little hill, he has
forgotten when it was Monday and
when it was Friday; almost has for
gotten when 1t was July and when
September. His pleasure has been
the joy that comes to a man from
drinking in the fresh, crisp ozone of
the open prairies; from gazing long
and intently at the blazing stars in
heavens dome in the night time; from
the excitement of the calf roundup"
in the springtime and the "beef round.
up" in the fall; and from such diver
sions as shooting craps" or game Of
draw poker at a penny corner, after
the days work were done, In the little
lonely ranch house away off couple
of hundred miles from anywhere He
has learned to love nature and he has
studied natures creatures; he knows
the steer and the wild horse as To-
connective engineer knows his engine;
he knows the tricks and poison Of the
rattlesnake, for he has killed and kept
the rattles Of eighty or a hundred
every summer, just for pastime; and
he knows, If anyone knows, the means
of trapping the mammoth grey wolves,
big as some horses, which will eat up
two or three calves in night.
Drama About to End.
But this life drama is about to end.
The western rangeman sees his finish.
He sets the end of this type of life at
five years hence.
There is a sort of tragedy in this
final scene of the rangeman's life, just
before the curtain shall fall. Made Of
wire and knowing no such thing as
fear, this sturdy fellow has pierced
into the unknown and has resisted the
combined attacks of red devils, rust
lers and human foes; but, courageous
and powerful though he be, he is to
be swept off his feet and out Of his old
stamping ground by the irresistible
wave of civilization. Before civiliza-
tons onslaught he has retreated back
and back and back, and at length,
pocketed in a narrow field, he must
fall for good and all.
The rangeman knows that his time
has come. Even now he is mentally
preparing himself for the end of his
regime. He knows that the pillow and
harrow will shortly be upon his now
unbroken realm and he accepts the sit
uation calmly. For the cowman is
withal philosopher and he is in no
wise disposed to quarrel with the in
evitable.
Five years more will wipe us off
the map" said Jack Whipple, owner
of the big S. o. S. ranch away out in
northwestern Meyer county on the
Rosebud Indian reservation. This
ranch today lies 100 miles west from
Dallas and Dallas, the end of the
Northwestern railroad, is just a halt
mile from the reservation lands which
have not yet been thrown open to
settlement, but which will be allotted
out to 5000 new settlers next summer
give years more, and the farmer
will be here" Whipple remarked, And