Canyon City news. (Canyon City, Tex.) 1903-1908, 1907-07-26
CATTLEMAN AND NESTER.

eighties" almost all of Texas
laying west of line drawn north
and south through Fort Worth
and Temple was in the hands of
the st0ckmen. They owned very
little of tit was free range.
Upon it rOamed at will and free
of charge thousands upon thous-
ands of horses and cattle. Nat
urally enough this condition was
very acceptable to those in pos
session it suited them to a Tvs
and they were very willing to let
it remain so. Such being the
case the homeSeeker, then called
the "nester," was not at all wei
come and numerous and various
were the ways adopted by the
stockmen to give him a set
back" Some of these ways, of
interest perhaps to News read
erS out of the State, are cited by
Cliff Robertson, an old timer, in
the Texas StOckman-J Journal of
last week. He says:
| have lived here - years, and
have been, to use slang express
sion, on the inside-part of the
time, at least.
| know there have been fort
unes amassed here in the COW
business off of small investments
and careful management.
l know the big COW man, as he
is commonly called, has used all
kinds Of strategy and deception
that his ingenious brain was ca
pable of producing, to keep the
small ranchman and farmer
commonly called "woolly nester,"
"hayseed" and other unique non
de plumeS too numerous to men
tion-out of this country.
These are few of the methods
they used: Telling the home
seeker that such and such sec
tions were Watered sections and
that they owned them (and in
most cases they did own the sec
tions they dug wells on), and that
it was impossible to get water
anywhere else, that there had
been several wells started and
abandoned, and it was useless to
try any further; that it was use
less to build a tank, for it never
did rain out here to put water in
a tank.
Another method was this: If
any prospector, or bunch of
prOSpectorS, came along, the
cowmen would talk to each other
in the presence of the prospec-
tor in this fashion (they wouldn't
address the proSpector direct
they were too smooth for that: |
Say, Bill, how is your calf crop
this summer" The said Bill
would assume a very diSconSo-
late air, and in a sepulchral tone
reply: "Oh, no good. The grass
was so short last year and my
cattle came so near starving to
death that the calf crop is very
light" Then some other very
solemn and unconcerned individ- |
ual would casually remark that
it looked like things were going
to be worse this year than last,
and then they would all join in
and discuss their prospects for
the future. Don't know what
we are to do down in my part; |
thinking about moving to Indian
Territory; but the cattle are so
poor they can't stand the trip"
Others were going to Montana;
wished they had shipped two
years ago, when cattle were in a
little better condition. Some |
were anticipating going out of
the business, by shipping to the |
market and selling to Gamers,
and going back to the east and !
buying little farm, or renting
one, and living like a king the /.
rest of their natural life.
If the prospector was pretty
nervy, he would venture the
question: Why don't you COW
men raise feed to tide You over
these dry times?" And that was
just the opportunity these COW
men were looking for. The look |
of scorn and contempt the whole
bunch would bestow upon this
aforesaid "wOolly" would be
enough to wither a marble stat
ne or a brass monkey, much less
one lonely prospector on his first
trip to foreign country. This
would generally Oc-