Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1907-02-12
THE LAST OF
THE sHEfPMES

tho mountains we're hurting the
swift New Mexican twilight across
the plains He looked away 10 the
heights tinged With the colors ot
the dying sunset.
So the sheepman Is going. too,
The despised 'Sestor" Is driving him
toward the setting sun.
Up spoke Ike Gronsky. the oldest
sheepman and the last sheepman 10
this part OF the world: We're get.
ting G with the cowman at last.
Time was when our sheep could run
anywhere and everywhere. We had
all the country west Of Fort
Worth and as far south as the Rio
Grande and We used. occasionally. l.
take a chance and run a ways down
in Old Mexico. We let the cowmen
have Kansas and Nebraska and the
rest Of the country 10 the north be.
cause the sheep could not stand the
cold. Then the cowmen got run out
OF Nebraska and Kansas. had 70
leave Dodge City and Abilene. and
then they came down here and made
war on us, They forced M further
west and then still further west. And
now look yonder."
With that he pointed 10 the Great
Divide.
How are we going to get over
that" he asked plaintiveiy. I'VE
are up against 1t now. What are we
going to do? Already we have drift
ed 10 the limit Of the grazing couu
try and when you get to where q
sheep can't Craze. YOU know 4
prairie dog would starve to death
No more biz herds. No more Ions
drives. No more fortunes made In q
day and lost In a snowstorm tht
next week. And there you are. Now
just look ut the dead ones frozen t.
death in the last blizzard. Look a
those shivering Mexicans. Look Al
the shivering dogs. What are W.
going to do about it?"
For answer the wind swirled thu
snow In miniature w~hiriwinds her,
ana there. the Mexicans huddlet
around the fire.
The Oldest Sheepman tried il
again. Long years OF loneliness an
uncompanionabIe association hat
made him hard OF speech.
Now, the 'Nestor' raises all tn,
sheep. He goes to work and fence,
off a little old backyard of a thing
something with sixty or eighty acre
In It. and calls 1t a pasture. Thinl
Of that. Calls 1t a pasture. Why
the time was when my pasture rur
from Fort Worth to Pecos City. Will
never a wire fence between. All o.
It was mine. mine. The grass wal
put there for the sheep. Now al
that is left for the sheep Is a lot a
old desert, a lot of white sand am
sage brush. a country which Got
made just to join the Atlantic onto
the Pacific. What's the use of try
ing to buck a game like this? AIM
II a hell of a pass when you raise
sheep only to have them die on your
hands by the thousands every time
II freezes? Yet that's what hap
pens. Then you see the smoke O
the old 'Nestor' house over there
That sucker came from Nebrasks
for his health. Lunger. Bought
school land. Dollar and a quarter AZ
acre. Forty years to pay it in. Thei
he brought his folks, and his wife,
folks folks. and they brought theil
folks, until the whole damned coun
try Is overrun with them. They dit
a hole In the ground. ave up a littla
water, plant some kind of green slut
and think they are farming. Now
wouldn't that jar you? Wouldn't Y
rattle your stats? But it's he'll. OF
the sheep men. 1t spells Get busy
to us. Then the greezers pillow up tn,
ground. ruin the grass, fence OF 1
little old quarter section, put in 1
few old broken-down sheep in theil
back yard and call themselves 'shee'
men, All the time they keep u
moving west. The thing has come Il
pass that We cannot drive four miles
and a quarter without running int:
a wire fence"
Just then the inveterate foe OF the
sheepmen, the lone cowboy, driftet
through the haze, himself going to
ward the shadows. There was the
sweet interchange of Hatred, Just
la glance to show %implacable malice