Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1907-11-23
WITH THE HORSE HERD.


of horses to sell to the natives Of that I
country, if we could induce them to pun.
chase nice, gentle bronchoes, warranted |
not to exceed seven years in age, and !
gentle as pet lambs, if only they would |
take our words for it, 1t was nice |
bunch Of bronchs the culls from our
herds. The slump in the price of horses
had already begun, though it bad not !
yet reached the low water mark which |
it did later on, when you could not give |
q horse away with pound Of tea, and |
find taker; with us went the One Eyed |
Kid, and we were as nice bunch as the |
horses.
When he gets across the Missouri the |
guileess stockman has good many
things to learn concerning the WAYS of |
that country and the inhabitants there
Of, for the farmer over there differs I,
from the man who rides the range on
this side, and one Of the first things the
stockman learns is that he is in a hostile
country, and every mans hand is reach.
ing out to take him in, in some manner
or other.
Over there, all the land belongs to
some one, and if it does not, there is
some one on hand to claim it, and want
damages for letting the horses eat the
grass, and then the people do not fence
up their crops, they leave them without
any fences, and fellow driving bunch
of horses along the highway has sweet
time to keep them from eating the crops
that are inviting them on either side.
AT first the innocent western horse does
not know that corn is good eating, and
they will trot along peacefully
without paying any attention
to the grain, then some old saddle horse
that has made the trip before and seen
corn growing that way, whispers some
thing in his neghbors ear, and they
make grab for an ear of corn as they
90 along. The green bronch breaks off
stalk of corn, and as soon as he feels it
dangling against his legs he gets scared
and breaks into a run. He does not
know enough to let 60 of the thing that
is soaring him. but runs until at last the
stalk breaks, and then he gets over his
fright, but also he has got taste of the
corn and likes it, and the next time he
tries the trick he does not scare so much
and after few more times he does not
scare at all, but is watching for chance
to get into a corn field By the time the
whole bunch have learned the trick Of
eating corn, the riders have a job on
their hands to keep them from getting
into every field of corn that they came
to. The worst Of it is that the natives
get quite hostile over this little falling
of the innocent horses, and seem ncln-
ed to blame their drivers for it, and want
compensation for damages.
You have to be awful nice to those
people. 1t does not cost any more TO
talk nice, and it saves a whole lot of
trouble so when a farmer comes and
tells you that he has fine patch of hav,
about half mile over yonder, which he
tells you to be sure and not let the
horses get onto, il is much best to assure
him that you will carefully avoid going
within a quarter of mile Of that place,
and then, when it gets dark and you
think the farmer is safely in bed, that
patch will make good place to hold the
horses on for the night. 1t is always
well to get a good early start in the
morning, and not wait for daylight, for
1T Is surprising how early some of those
farmers over there get up in the morn
ing. But they do not have the advau-
tage in that respect over US, for we keep
a nigh. herier out all night. That is,
we are supposed to, but when the
bronchs have filed themselves up, and
have quietly bedded down for the night.
fellow would naturally suppose that he
could leave them half hour without
their getting themselves into mischief,
and us into trouble.
remember one night we were hold
ihS Vic ioioSo aoouJ tLiTee miles OUT OF
town. | was night herding and the
horses were all quiet and most of them
lying down when Candy rode out to me
and suggested that we shoIld go to town
| cannot remember now what the es.
pecial occasion was for going, prct ably
there was church festival or something
of that sort going on, rather think it
was something Of that kind, but anyway
| went, and it might have been that we
stayed later than was our intention, bat
as we were riding back to camp we met
our bunch of horses going towards the
town. OF course We knew right off that
there was something wrong, but al
though there was nothing unusual in
their taking notion to pull out, they
would not be going east as these horses
were, they would go west, unless some
one were driving them, for horses have
sense enough to want to get out of that
country, and get back to their range
across the river.
We quietly pulled to one side of the
road and let the horses 90 by, and then
dropped in behind them to investigate.
As We suspected, we found some of those
grangers were driving them into town.
Over there they have law OF some sort
that they can take up stray stock and
put them in the pound, and then you
find you have to pay dollar a head for
them before you can get them out, to
say nothing of the damages they can in
vent. that the horses are supposed to
have committed while loose. There
were about sixty head in the bunch, and
that meant sixty dollars for certain, and
as much more as they could get out of
us. But those horses were not yet in the