The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-02-23

providing excellent shelter and paatur-
age free from snow i'm winter made of
the land veritable ranchman's para
disa. The cattle were allowed to run
the range together, free as the wild
animals, were it not for the brand on
their sides which meant, however far
they grazed, that after two years had
passed, they would be among the
chosen victims at the annual round
UP.
In the big days the round up was a
matter of many weeks. Indeed for
eight months of the year, the cowboys
were never within hailing distance of
the ranch house. They knew no home
other than the camp wagons, their
blankets and tarpaulins, the sky and
the immense stretches of pairie alive
with cattle and horses.
Long Days For Cowboys.
For the first half of the time they
rode the range from the Yellowstone
to the Missouri, cutting out and brand
ing the calves. The second half they
made the big circle again to round up
the beef cattle for the fall shipment
With the wagons and twenty or thirty
men included in each outfit there rode
the representatives, the reps as they
were called, of all the other outfits. It
was their duty to take charge of all
the cattle rounded up bearing their
rancher's brand.
In the long northern summer days
the hands were up with the sun. at
8, taking orders from the wagon boss,
mounting theoir ponies and setting off
in a dozen different directions over
the range. They rode in pairs, each
covering a portion of the big circle
having the wagons for it's center.
TheiRstask was to select the cattle
ready for market, cut them out of the
herd with the rope if need be, and
after they had a bunch together drive
them back to camp and ado them
to the rest of the beef herd which had
already been taken UP and was being
trailed along with camp. While the
riders were gone the cook and the
night herder drove the, mess and bed
wagons across the circle and pitched
camp at new stand.
Tea Hours in the Saddle.
BY o'clock most of the boys had
made their drive and were back i'm
| camp asleep in the shade of the wag-
ons. At the cooks call to dinner they
were up again., dining off fresh beef,
biscuits, beans, stewed dried fruit
and coffee
Then came the saddling Of a fresh
horse and a repetition of the circling
of tine morning. while the wagons
moved on to another stand. Late in
the afternoon they drove in their sec
ond bunch. At twilight came the slow,
! quiet ride around the beef herd until
the wild creatures were Gained to lie
down and with that the days work
was complete. 1t had meant ten hours
in the saddle and ride of hundred
! miles
For the night the men took their
turn in shifts of two hours, standing
guard over the beef herd Should
storm come up, all hands were ordered
up and to mount to prevent a STAN
| pede.
At any moment through summer
and fall there was the possibility that
line of smoke should suddenly ap-
| pear and the alarm of prairie on fire"
be sounded. Every camp had its two
chain drags and a barrel Of water
ready to be loaded at moments no
tice and taken at gallop to the fire.
Every cowboy had his oil slicker con-
| stantly strapped to his saddle for use
in beating the flames and was under
imperative orders to drop everything
on the instant and race to the scene
| from whatever part of the prairie he
happened to be.
On the Trail to Market.
! At the end of the roundup in Sep
TENDER or october, the beef cattle were
trailed to the nearest shipping point
some hundred miles away. Should
| there be a railroad to cross on the
way, the cowboys only chance of get
| ting the cattle across lay in stamped
| ing them with wild yells and equally
wild antics, which the herd had learn
| ed to flee from in a panic. If the
stampede came off successfully, all
was well; If not, the creatures often
had to be roped one by one and drag
| ged bodily over the rails.
After the cattle had been turned
over to tile shippers the cowboys let
loose on the border towns and had
their kind of a roaring good time. AS
| the saying was-the first night they
| slept with their clothes under the pill
| low: the second night, they put them
on a chair; the third they tossed them
| into a corner. There was no longer
need to protect their pocketbooks for
/ the last cent of their summers wages
was gone.
In the winter months the cowboys
! "loafed" around the ranch house, their
only work consisting of breaking sad
die ponies.
Winters Heavy Toll.
The herds with the first snow sought
! the bad lands, or breaks" as the
rough country along the Missouri is
| called, to find shelter and remain I'M
til the spring called them back to the
open country again. Many never came
| out. They starved froze, met with ia
tai accidents in the storms, were torn
to pieces by ravenous wolves and coy
otes and fioundered helplessly to their
death in boys.
The ranchers figured that 20 per cent
| would not answer the call of the
| spring. In the winter of 1896 and 1897
and other extreme seasons. the breaks
became a veritable charnel house. But
| what mattered 1t, IL even half were
lost? There were countless numbers
left which, at practically no cost
would be sleek and fat by fall, ready
to bring a price as high and often
higher than the cornfed, sheltered cat
tie of the farms.
With the coming of the settler and
the passing of the long horn, with the
raising of 500 bushels of wheat on the
| twenty acres which were formerly