The Washington herald., 1910-05-15

woods. We had no amusement but gam
bling, but I was not given 10 that form
Of entertainment We were pretty good
people, first TO last. Nothing was ever
locked up. Men were careless with their
money, because there was plenty of IT,
Bill would say 10 jim: I want 10 send
500 home and have only $500 Lend me
the difference And Jim would say 10
Bill: Go to my tent and help your
self
BY and by our contracts were filed and
we shut down for the winter Drake,
chief engineer Of the railroad. asked me
TO clerk for him at Albuquerque for a
month or two as an accommodation.
Later. he wanted TO give me a station.
a railway man, I said 20 him. works
for other people. Any day his Job may
be missing. To me It seems a pretty I'M
certain proposition. I guess. obliged as
am TO you for your confidence. I shall
keep on going. Rallroading, as far as I
can judge. is no place for a poor man.
And Drake replied: Cameron. you have
sized up the situation
on for California,
While standing on the platform OF the
station for a train TO California, along
comes Ed Ayres. of Chicago, owner Of
the sawmill and a tie contractor known
all through the Western country He
said he thought / could wait until the mill
started. told him I wouldn't loaf and
take anybody's money. Tn off, I said,
70 California
90 Before you 60 he answered. show
me and-my friends the Grand Canyon
Of the Colorado And 1 promised. I had
been there once with the Indians and
cowboys. We got an outfit of pack ami
mails. tents and provisions. Right there
came a turn In my life but I didn't
realize it. The Grand Canyon. you see.
kind of worked its way into my imagi-
nation. When l got back. Kirkpatrick. a
merchant in Flagstaff. wanted 70 visit the
New Orleans exposition and asked me TO
run his business while he was away from
home My friend. 1 said, I appreciate
the compliment. but I am just starting
for the Pacific Ocean
Meets Sheep Owner.
We'll. ne coaxed and promised to stay
If he would hurry right back BY that
time 1 had Sl,4OO fitzpatrick was taken
with slow fever in New Orleans-blamed
slOw-and was gone four months. I got
acquainted with a man named Mcmillan.
an old bachelor who lived in FlaRstarr
and had 5000 sheep thirty miles away on
government pasturage. We talked back
and forth and as an outcome of our con-
ference he gave me his sheep on equal
shares. 1 was to get half the wool and
lambs and keep up the herds. In the sum-
mer took the sheep into the mountains
and in the winter I brought them back
to the valleys. they feeding all the while
on fat grasses. / made $4,000 I'm two
years, dividing the sheep into several
hocks. four or five miles apart. so that
the herders couldn't ger together and COS
sip among themselves to the neglect of
my business.
Still. money, as 1 saw II, was rather
slow in sheep on the ranges. My desire
was to get rich on a gallop, to hurry
along and overtake Jay Gould and Van
derbilt. Sheep are also monotonous when
one is with them day and night
bought out Fitzpatrick. As a merchant
was a booming financial success How.
ever. I took to shipping cattle on the
side, mostly to California. One day beer
on the hoof took a horrible slump r.
sold my store, paid my debts. and hired
out as a cattle buyer to firm in the
East got $500 steers and sent them
to Kansas to be fed for market. Under
the contract. my work was done. But a