The Washington herald., 1911-04-02
COL Cody, Last of His Picturesque Type
of Frontiersman, Gives Interesting
Interview on Bygone Times.

mails, anything that stands in the path
of progress and civilization must go
down before it's march. However, I do
not think that the Indians are in need
OF any sympathy now. They have pros
pered exceedingly under the paternal
care of the government. The Indians
are to-day, per capita, the richest people
in the whole world. and If they are not
the happiest 1t looks as IL they soon will
be. Don't make any mistake about the
Indians They have been successfully
civilized.
TT is a fact, by thunder, that one chief
of the Sioux has two motor cars, and
Is thinking of ordering another. l never
saw so many automobiles in my life as
/ did at a Northern Nebraska county
fair last fall. / counted 4G."
What Is the matter with cattle rals-
ing, in view OF the price Of beef?'
Cattle Business Changed.
My boy, to raise cattle these days
you must be a farmer. The whole stu
alton is changed. There are no more big
ranges left where large herds of cattle
can be grazed, as they used to be in
the old days. and even ten years ago.
You cannot pasture your stock in the
South during the winter and drive them
North in the spring as formerly. The
whole country is taken up with small
ranches and farms which are under cul-
tivation. Every one of the big water
holes where the big herds of cattle were
driven in the Yellowstone the Missouri,
the Platte, and the Big Horn valleys, has
been filed on. There is no public range
left that will support herd of cattle.
The result of this settlement Of the
Western cattle country has made 1t
necessary for every rancher to raise
in tn during
the winter. 1t used to cost three to four
dollars to raise a steer for the market
Now II costs double that sum-"
And cattle seem to be getting as
scarce as the buffaloes."
Still Lots of Beef.
81 do not think there is any cause for
Worry about that There will always be
plenty Of beef for everybody when the
new conditions are understood and things
are adjusted to meet them. 1t is my ex
per:euce in life that everything happens
for the best.
Il remember as a little boy, seeing
Kit Carson and hearing him say. when
some one complained tina. all the game
mad been killed Oft east OF the Missouri
River, that for every wild animal killed
there was a chicken, a hog, and a COW
in some barnyard to make up for it, "
VINO was the greatest frontierSman
in American history. colonel?"
Il hat is hard to say, there were so
Iaany. We really do not know much
atoJt Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.
except what has been handed down by
tradition, by word of mouth. Kit Car
son was the greatest hunter, Indian
fighter. and guide in his day, and gener-
ally admitted To be. His achievements
were the favoritc stories at every camp
fire On the frontier
About Kit Carson.
The conditions under which Kit Car
son lived were favorable to the develop
ment OF such characters as his. and
there were hundreds of plainsmen who
have never been heard of who probably
could have done what he did, If given
the opportunity.
In my young days, everything west
of the Missouri was the Great American
Desert. We had few crude maps of
the country, but we never relied on them.
We carried a picture of the country in
our heads, for We had grown up there
and knew every bit OF it.
IF l had been taken by an airship
and set down in any spot in Kansas,
Nebraska, or South Dakota in those days.
during the night. when the sun rose
could tell exactly where / was and ex-
actly which way to travel to reach any
desired place. 1t was this knowledge of
the country that made scouts invaluable
in their work of fighting the Indians and
settling the West, and it is because no
one has chance to learn the country
as we did that the true scout has passed