Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1911-08-04

of five, all working together, attended
to every want of the 200 cattle. The
first job was to water the stock. The
story about making a horse drink was
invented by a man who never tried to
water a wild steer from a bucket, for
certainly by substituting the latter for
the former the point would have been
more forcible- We Used ten wooden
buckets, dipping the water from large
tanks that we filled from overhead
pipes. There were two main alley
ways along each side of the cattle
deck and they, dear things, lined each
side of the alleys with their horns
sticking half way across. They had
been tied to the head board by the
'longshOremen; we had nothing to do
with the loading. We put the buckets
in the corn trough along in front OF
them, then poured water in the buck
cts as they were emptied.
1t all sounds very we'll but each
steer wanted to drink from a bucket
of his neighbor. They fought and
jerked and pulled and upset the buck
cts. but we must make them drink or
they would die. So, with water splash
ing on us and running Town our shoe
tops, we would pat them kindly on
the nose and say nice words. Three
steers often would not drink when
offered three buckets, but if two
buckets were taken away all three
would fight to drink from the same
! one.
Feeding the Brutes.
The neXt curse was hay. 1t was
stored near the first hatch in large
bales, averaging about 200 pounds
apiece. Some one forgot to put a hay
hook on the boat, so we had to FOIL
the bales with out finger nails. 1t
was the early morning duty of each
man to roll a certain number down the
alley, and that was fine exercise be-
fore breakfast. Then we cut the
wires. shook the hay with care, remov-
ing all Jumps, and fed it to the brutes.
Our morning work generally was
finished at II o'clock n the work in
the afternoon lasted from 2 to about
$50. The afternoon menu was an
other round of more buckets n more
hay. We swept alleys again in the
afternoon. Dur brOoms were very
artistic, being a bundle of twigs tied
together and a stick damned into one
end of the bundle. l don't know how
rich the inventor has become who
first thought of that method of water
ing cattle and sweeping alleys.
The first sight of the lights off the
Irish coast looked pretty good to us.
All that day we could see either Ire
land or England. In the afternoon
the ship kept pretty close to the
XKvoIeh choro The 0nocf &c h{rh orl
rocky and in the sunset it was a
beautiful dull reddish color. The hills
beyond were green and divided by the
old stone fences into small irregular
farms. The stone houses, most Of
them white, were scattered here and
there along the fertile valleys. Our
pilot came on at Lynas Point at $50
in the evening and had full charge of
things till he reached Liverpool. The
cattle could smell land, so the seamen
said, and were restless the last night
and we slept but little. We turned
down the broad Mersey shortly after
midnight. That was Saturday morn
ing and we reached B~irkenhead, on
the west bank, in a short time. Here
we landed our 400 cattle, all in ex-
aellent health and we shed no tears
at seeing them depart. Each of US
carried some cargo down the gang
plank and set foot for the first time
on English soil.
We bought English bicycles and
spent two months on the perfect roads
of England and the continent.
The cattleman has his joys and sor-
rows but the latter are very Dol for
gotten and one finds himself planning
tn go again-even Is a cattler