The Holbrook news., 1911-09-15

] been tied to the head board by the 1ongshoremen; 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.
 It 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 down 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 course was hay. It was stored near the first hatch in large bales, averaging about 200 pounds apiece. Some one forgot to put hay hook on the boat, so we ha7 to roll the bales with out finger nails. It was the early morning duty of each man to roll 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 Il o'clock and the work in the afternoon lasted from to about 5:30 The afternoon menu was an- other round of more buckets and more hay. We swept alleys again in the afternoon Our brooms were very artistic, being a bundle of twigs tied together and stick jammed into one end of the bundle. I don't know how rich the inventor has become who first thought of that method of water ing cattle and sweeping alleys.
 The English seamen.
 We didn't understand the English seamen very well at first-their speech or manners. But when we be- came acquainted we liked some of them better and a few of them be- came good friends of the cattlemen. Most of them are down there working TUT anu 6O Po4N OA it goes for drink when they get back to Liverpool They are good conver- sationalists and we were surprised to find their vocabulary much more de- veloped than that of the average American laborer.
 The last three days of the trip most of the seamen had a paint bucket or can and was daubing everything in sight Brushes were few, but some used rags and others seemed to paint with their hands. We learned that the reason it was put on in such large quantities and so carelessly was that each ship had to use a certain amount of paint on each trip and show the empty buckets to prove that it had been used I believe that.
 The first sight of the lights of 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 Welsh shore The coast is high and rocky and in the sunset it was beautiful dull reddish color. The hills beyond were green and divided by the Ol0 stone ISuC0S l4lO 6lud1A AAlOSuAdI 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 5:S0 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 Birkenhead. on the west bank. in short time. Here we landed our 400 cattle. all in ex- cellent 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 soon for gotten and one finds himself planning to go again-even as cattleman.