Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1912-02-02
Friday, February 2, 1912.
A STORY OF A STEER.

1t was not VlSlON, ditiaous" -
seemed as real, and in all probab-
;l;tv was nothing but a vivid dream.
that caused me to almost believe
the other morning, that during the
NIGHT I had listened to a fearful
story of a steer. The wind was
bowling out OF doors and the cold
was so intense that my house
cracked from time to time by the
heaying of the frost. AS it appear
ed to me was summoned to the
door by a cry for help. and when !
had turned the key and flung 1t OPP
en-. in struggled this monster OF
the prairies, together with cloud
of cold that Immediately rushed to
every corner Of my room and
chased out the marin air as If it
were an enemy to be killed.
But the steer. There he stood
with those great horns. large head
and big eyes, whose look, while
meek, seemed to accuse me OF
somehow being responsible for his
pitiable condition. He said: |
saw your glimmering stove and
struggled here for succor" then his
huge frame shook and in moving
front foot to keep from falling his
frozen hoof ratified on the floor and
made an unearthly, dismal sound.
Encouraged by the apparent at
tempt on his part to be friendly |
said: Il take it from your great
horns that you are from Texas.
Yes he replied, that distant
region is the land of my nativity.
Three years ago, when I was but a
yearling. with my mother. togeth-
er with many thousand others were
rounded together, and packed into
a great line of waiting cars and for
five days and nights were carried
northward and finally liberated up
on wide, expanding prairie.
whose vitalizing grass which ex-
tended everywhere, soon restored
US to health and happiness. In the
fall they again gathered up most
of the older ones. and as l under
stand, loaded them into cars and
carried them away to the slaughter.
l and my little brother of the sum-
mer were left. There were yet few
balmy days and we were fat and
strong. Then came cold and snow
and large company OF us retreated
to the breaks. The cold and snow
continued. We ate all the grass in
the breaks and when we at length
climbed the hills to go out upon
the prairie we found it covered
with deep layer of snow and COW
cred with a crust, which as we
broke through cut our legs, and the
piercing wind cut us like a knife.
A storm came up and l and my
little brother got separated from
the herd and drifted with the wind.
For fifteen days we wandered about
with never a thing to eat. The
next night we noticed several dark
objects lowering around us. At
length they made rush. l heard
my brother cry as he went down
and hurried on into ravine.
All that night I seemed to hear
those ravenous wolves gnawing at
his carcass. But" said he, Il tire
you with things personal. Let me
in conclusion say this, and you
can tell it to the race of men, that
we, whose end is but the shambles,
believe that the ingenuity and
supposed mercy of men, would
provide for us a little food and
thus lessen the terrors and suffer-
ing of these terrible winters"
OF course this conversation was
only imaginary but l suppose if
one of those weary animals wond-
ering about in the storm today
could speak to us, his appeal to
our humaneness woul be far more
eloquent than the above.
China is perplexed over what TO
do with the baby Emperor. Why
not elect him vice-OreS;dent