The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1912-08-23
HIRED MAN
HAS SOME CRITICISMS

| AiNN Ahdii Welt THIS week to
Owyhee county and visited the place
on the Idaho Northern railroad where
fourteen cars of sheep, together with
the engine, two box cars, and all went
into the ditch. l found some of the
ranchers still upon their ears about
that system of investigation that de-
manded OF thousand wounded sheep
that they. allowed to remain cooped
up and wedged in and smashed down
and lacerated and starving and thirst
| ing to death for period of six DAYS,
Just IN order that some body could de-
termine the financial obligation in the
matter of the wreck The poor ami
mails, all crushed and smothering
with the weight of others and parts
OF cars, swelling from their injuries,
struggling with each failing hour of
approaching death, calling piteously
| tor their surrounding enemies to
iiberate them from their prison of
| hell or else cut their Threats and turn
them out of their bleatless silence to
rot IN the broiling sun, wept for days
the real tears of their conscious
| gloom. 1t may be all right from
financial standpoint to allow all that
animal grief just in order that some
body should get out of paying the loss,
| or that somebody else might get out
of the responsibility of the wreck. but
your Hired Man can't see it in that
way. If that is the law and animals
imprisoned in this fashion and dying
the death of swollen tongues and
weeping the tears of anguish and cal
ling the supplications of doomed souls
must be compelled to die for five or
SIX days and nights, then somebody
ought to change the law. If we are
going to send the dumb animals to
the butchers block and if we are
going to sit idly by and see train loads
OF these helpless and harmless Great
ures travel along our railroads and
know they are ever in danger of wreck
disasters with all that means in cases
like this Owyhee county wreck, then
it is time for us to get off the perch
in regard to our boosted civilization
and Christianity. ."
Your Hired Man found genuine
intelligent woman, the wife of near
by rancher, who swears she went over
that curve few days before the awful
wreck and that it was in poor shape.
She stated to me that the curve was
not up" at all, but that the outside
rail was not up to the level of the in
side rail. The inside rail was the
highest. 1t was very hot afternoon.
The. engine drawing the train was
much heavier than those in ordinary
use. The expansion in the rails was
very great. The crowding along of
this tight expansion by the enormous
engine was constantly increasing the
pressure from that direction. When
the curve with the outside rail the
lowest was hit, there remained but
one thing to be looked for and that
took place. Then another resident
told me that some of the stuff sold in
certain licensed business house in
Murphy was the cause of the wreck
In fact it is claimed by some that an
investigation will show where some
of those at fault spent part of their
time during the day while the train
was being loaded So strong is this
thought taking possession of minds
of some of the Owyhee people that
move is to be made right after the
general election to vote the saloons
out of the county.
Your Hired Man does not write
from heart caring straw who is at
fault, or why, or how, but he writes
this, that some reader will send it to
the Humane Society in Boise, and see
if it has any metal in it. "A
Personally I believe a Spaniard did
the wrecking of the train. Eighteen
days before couple of Spaniards with
a sack of saltpeter travelled along a
ditch in which there was little water,
and along which they supposed GER
tain mans sheep would be traield in
a day or two, and there they scattered
this deadly sheep poison. Another
victim paid the debt however, for the
man for which the trap was set, went
half mile to one side, while the herd
that passed that way left 176 sheep
on the ditch bank dead, while nearly
another hundred died in Sc hours.
These same murderous Spaniards no
doubt had it in for the man who was
loading this sheep train, and perhaps
undermined the fiji at that fatal place.
Let the cause be as it may, there ought
not to have been an excuse for hold
ing a thousand dying sheep in the jaws
OF their doom for days and days