Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1914-01-23

splendid youth, who smokes cigarettes while he
apes the manners and costume of his predeces-
sors, but who is often too idle to throw a rope. or
totally incapable Of riding a bad bukjumper or of
using effectively the revolver which he proudly
displays. In fact, if most of these modern cow
boys attempted to draw his gun at an old-fash-
toned saloon gathering in a "wide-open" town of
the west, before he could touch the trigger he
would have been as full of lead as a plum pud-
ding is full of raisins. For, alas! the glory and
glamour Of the wild west has departed forever.
First came the numbering OK wagons, with their
hardy owners, emigrants and hunters, a race Of
men, SCARED and weather-beaten fighting their
way grimly, inch by inch, to open the new Edo
RADIO. Foot by foot they drove the Indians and
game before them, and fC- years barely held their
own in these unknown lands. Then came that
mighty factor, steam, and the steel roads with
their high-powered locomotives, today conveying
the settlers or tourists in a few hours across those
once desolate prairies, to traverse which once took
the old pioneer as many weeks to accomplish.
In consequence, he who today sets out in quest
of sport through such a country as Wyoming
must be prepared for a series of rude shocks if he
hopes to find anything approaching the state of
affairs there about which he has read in the books
of his youth.
The splendid buffalo is extinct; but a few de-
cayed bones or relics of a skull, the last traces of
an animal which roamed in countless thousands
over the prairies, and were wantonly exterminated
partly by hunters for their hides, and partly by
settlers to make way for their cattle. The curious
prong-horn antelope also has almost been wiped
out in these district. But the saddest of all, per-
haps, is to see the present state to which the
finest deer on earth, the American wapiti, has
been reduced. This noble beast, which was for
merly a denizen of the open country, has been
driven to seek refuge in the deNsest forests. Here
it is hard indeed for any number of them to OBJ
tain sufficient food, and in consequence the type
and size of their antlers shows a marked depre-
citation in modern years. AS every one knows, a
harbor OF refuge mas been found for then, by the
TTrita Cfofnc O0yorp mont in tho VG1nuCfNnn
park, and here the tourist may see, face to face,
grazing in bands, the semi-tame remnants of the
once vast herds of wapii. Outside this sanctuary,
on every side, as soon as the season opens, each
valley or pass which leads from the Yellowstone
to the surrounding country is peopled with so
called sportmen. or meat-hunters. all camped and
waiting for those unwary animals which may roam
beyond the confines of their reservation.
In these outlying districts, where a few cum
ming bands Of wapiti still survive, they have en-
of the season. Formerly the herds would be
found grazing, or roaming through the low-lying,
open parks, while throughout the day and night
the forests would echo to that melodious whistling
call of the bulls. But today, if a hunter seeks the
so-called American elk" he must perforce look in
different places to those frequented by the old
time hunters. Far up, on the very edge or the
timber-line, feeding and climbing almost like a
mountain sheep among steep crags, and on the
verge of snow-line,. we now find the few survivors
of the splendid animals. And so terrified are they
by the constant presence OF their natural enemy
man, with his innumerable camp fires and at
tendant noises, that the bulls seldom dare give
utterance to their challenging calls. So true is
this that the writer after spending many weeks
during the past season in the wilds of Wyoming
only heard a wapiti whistling on two occasions,
and, moreover, throughout this period only saw
one head worth shooting at. says c. E. Radcliffe
in Country Life. 1t is true this was a noble head.
and one OF the finest brought out of that country
for some time past. but the capture of this head
entailed many weeks Of hard work. many scores
of miles travelling, and many thousands of feet
hard climbing, in a country which a few years ago
was teeming with good heads.
In the same way the bears and big-horn sheep
of the Rocky mountains have almost become a
thing of the past. Even the very numerous mule