The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1917-09-14
REAL POETRY BY
OLD RANGE BOSS
HERDS GENTLY MUSE AS WE'LL
As WILD CATTLE ON WEST
ERN PLAINS.
Jack HEREFORD Chooses Land of liz
dians and Cowboys Rather Than
Classical Air Of Aesthetic Boston;
Brother and Sister Literary Cele-
britieS.

Jack" HEREFORD was known to
nearly every old time rancher of
western Montana as an authority on
livestock, broncho buster of ability
and a ranch foreman who feared no
body but his maker Possessed of
daredevil nature that craved excite
ment he builded reputation for dar-
ing in the early eighties while serving
as superintendent for the New York
Cattle Company which ranged it's
herds in the lower Musse1shell coun-
try. But if you spoke to them of
John B. HEREFORD, the poet, few in
deed of them would recognize in him
their old friend Jack"
Long ago he forsook the cattle
range for the more prosaic field af-
forded by the law and occasionly to
tackle the muse, giving utterance to
his creations largely through the
writings Of his noted brother Oliver
HEREFORD, who is now recognized as
one of Americas leading humorists
and poets. Those, who have had an
opportunity to read some of the Mon
tanan's writings, however, are prone
to the opinion that had he given his
llLCl dl ldlcHLo lull sway uC WOu1u
have made reputation equal to that
of his more famed brother or his sis
ter, Beatrice HEREFORD, the mono
logist and story writer.
Craved Western Excitement.
A craving for western excitement
and an opportunity to fight the In
dams called him from his home in
Boston, where his father was a min
lister at Harvard, to the great west IN
1876. After riding the range with
the cowboys of New Mexico, Colorado,
| Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming and the
Dakotas he landed in the Musselshell
| country in 1888, tackling the tough
job of running great cattle holding
corporation in a land that was being
infested by rustlers and bad men.
1t was probably the inspiration
from the stirring scenes of those days
that called him to form a posse to
pursue the slayer of Sheriff Jim
Webb of Yellowstone county, who
was killed by sheepherder whom he
had arrested near Lavina just ten
years ago. After a two days search
it was the posse of which HEREFORD was
a member that came upon the body of
head. "Suicide' was the convenient
explanation of his death. Then Mr..
HEREFORD was appointed sheriff to sue
coed the dead official.
Author "a Souvenir Spoon"
Soon thereafter he resumed the
practice of law, which he had COM
1nenced at Billings in 1891. In his
idle moments he finds time to write
verse, which excels for perfect con-
structon and holds interest through
the dry humor that runs through
much of it, One of his little skits
written a few years ago is entitled
"A Souvenir Spoon" and it is here
with reproduced:
IT remember the day when the world
Seemed a world just built for us two
And twas heaven for me when you
curled
Your arms round my neck, dear-do
you?
Then again in my arms let me take
you,
Again press your soft lips to mine,
And think of the days when you loved
And your kisses to me were as wine.
Let's forget for moment we're
older,
That love has long passed it's noon,
Forget that our blood has grown
colder,
And have just one Souvenir Spoon"