The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1922-11-30

shot down. Not infrequently on'
or more of the vigilantes pitched
from his horse with a bulle
through him.
A rustler was seldom accused Of
putting up a "slow fight" or no
dying game. When he came te
town he often wore two guns and
"wore 'em low" as the saying went
That is to say, he carried two pis-
tolls, each swinging forward and
well down SO that a quick draw was
facilitated. Sometimes the scab-
bards were tied down with buck
skin thongs to his boot tops, SO that
when a sudden jerk was made for
the gun it came out smoothly and
did not pull the scabbard up.
Other simply fastened their scab-
bards to their trousers. If a rust
Ter was recognized by a member
of the vigilantes in town there was
often a gunfight. Usually the
rustler was killed, for the vigilantes
did not believe in taking unneces-
sary chances and nearly always
outnumbered their quarry.
Some Buried Secrets
1t is very seldom that a man who
has taken part in a lynching will
speak of it to anyone, even years
afterward or to a man who has
been in the same party with him.
The policy always followed was to
bury the act with its victim. Thus
much of the history Of the range
wars has never been written and
never will be.
In his trade the rust1er had to be
the most expert sort of a COW hand
Ter, for he had to outwit, outride
and outbrand, not to say outshoot,
the cowman with whom he was at
war if he expected to survive in his
calling. In his branding operations
the rustler was quite likely to carry
with him a piece of wire, which
could be carried easily in his pocket
and which could be twisted into al
most any design needed to alter a
brand. Another way of easing
down a brand was by means of
branding through a wet blanket.
Other ways were also in use.
The last famous rustler wal on
the range was that carried on for
a few weeks in 1892 by cattle men
of Wyoming against the Johnson
county rustlers, which was report
ed daily by the press of the world
and given an amazing amount of
notoriety, although only two men
were killed in it. The headquar-
tiers of the rustlers were at Buffalo,
Wyoming, while the seat of the
cowmen was at Cheyenne,
Emerson Hough, in his Story of
the Cowboy, says that before this
"war" practically the whole coun-
try was living on stolen beef, and
not content with this and with serv-
ing notice on the cattle companies
that they would not be allowed to
hold their roundups, the ru%stlers
to ship beef by carload lots
to the markets of the east. As
there were no brand inspectors
there to detect the fraudulent ma
ture of such shipments, there was
danger that the rustlers would en-
tirely ruin the legal cattle growers.
The extent of the losses suffered
by the cowmen may be inferred
the fact that within the first
year after the appointment of
brand inspectors at the markets,
hey sent back to the commission
RS of the state $4,000 of estray
money for cattle passing to market
rom Wyoming which had not been
shipped by the owners. The COM
n~issioners returned of this all but :,
$4,000 to the proper owners. /,
The Johnson County War !.
The new cattle laws put in eff ]
ect greatly offended the rustlers,
Who began to solidify their fac
ions and made of Johnson county !
rustler settlement, where the cat I I
lie men had no voice. In four years {
owmen brought 100 suits againstI t