The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-14

| man IN front OIL me With both leg
to keep from turning on the rope.
While at the Brooklyn mine,
sent to Nevada for my sweetheart
Nevada Jane Minor. We were mar
ried and went to live in Salt LAX
City, where our first child wa
born, boy who died at birth
Shortly afterward we returned t.
Nevada, where l spent some tim
doing assessment work for Tha,
Hoppin, and prospecting. 1 late.
went to work on the Hoppin ranch
A cowboys life is not the joyous
adventurous existence shown in thu
moving pictures, read about il
cheap novels, or to be seen il
Worlds Exhibitions. The cowboy
work begins at daybreak. If he il
on the ranch he rolls out of bed
slips on his pants, boots and hal
and goes to the barn to feed hi
saddle horses. 1t is his creates
pride that he does not work on foot
Coming back, he washes his fac,
and hands at the pump, and take.
his place at the long table; thu
Chinese cook brings in piles of beef
steaks, potatoes, hot cakes, ant
"long butter" as the flour-gravy i.
called, because on a big cattle
ranch where there are thousands Of
cows, ofttimes there will be not one
milk COW, and no butter but what
is hauled many miles from town tt
the ranch.
There are various kinds of work
for the cowboy to do during the diff.
ferent seasons on a cow ranch. The
cattle are not pastured or herded
but run wild on the mountains anc
sage-brush flats. They are rounded
up in the Spring and Fall, the
roundup being called the "rodeo.H
This and other words commonly
used in the southwest come down
to us from the days when this part
OF the country was Spanish col
ony, and Spanish was the usual Ian.
guage. The foreman, who was
called major-domo, of the biggest
ranch in the neighborhood issued the
call for the rodeo. Cowboys from
all the ranches in radius of
hundred miles or more came with
their saddle horses, each bringing
three or four. The bedding con-
sisted of couple of blankets and
bed-canvas. When travelling with
the rodeo, the men rolled up their
bedding and put it in the chuck
wagon which also carried the cook
ing utensils and the grub. Starting
from the home ranch the outfit
would camp on the banks of
stream or near a spring or some
times would be compelled to make
dry camp, in which case they
hauled along barrels of water for
the emergency. After supper we
stretched our beds on the ground.
gambled and otherwise amused our
selves, telling stories of past exper-
fence and singing lifting and rollick-
ing songs. A horse-wrangler or two
guarded the paratha, the herd of
saddle horses. We all went to sleep
as soon as night fell. At the first
break of day, the cook was up get
ting breakfast. The wranglers
brought the horses. The cowboys
went to the corral. Each roped his
horse out of the band, saddled and
bridled it and then went to the chuck
wagon for breakfast.
After eating we rolled cigarettes.
mounted our horses and started for
the mountains, some going up one
canyon, some up another. We rode
to the highest SUBMITS. Turning,
we drove before US all the cattle on
that part of the range. The round
up took place in the valley below,
where the cattle were brought to-
gether. The cowboys formed a cir
Gle around them, fifty or a hundred
cowboys spaced out around several
hundred head of cattle. Two or four
cowboys from the biggest ranch
rode among the herd and drove out
the cows and young calves; they
were able to recognize their own by
the brands and earmarks on the
COWS. The task was then for the
cowboys from each ranch to brand
and earmark the calves that be-
longed to the ranch they were work
ing for. The parting out continued
until all the cows and young calves
were separated from the herd. The
other cattle were started back TO
the mountains. Two or three small
1ires were lit in the corral and the
1irst bunch of cows was driven in:
the other punches were held to await
their turn. We roped the calves bv
the hind legs and dragged them near
the fire by taking turn with the
rope around the horns of our sad
dies. We cut the ears of the calves,
with our own peculiar marks, crop,
underblt, swallow-fork or other de-
signs. The brand of the ranch was
burnt into hip or shoulder. This
proceeded until all the calves were
branded and earmarked, the males
geided, leaving one out of every
twenty-five or fifty for breeding
purposes, selecting those which in
the opinion of the cowboys would
make big, strong animals. Outside.
OF the bawling and believing of the
calves and cows, there was silence: