The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1950-02-09
Gaping the
CAPITAL
With BEN HAYES

JOY reading Low Dy TIE all
An old cowboy, Jesse James
Benton, wrote it when he was
eighty years old. The book found
its title in a cowboy song:
l woke up one morning on the
old Chisholm Trail
Rope in my hand and cow by
the tail -.
Mr.. Benton, in the year 1877,
left his Texas home to join a
cattle drive to Dodge City, Kan.
He was 13. Jesse followed herd
after herd of longhorns from
south Texas to Kansas railheads.
At II, he delivered a herd of
steers to the Comanches near Ft.
Sill, Okla. He stayed with them
He intended to marry an Indian
girl-but didn't. Now, be DANCED,
he wished he had!
l want to say this: 1t is an ex-
cellent book. 1t describes the
real West as lived by Mr.. Ben
ton. With a magnifying glass to
aid his failing eyes, the 80-year
old man scribbled hundreds of
pages in longhand. Two friends
helped arrange the book. 1t was
published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cow by the Tall has told me
more about the plains, Indians
and the great cattle drives than
anything else l have ever read.
Mr.. Benton's book was pub
lished in 1943, but I first saw it
this winter in Caldwell. Gerald
Hayes, my cousin, obtained a
copy of it while overseas with
the Army. He lent it 10 me, and
I'm sure he would lend it again.
That is, if you asked him nicely.
How did the longhorns look?
Just name your color and he
would be in the big herd: black
spotted and white, brindleS, red
roans, red and white-spotted,
solid blacks, yellows and line
backs, all sizes and shapes" "
Jesse recalled. I've seen many a
Texas longhorn starve to death
in short grass because the horns
made a curve down the side of
his head 10 or Is inches past his
nose before they turned out.
1--WE heard people wonder
how these trail herds kept fat.
The truth is they fattened on the
trail. You would start them from
southern Texas in February or
March, when the grass was get
ting green. In a day they would
Mt travel any farther than they
would range at home-l0 miles
for a mixed herd and Is for
steers. And they would gain
, faster.
Night stampedes could be eX-
pected. Mr.. Benton wrote: Some
of those storms were terrific.
I've seen lightning strike in the
middle of a herd and kill five or
six steers with one wallop. I've
seen it knock cowboys off their
horses. | have ridden in the
worst stampedeS that ever hap
pened, rain pouring, lightning
sizzling and steer just a-flying.
The lightning was the only light
we had. When it popped and
played all over the big steers and
their long horns and the rain
beating down in sheets, we
could tell what shape they was
in"
It was true, said Mr.. Benton,
that the cowboy sang his lone
some songs as he rode around
| the bedded- down herd on clear,
starry nights. ut took quite a
piece of ground to bed down
400 steers. Each steer took about
100 square foot to hold them and
make their big horns comfort
able it was a sight to see
them spread out in the moon
light. fat and full of grass and
water, and the moon shining on
, their horns all shapes and sizes,
the steers chewing the cuds and
now and then blowing.
Mr.. Benton has an intriguing
theory. Storms usually caused
stampedes. But he has seen con-
tented cattle leap to their feet
and leave fast, making the first
quarter mile as fast as any rodeo
, steer that was ever turned out
a chute" What did it? Electrici-
ty. SAYS the old cowhand. Cattle
attract electricity, he contends,
and it will strike and entire herd
through the ground on a clear
night. If not, why does every
steer start at the same time?"
The lead steers fascinated me.
Old Tom was a dandy, big crit
ter all over, horns spreading
seven feet and adorned with gold
rings. The cowboys pointed the
way and Tom stepped out like a
saddle horse, the herd followed
20 or 80 yards behind.
"You could holler to him gee
or 'haw' and he would turn, he
would stop when you hollered
whoa and he would come when
YOU called to him. You could
tnlL To him inct like vnu Wnnld