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Show CATTLE IN A STAMPEDE. The Kcckless During of the Cowboys with a Big Contract on Haad. The marketing of its beef is the solo source from which flows revenue t o a ranch, aud tho collection and gat herin thereof-selecting thereof-selecting beeves is the most seient.illc part of ranch work engages Septemlier, October, Octo-ber, November and part of UeceiiilsT of each year. Tho beef herds, aggregating 4,000 to 5,000 head of cattle each, in charge of an outfit of about ten men, including the "boss" and conk, betake themselves to a convenient shipping point, sometimes 2(H) to 500 miles distant. This excursion is , slow, a.id by virtue of the streugth and ! spirit of the cattle, as well as the stormy season of the year, not nnfraught with danger. Stampedes are tho rulo rather than the reverse, and sometimes are very expensive in their cost from lost and injured in-jured cattle. To this trip are usually assigned as-signed the most skilled and competent of the men. ... m In former days the drive from Texas, ! north through the Indian Territory, had a special hazard. The Indian was there abundant and full of thrift. Nor was l the aboriginal intent to permit a herd to nrind its valuable length across this do-nrJn do-nrJn without tribute. The method of tax collection in vogue with these ofhciuls of savage revenue was simple und complete. Some dark and quiet night the sleepy riders out on herd would be astounded by the spectacle of every one of their horned wards springing to his feet, and pausing but one brief second to get the general di- I rectiou go scampering into the gloom with great fervor. The cause was easily found. An Indian bad crawled up on an unguarded un-guarded flank and flapped a blanket. A most effective flap, indeed, that puffed into sudden motion 150,000 worth of beet by its one small breuth. ... ,, The sequel of a stampede is the re-collection of theherd. Trom the first jumpof the first steer the cowboy, us dauntks as a Cossack and blindly truo to his trust, goes with the herd. No man ever takes a more dangerous jaunt. Tho night as dark as ETPt; tho country new and unKiiown; perhaps at any second to go leaping from B precipice or crashing up against a wall of rock; cattle, terror mad, charging on all sidas, the certain result of a fall being a crushing by the galloping hoofs of the herd. Still this American Arab never halts nor wavers, but with rein held high and loose, and spurs bloodj -to the hoot whirls his half broken broncho through at thirty miles an hour. ti t,tlo and men end a stampede alive is one of the mysteries of the craft, but they do. As showing these trip not altogether lacked in safety I might add I never knew a cowboy to achieve ten years of service without recalling one broken limb at least and sometimes two or three. The purpose of the riders in a stampede j, by lying well up and forward on one or the other side of the herd, to turn or wop the cattle. This, even if successful, is slow and is bound to involve a ten mile run at least. By that time one cause or another has more or less split the herd into bunches and many of the cattle are lost The next few days and sometimes weeks are devoted to scouring the country coun-try and rounding up the Lord again. Here is where the recreant native who caused The whole trouble gets in h.s dusky work H prints bimscif at your ramp and Pleiantly probers his services to be p collect col-lect the resides at a dollar a head. As vcu are aiiost sure he hi hwu-n a bunch If a hundred or so up some canyon wuj-re no white man can find tnem, you subdue vour six shooter, which leaped turoh. fDits scabbard to kill him off ar.d lar, him Tbo poor Indian, with L h .1;.- s, freoucntly makes several hundred do.iars stampede and saves four or five of your bLfsfor personal beef besides. Kansas City Star. |