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Show possible occasion made a start. They had ratlvir run than eat, and upon the slightest pretext were off, ready to exhibit ex-hibit their speed and "raise Cain" with the herders and the herd. From one of their successful attempts at deviltry grew an exhibition of another of Sandy's good trait. In tho prairie schooner which followed tho herd to bring food and cooking utensils uten-sils were the wife and daughter of the cook of the party. Thochild was but just turned three, and was a great favorite with Handy. Ho would take tho little niio before him on his horse, and carry her lor an hour while ridiug alongaide the herd. One pleasant autumn evening the cattle cat-tle were eating peacefully on the north bank of the Cimarron. Suddenly tho flight of a flock of wild turkeys frightened fright-ened them, and a stampede began. Handy was near the camp uud sprang to his Middle. FADED LIKEA DllElJI. The Cowboy Who Used to Flourish Alon? the Great Cattle Trail on the Plains of Texas. THE ADVANCE OF CIVILIZATION. Both Trail and Cowboy Have Succumbed to Railways and Wire Fences Eo-mantio Eo-mantio Baubles Eurated. The strangest path ever made on tho surface of America, a hard beaten hign-way hign-way without fence or toll gate to define it, a chocolate colored strip of earth lying ly-ing like a broad band upon tho green sod connecting two states and crossing a territory that is the old Texas and Kan-... Kan-... i "Where is baby?" the mother cried, ! running to the side, of his horse. Anxiously they scanned the prairie, and away to tho westward, in tho direct path of tho snorting beasts, appeared the ( little toddler who hail strayed away. ' It seemed deatli to attempt a rescue, but Sandy did not hesitate, and drivimr his spurs deep into his horse's flanks he i was away. Faster and with increased j force the great herd gathered speed, I and soon the plain was a sea of horns j moving on tho mite of humanity and ! ita flying rescuer. The other cowboys! j held their breaths almost, expecting at i j every moment to see tho rider overtaken i and crushed into a shapeless mass. i But his wide brimmed sombrero still I was seen just in advance of tho leaders j and nearing the baby. As ho approached the child ho leaned far down in tho sad-I sad-I die, and without slackening pace wound ' his arm about the tiny form, lifting it to his side. Then on and on, for the bellowing bel-lowing herd was behind. A mile or more of hard racing enabled him to get outside the line, anr". rest his weary j , horse and quiet the flghtened child. ! It was but an incident in his life, and yet it proved the inherent n'ility of the j "terrors of the plains," w4o, when in- ; A SCENIC ON THE TRAIL, sas cattle trail. It has seen more deeds i of daring and more suffering than per-; per-; haps any other portion of the west's domain. It has formed the theme of : many a story, but it will soon be oblit- era ted by the springing grasses, for the I penetration of railroads into all stations ! of the feeding grounds and the settling j of Oklahoma have put an end to the use- fulness of the drive, and with last fall's ! shipments the last herd has probably ! "dragged its slow length along" over i the course. Of the trails connecting Kansas and i Texas the best known was the "Cliis-j "Cliis-j holm trail," so called after a semi-cu-il-, -zed Indian who first followed it. Then there was the "old Shawnee trail," leav-; leav-; uig the Hed river and running eastward, crossing the Arkansas near Fort Gibson, thence bending eastward with tho Arkansas Ar-kansas valley. The scores of thousands of cattle going over the Shawnee trail annually made it as barren as a city street, and it could be seen for miles, marked by bleaching bones of animals which had died on the way. Strange as it may seem, even wild Texas eattie become, after a few days or. the road, as orderly as soldiers. Certain cattle take the lead, others select particular par-ticular places in the line, others bring np the rear, and day after day tho same cattle can bo seen in tho same places trudging patiently forward. For five or six miles the long herds stretch out, the cowboys riding along by the side, guid-intf guid-intf tho leaders and keeDinu stratrirlers in i SANDY'S HIDK TO THE RKSCl'R. dulging in their revelries at the shipping towns, held life to bo the cheapest of commodities. With the grassing over of the famous trails there will be little reminder left of this unique feature of western life. The great plains are fast disappearing. Wire fences inclose the ranches, and railroads reach to tho uttermost parts of the herding grounds. Cattle raising lias become a tame and speculative affair, af-fair, and the occupation of the typical cowboy is gone. Dodge City and Abilene Abi-lene are now pleasant country towns, showing no marks of deserving their old titles, "the wickedest cities in the west." The new civilization has replaced re-placed the old. C'hahles Moreau Haroer. lino. But there is little to cio. The leaders easily, and without hesitation, cross the smaller streams, and pay but little attention to the rivers. Fearlessly they plunge in, and the long line of tabbing horns can be seen above the placid waters as the swimming animals j make for the opposite bank. I The moment a stampede occurs the cowboy dashes for tho leaders. Through I darkness and rain, over rough or even 1 ground he tears along beside them, swerving them always in one direction until at last a circle is formed, and the whole herd is thundering on in a ringlike ring-like course. Then music lends its charm to 6oothe. The terrified tsteers are quieted quiet-ed by the sound of their herders' voices, and if the storm is not too loud the musical mu-sical cry of the cowboys mav bo distin- guished ringing out above the noise of tho trampling hoofs. It is a wild sound a halting, then risiug lullaby, such as one miglit croon to himself in time of onesomeness or danger. "Milling," as the circular race of tho cattle is called, can bo stopped in no other manner unless un-less by sheor exhaustion. On a drive which tho writer witnessed one long, gaunt Texan, McLain, or "Sandy," as he was moro frequently called, surprised us all. In "cutting out" the cattle and preparing for tho start he was fairly overflowing with profanity. He cursed at everything and nothing, and was looked upon as a hardened hard-ened sinner from the toughest part of Texas. But with tho first stampede he rose to the occasion. When the cattle had been "milled" there was heard off on the right a stentorian voice rowing out in high tenor a sweet lullaby that made every fellow's thoughts turn to tho old home days. Who could be sing- i A .MEXICAN COWBOY. ing it? On rushed the wild animals through the daihness and rain, but the singer continued. From the lullaby ho branched into church songs and hymns. Clear and resonant the tones spread over the prairie, and for half a mile every note could be distinguished even above the muffled patter of the steers' hoofs on the sod. Verse after verse, hymn after hymn he went on, and tho other boys, now stationed at rest waiting wait-ing for the revolving circle of animal life to stop, one by one took up the words until the herd was surrounded by a chorus of music, crude but tender. It was a chorus uever to be forgotten, and when, after the animals had become quiet, and had gone to grazing before lying down again, the cowboys all rixle toward the leader, each keeping np the refrain of their latest song, "Home, Sweet Home," they found that tho j string lunged singer was Sandy. They j were twenty miles from their camp, and ' were in the midst of a driving storm, but the words of cheer and gracionsness they had uttered made all of them more thoughtful and contented than they had j been for months. But the herd did not forget its expo- 1 rieuce. "Once stampeded, always stampeded," stam-peded," is the cattle man's motto. A score of long legged beeves seemed los-sessed los-sessed of a chronic feSglit, and upon every |