The Western Echo / A Description of the Western State and Territories of the United States. As Gathered in a Tour by Wagon

by George W. Romspert

Now they are captured as follows: Of course, in each range there is water, and usually—as I have already said—where there is water there is some small timber; but should there be none upon the range of the herd you wish to capture, go some place else and get it, and after picking out a good location somewhere upon the range, build up a high, strong corral large enough to hold the herd you wish to capture. Leave an entrance at one side, and run a lane from the entrance divergingly into the prairie, until the lane is about one hundred yards wide at the mouth. Now for the chase. Get four horses, well shod, and put two to a light wagon, and put in feed and provisions for several days; and get a man to drive. Have two good riding-ponies, and tie one behind the wagon and mount the other. Now start after the herd in a walk, and let the wagon follow just in sight of you. Of course, the first day the mustangs will burn the prairie, and you will not be in sight of them half the time; but just keep on, and never break the walk. The wagon, of course, will not travel nearly as far as you do, for, as the herd circles, the driver can cut across. Choose a moonlight season, and at first go all night, keeping them excited so that they neither eat nor drink. The second day you can keep in sight all day; but they become very much excited at seeing themselves pursued, and will run frantic here and there, and by cutting across you need not go half their distance. You can get to the wagon to change ponies and get a bite when you wish. Go this way, night and day, for about three days, when they will become hungry and weak, and you can get close. You can now sleep at night and chase during the day. If any of the range has been burned over, or the ground is otherwise rough, their feet become sore and they can be captured sooner; but usually about the tenth day you can ride up to the herd and drive them along. When this is the case, take a whip and force them along until they are so worried that you can ride among them and handle them any way. Now drive them to the corral and fasten them in. Now rope them together closely with strong ropes, and drive them to the railroad for shipment or to the ranch to break for use. While they are weak they are easily broken. Large herds are often captured in this way; and there are men who, every spring when the grass is short and the ponies are poor, make this a business, and from it realize large profits.

There are many fine, large, branded horses, which have escaped from the hunters, cow-men, emigrants, and the Government, now running with the wild herds, and, of course, belong to whoever captures them. When there are several large mules or fine horses in a bunch, it tickles the hunter mightily; and not having forgotten their former lives, they render the herd easier to be caught, and are not much trouble to re-break.

Now this is the way the herds are captured; but of course there are captures made now and then in different ways. The hunter sometimes conceals himself near the water where the herd comes down to drink, and, watching his opportunity, creases his animal; that is, he shoots him through the neck about an inch from the top and just in front of the shoulders. This will stun the animal so that he will fall and not recover for some minutes, in which time you can bind him fast. This is, though, scientific work, and none but a fine shot need undertake it; for a little too high does no good, and the least too low does too much good entirely.

Now, there yet remains to be explained the stock business, which is so extensively carried on in this country, and to which nearly the whole prairie country is so peculiarly adapted. Were I to tell to persons who had never been here of the millions of cattle and sheep that are pastured here, and of the thousands that are annually shipped to the states, it would be incredibly received. As before said, the prairie is covered with buffalo-grass, which is next to mountain bunch-grass, which is said to be the strongest grass in the world. It usually grows thickly and about six inches long, and curls up—though of course this depends upon the range. It usually rains and snows some in the winter and spring seasons, but during the summer season it never sprinkles; and you can be just as sure of it as of the wrath to come. I have often thought that this would be a fine place to make hay. The snows and rains dampen the earth, and in the spring, when the grass springs forth and the prairie world is wrapped in its green mantle, there is no part of the earth more beautiful. About the first of May the grass is usually grown up, and it stays green until about August, when—except in the valleys—it all dries up in the hot sun and dry air, and cattle eat it like hay. It is then the strongest. And stock-men hate to see the fall rains come; for they say it takes the strength out of the grass.

CHAPTER V.

Cattle-Business Explained—Branding Stock—Round-Up—Mavorick—Beef-Gathering—Stampedes—Tender-Feet—Stock-Raising in Texas—Cattle-Trail—Buying Cattle from Trail—How to Enter Stock Business—Sheep-Raising—Greasers—Texas Cattle-Fever.

The country has now perhaps been sufficiently described; and though I have doubtless been a little tiresome in minutiæ, I hope at least to have succeeded in giving my readers a good idea of the great prairie-land, and can now perhaps successfully explain the subject of stock-raising which is so extensively carried on there, and a business that leads in occidental occupations. It has already been said that the rivers and streams and little lakes that dampen the sands of this great wilderness are nearly all watering-places for the herds that range along their banks. It now yet remains to explain how the business is conducted, as any person can see the positive necessity of some system where the country is so large and unfenced, and where there are so many owners and such great herds. Sometimes a herd is owned by one individual, but usually there are companies; and often one firm owns forty and fifty thousand cattle. It would of course be impossible to stable or feed these vast numbers, and they are left upon the prairie the year round, and never even get salt. They usually keep in pretty good order during the winter; but when much snow falls and the grass is covered for some time, and the weather is very cold, thousands of them die. Poor and weak, they stand upon the railroad-track and are knocked off in great numbers. Of course these winters are unusual; and the profits are so large that a few cattle dying now and then is but a momentary break in the financial stream.

Now, each firm has a home ranch, and this is built by some pure, cool water, and nearly as practicable to a railroad or good trail. This consists of a substantial and commodious ranch,—usually built of stone or adobe,—also a good store-house in which to store feed and provisions,—which are bought at wholesale and then given out to the men as needed, a good stable,—and a large, strong corral. Hay is then cut from the sloughs, and quantities of it stacked in the corral for the stock that is kept stabled. Though often in wild places, these home ranches are usually pretty places, and stock-men often have their families here with them. They have good, stylish buggies and carriages, and riding and driving horses; and every pleasant morning and evening the women and children go out to ride. They have a good track around the ranch over the level plain; and while it is altogether delightful to ride through the pure air of this healthy clime, the glitter of the splendid vehicle in the morning sun attracts very little attention from the neighbors. The girls can ride like rangers; and to see them dashing over the prairie, the pony fall into a prairie-dog hole and send the fair one somersaulting over the head upon the sand, is as funny a sight as one could wish. Each firm has its own brand, and has it recorded in the county of the home ranch. This brand is a piece of iron, wrought into the shape wished. There is also a peculiar ear-mark accompanying each brand. The branding-irons have long iron handles with which to use them. They are made red-hot and then held against the animal until burned sore, and often until the hide is burned through. Of course the hair never grows out here again, and it is a perpetual mark. The home ranch is located upon some good, rich pasture-range, and by a good water. Thus, many cattle can be pastured in the vicinity of the ranch; but when the herd is large it is divided up and driven to sometimes several other ranges that are not yet taken up—each firm having its particular ranges, which it holds against all others, except homesteaders or buyers. Upon each sub-range there is built one or more little picket-ranches, with good corrals in which to brand cattle. In each of these little houses stays a cow-boy to watch over the cattle and see that they are not killed or driven off by Indians, Mexicans, or hunters. The cattle usually stay upon the range very well during summer; but when winter comes, and storms set in they are drifted many miles, and scattered over many ranges. Cattle drift from the Platte country, Nebraska, all the way down to the pan-handle country every winter. When the winter winds are severe, great numbers drift to ranges where the country is very broken, or where there is timber; and they often become so thick that it is necessary to drive part of them to other ranges to keep them from starving. This is part of the cow-boys’ work.

Every spring each firm has about as many other brands upon its range as of its own; and after a long, stormy season one brand is distributed along the waters of several states or territories. In order that each firm may know how it stands, and to brand the calves and gather up such as are fit for market, each spring the commissioners of each county appoint a captain for the round-up or rodere. The counties here are very large. There is a place and day set for the meeting, and all the cattle-men of the county are informed. The time of meeting is about the last of April; but the time varies according to the grass and the strength of the cattle. Some springs the grass comes on early, and some quite late. Each firm sends men to this round-up in proportion to its herd—usually four or five to each county where it is expected that there are cattle—sometimes more, and often but one. Each boy has from four to eight horses; and when there are two or more from a company they have a wagon along. The beds, feed, provisions, ropes, branding-irons, etc., are hauled in it; and the driver of this wagon does the cooking for the boys of that firm. Where there is but one, he usually makes arrangements to go with some other firm.

The average cow-boy saddle weighs forty pounds, and some weigh sixty-five pounds. They are made with large, strong horns, and the back of the seat is very high. The skirt is leather, and comes back over the pony’s hips. Upon either side of the saddle there is firmly fastened two large, strong rings, and to each a strong strap, two feet long, and one inch and a half wide. The girths (sinches) are about three feet long, with a strong ring in each end. These sinches are generally made of hair, twisted into ropes, and about ten ropes to a sinch, making it three or four inches wide—two girths to each saddle. The straps to the rings upon the right side of the saddle are each passed through the rings at the end of a sinch, and run from one ring to the other and then fastened. Two good blankets are then placed upon the horse, and the saddle lifted to its place. The front sinch is then brought up and the strap to the front ring is passed through the ring of the sinch, and from one ring to the other three or four times, and then drawn up tightly and fastened with a ranger’s loop. The back sinch is then brought around behind the bulge of the belly and fastened as the other. By this fastening a saddle can be drawn up very tightly, and fastened upon the animal so firmly that the pony can be jerked down and pulled away by the saddle-horn. There is not a buckle about the saddle. The stirrups are wooden, and are covered with leathers which hang in two large strips nearly to the ground. These leathers are called tapidares. The bridles are strong, with raw-hide reins. Each boy has a half-inch catch-rope, about forty feet long, and made out of sea-grass, leather, or raw-hide. This is made fast to the saddle-horn at one end, and then coiled and tied up to the saddle. Each boy has also a large pair of spurs with rowels two inches long, and little bells to them, so that when the boy walks the spurs roll along upon the ground or floor, and the little bells make quite a noise. Now, with a belt around his waist, and two six-shooters and a large knife upon it, he is rigged. The clothing is made of California duck, lined with blanket, the shirt a double-breasted blue, and the hat a large white broad-brim. In an ordinary stock county, between two and three hundred cow-boys usually come together for the round-up. And you bet this is a big day for the hot coffee-houses of the place of meeting; for the boys usually draw their wages for the occasion, and usually succeed in getting things pretty well warmed up. The bosses try to keep their boys down; but toward evening, when the boys gather in from far and near, there are many social glasses drank. Often old feuds are stirred up; and when once a fight is begun each boy sides one way or the other, and there are seldom less than four or five killed. If a stranger comes in and gives the least occasion, the boys will then have their fun. They will make him stand still and hold out his hand, and then try to shoot between his fingers, or shoot a hole through his ears, or see how closely they can shoot to the top of his head by shooting through his hat. They can do this very well; and there is not much danger until they get pretty full and want to make too fine a shot, such as shooting between the flesh and skin, and then the thing is too fine to be pleasant. Persons coming out here to learn this business find it necessary to keep lip and braggadocio to themselves, or else the initiation is pretty heavy. The boys generally get pretty well gathered in the first day, and the next morning they pull out.