Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack: Being an Extremely Humorous & Sarcastic Story of the Trials & Tribulations Endured by a Party of Stockmen Making a Shipment from the West to the East.Benton, Frank
General
Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack: Being an Extremely Humorous & Sarcastic Story of the Trials & Tribulations Endured by a Party of Stockmen Making a Shipment from the West to the East.
Benton, Frank
Benton, Frank, 1853-1921 -- Anecdotes; Cattle trade -- West (U.S.) -- Anecdotes; Cowboys -- West (U.S.) -- Anecdotes; Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.) -- Anecdotes; West (U.S.) -- Social life and customs -- Anecdotes
Packsaddle Jack said he knowed a sheepman once by the name of Black
Face, who was so good-hearted that he paid $20 towards one of his
herder's doctor bill when he lost both feet by their being frozen in the
great Wyoming blizzard in '94. The herder stayed with the sheep for
seventy-two hours in the Bad Lands and saved all the 3,000 head except
seven, that got over the bank of the creek into ice and water and
drowned. The herder having got all but these seven head out and getting
his feet wet they froze so hard that Black Face said his feet was
rattling together like rocks when he found him still herding the sheep.
Of course, the sheep might have all perished in the storm if the herder
didn't stay with them, and of course, the herder didn't have anything to
eat the entire three days in the storm, as he was miles from any
habitation and that way saved Black Face 30 cents in grub. But we all
agreed that while Black Face would feel the greatest anguish at the loss
of the seven sheep and giving up the $20, yet the satisfaction of doing
a generous deed and the pride he would experience when it was mentioned
in the item column of the local county paper would partially alleviate
that anguish.
Eatumup Jake said he knew a sheepman by the name of Hatchet Face from
Connecticut, who had sheep ranches out there in Utah, and he was so
kind-hearted that when one of his herders kept his sheep in a widow
neighbor's field till they ate up everything in sight, even her lawn and
flower garden, he apologized to the widow when she returned from nursing
a poor family through a spell of sickness, and told her he would pay her
something, and while he never did pay her anything, yet he always seemed
sorry, while a lot of sheepmen would have laid awake nights to have
studied a way how to eat out the widow again. Eatumup Jake said old
Hatchet Face, when he prayed in church Sundays (he being a strict
Presbyterian), he always prayed for the poor and widows and orphans, and
that showed he had a good heart, to use what influence he had with God
Almighty and get Him to do something for widows and orphans and poor
people.
Dillbery Ike said he knew a sheepman by the name of Shearclose, and
while he never gave his hired help any meat to eat except old
broken-mouthed ewes in the winter and dead lambs in the spring and
summer, and herded his sheep around homesteaders' little ranches till
their milk cows mighty near starved to death, yet old Shearclose gave $5
for a ticket to a charity ball once when a list of the names of all the
people who bought tickets was printed in the county paper.
[Illustration: _C. J. Lane, General Freight Agent and Pass Distributer
to Live Stock Shippers._]
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