When this roundup was over and the range all worked, lasting from a month to six weeks, the big herd was worked and every cowboy that had any cattle in the herd cut them out in a bunch by themselves, or some other fellow that had cattle going home the same direction as he was, then they throwed in together. If a cowboy didn’t have help enough to move his cattle to their home range, the outfit he gathered them with sent some men to help him. This custom was practiced in all the outfits. Another fine practice in the early days by honest cowmen was if a cow was found in a roundup with a calf belonging to her and nobody claimed her, the captain of that roundup branded the calf with the same iron that was on the mother and turned her loose where she was. This was done with what was known as a running iron, which was a small bar and a small half circle—one can make any brand on an animal with those two irons. Now if that was a steer calf and nobody claimed him until it was grown and fit for beef, that same captain or any captain of any roundup had a right to load and ship that steer to any market with his cattle, say Chicago, Omaha or Kansas City, which were the principal shipping points in those days. There the stock inspector got a record of what state the steer came from and when he was sold. It was his duty to see that the money was sent to the stock association of that state, they having a record of the brand and the address of the owner. A check was immediately forwarded to the party. For instance, Charlie Russell and myself got a check for a steer I had not seen for six years and had been loaded on the train four hundred miles from where I turned him loose. He was shipped to Chicago, sold and the money sent to Helena, Montana, where we had our brand recorded. CHAPTER XV THE JOHNSON COUNTY WAR This incident I write about was known as the Johnson County War in Wyoming in the years of 1893 and 1894, and I presume some of the old-timers of today remember those days when those things happened. The way it first started, some of the cowboys working for the big outfits bought a few cattle of their own and branded them and turned them loose on the range. The cattle barons objected to this, and passed a resolution that any cowboy owning a branding iron could not work for them—for the reason, them days there were a great many mavericks on the range and the cattlemen divided them up among themselves. This caused considerable bitterness, as the cowboy claimed any animal without a brand belonged to the first one that found it. There may have been some justification on both sides; at any rate it developed into quite a feud. I heard one old cattleman remark that he knew cowboys that even their grandfathers never owned a cow, had more cattle than he did.