WITH UNCLE SAM 35 



thon, where the cattle now were, was in Brew- 

 ster County, in the free area. My duty, accord- 

 ing to the government regulations bearing upon 

 a case of this kind, would be to declare the 

 cattle in quarantine at once wherever I found 

 them. I had no right, even to look at them in 

 an official capacity. The cattle were from an 

 infected area and must be looked upon as 

 infected. The fact that they had been trailed 

 out of the quarantined area in violation of the 

 regulations placed them beyond the pale of eligi- 

 bility for inspection for the time being. I must 

 place them under quarantine for thirty days, at 

 the expiration of which the owner might apply 

 for inspection to obtain their release. 



You can imagine that a cow-man would not 

 take this matter very lightly. Here were around 

 two thousand steers, valued easily at $50,000.00, 

 in prime shape for market. Along comes "a 

 young kid of a government inspector," working 

 for a hundred dollars a month, who says the 

 cattle cannot be shipped. But this was not the 

 biggest trouble. When word was passed around 

 that the government inspector had said the cattle 

 were to be considered under quarantine, the 

 ranchmen on whose property the cattle hap- 

 pened to be at the time wanted to drive them off ; 

 their district was in the free area, open to all 

 markets, and they did not want the herd on their 

 places. 



My first act was to wire my chief, old Col. 

 Dean, at Kansas City, what I was up against. 

 I received a reply which upheld my action and 

 ordered me to properly institute a quarantine 



