ON THE FRINGE 319 



Cattle-stealing out west had for many years been 

 more or less winked at, and even tacitly supported, 

 by local public opinion, and was always one of the 

 chief difficulties of large cattle-owners. When the 

 large public companies, chiefly British, were started 

 in the 'eighties, west of the Missouri River, their 

 cattle, ranging at large on Uncle Sam's pastures, and 

 whose only mark of ownership was the registered 

 brand, not difficult to cut out, or in some cases to 

 alter, according as the animal was dead or alive, were 

 looked upon as fair game. Everybody, it was argued, 

 must exist, including small settlers and ranchmen, 

 many of whom lived for years on range beef that 

 never cost them a cent. Some even went further, and 

 starting, perhaps, with a single cow and a registered 

 brand of their own, in a year or two developed quite 

 a respectable herd of cattle. They had a brand to 

 * draw to,' and they drew to it accordingly, from the 

 unbranded calves and yearlings on range. At one 

 time there appeared to be no legal remedy for this 

 state of things. Justice, unsupported by public 

 opinion, was paralyzed. Juries absolutely declined 

 to convict, even on the clearest evidence. The larger 

 cattle-men, who were the chief sufferers, became 

 desperate, and occasionally took the law into their 

 own hands. 



These strained relations occasionally resulted in 

 serious breaches of the peace. There was, for 

 example, the invasion, as it was called, of Caspar in 

 1891. Some of the leading cattle-men of Wyoming 

 had located a band of alleged cattle-thieves in a log- 

 hut just outside Caspar. They accordingly organized 

 their forces, hired in addition some Texas rangers to 

 assist them for the occasion, engaged a special train 



