A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



eral booksellers. I have had several letters asking 

 me if I can locate copies of the out-of-print McCoy 

 book, to which I have referred previously in this 

 series, and two men have written that they were com- 

 ing to Texas to see the volume ! 



One of my fellow-townsmen made five trips on the 

 trail, and many cowmen still in the range country 

 made at least one trip while they were youngsters. 

 There is rarely a convention of the cattle raisers of 

 Texas which does not bring forward a series of rem- 

 iniscent talks from some old-time trail boss. These 

 talks recall that the freemasonry of the industry 

 stood in those days for considerable latitude. I re- 

 member a story which illustrates it. A drove of 

 2,000 head was started on the trail from south Texas 

 to Montana. The drivers arrived with 2,000 head, 

 but about half of them were then in other brands 

 than those with which they had started. The drivers 

 had lost cattle in stampedes and had gathered their 

 number, regardless of brands, as they went along. 

 That was their code, but it must be remembered that 

 beef had so small a value that, as Saunders records 

 in the old trail drivers' book, "to be had for the 

 asking." It was, too, all of the same general qual- 

 ity. "The Longhorn was in the heyday of his glory," 

 and was practically on a par with wild game. I re- 

 member Ike Pryor's telling in one of his reminiscent 

 speeches of an immense drove of aged cattle, bought 

 at $6 per head on the Rio Grande, on which he lost 



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