CROSSING THE PLAINS THIRTY YEARS Add 



2 27 



the settlements the men became 

 more numerous, and the ranches 

 closer together, with two or three 

 men to each. So he decided to 

 notch down the ranches instead of 

 the men, and allow so many whites to 

 each one. After a while they came 

 to the railroad, and found a white 

 man's village where there were more 

 tepees in one place than he had 

 seen in his whole trip. Then 

 they got on the cars and every few 

 miles passed one of these villages, 

 each larger than the other, so that 

 he had to commence keeping an 

 account of the towns on his stick. 

 Then they reached Omaha, where he 

 could not see from one end of 

 the town to the other. Then 

 Chicago, Washington, New York and 

 Philadelphia, where they rode for 

 miles and miles through solid blocks 

 of houses, the streets all filled with 

 people. Now he had found out that 

 what former delegations had told 

 them was true, and that he would 

 have to go back and tell his people 

 the same old story. They would say 

 of him, as they had said of them, 

 that the white man had put bad medi- 

 cine in his head and he could tell 

 nothing but lies. That was what 

 made him so sad. 



Now, which ought to have been the 

 most surprised, this Indian, who 

 traveled from the wilderness in 

 which he lived, to the civilized land of 

 the white man, or the white man who, 

 having seen the wilderness 30 years 

 ago, goes back and finds a country 

 which he then saw filled with herds 

 of buffalo and savage Indians, trans- 

 formed into a rich agricultural 

 country with fine farms, flourishing 

 towns, and railroads in every direc- 

 tion? 



unable to travel. One- of those 

 numerous characters ever on the 

 lookout in a country like this for a 

 bargain, saw her, admired her, and 

 offered me $15 for her. 1 [ad his 

 offer been $5 instead of $15, I should 

 have been obliged to accepl it, .1- she 

 could not travel, and under the cir- 

 cumstances I rather think the 

 had some liberal ideas about him. 

 As it was I lost our cow, and $20 by 

 the bargain, besides being deprh 

 of fresh milk on the road. We get 

 it now from the cows in the herd, but 

 in very limited quantity 





The journal continues ; " The 

 second day out from Kearney we 

 met with a great loss in being oblig- 

 ed to sell our cow at a sacrifice. She 

 was a fine animal, cost $35, and I ex- 

 pected good service from her in 

 Utah, to say nothing of the journey. 

 But she took sick after the loss of 

 her calf, and became so weak as to be 



In this region where we so pitifully 



deplored the loss of a single cow, 

 there are to-day immense herds 

 domestic cattle, almost as numerous 

 as the buffalo were then. In the 

 month of June, as he glides along in 

 a Pullman car, the traveller may 

 the whole surface of the country, for 

 miles, covered with these herds, 

 rounded up by the cowboys that each 

 owner may claim his own, and brand 

 the calves which have been born 

 since the mothers themselves were 

 branded, two or three years before. 

 Those who have never seen the oper 

 ation may wonder how it is thai a 

 man can recognize a calf as his prop- 

 erty which he has never sel eyes 

 before, and they will perhaps 

 surprised when they learn that the 

 mother of the calf gives the owner, 

 or his cowboy, the information. 

 When the herd is all concentrated 

 with a cordon of cowboys around it. 

 the process of cutting out com- 

 mences. A boy sees .1 1 <>\\ bearing 

 his brand and immediately pro 

 to cut her out by forcing his h< 

 into the herd and running her out on 

 to the prairie. The po< ;ins 



to bellow for her calf. The little 

 one responds and joins his mother. 

 In the mean time < >ther o w I 

 cutting out other cows with different 

 brands, and other calves are rushing 

 out to join their motln 

 as they go. The racket is kept up 

 until the great herd is divided up i 

 half a do/en smaller one-. ea< 1 

 these distinguished by a particular 



