CHAPTER XIV OPEN RANGE DAYS

In the days of open range, everybody had great freedom. A cowboy could change countries every spring if he wanted to and they were always drifting from one range to another—not only to different ranges but to different states. For instance, maybe he would be in New Mexico one year and on the Canadian border the next.

Every cowboy had a private horse of his own, pack horse and his own bed, which consisted of a tarpaulin¹ and some blankets. And according to the custom of them days he could stop at any cow camp or ranch² and was not under obligations to anyone, and if he wanted to stay a week and rest his horses that was O.K. too. If there was no one home, he always found grub and helped himself, so he was quite independent—and it did not take much money to travel. Nature provided him with new scenery every day, such as unclaimed land, rivers and creeks³, and in my day plenty of wild game of all kinds. I don’t believe the tourist of today with his automobile⁴ has anything compared to what we had.

I am going to make a statement here that almost sounds fishy⁵, but I can prove it. I worked for a cow outfit⁶ that run twenty-five thousand cattle and three or four hundred saddle horses to handle the cattle with, and they didn’t own one foot of deeded land. The land was unsurveyed and belonged to the government. They usually built a big log house, some corrals and a kind of stable, and called it their ranch, and no one disputed their title—even a sheepman must not get too close with his woolies. They paid no taxes on this land and as it would be impossible for the assessor to count the cattle in an area of two or three hundred miles, I would say a good honest cattle man might give in one-third of his number. An outfit the size I speak of, would hire about twenty-five cowboys during the summer months and keep four or five during the winter. That was the only expense they had, outside of buying saddle horses to mount their cowboys—which was ten or twelve to the man.

I have been asked quite often what a “Rep” was by people that was hatched at a later day. Well, for illustration, Tom Jones has a ranch at San Francisco—Bill Smith has a ranch at Los Angeles. Both run several thousand cattle. There are no fences between those two places, so, naturally, in the course of a year quite a number of both men’s cattle would drift out of their range where they worked their main range and it wouldn’t pay to send a whole outfit so far for what cattle had drifted—so they picked out a very reliable cowboy that knew their brands. He cut out his string of horses, packed his bed and started for one of those ranges to represent the outfit he was working for. There might be six or seven reps with each different outfit.

Now, when one of those outfits⁷ started to work their range, they started what they called a “Day Herd⁸”—that was for the purpose of holding all cattle that the reps, or the home outfit wanted to hold—sometimes beef cattle, sometimes some outfit changing hands—those cattle were held by home range men and driven from one roundup to another and each day, and each roundup; anybody that found any cattle they wanted to hold or take home, they were cut out and put in that day herd.

This herd sometimes got pretty big before the roundup was over and was bunched up at night and held on what they called the bed-ground. Those cattle were night herded⁹ by all cowboys that worked during the day, by shifts of two or three hours each, the hours depending on the length of the nights—spring or fall—sometimes two men on shift, or more, depending on the size of the herd or how hard they were to hold.

The rep never done any day-herding as he was supposed to see all cattle rounded up so as to pick out the cattle he represented, as other cowboys didn’t know his irons as well as he did. There was also a little cowboy etiquette¹⁰ extended to the rep—he didn’t have to stand night guard unless it was absolutely necessary.

When this roundup was over and the range all worked, lasting¹¹ 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 calf¹² 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 steer¹³ 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 shipping¹⁴ points in those days. There the stock inspector¹⁵ 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.

1 tarpaulin   

n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽

参考例句：

• The pool furniture was folded,stacked,and covered with a tarpaulin.游泳池的设备都已经折叠起来，堆在那里，还盖上了防水布。
• The pool furniture was folded,stacked,and covered with a tarpaulin.游泳池的设备都已经折叠起来，堆在那里，还盖上了防水布。

2 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

3 creeks   

n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪

参考例句：

• The prospect lies between two creeks. 矿区位于两条溪流之间。 来自辞典例句
• There was the excitement of fishing in country creeks with my grandpa on cloudy days. 有在阴雨天和姥爷一起到乡村河湾钓鱼的喜悦。 来自辞典例句

4 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

5 fishy   

adj. 值得怀疑的

参考例句：

• It all sounds very fishy to me.所有这些在我听起来都很可疑。
• There was definitely something fishy going on.肯定当时有可疑的事情在进行中。

6 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

7 outfits   

n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He jobbed out the contract to a number of small outfits. 他把承包工程分包给许多小单位。 来自辞典例句
• Some cyclists carry repair outfits because they may have a puncture. 有些骑自行车的人带修理工具，因为他们车胎可能小孔。 来自辞典例句

8 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

9 herded   

群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动

参考例句：

• He herded up his goats. 他把山羊赶拢在一起。
• They herded into the corner. 他们往角落里聚集。

10 etiquette   

n.礼仪，礼节；规矩

参考例句：

• The rules of etiquette are not so strict nowadays.如今的礼仪规则已不那么严格了。
• According to etiquette,you should stand up to meet a guest.按照礼节你应该站起来接待客人。

11 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

12 calf   

n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮

参考例句：

• The cow slinked its calf.那头母牛早产了一头小牛犊。
• The calf blared for its mother.牛犊哞哞地高声叫喊找妈妈。

13 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

14 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

15 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。