i
“oar
A group of brands which illustrate the multi.
plicity of symbols used on the cattie ranges of
the West. They are the following: 1, Bible or
book; 2, church; 3, cross; 4, Maltese cross; 5,
Swastika; 6, square and compass; 7, 1. 0. 0. F.
emblem; 8, question; 9, dollar mark; 10, etc.; 11,
house; 12, rocking chair; 13, jug; 14, pitcher; 15,
boot; 18, dumb-bells; 17, doar key; 18, frying
pan; 19, crutch; 20, wineglass; 21, kite; 22, hat;
23, necktie; 24, bell; 25, dagger; 26, horseshoe;
27, bow and arrow; 28, anchor; 29, flower pot;
30, umbrella; 31, tree; 32, hog eye; 33, pigpen;
34, barbecue; 35, kite; 36, fishhook; 37, fish;
38, snake; 39, turtle; 40, rabbit; 41, rising sun;
42, moon; 43, star; 44, two hearts; 45, liver; 48,
goose egg; 47, pitchfork; 48, rake; 49, steplad.
der; 50, currycomb; 51, bridle bit; 52, spur; 53,
paddle; 54, anvil; 55, plow; 56, tomahawk; 57,
hayhook; 58, ace of clubs; 59, four sixes; 60, ten
of diamonds; 61, ace of diamonds: 62, diamond
deuce; 63, diamond trey; 64, diamond five; 65,
I owe you; 66, seven up; 67, lazy T: 68, tum.
bling T; 69, flying V; 70, rocking H; 71, swinging
H; 72, mashed O; 73, bar X L; 74, H rake four.
» »
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
NOTHER institution of the old West
seems to be on its way into oblivion.
At least that is the logical Interpre-
tation of a recent news dispatch from
Texans which said:
“A few years more and there will be
no plaintive bawling as a sizzling red-
hot iron Is pressed against a young
steer’s hide, Instead, there will be a
cold iron, dipped into a chemical and applied to
the yearling. A few days after this application
the chemical, without pain to the animal, will
have eaten away th mir, turned the red skin
to white and produced
mark. This new method, Introduced by a doctor
in Amarillo, Texas, has been tried successfully.”
If this method proves successful and is gen-
erally adopted, It will not only mark the passing
of an Instrument which, along with the rifle, the
axe, and the prairie plow were symbols of vari-
ous phases In American ploneer life, but it will
also satisfy the main objections to a custom
which was very necessary to the development of
the cattle Industry to the proportions which it
attained during the three decades after the Civil
war,
1
prmanently the owner's
One of those ohlections was an economic one—
the fact that the deep burn inflicted by the
branding iron damaged the hide of the steer and
decreased the value of this by-product of the
cattie business, This objection was largely done
away with when It was learned that all Eastern
buyers elassed all Western hides as branded
stuff, even If they were not, and made a certain
reduction In their value. So the new branding
method may lead to a revaluation of hides from
Western cattle, since the chemical will not dam-
age the hide as the red-hot fron did.
The necessity for cattle branding In the United
States goes back to the days of free grass and
open range when the brand was an absolute
necessity In order that owners might identify
their property In the annual round-ups. With
the coming of fenced range this necessity was
largely obviated, but the brand still served to
place guilt upon cattle thieves and made It pos.
sible to stamp out cattle rustling. Then followed
a period when cattle branding fell somewhat into
disnge, But recent years have seen a revival of
cattle rustling and the “motorized cattle thief,”
who uses a truck in which to carry away three
to ten prime beef steers, began cutting into the
Western stockman’s meager profits, Only a short
time ago the board of brand inspectors of one
Western state declared that a return to the
branding of live stock was the omy solution of
the new-—or rather the revived-—menace to their
business, Indications are that similar action will
be taken In other states and If the Texas doc-
tor's method of marking with chemicals proves
feasible the ranges and shipping pens of the
West may be filled once more with branded eat-
tle—branded by a modern scientific method and
branded because modern mechanical methods of
rustling have made it necessary.
In the early days of the cattle industry, brand-
ing was haphazard. There was much duplication
of brands and consequently frequent quarrels
over ownership.
Texas, the fountainhead of the eattle indus
try, wis the first state to regulate branding and
other states soon followed suit until most of
them have very definite branding laws, ‘I'nese
differ In some respects but the underlying prin.
ciples are the same, the main one being required
registration of brands. Some allow a certain
brand to a rancher and he may put It on any
place bn the animal, Others permit different
men to have the same brand, but the different
%
Eh
Ce is
eile 3
4, ld PB pA |
Wil Vad
owners must place it on their stock in distinctive
positions
According to the laws of North Dakota. each
brand was good for ten positions. They were
the jaw, neck, shoulder, ribs and hip—five posi-
tions on each side of the animal. It was not
uncommon for a North Dakota stockman to buy
all positions so that he could brand his stock
as he pleased. Otherwise, nine other men could
use the same brand In other positions, thus
causing endless confusion.
The number and variety of brands in the cat.
tle country is almost inconceivable. For in-
stance, a total of more than 8500 brands have
been recorded in Montana since 1878 and it is
sald that 6.000 were In active use within recent
years, Records of the Texas Cattle Raisers’ asso-
ion 8}
wwed more than 8000 registered brands
1%¢ In that state a few years ago and in Colo
rado there were more than 4,200,
jut despite this multiplicity of markings the
» eattieman and the brand Ins
fit the stockyards In the les
markets could read the various br
terpret them as easily as a stend
read and interpret the pothooks and other sym.
bols in the shorthand system, More than that,
they spoke a language, a ph » tongue, albeit,
which was all but unintelligible to the uniniti-
ated. Philip Ashton Rollins In his classic of
western life, “The Cowboy,” writes of this as
follows:
“He would know that 4-28 meant Four Bar
Twenty-eight since a hyphen always was called
a ‘bar’: that, because a capital letter of size was
mmonly termed ‘big.’ the brand ‘A2' was trans-
atable into Big A Twe: that because a letter or
figure 1
letter 'm’ underscored was the Lazy M Bar, This
person would know also that, because a ring was
a ‘circle a letter ‘g" enclosed within a
was the Circle G: that because a circle's
was, according to its length, designated as
a ‘quarter,’ half’ or ‘three-quarter’ circle, a seant
bit of curve followed by a letter ‘vr was the
Quarter Circle R, and that, because anything
looking like a8 diamond or even its cousin was
called ‘diamond,’ a figure 0%" within a lozenge
should be Interpreted as Diamond Five. This
person would know also that any parallelogram,
regardless of the ration between its length and
height, was a ‘block’ or ‘box’ or a ‘square.’ which-
ever Its owner cared to term it; that the faintest
resemblance to a pair of wings gave the prefix
‘fiving’ so that the numeral 9 between two mis-
gshapen bulges was the Flying Nine, and that
other designs were attempted pictures and should
be entitled Broken Pipe, Sombrero, Spur, Bit,
Elk Horn, Two Star, Wheel and whatever,
Finally this person would know that still fur-
ther designs had arbitrary, slangy designations
such as ‘wallop’ (a wide letter U atop another
letter U equally wide but Inverted): ‘whang-
doodle’ (a group of Interlocking wings with no
‘fiving' central design), and ‘hog pen’ (two par.
allel lines crossing two other parallel lines at a
right angle)”
In the record of brands every letter of the
alphabet {8 represented, and most letters are
found in three or four positions. An exception
i$ “0.” which has but one shape in any position,
and therefore can be used only once. True there
is the “0” flattened at the sides, but it is called
a mashed O, a link or goose egg.
“N" is another letter that is not susceptible
of many positions, for horizontally it is “Z"
“I* is another letter with a limited use. It is
seldom seen except In combination with other
characters, and Is usually called a bar,
“ and “K” are examples of letters that are
used In four positions, For example, an ordinary
“K" makes one position, Turn it to an angle of
45 degrees and®you have the Tumbling K, on its
back horizontally the Lazy K and reversed a
fourth position. There are lazy and tumbling
brands in all letters except “O" and “1”
After the letters of the alphabet and the vari
ations thereon were all taken up it became nee
essary to devise individual and unique brands.
80 every conceivable device made its appearance,
ranging from Bible references through poker
hands to farm Implements, household utensils
and lodge insignia,
in the Colorado brand book may be found a
skull and crossbones, a rake, shovel, shoe, boot,
cup, coffeepot, glasses, flag, keys, apple, star,
moon, ladder, tree, anchor, pitchfork, glove,
muleshoe, rocking chair, hatchet, axe, spear, roll.
ing pin, gate, spectacles, pipe, fish, gun, compass,
umbrella, hands and dozens of other queer char-
neters for which ft is difficult to find an ade-
quately descriptive name. In the illustrations at
the head of this article Is Inciuded a chart of 74
out-of -theordinary brands,
So important was the brandiog iron to the
eattle Industry that a few years ago the sfate
whose prosperity was bullt upon tie cattle busi-
ying on its side was termed ‘lazy.’ a prone
S. A. Maverick
ness hit upor iea of “branding” a
new half-m win building at its
state university with > boils of its greatest
industry. According y son hall at the tn!
versity of Texas now Ix ni walls 32 eat
tie brands which helped
ary to this ide;
versity librarian, examines
» Texas history
Winkler, uni-
han 20.000 cat
tle brands which f
other in that state
the 32 which were
stone walls of the new classroom
representative of step In the
Texas history.
There is 8 good
one of them 1} 01 hem are:
the “Austin Spanish” Wf Steph F. Aus
tin, “the Father of Texas": the Four Sizes of
8. B. Burnett which resulted from his winning a
large ranch in a poker game in which he held
“four of a kind”: the D brand of A. H. (Shang-
hai) Pierce, who drove cattle from Matagora
county on the gulf and whose steers were known
from the Rio Grande to the Canadian line as
“Shanghal Plerce’s sea lions”: the XIT brand,
generally known as “Ten in Texan” of the Capl-
tol Land Syndicate whose holdings covered ten
counties and Included three million acres, given
in payment for the state capitol building at Aus.
tin, the Lazy S of C. C. Slaughter which adorned
more than 12.000 cattle a year in the trail-driving
period after the Civil war; the JA brand of
Charles Goodnight, owner of the famous Good.
night ranch, home of the Goodnight herd of buf-
falo, and experimenter in crossing cattle and
buffalo to produce the “catalo” and last but not
least the MK brand of 8 A. Maverick, the cattle.
man who paradoxically became famous not be-
cause of a brand but because of lack of one and
whose name became a common noun in the Amer.
fean language. For “maverick” is a word found
in all dictionaries, defined by the eminent Die-
tionaire Webster as “an unbranded animal, esp,
a motherless calf, formerly customarily claimed
by the first one branding it.” and “mavericking”
is a recognized legal tern for illegal appropria-
tion of unbranded cattle,
Samuel A. Maverick, an graduate of Yale col-
lege in the class of 1825, was one of the foun
ders of Texas independence and a member of
the congress of the Republic of Texas in 1845.
The exact details of how his name came to be
perpetuated In a common Western word are
somewhat disputed. One account states that a
neighbor who owed Maverick a debt of $400 paid
fit off by giving him 1,200 head of longhorn cat-
tie, whereupon Maverick turned them over to a
family of negro slaves with the understanding
they have the natural increase of the herd.
But these negroes were a shiftless set and
allowed the cattle that thus came to them to roam
at will In the long grass along Matagorda bay.
In a few years there were hundreds of these
unbranded cattle and people often asked “Whose
cattle are these?” to which the usual reply was,
“They're Maverick's,” As time went on the term
“mavericks” came to be applied to all unbranded
ecattle—they were not Samuel A, Maverick's eat-
tle, they were just mavericks, nobody's cattle,
Another account says that during the Civil
war nearly all of Colonel Maverick's employees
entered the Confederate army, so that his eat-
tle ran wild and remained unbranded. So they
were “Maverick's cattle” until some one else
clapped his brand on them to make them his
own and gradually all stray cattle became “mav-
ericka” Whatever the true story may have been,
the fact remains that among all eattlemen who
might be famous because thousands of cattle
bore their brands, the most enduring.fame came
to one whose cattle went unbranded.
(© by Western Newspaper Union.)
FORGOT THE EXCUSE
On little James’ first day at school
he was given a card on which his
mother was to write the date of his
birth. The following day he arrived
jate, and without the card.
“James,” sald the teacher, “you
must bring an excuse for being late,
and don't forget the ecard about when
you were born”
All out of breain the next day,
James rushed In holding a note from
his mother, “Teacher” he gasped
born.”
About Right
efficiency man would do my business
any good.
Efficiency Expert—Well, 1 haven't
worked in a place yet that didn't run
more efficientiy after I left.— Border
Cities Star.
His Destination
Spectator—1 shall be very
prised if that referee doesn’t get Int
hot water after the match.
Ardent Supporter—Then you’
surprised. ‘E's goin’ in the
trough.—London Answers,
Hubby's Luck
Mra. Heck—1 wonder, Mrs, Peck
[ could borrow you
Mra, Peck-—I'm
but he doesn't
o'clock.
WRONG SURGERY
The doctor shook his head doubt.
fully,
“Tell fe, what exactly is wrong
with you?” he asked his patient,
“l can’t explain It,” sald the pa-
tient wearlly. “I only know | suffer.”
The doctor nodded,
“What kind of life do you lead?”
he asked,
“I work like an ox, 1 eat like a
wolf, I'm as tired as a dog at the end
of the day, and | sleep like a horse”
replied the other,
“H'm,” sald the doctor, “in that
case I should advise you to go and
see a veterinary surgeon.”
STRING ATTACHED
“I can’t afford to marry
years, Wil you wait fo
“Certainly. If no one else
¢
Proof Positive
“806 you think you must have a for-
giving nature.”
“I must have, I slway
8 go back to
» same dentist.”
Unsoothing Word
astaway—Good heavens!
e Ditto (soothingly)
don’t get in a stew,
Now, now,
a
65
Horizontal,
Tumult
Sart of harsess
Thin metal strip
ewSeldom
13Preposition
15fimall drink
1TwExpression
15—Rebeold
IBBanlt (chem.)
2ewProponition te Ls proved
Fabulous bird
Sustain
26Not of the eity
2leSpanish dry wine
2%-Buriesgque
20 Work with this steel instra-
ment
BlEngrave
22D womanish
34Miner's hand-cart
20 ftirth
BT medi omE
Rh Song
40Organ pipes
42Smull hollows
43irgan of sight
45-~The other
47 Recent
4D rudge
-wPertaining to the Celts
B2-Time
E3-ePertaining €o earth dictarb-
ances
BBP arent
BeePronoun
ETA luminary
BS Dull
SOC oncerning
Gloire
€2Innune
S4Large book
SSindivisible particle of matter
Vertical,
14Snilors
16 Weorld war battle
17eNet
18Body of water (Scoteh)
20-Division of Hindu philosophy
22-Metal an mined
23Pliguant
Fen ther-shaped
EVe¥Firat of two stanzas
B—Fown
AlFungus
Add Conatellation
2d TOR)
Afi uote
EBA merican ploneer
40—Senrs
41iCurnelinn
42S heet, usually paper
44-Opposed to “no”
40-—Kovereign
47 Oll«burning veasal
4%—Ylnve
49—Door of Masonle lodge
BleParadise
f3Sound
S4Insensibility
TeNilent
EPTinmor
ClewStop
CP reposnition
Solution