WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2665, 10 August 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

" Onk oE the slickest lliiiisr? I evor sit i.i my travels," Fays Mr W. M. Th.-iyr, " was a cowboy slopping:), cattle stain-pi-nV. A herd of six: nr eight hnti'livd had got frightened :it Foiiiollii:i'.r mmi bioUf! away pell-nip , .], vrith llieir t-iiN in ttjr> air, and the bull.-i at the head of t tn> procession. Hut the cowboy iliiln'i j-eh excited at rill when he saw the hcix] was gniiiir straight for a high bluff (hm.k), ivhern they would nprtaiuly tiimMn into the canon and be killed. " Y<m know that when a herd like that <:el.s .-tailed they can't stop, no matter wli'.-tli'T liicy rush to (loath or noV. Those in fie n-nr cri)\vd those ahead, and away thev iro. [ wouldn't have given a dollar .-i he.id for that hr-rd, but the cowboy spurred up hi* mustang, mad-! a litllo tle/ow; came in ris:ht in front of thn herd, out hcims.h r.lii'ir path nt right anslc", mid tli"ii (jalloped leisurely on to the ed;re of that bliift', halted, nnd looked round :it, that wild mass r.f beer coining right toward* him. Iff was as oo;>l us a cur.-inibfr, tlumgh 1 expected to see him kill>-d, and win so excited that I could not speak, Well, when the leaders had got within a qu irter of a inile of him I saw them try to slack up, nnd when the cows and steers in the rear got about where the eowbov had cut across their path, I was surprised to see, them i-top and commence to nibble, at the crass. Then the whole herd slopped, wheeled, straggled bank, and began to fijjlit for ii oh-uico to eat whore the real guard was. You see that the cowboy had opened ii big- bag of salt he had brought from the ranch to give the cattle, gallopml across the herd's course and emptied the bag - . Every animal sniffed that line of salt, and, of course, that broko up the stampede. But, I will tell you, it was :i queer sight to see that fellow out there on the edge r,f that bluff quietly rnllin<r n oig-iroltu when it seemed in if he'd be lying under two hundred tous of beef iu about a minute and a half!"