Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1893 — Safe Team. [ARTICLE]

Safe Team.

Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, writing of “Cowboy Lind," in the Century Magazine, says that there is nothing more refreshing than the light-hearted belief entertained by tho average man that any animal whioh by main force has been two or three "times saddled and ridden, or harnessed and driven, is a “broke horse.” Mr. Roosevelt's foreman is firmly wedded to this idea, as well as to its complement, the belief that any animal with hoofs, boforo any vehicle with wheels, can bo driven across any country. One summer, on reaching tho ranch, I was entertained with the usual account of the adventures and misadventures which had befallen my own men and mv neighbors since I had been out last. In the course of tho conversation my foreman remarked: “Wo had a great time out here about six weoks ago. Thero was a professor from Ann Arbor came out with his wifo to see the Bad Lands, and thoy asked if we could rig them up a team, and we said we guessod wo could, and Foley’s boy and I did, but it ran away with him and broke his leg. He was here for a month. I guess ho didn’t mind it, though. “ Of this I was less certain—forlorn little Medora being a busted cow-town, concerning which I hoard another of my men remark, in roply to an inquisitive commercial traveler, “How many people lives here? Eleven —counting the chickens —when they’re all in towp.” My foreman continued: “By George, thero was something that professor said afterward that made me feel hot. I sent up word to him by Foley's boy that seein’ how it had come out we wouldn’t charge him nothing 'for the rig; and that professor he answered that he was glad we wore showing him some sign of consideration, for he d begun to believe he’d fallen into a den of sharks, and that we'd gave him a runaway team a-hurpoee. “That made mo hot, callin’ that a runaway team, Why, there’s one of them horses never could have run away •before—it hadn’t never boon druv but twice; and the other horse, maybo, had run away a few times, but there was lots of times he hadn't run away. I esteemed that team full as reliable not to run away a 3 to run away,” said my foreman, as though this were as good a warranty of gentleness as the most exacting man oould require.