People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1894 — A SAFE TEAM. [ARTICLE]

A SAFE TEAM.

The Foreman Considered It Thoroughly Reliable. Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, writing of “Cowboy Land” in the Century Magazine, says that there is nothing more refreshing ‘light-hearted belief entertained by the average man that any animal which 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, before any vehicle with wheels, can be driven across the country. One summer, on reaching the ranch, I was entertained with the usual account of the adventures and misadventures which had befallen my own men and my neighbors since I had been out last. In the course of the conversation my foreman remarked: “We had a great timeout here about six WMks ago. There was a professor from Anil Arbor came out with his wife to see the Bad Lands, and they asked if we could rig them up a team, and we said we guessed we 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 he didn’t mind it, though.” Of this I was less certain—forlorn little Medora being a “busted” cowtown, concerning which I once heard another of my men remark, in reply to an inquisitive commercial traveler: “How many people lives here? Eleven —counting the chickens—when they’re all in town.”

My foreman continued: “By George, there was something that professor said afterward that made me feel hot! I sent word up 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 were showing him some sign of consideration, for he'd begun to believe he’d fallen into a den of sharks, and th?.t we’d give him a runaway team a-purpose. “That made me hot, callin’ that a runaway team! Why, there was one of them horses never could have run away before—it hadn’t never been druv but twice; and the other horse, maybe, 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 as to run away,” said my foreman, as though this were as good a warranty of gentleness as the most exacting man. could require. /,