at their foolishness, and then plodding on
once more, bunched up in an inert mass on a slow-going horse, who
wearily stretches his neck almost to the ground as he dreams, perhaps,
of the long, exhilarating gallops after his own kind that we once had
together, being conscious, I daresay, of the contemptuous pity I feel
for the slow foredoomed muttons that crawl before us on the long and
weary plain.

It is highly probable that the introduction of fences will have its
effect in other ways than in increasing the number of lambs born and
reared. Sheep-herding will almost disappear when the wild beasts of
Texas are extinct, as they soon will be, for a fenced country is very
unfit for such animals. But then the natural glory of the wide open
prairie will be gone, and civilisation will gradually destroy all that
was so delightful, even when my sheep, by worrying me, taught me what I
have here set down.

RAILROAD WARS

Everybody nowadays has some notion of the way the railroad business of
America is carried on. They know that there are too many roads for the
traffic, and that, to prevent a general ruin, the managers combine, pay
the profits into the hands of a receiver, and receive again from him a
certain agreed proportion of the whole sum. But this method of "pooling"
the profits is sometimes unsatisfactory. One line will think it gets too
little if the fluctuations of trade send more freight over its rails
than it formerly had, and will demand a greater proportion of the gross
profits. This demand may be granted, but if not, the agreement may break
down, and the discontented railroad go to work on the old principle of
every man for himself. This very likely inaugurates a war of tariffs;
fares and freights go down slowly or quickly according as the quarrel
is open or secret, until one or other of the parties gives in to avoid
complete ruin.

While I was living in San Francisco, early in 1886, there was an open
war between all the lines west of Chicago and Kansas City, including the
Union Pacific, the Northern Pacific, the Denver and Rio Grande, the
Southern Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. Fares to New
York and the Atlantic seaboard came tumbling down by $10 at a fall. The
usual rate from New York to San Francisco is $72. It fell to 60, to 50,
40, 30, to 25, to 22. All the railroad offices had great placards
outside inviting everyone to go East at once, for they would never get
such a chance again.