ng sacrificed at forced
sale and with scarce a buyer. In the depreciation of values from the
prices which prevailed in the early summer, the losses to the Texas
drovers, caused by the panic, would amount to several million dollars.
I came out of the general wreck and ruin untouched, though personally
claiming no credit, as that must be given my partners. The year
before, when every other drover went home prosperous and happy, I
returned "broke," while now the situation was reversed.

I spent a week at Council Grove, visiting with my business associates.
After a settlement of the year's business, I was anxious to return
home, having agreed to drive cattle the next year on the same terms
and conditions. My partners gave me a cash settlement, and outside
of my individual cattle, I cleared over ten thousand dollars on my
summer's work. Major Hunter, however, had an idea of reentering the
market,--with the first symptom of improvement in the financial
horizon in the East,--and I was detained. The proposition of buying
a herd of cattle and wintering them on the range had been fully
discussed between us, and prices were certainly an incentive to make
the venture. In an ordinary open winter, stock subsisted on the range
all over western Kansas, especially when a dry fall had matured and
cured the buffalo-grass like hay. The range was all one could wish,
and Major Hunter and I accordingly dropped down to Wichita to look the
situation over. We arrived in the midst of the panic and found matters
in a deplorable condition. Drovers besought and even begged us to make
an offer on their herds, while the prevailing prices of a month before
had declined over half. Major Hunter and I agreed that at present
figures, even if half the cattle were lost by a severe winter, there
would still be money in the venture. Through financial connections
East my partners knew of the first signs of improvement in the
money-centres of the country. As I recall the circumstances, the panic
began in the East about the middle of September, and it was the latter
part of October before confidence was restored, or there was any
noticeable change for the better in the monetary situation. But when
this came, it found us busy buying saddle horses and cattle. The great
bulk of the unsold stock consisted of cows, heifers, and young steers
unfit for beef. My partners contended that a three-year-old steer
ought to winter anywhere a buffalo could, provided he had the f