I LEARN TO SPEAK SPANISH AND AM MADE CHIEF BRAND READER. THE BIG
ROUND-UPS. RIDING THE 7-Y-L STEER. LONG RIDES. HUNTING STRAYS.

Having now fairly begun my life as a cowboy, I was fast learning the
many ins and outs of the business, while my many roamings over the range
country gave me a knowledge of it not possessed by many at that time.
Being of a naturally observant disposition, I noticed many things to
which others attached no significance. This quality of observance proved
of incalculable benefit to me in many ways during my life as a range
rider in the western country. My employment with the Pete Gallinger
company took me all over the Pan Handle country, Texas, Arizona, and New
Mexico with herds of horses and cattle for market and to be delivered to
other ranch owners and large cattle breeders. Naturally I became very
well acquainted with all the many different trails and grazing ranges
located in the stretch of country between the north of Montana and the
Gulf of Mexico, and between the Missouri state line and the Pacific
ocean. This whole territory I have covered many times in the saddle,
sometimes at the rate of eighty or one hundred miles a day. These long
rides and much traveling over the country were of great benefit to me,
as it enabled me to meet so many different people connected with the
cattle business and also to learn the different trails and the lay of
the country generally.

Among the other things that I picked up on my wanderings, was a
knowledge of the Spanish language, which I learned to speak like a
native. I also became very well acquainted with the many different
brands scattered over this stretch of country, consequently it was not
long before the cattle men began to recognize my worth and the
Gallinger company made me their chief brand reader, which duties I
performed for several years with honor to myself and satisfaction to my
employers. In the cattle country, all the large cattle raisers had their
squad of brand readers whose duty it was to attend all the big round-ups
and cuttings throughout the country, and to pick out their own brands
and to see that the different brands were not altered or counterfeited.
They also had to look to the branding of the young stock.

During the big round-ups it was our duty to pick out our brand, and then
send them home under the charge of our cowboys, likewise the newly
branded stock. After each brand was cut out and started homeward, we had
to stay