was
afterwards absolutely useless as a protection against rain.

Mirages in the hot dry weather were a daily occurrence. We did not see
imaginary castles and cities turned upside down and all that sort of
thing, but apparent lakes of water were often seen, so deceptive as to
puzzle even the oldest plainsman. Cattle appeared as big as houses and
mounted men as tall as church steeples.

In all the vicious little cow-towns scattered about the country, whose
attractions were gambling and "tarantula juice," there was always to be
found a Jew trader running the chief and probably only store in the
place. I have known such a man arrive in the country with a pack on his
back who in comparatively few years would own half the county.

What a remarkable people the Jews are! We find them all over the world
(barring Scotland) successful in almost everything they undertake, a
prolific race, and good citizens, yet carrying with them in very many
cases the characteristics of selfishness, greed and ostentation.

Something should be said about "classing" cattle. "Classing" means
separating or counting the steers or she cattle of a herd into their
ages as yearlings, "twos," "threes," etc. It used to be done in old
days by simply stringing the herd out on the open plain and calling out
and counting each animal as it passed a certain point. But later it
became the custom to corral the herd and run them through a chute, where
each individual could be carefully inspected and its age agreed on by
both parties. Even that might not prove quite satisfactory, as will be
shown in the following instance. I had sold to a certain gentleman (a
Scotchman again), manager for two large cattle companies, a string of
some 1000 steers, one, two and three years old. I drove them to his
ranch, some 300 miles, and we began classing them on the prairie,
cutting each class separately. It is difficult in many cases to judge a
range steer's age. Generally it is or should be a case of give-and-take.
But my gentleman was not satisfied and expressed his dissatisfaction in
not very polite language. So to satisfy him I agreed to put them through
the chute and "tooth" them, the teeth being an infallible test (or at
least the accepted test) of an animal's age. To my surprise this man,
the confident, trusted manager of long years' experience, could not tell
a yearling from a "two" or a "two" from a "three," but sat on the fence
and cussed, and allowed his foreman to do