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Graham, Anderson, Probst & White Incorporated Architects - Engineers Railway Exchange, Chicago 4 Marvin G. Probst Edward E. Probst
as handsome a man as I ever saw. The Hagers were cordial & seemed delighted to have us. We went in to supper & with six cowboys we sat down to a dinner of Wild Duck - just the breasts. On the way up Mitch said, these cowboys are going to give you a hard time. They are baseball fans but they are going to show you up & you'll have to get hurt before they will take you in - being a western fan I loved these cowboys, they were all heroes to me & I determined to go through it if possible. Nothing was being said until a cowboy spoke to me. "How do you like this country?" I was prepared - so I replied, "if I'd a seen a [Hay?] stack I would a set fire to it & started waving a handkerchief for help. They digested & liked it, they knew I meant the country was so big that I was afraid - after a while the fore man said "Kinyou ride a horse." Now this was one I really was prepared for. "I reckon I was the best horseman in the state of Maryland. They all gulped, I let that sink in & then I said, I ust rode on Merry-go-rounds. Now I knew we were going to ride all the next day & I was trying to get a fairly tame horse. Next morning Ross threw in chaps & sombreyo into our room & we had
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breakfast. All the cowboys were going & we went out to the coral. They roped the horses & I came up with a white horse. I had ridden all my life and so when the horse bucked a little it did not bother me a bit & they knew I had pulled on one them for sure. The foreman walked up & said, "like to see some fancy roping - gallop down by me". I felt sure he would rope me around my body & try to pull me off - so I kept a tight rein and held on to the pummel. Sure enough he did just that but I just manage to stay on & I wasn't pulled off. I had gotten by but I knew they would try again. We rode all day & didn't see one Coyote but it was a great day - praire chicken were plentyful & so on one way back home & in sight of the ranch we were going down hill - the dogs out front & a rabbit jumped up. Every thing took into a dead run. Yipping & then after about a hundred yards the rabbit ducked into a hole. Every thing stopped but me & I was trying to get something to hold onto or looking for some place to light & I [lit belly?] flopper. They got off & rolled on the ground - this was it, I just laid there & did not move. When they quit I said you damn cow poke, go to the house & bring up some shovels & bury me right here - but that did it. I was one of the gang from then on. We had a great time - shot ducks & had a fine visit. The day before I left we went to a cattle sale, three sons selling out 5000 cattle to settle an estate of 20,000 acres. They had page wire fence pens with a hundred
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Graham, Anderson, Probst & White Incorporated Archtects - Engineers Railway Exchange, Chicago 4 Marvin G. Probst Edward E. Probst
cattle to the pen. After we left the next day one of the sons was shot, the cattle had broken down one pen & gotten mixed with some poorer stock. When the buyer claimed he was getting what he had brought a man was killed in an ensuring fight.
Driving home with "Mitch" I noticed a bird lying on the side of the road, it turned out to be a prairie chicken, it had flown into a telephone wire and broken its neck. I left in the next town & had it mounted. "Mitch siad they fly low & fast going to roost & often hit wires. One evening some friends droped in to see the Mitchells & his mother told him to ride into Franklyn & get some meat for supper. He started to the coral & a bunch of Prairie Chickens flew over the house & three birds fell in the yard. He took them to the woodpile chopped off their heads & took them to the kitchen for supper. It was a wonderful trip & I'll never forget it & especially the good times we had together. Mitch caught some coyotes while I was there. The dogs in the back of the crate would watch of coyotes while we drove over the Nebraska hills. When we or they
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spotted one Mitch had a cord over the window in the front seat which he would pull, opening a rear gate to their cage & away they went. To see those five beautiful dogs racing after the coyote was a real picture & thrill. These dogs couldn't scent & had to run entirely by sight. Sometimes they would come to grief as they did watch where they were going as one day the coyote came to an arroyo, dry [wash?] the Coyote scrambled down a twelve foot bank but the dogs tried to jump the soft wide ditch, they all tumbled to the bottom & the coyote got away. Coyotes are very smart & they will play dead after a fight. Mitch dragged one to the car & he seemed dead. We walked a little way from him & happening to look back saw him stumbling off. Mitch caught fifty one winter & he got a bounty as well as a price for the hide.