PERRY BRAZIEL ARRIVES ON THE TEXAS TRAIL -- TRAILING CATTLE TUDITH BASIN -- SUNDERLING'S ELK-SKIN TROUSERS -- THE DRIVE TO PINE RIDGE -- TWO GIRLS OF THE PRAIRIE

Along about 1879, Perry Braziel "met up" with "Shanghai" Pierce, at Coffeyville, Kansas, and from there to the North Platte valley was only a short drive according to old ways of thinking. Colonel Braziel said that the country looked good enough to stay in a while, and he went to work for Coad, by whom he was employed for two or three years. Then the cow business went through a transformation.

In 1878 the range loss had been enormous, estimated by the men on the ground at fifty percent, owing to the severity of the winter. In 1884 history repeated itself in this respect, although not quite to the same proportion.

The old timers had gotten enough of the cow business. As the romance of ranching was appealing to eastern investors and adventurers, the westerners thought it a good time to sell out. The ranchers kept book accounts, of the stock supposed to belong to them out on the range. This was done by adding a reasonable percentage for increase of calves. For each one thousand cows put upon a given range, say in the spring of 1875, by "the spring of 1878. there should be about six thousand head of mixed cattle. There ought to be eight hundred or more old cows ready for the market.

With a fifty percent loss, the proceeds from the ranches purchased would show up considerably less than anticipated from an examination of the books. Sixteen hundred marketable cattle, which would more than pay the original investment, were cut down to eight hundred by actual roundup count. It was better business tactics not to sell the actual cattle, but to sell the ranches and the numbers shown on the books.