| Title: | Incomplete Letter - J. Magill, Wyoming, To E. Mulgrew, Dungannon. |
|---|---|
| ID | 3666 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | magill, joseph/3 |
| Year | 1900 |
| Sender | Magill, Joseph |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | cowherd |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Thermopolis, Wyoming, USA |
| Destination | Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Mulgrew, E. (Elizabeth?) |
| Recipient Gender | female? |
| Relationship | cousins |
| Source | Copyright Retained by Seamus P. Lynch, 67 Castle Caulfield Rd., Donaghmore, Dungannon, BT70 3HF. |
| Archive | The Ulster American Folk Park. |
| Doc. No. | 9612199 |
| Date | 1/1/1900 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 03:12:96. |
| Word Count | 868 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | STONE FRONT BARN Price & Pardee, Props. First-Class Rigs of All Kinds ... ... Gen'l [General?] Livery & Feed Business 'Phone No. 4. [Picture] Big Spring at the Famous Big Horn Hot Springs Thermopolis, Wyo. [Wyoming?] ......190.. it is his best policy to stand still. Then one or two of us approach him and finally get near enough to put your hand on him. He does not like it but he is powerless to make any protest. He is rubbed all over with the hand, then we take a broom & brush him from him [his?] head to foot. After that one man gets an old coat or an old sack and shakes it in front of him. This scares him to death at first but you just keep on working with him until you can throw it on his head, or his back & all over him, without his moving. He is then fixed up with a bitting rig for a few days. After that he is harnessed up & put in a three-horse cart. This cart you can see to the right in the picture of the front of the ranch. There is a trained horse on each side & the wild one in the middle so he must go; there is nothing else for him to do. Two or three men generally go this cart in case anything should go wrong. In the picture showing the front of the ranch the man standing on the front just beside the cart is myself. You can recognise me I am sure in the group before the mess-house, or dining-room. The day after this picture was taken I was sent out on the trail with a big herd of cattle which were being moved from one part of the range to the other. It took us just a week to make the ride and I certainly do not want any more such Experiences as I had on that Expedition. There were three of us, a foreman myself and a third man just new to the business. He was a good fellow all right but he could not ride as a man has to ride after these wild cattle. He could sit in a saddle if a horse galloped along a level road, but when it came to go at a racing gallop over rocks & down into deep ravines he was not there. We crossed the Big Horn river a short distance below Thermopolis & started to ascend the mountain when the foreman left us to go over town on some business. That was the last we saw of him until the next day. He had fallen by the wayside. The whiskey in Thermopolis was a bit too strong. So I was left practically alone with a big herd of wild cattle. I was just twenty six hours in the saddle without a break, and let me assure you, that in those hours & covered many a mile. All's well that ends well however. Thank God I lost none of the brutes & I have made a friend for life of the man that owned them. Of course it was unpleasant especially through the long night, but then life is not all cakes & ale & we must take the bitter with the sweet. This life on the plains looks romantic to many a young fellow from eastern states but if he comes out here he finds that mixed with the romance are a thousand stern realities that call for plenty of grit & staying power. At the same time life out here has a thousand glorious compensations for every single hardship. I would rather live out on these wind-swept hills in a tent, than enjoy a princely salary and all the luxuries of eastern or European life. When I came out here from Omaha in May I had to stop over at Fort Casper, the end of the railroad, for two days. A big snow storm was raging all over the 140 miles of desert between that point and Big Horn river. Even after we started out the weather was anything but pleasant. The snow lay deep all along and it was very cold especially at night. Not withstanding all that when I came out from the town of Casper & saw again, after five years absence, the wild bleak hills, and the snow-capped mountains, I just feel as if I was having a foretaste of heaven. I was something like a school-boy home on his first vacation. I hope the pictures will interest you. You can if you [want?] have a photographer take them off [I?] [send?] them [with?] cardboard for you so that you can frame [them?] I wrote Margaret [stained] to ask [stained] I hope [stained] [Family?] is well. Give [her?] my kind regards and tell her [stained?] as soon as I get some more of these pictures [I?] [will?] send her a set. [stained] seems to have [stained] a splendid time among [stained] all during [stained] I want him to come [over?] [stained] with you [stained] glorious west. He seems [stained] like many others [a----ally?] erroneous idea of [stained] [stained] here a month he [would?] [stained] this the [stained] on earth. Give my kind [stained] [---ny?], Joe & Jimmy [stained?]. Remember me to [stained] Pray for me & believe [stained] Elizabeth & Davy [stained] afft [affectionate?] cousin Joseph |
