Lands leased to the Indians of the
civilized tribes began to cut large figure in the cow trade--as
well as some figure in politics--until at length the thorny
situation was handled by a firm hand at Washington. The methods
of the East were swiftly overrunning those of the West. Politics
and graft and pull, things hitherto unknown, soon wrote their
hurrying story also over all this newly won region from which the
rifle-smoke had scarcely yet cleared away.
But every herd which passed north for delivery of one sort or the
other advanced the education of the cowman, whether of the
northern or the southern ranges. Some of the southern men began
to start feeding ranges in the North, retaining their breeding
ranges in the South. The demand of the great upper range for
cattle seemed for the time insatiable.
To the vision of the railroad builders a tremendous potential
freightage now appeared. The railroad builders began to calculate
that one day they would parallel the northbound cow trail with
iron trails of their own and compete with nature for the carrying
of this beef. The whole swift story of all that development,
while the westbound rails were crossing and crisscrossing the
newly won frontier, scarce lasted twenty years.
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