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Show hands-and I couldn't let go fast enough. Those powerful hind legs drove the sharp claw-like toes into my wrists and left me bleeding. As we drew near the corral-trap we saw the reason. We had rounded up a coyote and her seven small pups. She stayed with them until we entered the corral with our clubs. But finally she sprang over the fence and vanished. The $35 for the scalps of the pups plus $10 or so for rabbit ears made that day the most profitable of the entire venture for the partners. Now that I am along in years I quail at the labor the two young men expended setting up and taking down a mile of fence in each of half a dozen neighborhoods in 90 to 100 degree weather. Nada men finally overcame racial discrimination against whites on the section gang. If I remember correctly, Union Pacific changed the system whencthat company bought the railroad. Soon the entire gang, from foreman on down, consisted of homesteaders. The railroad workers became, in fact, the nucleus of the community. They had money to spend. The store came to survive almost on section workers' trade, toward the end. The white boss had to take his family from the homestead to live in the foreman's house. But he could still do a little toward improving his claim, evenings, Sundays and holidays. With good pay he could even hire work done on the homestead. And the foreman's residence was a spacious cool hollow-block place shaded with poplar trees watered at railroad expense. The white laborers still lived at home. They'd drive a buggy or an old Model T or ride a horse to join the gang for 8 to 5 toil. |