t
twelve-to-eighteen-inch mark by the time the beast is fully grown.

In Mexico the art of branding dates back to the time when few men were
lettered and most men used a _rubrica_ mark or flourish instead of a
written signature. Thus, in Mexico the brand is always a device,
whatever complex combination of lines and circles the whim of the owner
may conceive. In this country the brand was usually a combination of
letters or numerals, though sometimes shapes and forms are represented.
Branding and marking cattle and horses is certainly a most cruel
practice, but under the old conditions of the open range, where
individual ownerships numbered thousands of head, no other means
existed of contradistinguishing title.

During the war these vast herds grew and increased unattended,
neglected by owners, who were in the field with the armies of the
Confederacy. So it happened that hundreds of thousands of cattle
ranged the plains of Texas after the war, unmarked and unbranded, wild
as the native game, to which no man could establish title. This
situation afforded an opportunity which the hard-riding and desperate
men who found themselves stranded on this far frontier after the wreck
of the Confederacy were quick to seize. Shang Rhett was one of them.
From chasing Federal soldiers they turned to chasing unbranded steers,
and found the latter occupation no less exciting and much more
profitable than the former.

First, bands of free companions rode together and pooled their gains.
Then the thrift of some and the improvidence of others set in motion
the immutable laws of distribution. Soon a class of rich and powerful
individual owners was created, who employed great outfits of ten to
fifty men each, splendidly mounted and armed. These outfits were in
continually moving camps, and travelled light, without wagons or tents.
The climate being mild even in winter, seldom more than two blankets to
the man were carried for bedding. The cooking paraphernalia were
equally simple, at the most consisting of a coffee pot, a frying-pan, a
stew kettle, and a Dutch oven. Each man carried a tin cup tied to his
saddle. Plates, knives, and forks were considered unnecessary
luxuries, as every man wore a bowie knife at his belt, and was
dexterous in using his slice of bread as a plate to hold whatever
delicacy the frying-pan or kettle might contain. Sometimes even the
Dutch oven was dispensed with, and bread was baked by winding thin
ro