land enough to support his herd with profit. A certain antipathy
now began to arise between the great cattle owners and the small
ones, especially on the upper range, where some rather bitter
wars were fought--the cow kings accusing their smaller rivals of
rustling cows; the small man accusing the larger operators of
having for years done the same thing, and of having grown rich at
it.

The cattle associations, thrifty and shifty, sending their brand
inspectors as far east as the stockyards of Kansas City and
Chicago, naturally had the whip hand of the smaller men. They
employed detectives who regularly combed out the country in
search of men who had loose ideas of mine and thine. All the time
the cow game was becoming stricter and harder. Easterners brought
on the East's idea of property, of low interest, sure returns,
and good security. In short, there was set on once more--as there
had been in every great movement across the entire West-- the old
contest between property rights and human independence in
action. It was now once more the Frontier against the States, and
the States were foredoomed to win.

The barb-wire fence, which was at first used extensively by the
great operators, came at last to be the greatest friend of the
Little Fellow on the range. The Little Fellow, who under the
provisions of the homestead act began to push West arid, to
depart farther and farther from the protecting lines of the
railways, could locate land and water for himself and fence in
both. "I've got the law back of me," was what he said; and what
he said was true. Around the old cow camps of the trails, and
around the young settlements which did not aspire to be called