Sheep stealing

“ This system, fraught with mischief, continued for many years, in spite of the interdicts of the government, and the fatal results exhibited in the courts of justice. Cattle and sheep stealing were carried to an astonishing extent: the owners, ignorant sometimes of the amount of their wealth, confided its safety to men incapable of resisting ordinary temptation. The more opulent estimated their annual loss at one-fifth of the increase ”

“ At home the occupation of stealing sheep was considered pretty low down, and no man who followed the business was countenanced by the best society. A sheep thief, or one who was suspected of having a fondness for mutton not belonging to him, was talked about. And for thirteen dollars a month, and an insignificant bounty, I had become a sheep thief. If I ever run another newspaper, after the war, how did I know but a vile contemporary across the street would charge me with being a sheep thief, and prove it by McCarty. ”

“ The law as it was did not distinguish between a case of the kind just related, of the starving, sorely tempted Shergold, and that of the systematic thief: sheep-stealing was a capital offence and the man must hang, unless recommended to mercy, and we know what was meant by "mercy" in those days. That so barbarous a law existed within memory of people to be found living in most villages appears almost incredible to us ”

“ His share of the spoils was not sufficient, it appears, to support him in his extravagance for he joined sheep stealing to footpad robbery, and was at last obliged to fly from his place of residence for stealing a young heifer, which he killed and cut up for sale. Soon after this, he stole two oxen from one Farmer Giles, of Plaistow, and drove them to a butcher’s slaughtering-house near Waltham Abbey. ”

“ Poultry-stealing and sheep-stealing prevail to a considerable extent. There is no rural police, and the parish constables are for the most part utterly useless, except for serving summonses, &c. Sheep and poultry stealers, therefore, very frequently escape with impunity. Drunkenness prevails to a lamentable extent—not so much among the lowest class, who are restrained by their poverty, as among those who are in better circumstances. Every market or fair day affords too much proof of this assertion. Unchastity in the women is, I am sorry to say, a great stain upon our people. ”

“ Men who can deliberately do this, and steal nearly all the horses, cattle, sheep, hogs and property of a whole community, and drive them from their homes en masse, in an inclement season of the year, will not find many qualms of conscience in stealing the pay of his brother thieves, and taking the "saline slope." ”

“ At sunset they would go home to a supper of more barley bannocks, washed down with hot water flavoured with some aromatic herb or weed, and then straight to bed to get warm, for there was little firing.
It was not strange that sheep-stealing was one of the commonest offences against the law at that time, in spite of the dreadful penalty. Hunger made the people reckless. My old friend Joan, and other old persons, have said to me that it appeared in those days that the men were strangely indifferent and did not seem to care whether they were hanged or not. ”

“ I took you for horse thieves——"
"Just what we sized you up as," laughed Slim, who now had recognized the professor, though Zeb was a stranger. "Mighty sorry to have troubled you," went on the foreman, "but we couldn't take any chances."
"Especially with the sheep herders likely to swoop down on us and spoil everything," added Bud.
"Hello, boys! Are you there?" exclaimed Professor Wright as he recognized the voice of the lad. "You say someone had been stealing your sheep?" ”

“ When I saw them staggering along, almost too weak to drag one foot before the other, and dying at the rate of about fifty per day, I ordered those who had cattle and sheep to deliver them up to me, and each night when we got into camp, I had as many killed as were required to give them just enough food to keep them alive. Niggers have absolutely no feelings of humanity, and the owners of the sheep and cattle grumbled loudly at my action in feeding the others with their property, which they charged me with stealing. ”

“ We had a rendezvous at old Wages’ about twelve miles from Mobile, and another at Dog River, about the same distance in a different direction. We ranged that season from one place to the other, and sometimes in town, stealing any and everything we could. Sometimes killing beef, hogs and sheep, hauling them to town and selling them; sometimes stealing a fine horse or mule and conveying it to some of our comrades to conceal; and occasionally a negro would disappear. ”

“ Horton at Halifax. As many as sixteen or seventeen persons in all were taken up. Some of these confessed other crimes, being, however, unconnected with this murder, as of stealing meal and flour, and a gun from Handganroyd Mill, sheep-stealing, &c. I believe that one or two persons were convicted of sheep-stealing. ”

“ Anyone stealing sheep or cattle or parts thereof is a felon and shall suffer death without benefit of clergy.
Persons who steal or aid in stealing any lead, iron bar, iron gate, palisade, or iron rail fixed to any house or its outhouses, garden, orchard, or courtyard is guilty of felony and may be transported for seven years. In 1756 also included was copper, brass, bell-metal, and solder; buyers and receivers; and mills, warehouses, workshops, wharves, ships, barges, and other vessels. ”

“ By retiring with a few sheep and cattle to the interior; where, from the natural increase of these descriptions of stock, especially if assisted by occasional additions in the way of sheep and cattle stealing, or by the purchase of stolen sheep and cattle, numerous flocks and herds are often acquired by ticket of leave men and emancipated convicts, and a large property realized in the course of a few years. ”

“ Our cattle, from poverty, bogged in the river, or perished from hunger. This was all due to the barbarous grazing system under which we worked, the United States refusing to sell or lease land for grazing purposes; consequently, except at the end of a gun, one had no control over his range. Cattle versus sheep wars resulted, stealing became rampant and success impossible.
Among other sales made was that of some 1500 steers, of all ages, which we drove right up to the heart of Colorado and disposed of at good prices. ”

“ The immense majority of these laws relate to one crime, theft, and to one form of that crime, the theft of cattle. We have before us a population of herdsmen and sheep-masters whose chief concern it is to guard their live stock from the sly, roving cattle-lifter, and to recover them when thus purloined. ”

“ Nor are these the only robbers against which these vigilant watchers defend the sheep: if a human beast of prey, in shape of a thief, lies lurking in the ditches that border the roadside, watching an opportunity for seizing a lamb, they detect him and compel him to show himself. At night, too, they march round the nets that enclose the little encampment, and give the weary guardians time to sleep. Before they go to sleep, the peasants light a fire, and make cheese and ricotti, (a sort of Devonshire cream,) with which they repay the owner of the soil for leave to encamp on his grounds. ”

“ The only object of such a raid is the acquisition of property; and even a handsome horse, or a remarkably swift dromedary, will cause the destruction of a whole clan.
Living in the desert, and only travelling from one fertile spot to another, they cannot be expected to be very delicate in regard to provisions, nor to possess any great skill in cookery. Their greatest luxury is a feast on boiled mutton and the whole process of cooking and serving is almost ludicrously simple. The body of a sheep is cut up and thrown into a pot, together with a sufficiency of water. ”

“ Last fiscal year our people had to mark more than $150,000 off their accounts to the credit of cattle thieves. To-day, because of the invasion of the sheep and the taking up of claims by homesteaders—every one of whom is a cattle thief, remember, Blunt—the available range for our people's stock is less than half what it was ten years ago. Absolute ruin stares us all in the face."
"Well, what can one man do about it?" ”

“ In a case of this kind, when either of the families stole a hog, cow or sheep from the master, he had to carry it to some of his friends, for fear of being betrayed by the other family. On one occasion a man, who lived with one unfriendly, stole a hog, killed it, and carried some of the meat home. He was seen by some one of the other family, who reported him to the overseer, and he gave the man a severe whipping. ”

“ If any one be found guilty of stealing guinea corn, carravances, potatoes, or the like, out of any of the plantations, he forfeits a cow and a calf to the owner, or more, in some measure proportionate to the offence.
In case one man’s cattle break into another’s plantation, the owner, for every beast found there, must give an iron shovel.
If any one steal another man’s hive of honey, and be caught, the fine is three iron shovels. These iron shovels, hoes, &c., are a kind of small money with these people, for here is no trade but by barter, or the exchange of one commodity for another ”

“ All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. ”

“ A more aggravating annoyance, however, brings loss to the owners of the herds. Despite the stringent law, there is always a certain number of desperate men who take perilous chances in stealing cattle and running them off beyond recovery by their owners. ”

“ The great dart is to keep the young stock away from their mothers until they forget one another, and then most of the danger is past. But if calves with one man's brand on are seen sucking another man's cows, it is pretty plain that the brand on the calves has been put on without the consent of the owner of the cows—which is cattle-stealing ”

“ It was fast riding, too, for when word comes in that cattle stealers are in the neighborhood of any ranch, it behooves those charged with the safety of men and animals to be on the "jump." There is always more or less theft going on among the western cattle ranches but most of it is on such a small scale that drastic action is not often taken. ”

“ But when a "bunch" of valuable steers is driven off and when there are indications that an organized attempt is being made to steal more, this shows the presence of cattle rustlers, and concerted action must be taken against them. ”

“ Since the sheriff was invariably heart and soul a cattleman himself, he generally took care that he wasn't anywhere in the neighborhood when a cattle thief met his just deserts. Even now this rule holds effect in the cattle lands. Only two years ago a prominent rancher in this country—the Sonoita Range—shot and killed a Mexican who with a partner had been caught red-handed in the act of stealing cattle. ”

“ Even in the worst times it was never customary, never thought necessary, to guard the flock by night. Many cases could be given to show how easy it was to steal sheep. One quite recent, about twenty years ago, is of a shepherd who was frequently sent with sheep to the fairs, and who on his way to Wilton fair with a flock one night turned aside to open a fold and let out nineteen sheep. On arriving at the fair he took out the stolen sheep and sold them to a butcher of his acquaintance who sent them up to London. ”

“ Like enough somebody will be hollering again about being shy a few fat steers or calves. There were three hundred head of cattle reported missing off the ranges last year and about that much or more every year for a dog’s age––if all reports be true. Funny thing they can’t lay the rustlers by the heels and hang them by the necks in the good old-fashioned way.”
“Yes!” commented Jim, “if that crowd are mean enough to thieve feed and grain, I wouldn’t care to turn them loose among anybody’s cattle, especially now the feed and grain stealing business is unhealthy.” ”

“ THE SHEPHERD AND THE THIEF.
There was once a shepherd, who fed a flock of sheep in the desert and kept strait watch over them. One night, there came to him a thief, thinking to steal some of his flock and finding him assiduous in guarding them, sleeping not by night neither relaxing in his vigilance by day, prowled about him all night, but could get nothing of him. ”

“ As such theft happened frequently, the punishment was severe. The compensation for a stolen ox is still greater by one-fourth, because the theft is easily carried out. The sheep keep together when they feed, and can be watched by the shepherd, so that theft when it is committed can only take place by night. ”

“ But now, assisting these thieves, and being made rich by them, you say they are not robbers; just as wicked men generally shield their abettors.
On our return from this place, we met a colored man and woman, who were very cross to each other. We inquired as to the cause of their trouble, and the man told us, that “women had such tongues!” that some of them had stolen a sheep, and this woman, after eating of it, went and told their master, and they all had to receive a severe whipping. ”

“ All of the citizens and farmers residing in the neighborhood were the victims of pillage, being robbed of horses, provisions, valuables, etc., while cattle, sheep, poultry and other live stock were confiscated and slaughtered for the use of the raiders. ”

“ But they searched in vain for the Cattle Thief: that
lion had left his lair,
And they cursed like a troop of demons—for the
women alone were there.
"The sneaking Indian coward," they hissed; "he
hides while yet he can;
He'll come in the night for cattle, but he's scared
to face a man." ”