CHAPTER XXVII

H. SWAN failed in the month of May, 1887. The

announcement fell like a bombshell in Cheyenne and the cattle industry of the West was shaken to its foundation. Bankers and others rushed to the above town but they were hopeless errands. It was utter ruin. Not only the banks made a total loss, but the employes down to the hired girl saw their savings disappear. When the above gentleman's castle of cards fell he was disqualified as a Director of the Swan Company and shortly afterwards resigned as manager. I have tried in former chapters to tell an honest story about Mr. Swan, and while he is dead and gone these many years and no good purpose could be attained by heaping ignominy on him, still one has to tell the truth, and as memories come flooding into my mind I think his failure was probably as rotten a piece of business as one could imagine, and it gave the western cattle business a very black eye. His operations had one and all been of the most reckless character. With his casual hypnotism he had worked his credit to a finish, pyramiding one debt upon another, borrowing from Paul to pay Peter and carrying along with evident success great schemes, skillfully concealing the weak points and boosting the strong ones. But of no avail. Nature outraged claimed its retribution and Swan courted, flattered, gradually drifted downwards, a better man in his decline than in his glory, but he never got on his feet again financially. Leaving Cheyenne he lived for a while in Ogden fighting an uphill battle, and he died in an asylum almost forgotten.

To take his place the Directors of the Company sent out Mr. Finlay Dun. He came at a critical time and he did some extraordinary things. It is almost incomprehensible that a Board of Directors should have sent an untried man in western affairs to take hold of a company in serious

distress financially and otherwise, when there were no end of men in the West who could have taken hold of the concern and so far have organized its management to meet the changed conditions. Mr. Dun at once began to hobnob with the Swan clique, he advised with his friends, maintained the old staff and then he proceeded to count the cattle by painting them. The present Chairman of the company, Mr. J. C. Johnston (afterwards the very successful manager of the Prairie Cattle Co.) was employed to check and assist in the count. It is an episode in his life which he rarely talks about. His protest against the method used had no weight with the Company's secretary. The painting went on but summer's rain and burning suns were too much for Mr. Dun's new idea. He admitted defeat by saying that the paint was not "sufficiently adhesive." After all, he had to make an estimate which proved to be far too liberal and had to be shaved several times in the after years. The cowboys who laughed in their sleeve at this new-fashioned way of handling cattle, produced the following ditty known all over the West in those days at least:

"Daddy Dun's a dandy

But his paint won't stick."

Mr. Dun went home in the fall and the Directors, after hearing his report, evidently began to wake up to the serious condition of affairs. The shareholders became alive to the situation and took a hand in them. The Board individually were a splendid lot of men but not a man of them had any wide experience of western affairs. There was a terrific write-off in the cattle account, somewhere about $1,600,000. Shortly after New Year's they began to cast around for a manager. In a short list considered were Mr. Finlay Dun, who proposed to spend the summers in Wyoming and act as Secretary in Edinburgh during the winter; Mr. J. C. Johnston, mentioned above, a man of wide experience in Texas and Wyoming, and the writer. I was not an applicant but was considered and finally was offered the position. The

reason I was eventually selected was not that I was any better than my friend Johnston, but that I was able to give valuable financial assistance to the company. Shortly before the first day of March, 1888, I was appointed manager and for the next eight years and four months my principal work was to try and bring this unfortunate Company out of its difficulties, and, as will be seen, was only partially successful.

The policy of the Company under Swan and the Home Board was to work it as an open range proposition. In 1886, as shown above, they bought a herd of cattle, purely a range proposition. They bought land to control range when it was evident to practical rangemen that in Western Nebraska, Eastern Colorado and Southeast Wyoming the days of the open range were doomed. After 1886-87 this became more. apparent but for years the Swan Company considered itself a range company, till gradually it was left alone, a solitary ship surrounded by rocks and quicksand in the form of small ranchmen, sheepmen and dry farmers. No doubt the land will prove a good proposition but a great deal of it has been held so long and its book value has grown so rapidly through compound interest, taxes and necessary improvements that it is doubtful even at present prices the Company will make much. On the first of March, 1888, you had a complex situation to face. The Company had lost half its liquid assets. It had an authorized capital of $4,500,000 and even after their losses, as stated above, and various other items charged off, the capital account showed over $2,600,000. The inventory is herewith produced as at 31st December, 1887. In it the numbers of cattle are a mere guess and proved to be too high. (See table at end of chapter.)

In their report in which the above statement is published and presented to the shareholders, 29th March, 1888, the following paragraph appears:

The Directors desire to repeat their unfeigned regret at the serious shortage in the numbers of the Herd, caused, they feel assured, chiefly by a very large deficiency in the Cattle stated to have been handed over

by the Vendors; and by the over-statement of the Calf Brands of 1883-4-5, now believed to have been misrepresented by the Manager in order to keep up the appearance of the size of the Herd. Mr. Swan's connection with the Company has been most unfortunate, and his misrepresentations and neglect have caused serious losses.

And they further add,

The Directors, in conclusion, feel assured that the Herd as it now exists, with the Lands and advantageous Ranges, and the improvements already in progress for the better winter care of the Cattle, still constitute a valuable property capable under honest efficient management of yielding satisfactory returns.

It is well that "hope springs eternal in the human breast." The Directors of that day have all passed over the Great Divide of Life. They were honest, capable, intensely loyal men, all of them losing heavily in this concern, vainly trying to stem the tide that was running against them, victims principally of the elements, led away in a measure by false gods. When Swan's balloon collapsed they were helpless and Mr. Dun's interim management merely intensified their difficulties. When the above gentleman came out in 1887 he found a fine organization in control of the physical and local financial work of the Company. In this direction Swan was a master and he gathered round him an able corps of lieutenants. In early days Zach Thomasson was his superintendent but he went to the Ogallala Land & Cattle Co., with headquarters at Ogallala, Neb. When I took charge of the Company's affairs Alexander Bowie was superintendent; F. W. Lafrentz was cashier. Both of these parties lived in Cheyenne. Duncan Grant was in charge of the ranches, assisted by Ed. Banks. William Booker was range foreman. Fred Haight ran the Chugwater place as headquarters. It was a sort of half-way hotel with a store adjoining. The railroad, however, had killed its usefulness. In the outfit were a lot of capable men in minor positions, such as Frank Sheik, Dave Morris, John Bowie, Rufe Rhodes, Ben Guy, Harry Haig (brother of General Haig), George Prentice and many others. As an organization it was capable of running