No one cared to interfere with these early activities in collecting unclaimed cattle.

Many a foundation for a great fortune was laid in precisely that way.

It was not until the more canny days in the North that Mavericks were regarded with jealous eyes.
The large-handed and once generous methods of the old range now began to narrow themselves.

Even if the Little Fellow were able to throw a fence around his own land, very often he did not have 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.