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YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

THE COWBOY

THE COWBOY
HIS CHARACTERISTICS. HIS EQUIPMENT, AND HIS PART
IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST

BY
PHILIP ASHTON ROLLINS

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1922

COPVBIGHT, 1922, BV
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Printed m the United States of America

Published April, 1922

MY MOTHER
AND TO
MY WIFE

PREFACE
The American cowboy, by reason of his picturesqueness,
has been a frequent subject for the dramatist, the noveMst,
the illustrator, and the motion-picture photographer.
All these producers have been limited by the technical
requirements of their arts, and have stressed the cowboy's
picturesqueness to the exclusion of his other qualities.
They have done this so definitely and attractively as to
create an ostensible type which rapidly is being accepted
by the American public as an accurate portrait of the now
bygone puncher.
The portrait is often charmingly presented, but it is not
accurate. The cowboy was far more than a theatric char
acter. He was an affirmative, constructive factor in the
social and political development of the United States.
Consequently he deserves to be assured more kindly
treatment by ultimate history than presumably he 'will re
ceive imless, while the testimony of eye-'witnesses be still
procurable, such testimony be gathered and recorded.
Mr. Emerson Hough's "The Story of the Cowboy" sup
plied e^vidence of this nature, and was so delightfully read
able that it alone should have proved sufficient; but never
theless the "movie man" still continues his work of smirch
ing the cowboy's reputableness. Wherefore it is incumbent
that additional eye-witnesses should follow Mr. Hough onto
the 'wdtness-stand, even though their testimony be given in
a form far less interesting than was that which he employed.
The 'writer, during a series of years before the fateful one
of 1892, was upon the open Range, and was brought into

VIU PREFACE
intimate relationship with many of its people. In 1892,
that year of Wyoming's "Rustler War," he was in Wyo
ming and, in close contact with participants in that adven
ture. Since 1892 he has been more or less frequently in the
one-time Cattle Country.
He makes no pretension of having discovered the West,
any part of it, any person in it, or anything relating to it.
But in this book he has earnestly striven to record truth
fully what Western ranchmen, in the ordinary course of their
business, said within his hearing and did before his eyes,
and thus to recount accurately the every-day hfe of the
old-time Range.
He has restricted himself to what he actuaUy saw and
heard, except in the cases of four classes of matter.
The first of these classes is comprised of the description of
events which occurred prior to the decade of the eighties.
To various standard histories, notably that of Bancroft, to
numerous old-timers talking at the ranch-table or beside the
camp-fire, and to the several printed reports by five-stock
commissions, the writer is indebted for the material which
he has used.
The second class is made of such of the illustrative anec
dotes as relate to adventures with the Indians. These, al
though hearsay, came from unimpeachable sources. They
were severally given to the writer by the direct word of
mouth of Major Frank P. Fremont, Tazewell Woody, John
Yancey, and, above all, of that great scout, James Bridger.
A whole new world was opened to a very youthful "tender
foot" when in 1874 Mr. Bridger told him of Kit Carson.
The third class, the references to the distances ridden by
Leon and by Aubrey, is taken from Haydn's "Dictionary
of Dates," and Captain J. L. Humfreville's "Twenty Years
among Our Hostile Indians," this last augmented by Cap
tain Humfre"viUe in conversation.
The fourth class consists of the assertions as to the prob-

PREFACE ix
ability of pursued men's "doubfing back" upon their
courses. These assertions are the result of frequent con
versations held years since upon the subject with various of
the Indian scouts.
Because the book represents a sincere attempt to provide
some future historian 'wdth rehable statements of fact, it
contains no imaginative material beyond that specified in
subsequent paragraphs of this Preface.
All the people mentioned in the book did and said just
what the book attributes to them; and, with the single ex
ception of "Mr. New Yorker" in Chapter IV, all the names
ascribed to people mentioned in the book were the actual
names of such people.
The names which, on pages 240 and 306, are ascribed to
ranches are fictitious.
The ¦writer owes a very real debt to his friend, Howard
Thayer Kingsbury, who, loaning his keen sense of historical
perspectives and his nice appreciation of hterary forms, made
various suggestions, all of which have been followed, and
who also pricked some virulent Uterary bUsters.
The 'writer is much indebted also to his friend, John H.
Bradford, who, experienced on the cattle-range and versed
in the accurate use of English, made corrections in the
manuscript. This Preface closes 'with a dupHcation of the appeal where-
'with the final chapter of this book concludes.
P. A. R.
28 East 78th Street, New York City,
January 10, 1922.

CONTENTS

I. The Beginnings op Ranching

ORIGIN OF RANCHING, OF ITS EQUIPMENT AND TECHNIC —
"¦WILD horses"  "WIID CATTLB"  "INDIAN PONIES" — BE
GINNING OF RANCHING BY AMERICANS — O-yERLAND TRAIL AND
ITS USERS  ^DEVELOPMENT OP RANCHING  TEXAS TRAIL 
VARIOUS DEFINITIONS  RAISING OF CATTLE AND HORSES COM
PARED  "free" water and GRASS  OPEN RANGE  SELECTING
LANDS  FENCES  USE OP OPEN RANGE  RANCHINO's INCOM
PATIBILITY WITH FARMING  SOURCES WHENCE RANCHMEN RE
CRUITED  CHARACTER OF RANCHMEN  ENGLISH CONTINGENT 
FINANCIAL CAPITAL  EXTENT OP RANGE.
II. Ranchmen and Farmers  27
PROTECTIVE MEASURES — NEW MEXICAN AND CALIFORNIAN
RANCHES  ^VARIOUS DEFINITIONS — ^BRONCO'S VARIOUS NAMES-
IMPROVING QUALITY OP LIVE STOCK — DECADENCE OP HORSE-
RAISING  PRICES OP LIVE STOCK — FARMERS' ADVENT ENDS
RANCHING  ranchman's AND PABMER's VALUE TO STATE COM
PARED  DISPERSAL OP RANCHMEN ON ENDING OF OPEN RANGE
 VABIOUS DEFINITIONS  RANCHWOMEN — " COWGIRLS "  AN
TIPATHY TO SHEEP — ITS CAUSES AND ITS CESSATION.
III. Definitions and Cowboy Wats  39
VARIOUS TITLES FOR COWBOY  VARIOUS DEFINITIONS — NO TYPI
CAL COWBOY — USB OF PISTOL  DANGEROUS ANIMALS — BBAB-
DOGS  LOCO--WBED  SHOOTING AT TENDERFOOTS' FEET — ITS IN-
CENTI-VE  CARRIAGE AND SHOOTING OP PISTOL  EXTENT OP
latter's USB  PISTOL NOT ALWAYS NECESSITY — BAD MAN,
PSEUDO AND ACTUAL  PISTOL AS NOISB-MAKEB — RIFLE, ITS
TRANSPORT AND NAMES  CREASING AND WALKING DO^WN MUS
TANGS  VARIOUS DEFINITIONS  INTIMACY WITH HORSES  THEIR
NAMES, COLORATION AND SECTIONAL DIFFERENCES  KILLING
HOESES — SIGNALLING — KNIFE  LARIAT.
IV. Cowboy Character  65
NECESSARY COURAGE — BODILY INJURIES  UNCOMPLAININGNBSS
 CHEEEFULNESS  RBSER-VTB TOWARD STRANGERS  ITS CAUSE
 CUSTOMS WHEN MEETING PEOPLE, AND WHEN ENTERING A
CAMP  PERSONAL NAMES  ETIQUETTE OP GUN AND HAT — IN
TRODUCTIONS  CURBING CURIOSITY — ATTITUDE TOWARD WOMEN
xi

xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
— ILLNESS AND MEDICAL TREATMENT — SENTENTIOUSNESS  DEF
INITIONS — QUIZZICALITY — SLANG — PROFANITY — DEFINITIONS 
RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE — POWER OF OBSERVATION  CHARACTER
ISTIC POSE  USE OP TOBACCO — ^BOWED LEGS — ^DEGREE OF HON
ESTY  ESTIMATE OP EASTERNERS  INTELLECTUAL INTERESTS
AND SCOPE  SENSE OF DIGNITY — VANITY.
V. What the Cowboy Wore  103
WHAT THE COWBOY WORE AND WHY HE WORE IT — HAT, ITS
FORM, DBCOBAnON, USES AND NAMES  HANDKERCHIEF, ITS
COLOR AND USE — SHIRT — COLLAR'S ABSENCE  GARTERS  COAT
AND TROUSERS — BELT — ^VEST — " MAKINGS" — "NATURAL CURI
OSITIES" — MATCHES — FANCY VEST — O-VBRCOAT — GLO-VES 
CUFFS — BOOTS — SPURS  "cHAPS" — FURS — "WAR PAINT " 
HAIR CHAIN — OTHER RANCHMEN'S RAIMENT.
VI. Saddles  120
HIDING SADDLE, ITS NAMES, SHAPE, COMPONENT PARTS AND
VARIOUS ATTACHMENTS — LATTBR's NAMES AND USES — MERITS
OP SINGLE RIG AND DOUBLE BIG COMPARED  FURTHER SADDLE
ATTACHMENTS, THEIR NAMES AND USES  CAMPING AND CAMP-
COOKING — STILL FURTHER SADDLE ATTACHMENTS — FONDNESS
FOR SADDLE  SADDLING — ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OP
STOCK-SADDLE — WESTERN RIDING RECORDS.
VII. Bridle, Lariat, and Quirt  137
THE QUIRT AND ITS USE  LARIAT, ITS NAMES, FORM, AND USE 
SECTIONAL DIFFERENCES IN ROPING ABILITY — STAKE ROPE AND
HAIR ROPE — PUTTO — PICKETING  ARGUMENTATIVENESS OP
RANCHMEN — HOBBLING  BHIDLB, ITS VARIOUS FORMS— REINS
— ^METHOD OF MOUNTING HORSE  BUCKING— DISMOUNTING 
ETIQUETTE OF DISMOUNT — BIT, ITS VARIOUS FORMS AND THEIR
NAMES— COW HORSE  HACKAMORE — GHOST CORD  TWITCH.
VIII. Equipment and Furnishings  153
"plunder" and "DOFUNNIBS" — PACK-SADDLE, ITS VARIOUS
FORMS AND NAMES — ITS LOAD — VARIOUS HITCHES  WAB SACKS
AND POKES- — ALFORJ AS — HORSE-TRADING — STEALING OF LI-VTB
STOCK — ITS PUNISHMENT — LONG HAIR — VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
AND ITS PUNISHMENTS — -SCENES ON THE TRAIL — RANCH BUILD
INGS — TANK — GO DEVIL — CORRALS — ABSENCE OP FIELDS — EGGS
— PERSONNEL— -VISITORS  PETS — READING — MUSIC  LIGHTING.
IX. Diversions and Recreations  174
FURTHER DIVERSIONS  TARANTULA DUELS — RATTLESNAKES
KILLED BY KING-SNAKES — ANTELOPE, ETC. — REPTILES IN BED-

CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTEB PAQE
DING  ^LITTLE DANGER FROM SNAKES — SBCTIONAX CUSTOMS 
HARMLESSNESS OF WILD ANIMALS — ^DUELS BETWEEN VARIOUS
BEASTS  WOLVES AND BEARS  HORSE-RACES  INDIAN EN
TRANTS  FOOT-RACES — OTHER RECREATIONS  COURSING  ^HAZ
ING TENDERFOOTS — CARD-PLAYING  DRINKING AND EXTENT OF
DRUNKENNESS — DANCING  PAUCITY OF RECREATIONS.
X. The Day's Work ..... ..... 190
BEGINNING DAY's WORK — MORNING SADDLING  OUTRIDING 
BLABBING — ANIMALS' AILMENTS  PORCUPINES — WAGONS AND
JERK LINEB  BULL WHIP  VARIOUS DEFINITIONS — SHOEING
HORSES  CLOUDBURST — INDIAN FIGHTING  MORE DEFINITIONS
 PRAIRIE FIRES  THEIR CAUSE — CYCLONES  '(WNTBR HARD
SHIPS  FREEZE  WINTER GRAZING  DROWNINGS — WAGES —
DRIFT  BOX CANYONS  STORMS  RIDING IN DIFFICULT COUN
TRY — BELF-SUFPICIBNCY OP BRONCOS — WOLPERS AND WOLVES.
XI. Live Stock  214
HABITS OP LIVE STOCK ON RANGE  VARIOUS DEFINl'HONS 
ROUND-UP  ITS SCOPE, METHODS, AND DATE — CLASSIFICA'HON
OP CATTLE  FURTHER DEFINITIONS  PREPARATIONS FOR ROUND
UP  ITS CONDUCT — "cutting OUT''  "PEQ PONY" — ROPING —
SNUBBING  VARIOUS DEFINITIONS.
XII. Branding and the Round-Up  231
TAILING  BRANDING FIRE  BULLDOGGING  BRANDS AND MARKS
 BRANDING-IRONS AND BRANDS  BRANDING CUSTOMS — -MAV
ERICKS, DERIVATION OP TEBM  BRAND BLOTCHING — HOG-TIBS
 ESTRAYS  OPEN ROUND-UP — INSPECTORS — ATTACKS BY CAT
TLE  STAMPEDING THE BEEF ISSUE.
XIII. The Cattle Drive  252
CATTLE DRIVE — SINGING TO CATTLE — STAMPEDE — BURIALS OF
DEAD MEN — ^DEFINITIONS — WATERING LI-V:E3 STOCK — MORE DEFI
NITIONS — RAIL SHIPMENTS  SHOOTING GAME FROM TRAINS 
MORALITY OF WEST — FURTHER DEFINITIONS  TEXAS TRAIL AND
OREGON DRIVE — SWIMMING CATTLE — QUICKSAND — MILLING 
CROSSING A RAILWAY — QUARANTINE  FINANCIAL RESULTS.
XIV. Breaking Horses  274
COW-PONIES  DEFINITIONS — BREAKING HORSES — BUCKING —
EQUINE OUTLAWS  MAN KILLERS — -DANGER FROM CATTLB —
SPOILED HORSES  MORE ABOUT BUCKING  ITS DANGER — LYING
DOWN  RUNAWAYS — METHODS OF RIDING BUCK  "HUNTING
leather" — REASON FOR BUCKING  EUROPEAN HORSES  .

xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTEB PAGE
PRESENT-DAY EXHIBITIONS — HORSE DEIVE— --VISIT TO TOWN —
MONEY — CONVENTIONS ON ENTEBING TOWN — SHOOTING-UP
TOWN— BUYING IT — DBPABTUBE FBOM TOWN.
XV. Rustling  300
EABLY STEALING  LINCOLN COUNTY WAB  NESTEBS  BEGIN
NING OF RUSTLING — DEFINITIONS — SENTIMENTS PERMITTING
BUSTLING — ¦ BANGB-DWELLEBS — THEIR SEVERAL ATTITUDES
TOWARD BUSTLING  EUSTLEBS' METHODS — WYOMING'S BUSTLER
WAB — ITS SIGNIFICANCE.
XVI. Trailing  316
BIDING SIGN — TRAILING  CO-WBOYS' PABTICIPA'nON— AXIOMS —
FACULTIES INVOLVED — OB.IECTI-VES — OBSERVATION  VISUAL
"SIGNS " — AUDIBLE WAENINGS — SMELL  TOUCH — DEFINITIONS
— DETBEMINING AGE  PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS — EXPLORATION
— FALLIBILITY.
XVII. Later Phases of Western Migration . . . 341
OEDBB OF WESTERN MIGRATIONS — EFFECTS PRODUCED BY
MINBBS AND OTHERS— RANCHMEN PRINCIPAL CEEATORS OP
SPIRIT OF -WEST — THAT SPIRIT — IMPRESS LEFT BY RANCHMEN.

THE COWBOY

CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING
OHIGIN OF RANCHING, OF ITS EQUIPMENT AND TECHNIC — "-WILD HORSES "
— "-WILD CATTLE " — "INDIAN PONIES " — BEGINNING OF RANCHING BT AMER
ICANS — OVERLAND TRAIL AND ITS USERS — ^DE'VrELOPMENT OF RANCHING —
TEXAS TRAIL — VARIOUS DBFINI'HONS — RAISING OF CATTLE AND HORSES
COMPARED — "free" WATER AND GRASS — OPEN RANGE — SELECTING LANDS
— FENCES — USB OF OPEN RANGE — BANCHING'S INCOMPATIBILITY WITH
FARMING — SOURCES WHENCE RANCHMEN RECRUITED — CHARACTER OF
RANCHMEN — ENGLISH CONTINGENT — FINANCIAL CAPITAL — EXTENT OP
RANGE To the Mexicans the American cowboy owed his voca
tion. For his character he was indebted to no one.
He obtained from Mexican sources all the tools of his
trade, all the technic of his craft, the very words by which
he designated his utensils, the very animals with which he
dealt; but, as one of the dominant figures in the develop
ment of the United States, he was self-made.
His saddle, bridle, bit, lariat, spurs, and speciafized ap
parel were not designed by him. He merely copied what
for generations had been in use below the Rio Grande.
The bronco that he rode and the steer that he roped, each
reached him only after they, in self or by the proxy of their
ancestors, had come northward across that river.
Long before the cowboy's advent and in A. D. 1519 and
the years immediately succeeding it, the Spanish invaders
of Mexico took thither from Europe small lots of horses and
cattle. These horses were assuredly the first the American
continents had seen since the geological Ice Age, when the
prehistoric native horse became extinct; and these cattle
very probably were the first upon which those continents
had ever looked, 1

2 THE COWBOY
From these imported beasts descended the vast herds
which eventually overspread the grazing lands of Mexico,
and 'with countless hoofs pounded the plains of America's
West. This wholesale multiphcation from the initial fifteen
military chargers and the original fittle group of long-
horned Andalusian cattle was a matter not of a day, but
of years that well-nigh spanned three centuries.
Nor was this overflo'wing into the present United States
a causeless thing. It was planned and supervised by dark-
skinned, 'wide-hatted men to whom Cotapaxi, Montezuma,
and, 'withal, "manana" were familiar words.
To understand this movement and its incentive one must
turn back for a moment to that year 1519 and its Spanish
invaders. The latter promptly resolved themselves into
Mexican settlers; and, as 'with successive generations they
numerically increased, they, generation by generation, spread
and in part crept northward. Each migrating settler
took his five stock with him as he moved. At the end of
three hundred years the Rio Grande had long since been
crossed, and there were firmly estabUshed in the south
eastern part of present Texas numerous ranches, each cov
ering an enormous acreage and asserting ownership over the
great herds that habitually grazed upon it.
The owners of these ranches obtained from them no com
mercial profit, for the reason that there was no available
selling market for their animals. These owners could make
of their live stock no disposition beyond satisfying the scant
requirements of the hacienda's dinner-table, of the local
cobbler, and the neighboring saddle-maker, and also be
yond insuring that every person on the premises ever would
be provided with a riding horse. These requisitions with
drew so fittle from the herds that each year they markedly
increased in size.
Throughout the stretches between the landholdings of

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 3
the various ranches and throughout the peopleless country
to their north were other horses and cattle, either them
selves strays from then contemporary herds, or else de
scendants of strays from prior herds. These outljring
animals gleefully led a fife of saucy independence, were
very numerous, and were claimed by no man. They were
the so-called wild horses and 'wild cattle, having been thus
misnamed by early explorers, who had failed to recognize
them as issue of domesticated animals.
These wild cattle rarely wandered far above the northerly
boundary of what is now the State of Texas; but the wild
horses used all the plains as a playgroimd, and were fa
miliar 'with even the present Canadian border.
From such of these wild horses as were ensnared by the
Red Man sprang the "Indian ponies," a classification that
was fictitious in that it assumed the existence of a special
breed. The owners of these early ranches in present Texas were
accustomed to burn or to cut upon their animals marks of
proprietorship, but the indolence of the various owners let
many of their animals escape this imposition. Thus inter-
mingUng 'with the inscribed animals were others which,
being unmarked, did not patently disclose whether they
were the property of a rancher or were mere visitors from
the "wild" bands.
The methods and implements employed at these early
estabfishments were so fully developed that, when years
afterward America's West came into existence, it at first
adopted these methods and implements in their entirety,
and subsequently modified them only in so far as to brand
more industriously, break and ride less cruelly, shepherd
more carefully, guide both breeding and grazing, and es
tabUsh sufficient selUng markets. Incidentally, these later
betterments in methods of breeding and breaking were due
largely to EngUshmen who, trained in stock-raising, had bid

4 THE COWBOY
farewell to their home country and had cast their lot in
with that of the plains.
But America's West had not as yet been born, and the
Mexicans were the only ranchmen in present southeastern
Texas until the year 1821.
In that year there began to trickle into that Texan sec
tion from the more easterly part of the continent a scant
rivulet of pioneers who were of Scottish and EngUsh descent
and of colonial American stock, who were quitting their
homes in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and elsewhere in
the lower valley of the Mississippi River, and who were
more or less aimlessly wandering westward. These pio
neers, coming upon the Mexican establishments and well
pleased with what they saw, settled amid the ranchers they
had unearthed; leamed to break and ride bucking horses;
and, as the most important element of all, provided them
selves 'with an ample supply of branding-irons. These
irons so industriously were wielded amid the "'wild" herds
as well of horses as of cattle, and, if Mexican accusations
be correct, so frequently were rested upon the sides of the
accusers' unbranded animals that presently these once im
poverished American pioneers found themselves in the class
of "cattle kings." Then they in a desultory way sought
for a selUng market. They found none 'within reach, and,
dropping thereupon into the easy-going Ufe pursued by
their Mexican neighbors, followed it until, long years after
ward, a commercial outlet was secured.
They could not sell their animals, for the very simple
reason that there were not 'within reach people to buy them.
To the south lay the waters of the Gulf. Westward were,
at the map's bottom, Mexico 'with its sparse population
and its excess supply of Uve stock; and, at the map's top,
only more animals, mile after mile of uninhabited prairie,
and then the scant Spanish settlements in far-away present
New Mexico and CaUfornia. Northward lay the great

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 5
plains, peopleless save for the Indians. Only to the east
ward might one reasonably look for opportunity to sell.
But there was a wide interval between Texas and the set
tled portions of the East.
No railways as yet crossed that intervening space.
Nor could animals in quantity march across it. Although
it was true that cattle and horses could be driven great dis
tances, they could thus be driven only over territory wherein
both nature and the local peoples consented to let them
pass. Between Texas and the Mississippi River there was
such unfavorable topography and such comparative scar
city of proper herbage as to forbid the transit of large herds.
Nor could the beasts as yet elude this bunker by trudging
northward to the latitude of benevolent east-bound trails,
since hostile Indians, like myriad wasps, flitted to and fro
across the route. Thus nature and man conspired to keep
the Texan beasts impounded, to prevent Texan ranching
from expanding into a national industry, and the Texan
cowboy from becoming a national character. This im-
poimding ceased when the Indians were suppressed, and
their suppression was directly due to events which presently
transpired in a more northerly section of the United States.
Wherefore these pages must for a while turn aside from
Texas, leave it to rest for some years powerless for its cat
tle, and must devote attention to the Northern country and
certain happenings there.
By 1848 the American farmers who were working west
ward through the Ohio Valley, Illinois, and Iowa had forced
the northern sector of the westward frontier but little far
ther than the Mississippi River. Just beyond were trap
pers, hunters, traders, Indians, and also wild horses that
had wandered up from Texas. These horses had remained
largely masterless, as the demands of the equestrian Indians
and of the few transborder white men had drawn com
paratively little upon the supply.

6 THE COWBOY
In the fall of 1848 there came from the Pacific coast to
the eastern United States word of the gold discovery at
Sutter's MiU, and forthwith there plunged across the fron
tier a set of adventurous men. Some of them held their
course toward CaUfornia and its mines, either to reach
their goal or to die upon the way. Others of them, allured
by the agricultural richness of the soil, cut short their jour
ney and settled on the route.
When the natural horsemen among these settlers first
came face to face with the wild horse the Northern cowboy
was in the making. When these natural horsemen discov
ered that commercially it was more profitable to capture
and break the wild horse than to accumulate animals through
the conventional breeding of more familiar stock, and that
the market behind the horsemen would absorb their mod
est output, the initial Northern ranches began, and coinci-
dentally the Northern cowboy was born.
These ranches were in their methods in no way different
from those of southeastern Texas, for men trained in this
latter section had drifted northward and given technical
instruction. But as regards comparative sizes of o'wnerships these
Northern ranches, at the outset, had to content themselves
with more modest holdings, inasmuch as the plains of
their locality held fewer wild horses, and far fewer wild
cattle than had obtained in Texas. This deficiency was
soon in part corrected through domesticated cattle, which
were procured from the pioneer farms to the eastward, and
were turned loose upon the range.
Slowly the Northern ranchmen pushed westward; slowly
because, on the one hand, they had to shove the hostile
Indians ahead of them, and, on the other hand, they could
not advance too far beyond the market at the rear. By
1860 no more progress had been made than that, in Ne
braska, scattered ranches had crept out along the Overland

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 7
Trail for one hundred and fifty miles west of the Missouri
River, while in Kansas one hundred miles had been the
limit of the movement.
Penned up in these establishments were the men who
later, and because of the coming of the railroads, were en
abled to fling across the continent, and, joining forces with
the Texans, to fill the great plains with grazing cattle.
It was true that, still westward of the fettered establish
ments just mentioned, and far out upon the Overland Trail,
were here and there a few brave settlers who, defying the
Indians, conducted ranches whereon to grow supplies for
sale to the occupants of the passing wagons. But these
ranches were too scant in number and with too local a mar
ket to be considered as having been an integral part of the
so-caUed ranching industry, the task of which was to sup
ply the Eastern States and England. They really were re
fitting stations on the trail, rather than ranches in the sense
that the "off the trail" West used the latter term. Never
theless all honor to the pioneer settlers beyond Fort Kearney,
to Pat MuUaly, Miller and Pennison, Dan Smith, Jack
Morrow, and their Indian-harried Uve stock.
These men knew what was meant by the Uttle sign occa
sionally displayed by the postmaster at Julesburg, Denver,
Cheyenne, Virginia City, or wherever: "No Eastern mail
to-day." They knew that somewhere on the plains were
a smouldering yellow stage-coach, six dead mules, and some
arrow-bedecked human bodies, and that presently upon
the scene would be erected a candle-box lid inscribed with
a date, a list of names, and the statement, "Killed by
Indians." However, these outlying pioneer settlers, because directly
upon the trail, saw far more passers-by than did many of
the later coming ranchmen who made their ultimate homes
farther afield. There moved along the trail not only the
Overland Stages, and for a time the Pony Express, but also

8 THE COWBOY
a host of wagons. In the first half of the decade of the
sixties, from four thousand to ten thousand wagons were,
save in mid-winter, always upon the trail.
These outlying pioneer settlers were ever within a short
distance from a "station" of the Overland Stage, and at
each such station news of doings in "the States" could be
obtained from the occupants of the daily west-bound stage
coach during its halt, and at any time from either the sta
tion's employees or the voyagers in the "pilgrims' room," a
shelter-room available to all passers-by on condition that
they sweep it out after using it.
These stations, from ten to fifteen miles apart along al
most the entire trail, furnished six fresh horses or mules to
every stage-coach as it rattled in. The stages, "Concord
coaches," carrying mails, baggage, express-chest, a "driver,"
a "conductor" or "guard," and as passengers nine "insides"
and six "on tops" or "outsides," jolted from Atchison,
Kansas, to Placerville, CaUfornia, approximately nineteen
hundred miles, in from seventeen to nineteen days.
The Pony Express in its short Ufe raced from "St. Joe,"
Missouri, to Sacramento, CaUfornia, upon a schedule of
eight days, making the transit on one occasion in seven
days, seventeen hours.
The Overland Trail, ha"ving formally started originally
from Independence or Westport (fifty miles below Atchison),
later from "St. Joe" (eighteen miles above Atchison), and
finaUy and after 1861 from Atchison itself, ran northwesterly
to Fort Kearney on the Platte River, meanwhile merging
with the connecting, northerly trail from Omaha. From
Fort Kearney the route followed the Platte's southerly bank
to Julesburg, Colorado. There, sending off a side spur to
Denver, it crossed the Platte, followed its north fork to
Fort Laramie, and proceeded thence along the Sweetwater
and through the Great South Pass. Then it forked, one
branch leading to CaUfornia by way of Fort Bridger, Great

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 9
Salt Lake, and the Humboldt Basin, the other branch lead
ing to Oregon by way of Fort HaU and the Snake and Co
lumbia Rivers.
It was along this trail that the Northern ranchmen first
pushed out into the Cattle Country; but by the year 1860
they, as aheady stated, had progressed but little.
By that same year Texas, still in shackles, had thrust a
few driven herds through the Indians at the State's northern
border, and so to market in the East; but it had been able
to do no more than to dispose of mere nibbUngs at its Uve
stock. Now began the era of western railway construction, and,
despite the damper of the Civil War, tracks commenced to
push into Kansas and lengthjvise of Nebraska. They
reached Wyoming in 1867, and two years later had spanned
the continent.
Through these railways the Indians presently ceased to
be an omnipresent menace. The federal government de
sired peace and quiet for the colonists whom, it was antici
pated, the railways would scatter over the plains, and so
had its army sweep the Red Men into reservations. The
major portion of the grazing country was soon made reason
ably safe, though in various localities the Indians delayed
decent behavior until the close of 1876. Even after that
time they occasionally broke bounds and went upon the
war-path, but these later forays were usually short-lived,
and with limited field.
Through these railways the ranchmen were given not
only immediate use of all the grazing lands of the West,
but also instant contact with a consuming market of suffi
cient size. Experience had sho'wn that to eam the maxi
mum profit cattle could not march far in moving from pas
ture to the consumer. Although they could successfully
be driven unconscionable distances to obtain succulent
grasses, they, after achieving this food and having thus be-

10 THE COWBOY
come portly, were economicaUy poor subjects for a long
trail. Their excess profits lay in their fat, and to turn this
into unnecessary sweat was bad business. Hence the old
slogan: "To the grass on the hoof. To the butcher in the
train." This slogan, however, often was 'violated after
market contact had been established, and while the rail
ways were as yet unable to furnish sufficient tracks and
trains. So soon as the plains were opened there poured into their
vast stretches men and animals from Nebraska and Kansas
on the east, from Texas on the south. The inpouring of
animals across the eastern border was short-Uved, for the
supply of surplus breeding beasts in that locality was lim
ited. But Texas had no such handicap. Moreover, she
from experience had discovered that the North was more
generously watered than was the South, that the grasses of
the continent's central and northern reaches were more
fattening than was the forage of her o'wn Texan prairies,
and that her Texan climate, while omitting frigid weather
dangerous to expectant mothers and their later offspring,
and so tending toward a maximum number of births and a
minimum number of infant deaths, miUtated against marked
gain in weight by a maturing animal.
Furthermore, she from the teachings of the Northern
ranchmen had leamed that cattle could be sold by the
poimd, and that this method of seUing was far more lucra
tive than had been the former Texan custom of selling by
the head.
Wherefore she began, and for more than two decades
continued, a northward procession which, though composed
primarily of lowing cattle, attained majesty through its
physical bigness and its social and poUtical effect. From
the time that this procession became well established, that
is from and after 1866, a horde of cattle and their attendant
horsemen annually marched up the route that, somewhat

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 11
changing its course with successive years, was, in the southern
latitudes, known at first as the Chishohn Trail, then as the
Fort Griffin and Dodge City Trail, later as the Northern
Trail, and, in the Northwest, was called the Texas Trail.
This procession, referred to in the Southwest as the
Northern Drive, and in the Northwest as the Texas Drive,
did not move in a single, compact mass, but was made up
of numerous, independent, and widely intervalled herds,
each composed of anywhere between a few hundred and
ten thousand cattle. The parading cattle in 1866 numbered
three hundred thousand; in each year thereafter, through
1871, progressively so increased that in the latter year over
six hundred thousand made the trek. For some further
years they held to very high numbers, but presently began
to lessen. However, not untU 1885 did they in any twelve
month recede below the mark of three hundred thousand.
Then the procession commenced to dwindle rapidly.
These marching animals, in part, trudged through weary,
dust-clouded miles to the ranges of Nebraska, Kansas,
Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, of even
British Columbia, each lot of cattle there to tarry for
months, or for a year or more, and eat to fatness. Each
lot of cattle thus feeding might have been sold by its Texan
owner to a Northern ranchman ; or the Texan, still retaining
ownership of the beasts, might graze them either upon
lands which, as yet unpre-empted, were open to aU comers,
or else upon lands the right to use which he had hired from
such Northerner as controUed them. When thus "fed up,"
these beasts, 'with well-covered ribs and as beeves of quaUty,
moved on by rail to the abattoirs of Chicago, Omaha, and
Kansas City, the junction points for the Eastern stomachs.
The paraders on the Texas Trail, in other part, once clear
from Texas, headed for the nearest railway station, and
there entrained, to fill forthwith at those same abattoirs a
call for less excellent meat.

12 THE COWBOY
The nearest railway station was, in early days, the rail
head, which, advancing with forward thrusts Uke those of
a measuring worm, intermittently pushed itself farther and
farther westward. The rail-head, until it had passed beyond
the median Une of the Texan Panhandle, was the magnet
for all driven, railway-destined herds; and so, pending that
transit, maintained unquestionable supremacy in notoriety.
At each halting spot a town sprang up, had for a while in
Eastern reputation virile competition with certain mining-
camps for the palm of infamy, and then lapsed into the
position of a mere way station upon the railway.
The Texas Trail was no narrow, trodden street. It
rather was, for the major portion of its length, a 'wide zone
along which the herders picked their way and guided their
charges, according as conditions of grass and water de
manded. This zone, however, at various places contracted
almost to a mere road, for certain rivers and arid spaces
had crossing spots that were particularly favorable. This
trail at its southern end was composed of countless Uttle
paths, one leading from each ranch in Texas. These paths
gradually drew together, welded finally into one broad
route that, avoiding the forbidden area of Indian Territory,
passed northward through the Texan Panhandle, or just
outside its eastern border, and then frayed into innumerable
divergent bjrways which kept on, here to the fattening
ranges wherever situated, here to Omaha, there to Calgary,
there to San Francisco, and, amongst themselves, to every
spot upon the Northwest's map.
Up this trail passed the Texan stockmen 'with their in
bred sectionaUsm based, in part on proud recollection of
the Texan Republic, in part on inheritance from a restricted
area of the Old South, namely Mississippi, Alabama, Ten
nessee, and their environs. At the trail's upper end these
stockmen encountered and fraternized with the Northern
ranchmen, who were gathering from the four corners of the

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 13
continent, and from even beyond its shores. The fraterni
zation caused each element so freely to give, and so fuUy to
take, that there was crystalUzed a new form of pubUc
opinion, the so-caUed spirit of the West, and there came into
existence two new beings, the Western rancher and the
American cowboy. These latter persons not only definitely
shaped pubUc opinion throughout America's West, but also
dominated for a quarter of a century in its government, and
finally left upon it a social and poUtical impress which, po
tent until the present day, may prove itself to be permanent.
Associated with these men, obedient to their leadership,
taking color from them, and so also a factor in formulating
the social and poUtical system of the Range were such of
the cowboy's fellow employees as, not being cowboys, were
therefore of a station more humble than was his. These
men of humbler station were the cook, the horse wrangler,
the teamster, and the long-suffering individual who, as use
ful man or general worker, did countless odds and ends of
tasks. The men comprised in these new classes, the Western
rancher and the American cowboy, and the men who, of
humbler station, were associated with them may have re
tained their several preferences for Texas, Arizona, Mon
tana, or wherever, may have retained their acquiescence
to the ideas of their several home locaUties, but they had
in common the spirit of the West, and they aU understood
the language of the West.
The Texas Trail was no mere cow-path. It was the course
of empire.
So important a part did this trail play in the development
of the Northwest, so relatively numerous were the Texans
among this section's ranchmen, and so conspicuous were
the Texans among this section's cowboys that some writers
have been led not only to credit to Southern birth the major
portion of the Northwest's white inhabitants, but also to

14 THE COWBOY
assume the latter's immigration to have been effected on
this trail, and thus to have proceeded in violation of the
natural law which requires emigrants to travel for the most
part upon parallels of latitude. In these averments these
writers clearly have been in error. The Texas Trail was,
as regards numbers of human traveUers, far surpassed by
the Overland Trail, and also by the Union Pacffic and other
transcontinental railways. Although Texans and other
Southerners formed a very important element among the
Northwest's ranchmen, there appears to be no reason to
question the opinions orally expressed upon the point in
the latter part of the decade of the eighties by several think
ing Northwesterners who Uved in widely separated locaU
ties, journeyed extensively, and had somewhat investigated
the subject. These men unanimously agreed that the
large majority of the Northwesterners were of northerly
extraction, including northern Europe in this latter category.
While the hardy frontier ranchmen of the decade of the
sixties and before deserve the homage due to pioneers, their
aggregate businesses constituted an enterprise which had
large commercial importance only in so far as it was path-
finding and subsequently instructive as to methods. Ac
cordingly, when speaking hereinafter of ranching and of
ranchmen, reference will be made only to such as obtained
or were operating in or after the early seventies, when the
Western Range first might use wholesale financial terms.
Furthermore and in conformity with Range custom, the
text will restrict the term "rancher" to members of the
proprietory class, will, in "ranchmen," include employees as
well as employers, and will endeavor to make as Uttle avail
as practicable of the word "rancher," for it was not of col
loquial usage throughout the Range.
Although the term "ranchmen" thus included both em
ployee and employer, it usually was differentiated to the
extent that, while aU men engaged in ranching were, as

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 15
compared -with the men of any other vocation, caUed "ranch
men," the latter as among themselves often Umited the
term to the class of ranch o'wners, designating the employees,
according to their special functions, as cowboys, wranglers,
etc. "Rancheros," the Mexican border's synonym for ranch
men, was subject to like differentiation.
The word "ranch" itself had several and quite diverse
meanings. Whether it appeared as "ranch" or in its earlier
American form of "ranche," or in its Mexican border guise
of "rancho," it denoted interchangeably either an entire
ranching estabUshment inclusive of its buildings, lands, and
Uve stock, or else the principal building, which usuaUy was
the o'wner's dwelling-house, or else that building together
with the other structures adjacent to it, or else the collec
tive persons who operated the estabUshment. The prin
cipal building, however, was more commonly specifically
designated as the "ranch house," or, on the Mexican border,
as the "rancheria."
Because man's necessity for food outweighed his need for
travel, cattle-raising, from the beginning of American ranch
ing, overshadowed in extent the raising of horses. Where
fore the majority of cowboys were associated primarily with
the cattle industry and not with that of the horse. While
it was true that some ranches raised in quantity both cattle
and horses, almost aU of the ranches specialized upon either
one or the other of these animals. Notwithstanding this,
all speciaUsts in cattle maintained perforce horses in num
ber generously sufficient for the transport of men and sup-
pUes. So predominant were the cattle that the entire grazing
area of the West customarily was called the Cattle Range
or Cattle Country. A horse rancher would naively say:
" I Uve in the Cattle Country. I've got a horse range there."
He did not say this in any deprecating way, for, unlike the

16 THE COWBOY
sheepman, he was never expected to apologize for his call
ing. On the contrary, he was a bit disposed to consider
that his vocation gave him a standing a Uttle better even
than that which the cattleman enjoyed.
Horse ranches were relatively more frequent in Texas
and Oregon than elsewhere, this because of the fact that the
ranchmen of early days had found Texas, and to a less ex
tent Oregon to be the sections most affected by the 'wild
horse. Such of these men as devoted themselves to horse-
raising settled where the wild horse could be found in quan
tity, and so gave to the locaUty a ranching trend which was
apt to be foUowed by subsequently arri'ving ranchers, and
this though their coming was delayed untU after the wild
horse had passed into capti'vity.
He had virtually disappeared by the close of the decade
of the seventies, though, for years after that, smaU bands
of unclaimed animals frisked about in the Texan Panhandle.
When the United States first acquired the West from
France, Mexico and the RepubUc of Texas, aU the grazing
country except the relatively small acreage which was pri
vately O'wned under titles of Mexican origin, belonged to the
government, the lands in Texas, by the terms under which
it entered the Union, belonging to the government of Texas,
the lands outside the Texan borders belonging to the gov
ernment of the United States.
Subsequently pieces were carved out in Texas for State
aUotments on account of local soldiers' bounties, in Texas
and elsewhere for grants by State and federal governments
to railways. The United States set apart stiU further por
tions of its domain for Indian reservations and miUtary uses.
But nevertheless aU this subtracted relatively Uttle from
the vast extent of the pubUc lands.
The great bulk of the grazing country as weU within
Texas as beyond its borders stiU awaited the prospective
hordes of settlers who should absorb the almost coimtless

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 17
acres by each settler's taking into his private ownership, as
a grant from the government, the comparatively modest
holding which, for Texan realty, was contemplated by Texan
law, and, for property beyond the Texan borders, was pre
scribed by federal statutes. Until each particular tract
thus passed into private ownership, it remained a part of
the so-called "vacant" public lands, and was open, as was
every other tract of such vacant pubUc lands, to use by
whoever cared to enjoy it. Thus aU its grass and water
were free to every comer.
Such were the so-caUed "free grass" and "free water"
of Western history, a grass and water that in combination
were flippantly termed "free air." The vacant, grazing-
lands, because open to everybody, were dubbed the "open
Range." The phrase "open Range," as used colloquially, had vari
ous significances. It might mean the mere condition of
being "open" to the public. It might mean a particular
Western locaUty thus "open." It might ngiean, too, either
the entire area of the Cattle Country, or else the collective
people that inhabited it.
The phrase "the Range" also had differentiations in sig-
nfficance identical with these.
But for the existence of the open Range and the govern
ment's tacit consent to its use by ranchmen. Western ranch
ing would not have been conducted on the bold, adventur
ous lines which history records, probably would not have
expanded beyond the raising of small bands of animals by
individual farmers; there would have been Uttle opportunity
for round-ups, and scant need for cowboys.
Had the various ranchers been called upon to pay fair
value for the lands which their several herds of animals
needed, few of them could have met the demand, and to
the majority of these few would have remained Uttle, if
any, capital wherewith to purchase their initial animals.

18 THE COWBOY
Furthermore, only in certain localities could very extensive
single tracts surely be gotten in private ownership. They
were obtainable with certainty only through purchasing
from railways some of the alternate sections which had been
governmentally ceded to the latter, and piecing them out
by buying the intervening homesteads, or through purchas
ing Texan lands which that State previously had granted;
although occasionaUy some one attempted an amassing by
hiring numerous indi'viduals to act as dummies, and either
to make false homestead entries on many contiguous tracts
or to buy from the State of Texas numerous coterminous
parcels within that State's boundaries.
But, though the grazing-grounds legally were "open,"
they practically were closed to such ranches as did not
have access to water. Accordingly each rancher pre
empted aU the watercourses or springs he reasonably might
hold, and stood ready to defend his claim to their rightful
and exclusive ownership. These invaluable water outlets,
these so-called "pieces of water," if not, as sometimes, pur
chased by the rancher from an earlier individual grantee,
or from a railway, would be in the tract the government had
granted the rancher under one or more of the laws above
cited, and quite possibly also in adjacent tracts over which
he had obtained control through the wilUngness of obliging
cowboys to pose as intending settlers and subsequently to
sell the landed birthright which the statutes had accorded
them. Thus few ranchers bothered themselves with the legal
ownership of lands beyond such as either held the water or
were the site of their ranch buildings, and many of the men
did not go even so far as to acquire ownership of this latter
site. The rancher, when selecting a location for his establish
ment, gave almost as much consideration to the land's
capacity for yielding winter shelter to his live stock as he

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 19
did to the matter of the supply of water and grass. Ground
interlaced by hiUs and hoUows offered to the animals in
winter not only patches of grass devoid of snow, but also
screens from bitter winds. But, because as between shel
ter and water the latter was the more important, the rancher,
if he could not find both of them conjoined, often was forced
to content himself with lands well watered and well grassed,
though with no defensive contours. Nothing could be in
summer a substitute for water, though in winter the animals
could somewhat quench their thirst by eating snow. Dan
gerous as were winter's storms in open country, they were
not as perilous as were summer's droughts on arid ranges.
In conformity with the theory of the open Range, free
grass and free water, no fencing was permissible by law
except for the enclosure of lands held in legal ownership,
though custom, despite the law, sanctioned additional fences,
if in the immediate vicinity of ranch buildings or in the
form of isolated corrals.
The proof of legal ownership was sometimes complete,
but often it was a bit flimsy. It might be formal papers
conclusively showing an honestly acquired and valid title.
It might be a reference, if in Texas, to a local statute, or, if
elsewhere, to one of the federal laws for encouraging set
tlement, the "Homestead," "Desert," or "Timber" Acts.
It might be advice in Montana that the grass would be
found to be better in Idaho or Arizona. It might be a
terse request to "vamose the ranch," to "pull your freight,"
or to "git." It might be a gun. But the West was not
disposed to ca'vdl about the character of e-vidence. When
it found a man in possession it might en-py him, but it was
apt to leave hun undisturbed, and to "prospect around"
for other and unoccupied property, optimisticaUy assum
ing that the search would be short and successful.
In no whit did aU these customs change after hea-vily
capitaUzed corporations had absorbed many of the thereto-

20 THE COWBOY
fore individuaUy owned ranches. There were, as excep
tions, lessees of Indians' lands in present Oklahoma, or occa
sional ranchmen who were scattered elsewhere and who
actually owned the grazing-lands of which their herds made
use. Some of these excepted men fenced their ground, but
these excepted ranchers, save such of them as were lessees
from Indians, usually had small holdings.
A rancher's animals grazed in the neighborhood of the
water he controlled. The lands which these animals thus
habitually used were called their owner's range in contra
distinction from the Range, that is from the entire grazing
country. If water in this rancher's locaUty were unstinted,
the herds of several ranchers might intermingle on the feed
ing-grounds, incidentaUy each owner referring to the entire
tract as his own range. The number of beasts supportable
by even such a generously watered section was not unlim
ited, for the quantity and quality of grass were also deter
mining factors. Accordingly Western custom prescribed
that the ranchers, in the chronological order of their pre
empting the lands involved, should have right of pastoral
satisfaction, and that no late-arriving rancher might graze
his animals upon these lands unless all the animals of the
earUer-coming ranchers were assured of ample fodder.
Whatever late-arriving ranchmen, in contravention of this
tenet, intruded upon an already fiUed range were met by
a boycott whenever they sought assistance in the handUng
of their Uve stock.
This boycott was the one and only permissible -violation
of the Old West's otherwise jealously enforced precept:
"Help thy neighbor as thyself."
By reason of the dependence upon water, ranchers who
owned a large number of animals were, in some locaUties,
unable to keep aU of their beasts within a single tract, and
so were forced to distribute these beasts among several in
dependent and often widely separated ranges.

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 21
If, as in a semiarid country, one person were seized of all
the scanty, local supply of drink, he might, from this mere
ownership, enjoy the exclusive usage of mile after mile of
herbage. Such a monopolist could keep this kingdom to
himself, or else, by rental or gift, could allow to others ac
cess to the water, and thus ability to use the adjacent grass.
Many a rancher who, through control of water, was able
to exclude other stock-raisers from the rancher's range could
not bar out the farmer when years afterward the latter
ultimately arrived. The farmer, when he came, found
many spots where, by reason of the considerable size of the
streams or lakes, the already estabUshed local ranchers had
been unable to pre-empt the entire water body; and there,
with a frontage which at the water's edge was wide enough
for the intake of the farmer's irrigation ditches, though not
for the watering of many animals, the farmer homesteaded.
A second farmer would homestead at the first one's rear,
and, by a ditch permitted across the first one's land, would
lead water to the second farmer's place. Dry-farming could
be practised with but Uttle surface water, so that farms,
once finding an agreeable resting spot, were apt to multiply.
Ranches could not exist amid the farms.
The earUest ranchers and cowboys of the Cattle Country
came directly from the initial Texan and the other frontier
ranches, and from the frontier farms. Of the later recruits
some were the sons of these pioneers, while the rest came
from the farms, villages, and cities anywhere and every
where in the United States and even in Great Britain.
Aristocrats and plebeians, men from each and every busi
ness, profession, and trade, and the sons of such men ap
peared upon the Range.
The vast majority of the arrivals were represented by
persons who moved West of their own volition, and pri
marily because of the lure of the Cattle Country. The small
and presumably exceedingly small minority was represented

22 THE COWBOY
by criminals whose proximate object had been to escape
jail doors in the East, and who had turned to the Range as
a mere hiding-place.
Many a young man, on his own initiative and for love of
adventure, on medical ad-vice and for hope of recovery, or
on parental compulsion and for chance of reform, exchanged
a metropolis for the bunch-grass and mesquite. The uni-
I versities of the Atlantic coast and of Great Britain had,
amid the sage-brush, a representation which was strong
numerically, if a bit weak academicaUy. It was this latter
weakness that kept it from making any scholastic unpres-
sion. While the men of the Range were mainly of English or
Irish descent or birth, and had, in frequent instances, claim
to early American ancestors of Scottish origin, the South
west added to its quota of such bloods numerous men of
Mexican extraction, and a more than occasional negro,
with here and there men of strain partly Indian. The great
majority of aU the men were American born. The largest
single immediate source of the puncher was doubtless the
section covered by Texas and western Missouri, for almost
every ranch employed at some time a "Texas Ike" or a
"Tex," and was famiUar with the Missouri drawl.
The sticky clay of the South had prevented the building
of good roads, and thus kept successive generations of
Southern men out of wheeled vehicles and in the saddle,
and so had developed the Southerner into an innate rider.
IncidentaUy, a first-class rider like a particularly accurate
shooter, was "born, not made."
The references hereinbefore contained to young men for
whom was sought moral improvement did not mean to as-
,sert, or even imply, that such men, to any considerable
extent, had been criminal in either achievement or intent.
' The most of them, in fact, had transgressed or promised to
transgress merely ethical decency, and not formal law. The

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 23
heinousness of almost all of these young scapegraces lay
not so much in what they had done as in what conservative
advisers of family warned that they might do. Liquor and
undesirable affairs of the heart accounted for the presence
of many, and here and there was one who in England had
.been sociaUy sentenced to a disappearance until his people
should succeed in paying his debts, and so wipe out a stain
on a title. .
Thus England's delegation was comprised not so much
of the sons of business men and of the middle class as it
was of the deUghtfuUy companionable, mildly reprobate, and
socially outcast members of the gentry and nobiUty, these
latter persons being, in part, self-supporting, in part, as
"remittance men," dependent on moneys forwarded from
overseas. These aristocrats withheld all mention of the
titles which their elder brothers bore, passed under what
ever names they themselves arbitrarily assumed, but could
not permanently expunge from their manners the ear
marks of gentle blood.
Sometimes a slip of the tongue disclosed identity. News
of the result of an English university boat-race produced in
Montana the spontaneous cry: "Thank God, we won!"
An Easterner, present and unfamUiar with the Western code,
asked a Uquor-wrecked wrangler why he should have cared
so much. The latter blurted out, before his excitement had
died away: "Why, man, once I stroked that crew!" and
then the mask feU to its old position.
The West contained more than one signet-ring, cut with
ancestral arms and studiously hidden under a flannel shirt.
Such a bauble at no time was revealed unless its owner joy-
fuUy had received from home advice that his sins had been
forgiven, that the social coast was clear, and that he might
return; or unless its possessor, about to "cross the Divide,"
with body amid the grama-grass, and with thoughts appor
tioned between the hereafter and some great country house

24 THE COWBOY
in England, shamefacedly, hesitatingly, desperately was
confiding to an uncouth attendant an heraldic seal, a packet
of woman's letters, and an oral message. The contents of
these death-bed commissions never were disclosed to any
but the designated consignee, and faithfully and promptly
were transmitted to their proper destination; the ring and
letter packet in sealed wrapper, along with a laboriously in
dited screed in which the scrivener, after reciting that he
had taken his pen in hand, accurately recounted every word
committed to his charge by the excommunicate, and added,
in preface and conclusion, the entire story of the outcast's
Western life so far as it was known.
It was to the glory of the cowboy that he unfailingly ful
filled such trusts. It was to the joy of more than one Eng
lish family that a scrawling missive from a distant puncher
revealed a secret which had long been buried in a single and
tormented breast, and, by the revelation, conclusively
established that what mistakenly had been accepted as
confession of turpitude had been, in fact, merely unfortunate
appUcation of haughty pride.
But England's representation was not aU from her gentry
and nobility. Her middle class, too, sent delegates. These
latter were, in part, as fine a lot of men as ever Uved, and, in
other part subscribed for the London Graphic, in order to
know the current doings of the then Prince of Wales, and
so be enabled to relate anecdotes that intimated frequent
association with him. In certain sections of Texas, during
the final seventies and the early eighties, to people unfa
miliar both with London and with America's West, it might
well have seemed that all the most intimate male friends
of the late King Edward VII had received his reluctant
consent to their absence from court, and, for a monthly
wage of twenty-five doUars, were herding sheep in Texas.
The more insistent men of this latter type were sometimes
referred to upon the Cattle Range as "belted earls."

THE BEGINNINGS OF RANCHING 25
The English delegation, as a whole, comprised in number
a smaU percentage of the ranchmen, but it was conspicuous
because of its social individuaUty and the largeness of its
financial interest.
Whether a man began his Range life as a rancher or as
a cowboy was predetermined by the extent of his finances.
Men of college training tended, for this reason and also
because of their usually indifferent riding, to fall entirely
into the rancher class. Whether a man starting as a cow
boy graduated into the rancher class depended on the same
factors as ever have obtained in deciding whether one in
any calling were to remain an employee or become an em
ployer, the factors of brains, character, and luck.
The average cowboy on entering the industry did so with
expectation that he would follow it during his entire work
ing Ufe, while for many of the ranch-owners, especially for
such as were from collegiate sources, there was intended
but a temporary connection during which there might be
effected the desired improvement in character, in health,
or in business initiative.
The financial capital invested in ranching represented, in
part, the increment derived through years of frugality by
men who had preferred a markedly increasing herd to the
luxuries for which a portion of the animals might have been
exchanged; in part, money ventured by men experienced in
active business affairs of other sort and who had hope of
considerable profit; and, in part, cash which steadily moved
out to the chaparral, rabbit-brush, and greasewood from
sources in the Eastern States, and particularly in England.
This cash either betokened paternal endowments of the at
tempts at improvement, or else indicated conversions of
gilt-edged securities by persons who, as yet in their twenty-
second year, had but recently received from erstwhile
guardians various first-mortgage bonds supposedly secure
against loss.

26 THE COWBOY
Once ranching became a real industry its followers, in
annually increasing numbers, spread westward, until, at the
zenith of the business, their animals dotted the plains and
foothills from central Nebraska to the mountains of the
Pacific slope, from Montana to the Mexican border, and so
occupied approximately one-third of the area of the United
States.

CHAPTER II
RANCHMEN AND FARMERS
PROTECTIVE MEASURES — ^NEW MEXICAN AND CALIFORNIAN RANCHES —
VARIOUS DEFINITIONS — BBONCo's VARIOUS NAMES — IMPROVING QUALITY
OF LIVE STOCK — DECADENCE OF HORSE-RAISING — PRICES OP LIVE STOCK —
farmers' AD'VENT ENDS RANCHING — RANCHMAN'S AND FARMER'S VALUE
TO STATE COMPARED — ^DISPERSAL OF RANCHMEN ON ENDING OF OPEN
RANGE — VARIOUS DEFINITIONS — RANCHWOMEN — "COWGIRLS " — ANTIPA
THY TO SHEEP — ITS CAUSES AND ITS CESSATION
The ranching industry, once it had become established,
was everywhere guarded, not only by State laws but also
by stockmen's voluntary associations (these associations
later largely supplanted, in their functions, by official stock
commissioners) which in various States maintained inspec
tors, and as the horse thief's enemy armed and mounted
Range detectives. ^
When Texas embarked in ranching, present New Mexico
also had ranches which were of Mexican origin and as old
as those of Texas. But at the outset of ranching as a na
tional industry in the United States, New Mexico was too
isolated for its establishments to be a participating factor.
As ranching spread westward from its Texan-Nebraskan-
Kansan birthplace. New Mexico eventually was reached,
and its establishments were absorbed into the nationalized
system.
\ California, too, had its ranches, many of them of Mexican
genesis and coeval with those of Texas, some of them with
vast acreage; but, while California's method of raising cattle
and horses was the same as that of the country east of the
Sierras, its civilization was different. The "Pacific sloper"
and the plainsman were not actuated by identical tradition.
Mines, farms, Oriental commerce, and San Francisco's
27

28 THE COWBOY
metropoUtan life had in California prestige such as pre
vented the local ranchmen from shaping that State's pubUc
opinion as their more easterly brothers did the local senti
ment in their own baUiwicks. It is with these more easterly
brothers that this book deals.
These more easterly brothers, whose westward limit was
"timber-line" upon the eastern side of the Sierras and the
Cascades, were the "Westerners." The people who Uved
StiU farther west were not "Westerners" but "slopers,"
though such of them as had the right to do so might, if
they wished, caU themselves, instead, " Calif ornians."
By selective breeding of Uve stock and the admixture of
imported blood, the ranchmen graduaUy absorbed the former
wild horse into a markedly more tractable and somewhat
physicaUy larger type, eight hundred pounds against the
earlier six hundred.
The new product, nevertheless, did not whoUy rid itself
of its "wild" progenitor's Spanish name, although it went
so far as to modify the spelling. However much the South
might speak of "cow-horses," however much the North
might mention "ponies," however frequently both South
and North might betake themselves to slang and talk of
"fuzzies" (Range horses) and "broomies" or "broom taUs"
(Range mares), there continuously cropped out, in either
section, the original appellation. This was "bronco" (from
Spanish "broncho," meaning rough, rude), though it often
was contracted into "bronc" or "bronk," and also was in
terchangeable, particularly in the Southwest, with "mus
tang," and, especially in Oregon, with "caynse" or, as
sometimes spelled, "kiuse." Such interchange was the
more apt to occur when a local purist in language was re-
Ue-ving his mind on the subject of his ammal's moral in
firmities. Texas, when speaking technically, restricted
"mustang" to the unmixed wild horse, and limited "bronco"
to such of these as were particularly "mean" in nature.

RANCHMEN AND FARMERS 29
Like breeding and importation improved the cattle,
which, though they doubled in weight and shortened their
horns, but Uttle bettered in temper.
It is said that upon the Range the interchangeable terms,
"tenderfoots" and "pilgrims," were appUed first to these
imported cattle, and not until later were attached to human
newcomers. This breeding animals into better blood, this raising of
so-caUed "graded" stock was, commercially, a great advance
over the prior ranching methods, which had infused no
new blood into the horses and the cattle obtained from
Mexico. These Mexican horses may have been able to
trace their ancestry back, through Spain, to the Arabian
steeds, that the Moors carried thither in the eighth century.
These Mexican cattle may have been able to prove them
selves kin of the thoroughbred bulls of the Spanish ring.
But blood, save in isolated animals, apparently had de
generated. A limited number of ranches, principaUy of English own
ership, essayed the raising exclusively of thoroughbred
cattle; but these ranches were so relatively few as not to
be a commercially important factor, except to the extent
that their blooded animals interbred with the commoner
beasts of the Range, and so tended to "grade up" the com
mercial beef herd.
PracticaUy no ranches had horses of thoroughbred racing
strain. In the twelve years commencing with 1875, the stockmen
were at the height of their prestige. Then came the col
lapse of the horse market owing to the rapid substitution,
throughout the country, of electricity for the horse as the
motive power of street-cars. Fpr years the traction com
panies had been the largest and most tolerant customers.
They not only had bought in great quantity, but also had
accepted animals which no one else would purchase.

30 THE COWBOY
Cable tramways already had somewhat threatened values;
but the blow fell in 1887, when, at Richmond, Virginia, the
initial American electric troUey-car began to move, although
it was not until some four or five years later that this type
of car came into general use. Everywhere upon the Range
the price of an unbroken "top" or first-class horse sagged
from twenty-five dollars to fifteen doUars and below, and
the long-established valuation of fifteen doUars per head for
untrained animals in lots of size was smashed to pieces.
In eastern Oregon, for a short while, "just a horse" would
bring at forced sale but a dollar and a quarter. In Dakota
one rancher, the Marquis De Mores, attempted to slaughter
and can horses as a food for European consumption.
This subject of prices suggests the fact that, throughout
the life of the industry, "gentling," i. e., breaking, a horse
added ordinarily ten doUars to the value it had had as an
unbroken animal, and that, during the same period, "thirty-
dollar steers" had the normal high mark in the cattlemen's
good years.
Though the market for horses feU away, the demand for
cattle continued unabated. Yet the open Range was
nearing its end.
By the year 1887 all ranchmen had begun to feel the
pinch of the wire fences which the immigrant settlers, under
governmental protection, were putting about their newly
homesteaded farms; farms homesteaded on what, until
these fences, had been part of the open Range. The stock
men, with their threats, their wire cutters, and occasionaUy
their guns, at times ejected the would-be farmer. But he
had the government behind him; and patiently, slowly,
surely his fences crept snakelike around the waterholes,
isolated many sections of the grazing-lands, and killed the
open Range by thirst.
These farmers hastened the result almost everywhere by
bleeding through their irrigation ditches streams theretofore

RANCHMEN AND FARMERS 31
devoted whoUy to the Uve stock, and also in certain States
by a grim process of the law. They procured various legis
latures to enact statutes requiring stockmen either to fence
in their Uve stock or else to stand Uable for their animals'
destruction of the farmers' unenclosed grain-fields. Im
migration had brought the farmer into poUtical ascendancy,
and he thus through law ordered the rancher to commit
suicide. The stockmen made their final show of forceful opposi
tion in 1892, during the so-called "Rustler War" in Wyo
ming. United States cavalry intervened; and the American
cowboys there aUgned in fighting array, representing aU
their brethren as weU as themselves, surrendered ostensibly
to the cavalry, practically to the farmer, and, as a dominant
social and poUtical factor, dismounted forever.
There stiU remain in 1922 large fenced ranches and large
areas of ungirt grazing-land, the latter open to the pubUc;
there still ride in 1922 men who sit the buck as well as ever
it was sat, but already in 1892 the stirring West--wide open
Range, sick for many years theretofore with wire fence,
had died as a national factor, as virtually a state.
The ranchmen of the open Range, although squatters
on the land, and in the main intending but transient stay
either of definite years or untU enmeshed by prospective
farmers' fences, were of economic value to the pubUc. They
converted otherwise unused grasses into living flesh during
the time in which the West was awaiting the arrival of im
migrant farmers who should people its plains, become per
manent citizens, and put the lands to more profitable use.
The State could weU afford, until the ultimate settler ar
rived upon the soU, to suffer its use by the rancher. Though
he added nothing to it, he took nothing from it beyond that
the wild verdure was eaten, instead of annually dying and
merging in the humus. Meanwhile his live stock brought
some money into the State.

32 THE COWBOY
But when the permanent settler arrived the latter's sub
stitution offered more. The rancher had raised no crops
of any sort. Beef and horse-flesh had been his sole business
and his bucolic horizon. His Uve stock, wholly dependent
on wild forage, had required for the sustenance of each
animal never less than an acre and a quarter, in the average
locaUty approximately eleven acres, and in some regions
as many as twenty-five acres. Consequently a single herd
had occupied space available for several farms. The per
manent settler planted fields, and by irrigation increased
both the arable area and the grazing capacity. Within his
fences were a few cattle which received attention such as
would have been impossible upon the wide stretches of the
open Range, and thereby the farmer's cattle far surpassed
in quaUty their freer forebears. Before long the aggregate
farmers raised annuaUy more cattle than had aU the ranch
men in any year. The farmer brought increased wealth to
the State.
Then, too, through him the State gained in -viriUty of
citizenship. The various ranchers and their employees, own
ing -virtuaUy no soil and Uving on lands which in almost
their entirety were property of government, had, save in
the case of the Texans, but lukewarm allegiance to the par
ticular political subdi-visions in which their several ranches
lay. The ranchmen, for the most part, while intensely
loyal to the United States and to the West as such, were
citizens of the Range rather than of any definite poUtical
subdi-vision. The various farmers, on the other hand,
owned land, and from this mere fact of ownership became
ardent partisans of the several States in which their lands
were situated.
It was weU that the ranchman of the open Range came.
It also was well that he went.
While the Range was being slowly murdered and com
mencing some years before 1892, the ranchmen gradually

RANCHMEN AND FARMERS 33
remodeUed their affairs; many of these men keeping an eye
open for some new land of adventure, because ranching had
assembled many true soldiers of fortune.
Such of the o-wners as were not wedded to the industry
quit, one by one, and were absorbed into the manifold activi
ties the world pursues; the wars in Cuba and South Africa
offering in numerous instances a later respite from prosaic
office work.
Of such of the ranchers as preferred to continue in the
business, a few transferred their operations to Mexico, to
Canada, or to Central or South America; while the rest,
for the most part, relinquishing long-standing pretensions of
sovereignty over public areas of tremendous extent, adjust
ing their minds to terms of hundreds or thousands in place
of the corresponding former thousands, tens of thousands,
and hundreds of thousands, either contented themselves
with such fragments of open range as stUl continued; or
else they converted a portion of their herds into lands
actuaUy owned and additional to the modest tract obtained
by "filing" under the Homestead Law, wofuUy stretched a
wire fence around their realty, and joined the class which
they for years patronizingly had disdained, that of the
stock-raising farmer. Occasional men with foresight, un
usual abiUty, and large capital had come, through years of
piecemeal buying, into actual ownership of at least a large
part of the lands they had used. These latter men con
tinued to do as they had done; but, once the clear dominance
of stock-raising had passed and other industries had ap
peared in quantity, the short-memoried public forgot its
obeisance to these persons as cattle kings, and with some
en-vy and great local pride pointed to them merely as
miUionaires. The cowboys followed relatively the same course as did
the owners.
Some of the punchers migrated to the ranges of foreign

34 THE COWBOY
countries — Mexico, Canada, or wherever. Others stuck to
the ranges of the United States, and, with minds filled with
memories of big, bygone things, rode either amid the com
paratively Uttle free grass that stiU remained, or else be
hind the wire fences newly installed about their employers
ranches; and, in the latter case, as punchers, thus immured,
became what they formerly had sneered at, "pUers men,"
so called from their tool for repairing the wire strands in
fences. Or else, emerging in modest way as ranchers, they
placed upon a homestead of one himdred and sixty acres
a cabin and a few animals, which represented either pos
sibly, but improbably, fruit of individual sa-vings, or almost
surely, and instead, a "stake" by appreciative former em
ployers. Still others abandoned the cow-horse and landed
in the army, in Alaska's mines, in San Francisco's ship
yards, in Montana's banks, in Denver's shops, in the lum
ber miUs of Puget Sound, in Chicago's factories, in New
England's mills, or anywhere a suitable job was open.
A stake such as is mentioned above was an unqualified
gift, while a "grub-stake," according to the usual sigmficance
of the term, required its recipient to pay to its donor an
agreed share of whatever profit might accrue from the en
terprise on which the recipient was about to embark, and
for the furtherance of which the grub-stake was given.
However, each of these words might, on occasion, be used
in a different sense, "stake" to denote either one's entire
assets, or else the entire amount hazarded in any venture;
"grub-stake" to denote one's food-supply, regardless of how
obtained. Upon the new and tiny ranch "staked to" our former
cowboy, very likely a wife soon appeared.
In this book but incidental mention will be made of
women. The reason for this scant consideration is that
women were so relatively few in number in the Cattle Coun
try as coUectively not to have been an important factor in

RANCHMEN AND FARMERS 35
either its social life or the formation of its opinions. The
Range described itself as a "he country in pants."
The great majority of the ranchers and practically all of
the cowboys were unmarried. Marriage meant almost
always for the man of gentle birth a return to the East, or
to England, and usually for the man of more ordinary blood
retreat from the open country and settling either in some
town or upon a fenced farm near it.
There were, of course, from time to time at various
ranches feminine guests, usuaUy sisters, nieces, fiancees,
but the number of ranches thus happily receiving was rela
tively very small.
There were, it is true, permanently living on numbers of
ranches women, some of them of superior brain and far
more than average moral force, but the direct influence
of aU ranchwomen was exerted only upon their immediate
households. No outsider was given the privilege of in
timate association; for, at the moment of his appearance,
such women suppressed their bigger selves, retreated to the
cook-stove, and promptly set to flowing a stream of tooth
some dishes, in order that the honor of the ranch might be
upheld in rivalry with all other ranches, particularly those
in which other females lived, and in order also that inmates
of womanless estabUshments might appreciate the extent
of their deprivations. There were a few ranches owned
and capably operated by women, widows of former ranch
men. Even these women obeyed the custom which Range
femininity imposed on all its members, and fled to the
kitchen the instant a visitor had received his welcome. The
women of the Range all sacrificed themselves to competitive
housewifery. The horse being the principal and often the only means
of transit, many of these women and many of their daugh
ters rode extremely well. Some of them equalled almost
the best of men in horsemanship, though lacking the vitality

36 THE COWBOY
long to sit a violent buck. The side-saddles and woollen
riding-skirts used by most of the women, the modest di-
¦vided skirts used by the few who rode astride, imparted to
those quiet, unassuming, courageous females of the real
frontier none of the garishness which that modern inven
tion, the buckskin-clad "cowgirl," takes with her into the
circus ring.
These "cowgirls" may be of Western blood and spirit,
but their buckskin clothing speaks of the present-day
theatre and not of the ranches of years ago.
In the heydey of the open Range the sheepmen were the
pariahs of the plains. They and their animals were anath
ema to the ranchers of horses or cattle. The fact that
legaUy the Range was as open to sheep as it was to horses
and cattle availed nothing. Many a band of sheep, in wild
stampede, leaped to death from the brink of a canyon, or
in bleating fear huddled in a woods to await the arrival of
encircling flames. Cowboys behind the stampede or at
the edges of the forest were the sponsors, and they sent
many a sheepman to a sudden and unrecorded grave.
There was real reason for this feud. The horse men and
cattlemen were the pioneers upon the Range. They had
settled themselves in places to their liking, had installed
their herds about them, and were weU content to regard
themselves and to be regarded as local kings. Presently
arrived the sheepmen, whose flocks with their busy mouths
nibbled the grass to its roots; with their sharp hoofs chopped
those roots so thoroughly that they died; with their con
stant travel necessary for the avoidance of disease within
large flocks, their so-caUed "walk," carried their destruc
tion mile after mUe, and cut a wide, desolate road across
the plain; and with their pungency either left upon the
ground a scent which for many hours was apt to reach the
nostrils of passing cattle and horses, or imparted to a water-
hole a lingering taste and smell.

RANCHMEN AND FARMERS 37
Whether it was in recognition of this war upon their
food-supply, whether it was mere dislike for the searching
odor and flavor, or whatever else was the cause, the cattle
and the horses hated the sheep -with an intense and con
stant hatred. It was not unusual for a bunch of cattle
lazUy streaming across a range to stop suddenly, to sniff,
snort, and gaUop madly away. Its leader had come upon
the trail of a band of sheep. Horses were as wont to leave
a spot so accursed, though their departure generaUy was
less precipitate.
Some wandering shepherd would permit his flock to wade
through a currentless pool, and for days thereafter the
water would smell and taste of wool. It was only extreme
thirst that led horses or cattle to imbibe water thus con
taminated; and, so soon as they felt the drink's refreshing
effect, they were very receptive of suggestions to stampede.
Very possibly the nervousness which caused the stampede
was left over from the former thirst, but ranchmen unhesi
tatingly blamed the wool.
The vendetta of the animals extended to their owners.
In various locaUties, the ranchers of horses or cattle not
only arrogantly announced that their regions were closed
to sheep; but also, when so doing, were far from niggardly
regarding the boundaries of the forbidden territory. Such
pronouncements had to the feudal senses of these men the
force of law, and stern punishment was meted to such as
transgressed the arbitrary edicts. The sheep raisers even
tuaUy tended to immure themselves and their iU-smeUing
flocks within various segregated sections, which promptly
attained in the eyes of the raisers of horses and cattle the
social status of leper colonies. Then came the wire fences,
the resultant ending of the open Range, and with that
ending the cessation of dissension.
By the irony of fate recent years have proved that in

38 THE COWBOY
various parts of the former Cattle Range sheep, not cattle,
are the profitable tenants. Thus in the very country where
wool once was hated save by a few harried citizens, it now
is generaUy applauded.

CHAPTER III
DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS
VARIOUS TITLES FOR COWBOY — VARIOUS DEFINITIONS — NO TYPICAL COW
BOY — USE OF PISTOL — DANGEROUS ANIMALS — BEAR-DOGS — LOCO-WEED —
SHOOTING AT TENDERFOOTS' FEET — ITS INCENTIVE — CARRIAGE AND SHOOT
ING OF PISTOL — EXTENT OF LATTEH'S USE — PISTOL NOT ALWAYS NECES
SITY — BAD MAN, PSEUDO AND ACTUAL — PISTOL AS NOISE-MAKER — RIFLE,
ITS TRANSPORT AND NAMES — CREASING AND WALKING DOWN MUSTANGS —
VARIOUS DEFINITIONS — INTIMACY WITH HORSES — THEIR NAMES, COLORA
TION AND SECTIONAL DIFFERENCES — KILLING HORSES — SIGNALLING —
KNIFE — LARIAT
The cowboy was not always called "cowboy." He
everywhere was equally well known as "cowpuncher" or
"puncher," "punching" being the accepted term for the
herding of live stock. In Oregon he frequently was called
"baquero," "buckaroo," "buckhara," or "buckayro," each
a perversion of either the Spanish "vaquero," or the Span
ish "boy6ro," and each subject to be contracted into
' ' bucker . ' ' In Wyoming he preferred to be styled a ' ' rider. ' '
To these various legitimate titles, conscious slang added
"bronco peeler," "bronco twister," and "bronco buster."
He was a cowboy or cowpuncher whether his charges were
cattle or horses. There were no such terms as horse-boy or
horse puncher.
Thus called a cowboy when his task was riding as an em
ployee, he lost that title as soon as he became a ranch-
owner; and, according to the kind of stock he raised, was
termed a "horseman" or else interchangeably a "cowman,"
"cattleman," or "cattle man." WhUe a cattle man and a
cattleman were identical, a horse man and a horseman
were not. Of the latter the first raised horses, the second
was either a mounted person or one versed in horsemanship.
39

40 THE COWBOY
Curiously, though the word "puncher" was created but
a comparatively few decades since, its derivation is now un
known unless it relate to the metal-pointed goad occasion
aUy used for stimulating cattle when they were being urged
to board railway cars.
While punching was thus the accepted term for the herd
ing of Uve stock, it ordinarily was restricted to cattle, the
term "herding" being used in connection 'with horses. A
cowpuncher might "punch" or "herd" cattle, but coUo-
quial English usuaUy made him "herd" horses and would
not let him "punch" them.
Sheep were merely "herded," and that by "sheep-herd
ers," never by "cowboys."
Every cowboy of the novel or the adventure story fits
squarely into one of the three species created by fictionists.
He is portrayed in these several species as being necessarily
clownish, reckless, excessively joj^ul, noisy, and profane;
or else wolfish, scheming, sullen, malevolent, prone to am
bush and murder; or else dignified, thoughtful, taciturn,
idealistic, with conscience and trigger-finger accurate, quick,
and in unison, and also in aU these species as being assur
edly freighted with weapons, terse in utterance, and pic
turesque in apparel.
In reality, there were no species, there was no type.
Cowboys, as Bart Smith, one of them, said, were "Merely
folks, just plain, every-day, bow-legged humans." Cow
boys, Uke the rest of the ranchmen, were simply the men
of a particular trade; were, as among themselves, as diversi
fied in disposition as were and always wiU be other men;
and, as a class, had from the followers of any other calUng
differentiation in but a limited number of subordinate
though highly specialized attributes.
Fictionists to the contrary, the ranks of the cowboys of
all ranchmen, contained but few swashbucklers, particularly
such as wore long hair. Those ranks were composed largely

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 41
of men with character and heart, of men whom future gen
erations well may regard with pride.
The writer of tales has made the "gun," "six-gun," "six-
shooter," or "shooting-iron," as the West variously termed
the pistol, more ubiquitous even than long hair, has im
posed at least two of these weapons upon every storied
cowboy, and at times has converted him into a veritable
itinerant arsenal.
When one recalls that the gun actuaUy carried, when
one was carried, was the forty-five or forty-four caliber,
eight-inch barreUed, single-action Colt's revolver, weighing
two and a quarter pounds, and that its ammunition weighed
something in addition; when one recalls also that the aver
age cowpuncher was not an incipient murderer, but was
only an average man and correspondingly lazy, then one
reaUzes to be true the statements that the average puncher
was unwilUng to encumber himseff with more than one
gun, and often even failed to "go heeled" (armed) to the
extent of "packing" (carrying) that unless conditions in
sistently demanded. These insistent conditions were, first,
expectation of attack by a personal enemy; second, service
near the Mexican border or in an Indian-infested country;
third, a ride on the Range where there might be met human
trespassers, or be encountered either animals dangerous to
stock or stock hopelessly injured or diseased, tempera
mentally prone to assail man and beast, or so debased that,
for breeding reasons, its elimination was urgent; fourth and
finaUy, either a holiday visit to another ranch or to to'wn,
or else a formal call on a girl.
The gun not only was an integral part of fuU dress, but
also was to the mind of the cowboy as effective on the
female heart, and as compelUng an accompaniment of love-
making as to the belief of the young soldier has ever been
the sword.
The fe'wness of women in the Cattle Country did not

42 THE COWBOY
lessen man's wish to go a-courting. Any female could
get a husband. An attractive one could choose from an
army. The animals Ukely to molest stock and so marked for
slaughter included coyotes, bears, timber-wolves, mountain-
Uons, and stray dogs. Every strange and unattended
canine found wandering on the Range was prejudged to
have had murderous intent, and was sentenced and exe
cuted at sight. This, however, does not imply that the
puncher might not have had his own pet dog wagging its
tail at the ranch-house.
If this latter dog were small, curly, yellow, thoroughly
mongrel in looks, but treated with profound consideration,
it would sell, on the instant, for one hundred and twenty-
five dollars, this being in amount over three months' pay
for a first-class rider. All this would mean that the Uttle
brute was a "bear-dog," a cur trained to hold the grizzly
bear by staying without the danger zone, yapping at Bruin's
heels, and driving him to such irritation that, instead of
fleeing, he lost his judgment, backed up against a tree and
made a target for the rifle. Such a dog would have a county-
wide reputation, while a mere blue-ribboned thoroughbred
would be frowned upon as a latent killer of calves.
The dangerous animals comprised, too, occasional horses,
more numerous steers, and stiU more numerous cows, aU
seemingly deranged in brain, and all apt, without warn
ing, savagely to attack their fellows, the ranchmen, or the
latters' mounts.
These belUcose horses made their assaults by rearing, and
with their front hoofs striking hammerUke blows. These
warring cattle attacked another animal or a mounted man
by "prodding" with their sharp horns, and assailed a pedes
trian in either this same way or by trampling on him.
Part of these "locoed" brutes were victims of feeding
upon toxic plants, the so-called "loco weeds" (from Span-

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 43
ish "loco," meaning mad), but others of the beasts had not
so clear excuse for their insanity. Horses more often than
cattle became addicts to the poisonous plants, and fre
quently spurned legitimate grasses when the iUegitimate
weeds could be obtained in quantity.
These weeds recently have been classified by scientists
into three distinct species, of which one with purple flowers
and hairy leaves and stems was in popular parlance indis
criminately called "purple loco" or "woolly loco." The
other two species each had seed-pods that, when dried,
rattled on being moved, and so gave to each of these species
the coUoquial and undistinctive title of "rattleweed."
There were other popular titles; for, of these rattleweeds,
one ha-ving blue flowers often was called "blue loco," while
the other, ha-ving flowers of white, pink, or bluish-purple
color as each indi-vidual plant preferred, and being devoid
of a main stem, was termed either "stemless loco," or, ac
cording to the blossom's color, "blue loco," "purple loco,"
"white loco," or "pink loco."
The ranchmen, thus undiscriminating in the selection of
names, made their botany still more confusing by employ
ing the grammatic singular number instead of the plural,
and thus referring to the collective plants not as weeds
but as weed.
When whatever title employed included either the word
stemless or the name of a color, the term weed usuaUy was
omitted from the title. Accordingly one would speak of a
particular plant as "purple loco" or as "loco-weed," but
not as "purple loco-weed."
These weeds, whatever their variety, usuaUy contented
themselves with imposing upon their habitual devourer a
death from starvation, ha-ving first cruelly thinned their
victim, injured its eyesight, its muscular control, its ner
vous system, and its brain; and sardonically ha-ving deco
rated it, if a horse, with an abnormal growth of the hairs

44 THE COWBOY
in mane and tail, or, if of the cattle family, with an equally
unnatural increase in the hairs upon the poor beast's flanks.
At times the 'vile weeds modified their process and sent
an animal upon a run amuck.
These death-deaUng plants injected two words into the
dictionary, the words "locoed" and "rattled," the first as
a synonym for crazy, the second as a synonym for crazy
or excitedly confused.
The employment of the pistol either as a means of ad
monishing strangers' feet or inviting them to dance, or
else as an instrument for snuffing barroom lamps occurred
so extremely rarely as to have amounted to Uttle more
than the foundation for amusing legend, but it has become
in the novel one of the cowboy's diurnal functions.
Persistent tradition is that, save on the Mexican border
and in most infrequent instances at drunken frolics else
where, every stranger with whose feet this Uberty was taken
was either a tenderfoot so self-assertive as to merit some
form of chastening or else a tenderfoot who, whoUy inno
cent of this offensive quality, had stepped into the place
just vacated by a self-assertive tenderfoot and so been,
by an impatient audience, adopted as a proxy for the latter
or his type. Assuredly many an Easterner touring in the
West has at times aUowed his suddenly startled interest
to upset his maimers, and has rubbed fur in the wrong
direction. Many such a tourist, diverted by the cowboy's
costume, has forgotten that within it was a human being.
By many a tourist such punchers as he came across were
in boorishness as blankly stared at and as openly discussed
as though they had been monkeys in a cage.
As an example of this gaucherie is offered the foUo'wing
account of an occurrence, which, though containing un-
usuaUy exasperating factors, makes clear iUustration of
the point.
One day, in 1889, there squatted in a circle upon the sta-

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 45
tion platform at Pocatello five cowboys, who, bound east
ward with a bunch of live stock, had paused for a bite of
luncheon. Each of them displayed a puncher's full equip
ment, including "chaps" and gun. One of them, their
foreman, Ed Peters, was an amazingly fine rider. The
other men were ahnost of front rank. At the moment, the
five punchers were doing nothing more "wild and wooUy"
than to eat canned peaches out of five cans, to include
among the feasters a local, very wistful-looking Uttle girl,
and to affect great interest in her battered doUy's precocious-
ness as prattUngly alleged.
There roUed from the southward into the station a train
for "American FaUs, Nampa, Baker City, The Dalles,
Portland, and intermediate points. Stops here twenty
minutes," but the cowboys' interest was absorbed by
peaches and the owner of the dolly. From one of the
train's Pullmans aUghted two young and comely women,
a self-confident cub male, and a stout, elderly, austere
female. The young women and the cub male, each carrying a
camera and clicking their way among the station's populace
of disdainfuUy inquisitive townsfolk and seemingly imper
turbable Indians, came upon the cowboys. Click, click,
click, this for a dozen times, and punctuated with "Aren't
they interesting!" "Right out of a book!" "I think that
one over there is the most picturesque." The punchers did
not counter. They merely writhed and grunted and les
sened their talk to doUy. Then the cub male authoritatively
volunteered: "You men move into a straight Une. The
ladies want to take you that way." Ed Peters, one of the
quickest shots on the northern Range, quivered, glanced
at the cub male, serious-faced in his position of general
manager, glanced at the young women, serious-faced in
their perpetration of a nuisance, grinned, and ordered:
"Let's git in line, fellers."

46 THE COWBOY
Quietly, save for the jingling of spurs and the scraping
of feet, the men moved as requested, and resignedly were
clicked standing, and then squatting.
The men had not yet risen in compUance with young
cub's next dictum: "Say, this looks too peaceful. You
men draw your guns and brandish them," when the stout
female bustled up in answer to "Mother, come here. We've
found five, real, Uve cowboys." Mother looked, sniffed,
said, "I'U have to change my specs," looked again and un-
interestedly observed: "Humph. Fancy. They're playing
with a doll. And as for those hairy overaUs, they suggest
vermin." Ed Peters shot out sotto voce to his companions: "My
Gawd, ten minutes more of this ! Not on your life." Then
he rose to his full height of six feet three, doffed his 'wide-
brimmed hat with courtly flourish, and commencing, with
honeyed voice: "Beg pardon, ma'am, for speakin'," he
continued, with a howl to his companions: "Whoop, play
ing with a doll and full of vermin ! They wants our real
selves. Rise up, you murderous devils, and raise immortal
hell for the ladies."
The audience fled. The punchers bowed solemnly to
their little guest, mounted, and rode out into the lava beds.
And, as they started, there floated back Ed Peters' waU:
"Oh, why didn't that old one wear pants ! Why didn't it !
Oh, if it had been a man !"
To the tale-writer and not to the historian is due the
generally accepted tradition as to the uncanny speed and
deadly accuracy of all cowboys' shooting. The fictionist,
ha'ving heavily freighted his protlgl with weapons, requires
him to transport them in melodramatic fashion and to dis
charge them in theatric manner.
Carriage of the gun, not in a commonplace holster openly
depending from a loosely hanging belt, but in a holster
which was either swung low upon the front thigh and con-

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 47
nected by a thong with the boot-top or the knee, or was
hidden and harnessed on the breast, conduced to increased
rapidity of fire. So did keeping the gun holsterless, attach
ing it at the end of a strap, and concealing it beneath the
coat sleeve. So did firing from the hip and through the
holster's tip, without pausing to withdraw the pistol. So
did filing the latter's mechanism in such a way as to pro
duce a "hair-trigger." So did completely remo-ving the
trigger and actuating the hammer either by a pull of the
thumb of the hand holding the weapon, or else by a brush
ing back of the hammer with the pahn or side of the other
hand, by this last method "fanning" it. And so did carry
ing two guns, either each openly in a holster and hung from
the belt, one on each side of the body, or else one openly
shown in its holster and intended as a mere decoy to hold
the opponent's attention, the other concealed and suddenly
"flashed" when conditions demanded.
These variations from the normal were, in fact, not un
commonly employed by officers of the law, by bandits, aU
men who hunted other men, and were, in fact, sometimes
in the presence of tenderfoots ostentatiously avaUed of by
a tiresome, innocuous form of braggart, the ostensible but
pseudo "bad man." But, in fact, they were very rarely
made use of by the cowboy. The latter kept his solitary
weapon at his side (his right or left side, according as he
was right- or left-handed), butt to the rear, and in the clearly
visible and commonplace holster above mentioned; and,
when he wanted to shoot, merely pulled out the pistol and
shot it. The cowboy, however, did take pains to use a
holster, which, by being devoid of a covering-flap and of
all protuberances, offered to the pistol speedy and easy
egress. He took pains also to see that none of his clothing
should ever intervene between his hand and his pistol's
butt. He did not touch the bolstered weapon, or even, in the

48 THE COWBOY
language of the novels, "feel for it," until he was prepared
to explode the cartridge, for otherwise an absent-minded
fingering of his weapon might occur at an inopportune mo
ment, and thus give to an armed enemy good reason for
firing the first shot. Moreover, the pistol was an instru
ment wherewith to shoot and not wherewith to make mere
threats. Incidentally, no old-timer, having "gotten the drop" on
a man and wishing to disarm him, would for an instant
have thought of asking the prisoner to do what some mod
ern tale-writers have required of him, to "Hand over your
gun, and do it butt toward me." The old-timer knew that
butt first meant a finger dangerously near the trigger-
guard, that a finger through that guard and a quick snap
of the wrist would "spin" or "flip" the gun, that in the
fraction of a second its muzzle would point forward. So
the old-timer ordered his prisoner merely to drop the latter's
weapon and to back away from the spot where it lay on
the ground.
The cowboy shot, if he thought it necessary, and then
without hesitation. When he shot, he shot with intent to
kUl; but his bullets rarely struck another man save for the
shooter's self-protection, in the support of Western law, or
in the punishment of a criminal who had deserved the hang
man's rope. The cowboy may have disliked to have an
other person "ride him," or "run over" him, but the aver
age puncher would not kiU for the mere resultant pique,
or in defense of mere personal pride.
However prosaic it may seem, one half of the West did
not spend its time in either "getting the drop" or "pulUng
down" on the other half, or even in "looking for somebody."
Nor did the puncher "notch" his pistol's butt. He had
no killings thus crudely to be registered. But the West
was far from having mushy softness. Any one disposed to
think differently should recaU, among other things, that

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 49
line of thirteen human bodies dangUng at the end of thirteen
ropes one day at Virginia City, in Montana.
As compared with men the country over, the cowboy, to
state a truism, was no better or worse a marksman than
innate aptitude and the extent of target practice warranted.
Nevertheless he materially advantaged himself by disdain
ing the short-barrelled, top-heavy, erratic pistol of the
townsman, and by habituaUy using the long-barreUed, per
fectly balanced Colt. It was by the faultless "hang" or
balance of the latter weapon that the puncher's shooting rep
utation was made. The weapon's balance induced both
accuracy and speed, for it relieved the shooter from the
necessity of glancing across the sights. Aiming a Colt was
akin to pointing a forefinger.
The puncher and the miUtary alone used this type of
pistol; but the miUtary, chafing under compulsory target
practice and not ha-ving to pay for the ammunition it used,
was less disposed than the cowboy to consider carefully
each shot and to seek diligently for accuracy and speed.
As to practice in actual firing, the puncher necessarily
had infinitely more than had the city dweller; but the
average puncher, after his first few years, gave himself no
undue amount, since he was wont to consider that he had
better use for his money than the purchase of ammunition
to be fired through a "noise tool" at a tree or can. He,
however, kept himself in form, for, when alone, he frequently
practised quick withdrawals of his gun and imaginary shots
at objects beside the traU.
All these factors produced men who, with the weapon in
question, could on but an instant's notice fairly pour six
shots into a two-inch circle one hundred feet away. But
very far from all punchers could shoot as well as this,
though few of them, at a distance of one hundred feet,
would under any circumstances miss with any shot a tar
get as large as a standing man.

50 THE COWBOY
The average cowboy was a relatively better shot with the
pistol than with the rifle. He used the pistol with more
frequency, and had greater interest in its potentialities.
The cowboy's gun had plain wood in its stock. The
novelist has supplanted it with carved ivory or mother-of-
pearl. The metal of the cowboy's gun was colored black
or dark blue. The novelist has nickel-plated it.
For the purpose of self-defense the gun was no more
potent than often was the unflinching eye of a man with an
established reputation for steady nerves and for abiUty to
"draw quick and shoot straight."
Jim Green at Wichita Falls learned, one day, that gathered
in a saloon were several armed men who had planned to
kill him. He immediately rode to the saloon's door, en
tered it, said quietly but very firmly to the conspirators:
"Gentlemen, I understand you want to see me and drink
with me." Not one of the men addressed dared "reach
for his gun," for they aU knew Jkn's possibilities. The
round of drinks was accepted, and this made Jim safe.
Under the Western code, none of the men who drank 'with
him might thereafter kill him for the original grievance.
They, if stiU courting murder, would have to pick a new
quarrel. A 'violation of this provision of the code would
have made the 'violator an outlaw and a subject for the
ministrations of the vigilance committee. Jim's reputa
tion was useful to him, as throughout the entire transaction
he was absolutely unarmed.
Vic Smith, idolized in Montana and Wyoming, had no
fear of attack by man or devil, for his marvellous accuracy
with gun and rifle was known throughout the Cattle Coun
try. There floated from nowhere in particular and into
Charley Scott's saloon at Gardiner, Montana, a long-haired
and quite drunken stranger, who presently became ob
noxious. The instant after the stranger had completed
his announcement that, as soon as he had swaUowed his

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 51
liquor, he intended to wipe Gardiner from the map, the door
opened and a head stuck in with a cheery "HuUoa, boys.
Just struck town." At the cordial answering, "HuUoa,
Vic Smith, you old  ," the stranger fairly
howled "Vic Smith. My God! Vic Smith!" and jumped
through the wmdow; at which Charley Scott, one of the
finest men who ever "tended bar" in all the West, lost a
thoroughly worthless customer and a perfectly good window-
sash. While Jim Green, because unarmed, had to force the
issue, more than one man of Green's type was, if armed,
able to use a wholly passive method in peaceably ridding
himself of a threatening enemy. This passive method con
sisted of seeming to ignore the enemy when met. This
ignoring placed the enemy in a ridiculous position, but
could safely be attempted by only such men as were so
lightning-like in movement as to be able to "draw" and
shoot when but a fraction of a second of time was left for
them. From time to time some ill-balanced person, deranged
by Uquor or in character, would affect a desire to kiU some
specific man; and, with much advertisement of intent,
would go "looking for" him. The self-heralded ostensible
murderer usually was seeking for notoriety instead of for
the designated victim, but nevertheless would openly em
bark on a search for the latter, and sometimes would un
expectedly come face to face with him. Under such cir
cumstances it was a bit wounding to one's pride not to
have the fact of one's presence even recognized, not to be
able to move one's hands unless one courted instant and
certain death, and, at the same time, to remember all the
bold and bloodthirsty announcements one had made.
These affairs were, however, pregnant with danger, be
cause at any instant the tense thread might snap, and the
provoker of the trouble might begin wUdly to shoot.

52 THE COWBOY
A melodramatic coloring was given many episodes of
this sort, for the reason that the irresponsible trouble-maker
was not unwont to make his ostensible search while on the
back of a horse, and to ride the brute into saloons.
Tazewell Woody, in a saloon, was standing with left
elbow on the bar, right hand hanging by his side, and eyes
luckily pointed at the mirror behind the bar. He caught
in the mirror the reflection of a head poked momentarily
into the saloon's doorway, and belonging to a man who
had publicly stated his purpose of kiUing Woody at sight.
This man, having apparently thought the coast to be clear,
and that the saloon contained a sufficient audience, turned
his horse, rode through the doorway, and boldly said:
"Has any gent here seen that feller Woody? I'm huntin'
for him." At that instant the man realized, for the first
time, that Woody was in the room, and he reaUzed also that,
though he himself was facing Woody's back, the mirror
negatived this advantage. He saw that right hand hanging
idly down. Woody did not move a muscle. The man's
jaw dropped. He remained quiescent for a few seconds,
then backed out through the doorway, and on his own ini
tiative rode out of the State.
These preannounced attempts on human life were far
less bloody than were the onslaughts by the real "kUlers,"
the actual "bad men." These latter men did not an
nounce. They merely shot. BiUy the Kid, at twenty-
three years of age, had committed twenty-three murders,
and had made the question of his extermination a poUtical
issue in New Mexico. Incidentally, the sheriff, elected to
"get" him, loaded a weapon and "got" him.
In the eighties some "rustlers" "holed up" in a cabin
at the outlet of Jackson Lake in Wyoming. Range detec
tives surrounded them. One of the "rustlers," a won-
drously accurate shooter, seeking to escape, rushed from
the cabin's door, and, without warning, began to fire. At

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 63
each shot he "crossed" his rifle, that is he fired alternately
from his right and left shoulder, thus increasing the width
of his zone of fire without making him rotate his body, and
thereby unduly affect his running. He hit five men be
fore he dropped dead at the end of his race of but a few
feet. Riding horses into saloons did not always signify
"trouble." Frequently it meant either good-natured
drunkenness, or else non-alcohoUc prankishness. The much-
suffering cow-pony has been ridden in places stranger
than saloons, for he has been made to climb stairs,
traverse railway trestles, and travel other equally distaste
ful routes.
Pseudo "bad men" of the "I eat humans for breakfast"
kind functioned in the presence of tenderfoots by fierce
looks and snorts, by savage remarks, and sometimes by
the recital of speeches ferocious in phrase and committed
to memory. These men would "wild up" whenever they
obtained an impressionable audience, and their braggadocio
often was picturesque, even though made up at least in
part from strings of stereotyped Western anecdotes. Old,
harmless Jim  , when in his cups, would fervently relate:
"I'm the toughest, wildest kiUer in the West. When I'm
hungry I bites off the noses of living grizzly bars. I live
in a box canyon, where everybody is wild, and shoots so
much they fills the ar plumb fuU of lead, so there ain't no
ar to br athe. The further up the canyon you goes, the
wUder the people gits, and I live at the very top end.
Whoop!" If tenderfoots continued their presence, Jim
would persist in this strain; and perhaps, because of him, a
diary or two would receive the entry: "Saw to-day a real
Western 'bad man.' He carried two large revolvers in hol
sters which hung, one just above each knee. This marks
him as bemg what is called a 'two-gun man,' and a person
who 'totes his weepens low.'" If only Westerners were

54 THE COWBOY
auditors, Jim soon would quit his oratory, go to sleep, and
snore himself to peaceabiUty.
Bill  , when alcohoUcally beset, would announce: "I
Uve in Jack County, Texas. Thars whar the human man-
eaters come from, and I'm one on 'em. Every pusson they
don't take no fancy to is drug out and scalped aUve. My
hum range is so plumb full of murder and sin that heU
won't be no treat to me." He, too, presently would cease
his clatter, and would slumber back to sobriety.
This Jim  , this BiU  , and the other men of their
type had no wish to "try it out " with any "real Westerner,"
for it was a foregone conclusion as to which side in such a
contest would "weaken," "back do'wn," and "puU out."
The actual "bad man" was "short on conversation."
He spoke infrequently, and when he opened his mouth what
he said was to the point. He usuaUy talked in quiet tones,
for his nerves always were well in hand. His nerves had
to be thus in order for him to do the jobs which he essayed.
AU actual "bad men" were wholly untrustworthy, were
natural killers, moral and mental degenerates, inhuman
brutes who would slay for personal gain or merely to gratify
a whim. AU of them were among the horse thieves and
train robbers, the "hold-up men" and "road agents," but
far from all the followers of these vocations were low-browed
criminals or "bad men." Though most of the persons in
these callings might kiU when "on duty" and performing
the functions of their crafts, many of them when "off duty"
were very human, warm-hearted and companionable beings,
normal in everything except moral attitude toward horses,
cattle, pubUc vehicles, and bank safes.
Wyoming's Hole-in-the-WaU Gang might plunder the
Overland Limited, but it more than once succored a soli
tary traveUer who was in trouble upon the trail. It rarely
robbed either the men it Uked or any one in deep distress.
Personal popularity and dire suffering each tended to in-

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 55
sure immunity in the Cattle Country: and this not only to
spare the innocent from being robbed, but also to keep the
guilty out of jail.
The actual "bad man" was a feature of the towns rather
than of the Range, for he preyed mostly upon the gold and
sUver that, starting from the mines, had been intrusted to
a lumbering stage, or to an express car upon the railway.
But, all in all, there were very few of the actual "bad
men." The West did not Uke them. They ran counter
to the actuating Western motive, which was fair play or
justice, as the West conceived it. Consequently, each
"bad man" sooner or later would "go out of the territory
for his health or to hell on a shutter." If he "passed out,"
it would be either on the end of a rope or before a bullet.
His demise was sometimes referred to as his "snuffing out,"
"bucking out," "croaking," "cashing in," or "passing in his
checks." One should not include in the class of "bad man" such
cowboys as, from time to time, rented out their services to
factions that were engaged in local civil wars. In the fac
tional fights which occurred in Texas, New Mexico, and
Wyoming, cowboys served for pay upon the side of each
belUgerent. But these punchers were not "bad men."
They were not at war with civilization. They merely were
fighting certain people whom for the moment they mistak
enly, honestly believed to be real enemies. The spirit of
youth, the love of adventure, the trusting adherence to an
indi-vidual leader blinded such a puncher from realization
that he was leasing himself to the mere cause of kilUng men.
The pistol had one use to which the average cowboy
would, from time to time, enthusiasticaUy devote it, and
that was the production of noise. When put to this use
the weapon was fired either directly upward into the air
or slantingly downward at the ground, for the West had no
blank cartridges. On such occasions the pistol's efforts

56 THE COWBOY
would be supplemented by IndianUke screeches and coyote
like howls.
Sometimes liquor would start this pandemonium. Some
times suddenly received pleasure would do it. Often and
particularly when the puncher was in company with others
of his kind, the motive was that indefinable, contagious
something that runs like wild-fire through any American
crowd of men or boys, and makes the gathering give a cheer
or whoop.
One autumn morning at the Glendive railway station,
seven cowboys were sitting on their sleepy horses and idly
watching the passengers aUghted from a delayed east-bound
train. Among these passengers was a coUege under
graduate, suimy-faced, attractive-looking, of the type that
everywhere makes friends. He inquired unsuccessfuUy of
the telegraph operator as to the result of "the big footbaU
game," played the pre-vious day, and then began to pace
up and down the platform. Presently the west-bound train
arrived, and from it an older man called to the under
graduate: "HuUoa, Jim  . Congratulations. You beat
us yesterday, ten to nothing." The undergraduate emitted
an impulsive cry of joy, and danced down the platform.
He suddenly stopped, for bedlam had begun. Seven cow
boys were yelling and shooting from the backs of horses
that, no longer sleepy, were plunging, snorting, and rush
ing about.
The undergraduate's train started. He climbed aboard
it. The punchers and their horses relapsed into quietude.
A woman from the stiU halted west-bound train asked the
cowboys what they had been celebrating, and received the
respectful and truthful answer: "We don't know, ma'am.
A nice-lookin' young feller that was on the other train
heard somethin' that pleased him, and took a contract to
deliver a lot of noise. He didn't have much time, so us
boys tried to help him out."

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 57
Of course what actually had happened was that the spirit
of unaffected youth had appealed to its twin, and its voice
had been recognized.
The rifle never was carried except when there existed
one of the serious conditions already mentioned as produc
ing the pistol's appearance, or there was big game to be
shot. The rifle, when carried, was conveyed, not by the
cowboy himself but by his horse, which bore it in a quiver-
shaped, open-mouthed scabbard, into which the rifle went
up to its stock. This scabbard sometimes hung from the
saddle horn, but more commonly was slung, butt forward,
in an approximately horizontal position along the near side
of the animal, and passed between the two leaves of the
stirrup-leather. The rifle was thus eschewed, because, being
hea-vy, it interfered with ready saddUng and unsaddling;
and, being bulky, it materiaUy detracted from the rider's
comfort. After the early seventies the rifle, regardless of its make,
was usuaUy caUed a "Winchester," though this particular
term, because of its similarity to the name of a weU-kno-wn
condiment, was occasionaUy paraphrased into "Worcester
shire." Failing these titles, the weapon was styled merely
"rifle." It, except in the case of the rifles specially de
signed for bison-shooting and called "buffalo guns," never
was termed "gun," that word, save for the single exception
noted, being consecrated to the pistol.
"Scatter-guns," otherwise shotguns, were occasionally
produced by tenderfoots; but they, unless with "sawed-off "
barrels, loaded with naUs or buckshot, and in the hands
of express messengers, served for the Westerner only as
objects of derision.
The rifle, rarely the pistol, was at times discharged at
wild horses, at unbroken members of the ranch herd, or
at erring, already-gentled steeds, in any case for the pur
pose of "creasing" them. Such shooting actuaUy did oc-

58 THE COWBOY
cur, but it was extremely infrequent. Its dramatic phase
gave it such publicity as to earn for it what it did not at all
deserve, an ostensible place among the customs of the
Range. Creasing, successfully accomplished, meant shooting
through the neck of a horse in such a way as to touch but
not injure the cartUage above the bones. Thus done, it
would temporarUy and completely stun the animal, but
would do him no serious injury. Creasing, as usuaUy at
tempted, resulted in entirely missing the animal, or in kUl
ing him.
It was legitimately tried and sometimes achieved by
men who, dismounted in a waterless country, saw their
truant steeds already out of reach, sneakingly abandoning
their riders to death from thirst. It was, on occasion,
Ulegitimately attempted by "rough-riding bronco-busters,"
when cruel bravado had sufficient foundation of either
temper or whiskey.
But Westerners in general had no stomach for unneces
sary creasing.
The subject of creasing -wild horses suggests that of an
unique vocation, "walking down" these animals. Although
wild horses for many years, and in great numbers, had been
caught by the lariat, some of these beasts, through unusual
speed or conspicuous cunning, had been able whoUy to evade
capture. They eluded even the "mustangers," as the men were
called who devoted themselves to the trade of raiding the
"wild" bands and seUing their captures to the ranchers.
As the wild horses became fewer in number these elusive
survivors stood out in bolder contrast -with the domestic
herd, and more and more awakened human cupidity. An
imperious stallion, heading an obeisant harem, outrunning
all pursuers, circumventing aU cunningly planned fence
traps, haughtily would defy capture and proudly would

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 59
flaunt the ranchers of an entire range. Although, true to
the habit of all Range horses and cattle, he would cling to
a restricted area, twenty or thirty miles along each boundary,
he never could be cornered.
There eventually was developed among the mustangers a
class of men who, by native instinct and constant study,
understood the thought and habits of the wUd horse.
These men, usually queer, cantankerous characters, making
their pursuit ordinarUy on horseback but sometimes on
foot, operating from a strategically located camp, and work
ing in successive squads, strung themselves along the course
customarUy followed by their prey. They endeavored
never to scare the quarry into any desire to run long dis
tances; but, hour after hour, whether in daytime or at night,
they methodically, unremittingly, pitilessly denied the har
ried animal a moment's opportunity for rest, and sooner or
later it became so desperately tired as to withhold all at
tempt to avoid a thrown reata. These men actually walked
do-wn the horse, an effort usually of hours only, though occa
sionally of two or three days. Many of the animals thus
caught were superb beasts, aristocrats in blood, for all their
ancestors had mated wisely and had refused degenerate
brutes admission to the family tree.
These elusive wild horses were undesirable neighbors,
because they displayed a habit of enticing ranch horses,
particularly mares, away from their accustomed range,
away from all wilUngness to be subject to man's dictation,
and of "running them off" beyond the edges of the local map.
The wild horses' itinerant drove, their "manada," as the
Southwest correctly spelled it, "menatha," as the South
west incorrectly pronounced it, their "band," as the North
west termed it, was not a convenient keeper of one's do
mestic animals.
Although the man on the Range regarded generically
the horses of the ranch herd, assigned no names to any of

60 THE COWBOY
the ordinary steeds, was not particularly interested in his
companions' animals, however fine they were, he had a very
different attitude toward the highly trained ponies that he
personally, habitually rode. He adopted them into his
famUy, and they took him into theirs.
Nevertheless he at times might enthusiastically quirt
them, and assuredly they frequently deserved the treatment.
The expressions of his affection might be intermittent and
be made in rough words or rude pats, but they were sincere.
The riders, in their solitary excursions, talked continu
ously to their mounts. When Al Smith, a "top rider" of
the M-K Ranch, fell in love with the schoohna'am at Buf
falo Fork, he told the whole story to a sympathetic Uttle
four-footed buckskin brother, as they came back together
across the prairie. However close-mouthed a man might
be 'with aU his feUow men, he imparted all his secrets to his
horse. This intimacy, which came from loneliness, showed no
sentimental weakness, for one of these very men who prat
tled into a pointed hairy ear carried in his body eight bul
lets from three separate fights.
Short names like Jim and Buck, supplanted for such
animals the mere descriptions accorded other horses, de
scriptions such as "Jack Tansy's star-faced buckskin,"
"that mealy nosed, blue roan from the Star M Outfit,"
"that wall-eyed, white cayuse with the K Bar brand."
All this almost humanized some of the ponies. Reader,
if you love horses, thaw out some old-timer of the Cattle
Country, and ask him to tell you of Pete and Imp and Scoot
and Prunes, and other horses that he knew. He wUl begin
his narrative. Presently his face wUl overspread with a
reminiscent, loving smUe; he wUl say: "But, of aU the horses
I ever ran across, I knew one once that was aU horse. Make
no mistake about that. He was a little 'California sorrel,'
and his name was Mike," and then you wUl hear a story
such as, though truthful, no writer dares to put in print,

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 61
lest the pubUc brand him as a liar. You wiU be told of
a saucy little de-vU which suppressed its impudence, and
grittUy struggled on through snow or desert, to kiU itself
from effort, but to land its wounded rider in safety; or you
wUl learn of a Uttle brute which came galloping to the house
with a blood-soaked saddle hanging from its §ide, which
impatiently nipped the shoulders of the ranchmen that they
might hurry more in sending out relief, and which, all
through the progress of the expedition, led it and urged it on.
All horses were not of this caUber, but some were; and
that some were is why, in little corners of the West, under
spreading yellow pines, or amid the pinons, or at the points
of aspen groves, not with extreme infrequency, appeared
boards, or else slabs of slate, either of them rudely inscribed
by heated iron or by scratching metal point. Their legends
varied with the stories they had to tell, often were UUter-
ately phrased, but occasionaUy disclosed assistance by some
scholar among the regretful cowboy's friends. Three of
them read respectively as follows:
JIM
a reel hers
oct 1, 82
HERE LIES
"I'M HERE"
The Very Best of Cow Ponies,
A Gallant, Little Gentleman.
Died on this Spot, Sept. 3, 1890.
HERE LIES
"WHAT NEXT';
Bom  ,  , 1886, at  ,
Died July 16, 1892, near Ft. Washakie, Wyo.
He had the Body of a Horse,
The Sphit of a Knight, and
The Devotion of the Man
who Erected this Stone.

62 THE COWBOY
Of the names commonly used, one alone conveyed instant
information. That name was Buck, for every buckskin-
colored horse throughout the West was christened Buck.
The bearing of this appeUation did not in any way imply
that the animal that bore it had been concerned at
any time with the bucking motion. It related wholly to
color. The broncos ran the gamut of the coloration employed
by Eastern horses, but in comparison rather stressed cer
tain shades. Bays, browns, sorrels, grays (whether these
last were plain, dappled, or "flea-bitten"), whites, blacks,
buckskins, roans, and piebalds were the color schemes. The
last three were noticeable, because buckskins, roans, and
piebalds were more common in the West than in the East.
Roans were, in tint, red (called strawberry roan), blue, or
occasionally even distinctly purple. The piebald was the
same in coloration as is the "calico horse" of the East, and,
deri-ving his name from a Spanish word meaning paint, was
termed generally a "pinto," but in parts of Texas was caUed
in good plain English a "paint horse."
Southern California had a local type, the "California
sorrel," its body in a lustrous, solid, Ught sorrel monotone,
its mane and tail in lighter sorrel, almost cream-colored,
and its feet white-stockinged. It was a beautiful animal,
but, being of limited numbers, very few specimens of it came
onto the Range. It was a product of local conditions.
When the wild horses started northward from Old Mexico,
some of them followed one route, others a second. Most
of them travelled on the easterly side of the coastal moun
tain range, and inhabiting, generation after generation, a
sparsely watered country, developed that itinerant, -wiry,
sinewy, athletic little imp, the bronco of the plains. Others
of them moved along the well-watered, seacoast lands west
ward of that mountain range, and evolved a tjrpe which,
because less inured to thirst and hunger, eventually became

DEFINITIONS AND COWBOY WAYS 63
somewhat heavier in buUd and a bit more muscularly soft.
To this latter type belonged the original cayuses of early
Oregon. From these Oregon horses men of the far North
west derived their initial bands; and from Oregon came the
horses' name, "cayuse." That State was the home of the
Cayuse tribe of Indians, an equestrian people.
These coastal horses often di-vided themselves into groups
which severaUy clung, for generations, to various well-
favored sections of the country; and, by close inbreeding,
produced in each group distinguishing pecuUarities. Thus
may have come the California sorrel.
UniversaUy, when by reason of illness or injury a horse
had to be destroyed, it was kUled by a shot carefuUy placed
at the base of the ear.
But in the performance of this rough act of mercy to a
suffering cow-pony, its rider almost always chokingly begged
a companion, if one there were, to pull the trigger.
The rifle had an occasional function dear to the -writer of
thrUlers, the firing of distress signals, three shots evenly
spaced as to time. In-violable custom demanded that who
ever heard this signal forthwith hurry to its source. So in
sistent was this demand that, upon the sound of any shot,
aU persons within hearing gave most concentrated atten
tion that the later sounds, if any, and the pauses between
them might not be unnoticed. Woe betide the careless
hunter who, in bringing down a deer, unwittingly gave this
alarm. This system of signalling has been called errone
ously a Western invention. In reality, it dates in American
usage from the early colonial period, and was prescribed by
one of the initial laws of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Some cowboys, in copy of the Indians, used, in signalling,
smoke released in short puffs and long streamers by in
termittently raising and lowering the corner of a blanket
which had been laid above a smudging fire. This gave in
effect the dots and dashes of the telegraph. Few of the

64 THE COWBOY
men attempted an alphabetical code, and most of the mes
sages were simply prearranged, arbitrary signals.
The last weapons to mention are the knife and the lariat.
After the earlier Indian fighting had ceased, long knives
never were carried by cowpunchers unless they were hunt
ing big game, or were Mexican in blood or spirit. A stout
pocket jack-knife, or clasp-knife, contented the majority of
men. The long knife in the hands of a competent user was,
within a range of thirty feet, the deadliest weapon of the
West, for pulled and thrown it usuaUy would reach its goal
before the opponent's pistol could be drawn and shot, and
this though the thrower and shooter simultaneously started
to act. In a hand-to-hand fight the knife was driven by an
underhand thrust, edge up, into the abdomen, and was
terrible in its effect. As was said at Santa F6 by Sam, by
just Sam, for so far as appeared he had no more extensive
name, "The knife is a plumb ungentlemanly weepen, and
it shore leaves a mussy looking corpse."
The lariat, when quiescent, may have appeared Uke a
mere section of every-day rope, but it had latent capabUity
of deadliness. Such persons as do not already know its
possibiUties may come to an awesome regard for that bit
of Une when once they see it whirling.

CHAPTER IV
COWBOY CHARACTER
NECESSARY COURAGE — BODILY INJURIES — ^UNCOMPLAININGNESS — CHEER
FULNESS — HESBR'VF! TOWARD STRANGERS — ITS CAUSE — CUSTOMS WHEN
MEETING PEOPLE, AND 'WHEN ENTERING A CAMP — PERSONAL NAMES —
ETIQUETTE OF GUN AND HAT — INTRODUCTIONS — CURBING CURIOSITY —
ATTITUDE TO-WARD WOMEN — ILLNESS AND MEDICAL TREATMENT — SEN
TENTIOUSNESS — DEFINITIONS — QUIZZICALITY — SLANG  PROFANITY — DEFI
NITIONS — ^RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE — POWER OF OBSERVATION — CHARACTER
ISTIC POSE — USE OP TOBACCO — BCSTED LEGS — DEGREE OF HONESTY —
ESTIMATE OF EASTERNERS — ^INTELLECTUAL INTERESTS AND SCOPE — SENSE
OF DIGNITY — ^VANITY
Universality of courage was an earmark of the cow
boys' trade. Bravery was a prerequisite both to entering
and to pursuing the vocation.
When a man suddenly "lost his riding nerve," as he oc
casionally did from his own serious illness or from witness
ing distressing accident to a loved companion, an accident
such as plastered Bud Thompson's face with his brother's
brains, he sometimes lost it forever, and with it his calUng.
Unless unhorsed by this infrequent cause, he rode until he
received injury that promised permanence, or he sooner
voluntarily retired.
Physical injury, ordinarily the gift of bucking, and in the
form of hernia, aUowed to the average man but seven years
of active riding. Once dropped from the centaurs, whether
through injury or, much rarer, loss of riding nerve, he still
Uved on horseback, but regretfully, humUiatingly refrained
from "hair-pinning" or "forking" at sight "anything on
four hoofs," and restricted himself to such animals as sup
posedly were not vicious. 65

66 THE COWBOY
Courage was needed elsewhere than on the bucker's back
or amid the cattle. The cowboy by the nature of his work
was required, from time to tune, to endure the pitiless
Northern bfizzard, to traverse the equaUy pitiless Southern
desert, to fight the bandit or the Indian, to go ahorse upon
the mountain's cliffs or amid the river's whirlpools, to ride
madly over ground pitted by the gopher and the badger, to
face death often, and much of the time when alone.
Some wise old Westerner defined a cowboy as "a man with
guts and a horse."
The puncher rarely complained. He associated com
plaints with quitting, and he was no quitter. Custom, how
ever, aUowed guarded criticisms of the cook, though these
strictures were made with an amusing risk. Whoever
ragged the cook was subject to be impressed by him for
twenty-four hours as an assistant or a complete substitute.
Out of this grew the story of the cowboy who, by diplomacy,
saved his initial blatancy, for he is reported to have said:
"This bread is all burned, but gosh ! that's the way I Uke
it!" There often was ground for adverse comments on the
cuisine. The average ranch cook well might have been
defined as a man who had a fire; and who drew the same
wages that he would have earned if he had kno'wn how to
cook. He ordinarily had been a cowboy, and in many in
stances his ideas of culinary art had originated, seemingly,
from atop a bucking horse. A very few establishments had
a Chinaman in the kitchen, but such an attempt at luxuri
ous U-ving was not typical of the Cattle Country.
Maintenance of cheerfulness was part of the philosophy
of the Range. The Western lands were not smiling ones.
Nature in the West offered great riches to whoever had the
courage to come and take them, but she was austere and
majestic, rarely gentle. The desert, the mountains, the
canyons, the quicksands, and the bUzzard asked no favors

COWBOY CHARACTER 67
and gave no quarter. Each Western man was forced to
hear so constantly the roars of the nature which he re
garded with deep, respectful admiration, that he had no
wish to Usten to whimpers from mere humans like himself.
Andy Downs, imparting social compass-points to a newly
arrived tenderfoot, said: "The West demands you smUe
and swallow your personal troubles like your food. No
body wants to hear about other men's half-digested prob
lems any more than he Ukes to watch a seasick person
working." This carefuUy nurtured cheerfulness was, not improbably,
the mother of that quality sometimes known as "Western
breeziness." Reserve toward strangers, a fourth characteristic of the
puncher, was due, in part, to the mental effect from rarely
seeing any but extreme intimates, and for days together
not even any of them, and in part to the fact that any
newcomer might prove to be a horse thief or an intending
settler, and thus in either case undesirable upon the Range.
The moment the visitor established that he was not such
an interloper all reticence vanished, and he automatically
became a courteously welcomed and bounteously treated
guest. This not illogical suspicion of strangers evoked two cus
toms pursued in common with all frontiersmen. One of
these customs required that a man nearing another, par
ticularly when upon a traU, should come within speaking
distance and should "pass a word" before changing his
course, unless, for self-evident reason, he were justified in a
change. The excuse for this usage was the acknowledged
right of every person to have opportunity to ascertain the
intent of aU other persons about him. Its unwarranted
-violation was interpretable as a confession of guUt, or as a
deUberate and flagrant insult.
The other custom, for a like basis, demanded that who-

68 THE COWBOY
ever approached a person from the rear should halloa before
getting within pistol-shot, and that a camp should be en
tered always upon Uke signal, and if possible from the
direction most easily viewable by the camp's occupants.
There was no prescribed haiUng phrase, but there com
monly was given at short range to unknown persons, if
men, "HuUoa, stranger," or "Howdy, stranger"; if women,
"Good day, ma'am"; and at greater distance to anybody
the long-drawn, accented "Whoo-up, whoo-up, whoo-pee";
though at this greater distance to persons whose identity
was recognized might float instead the password of the
ranching fraternity, a password which was a copy of the
shrill, insistent cry of the coyote.
When thus ascertaining the purposes of a stranger, or
even when dealing with an acquaintance, one had always
to accept at face value whatever name the stranger or ac
quaintance cared to put forth as his own. It was inde
fensible to dispute it, unless it were patently assumed for
purpose of committing some local impropriety. Moreover,
extreme tact was necessary to hurry the announcement of
even a pseudonym, for its user admittedly was its natural
custodian, and possibly had vaUd and innocent reason for
withholding it. Because "none came West save for health,
wealth, or a ruined reputation," and because traditionaUy
the sand-bars of the Missouri River were made of dis
carded results of christenings, and because it was recog
nized that, on the banks of that river, "many a real name
had been bucked out of the saddle," and because many in
terrogators were themselves on shaky patronymic ground
the West rarely asked one for one's name, and gravely ac
cepted as it anything one cared to volunteer.
Nevertheless, the West reserved the right to say, behind
one's back: "You know BiU Adams. That's his name.
It's the name he's using now. But what's his real name?"
Sometimes the West called the latter his "oncet name."

COWBOY CHARACTER 69
The West also reserved the right to select a nickname
for a man, and to substitute it for the appellation which
he himself had proffered, though in so doing there was in
tended no reflection upon his truthfulness. Hence each
section of the Range had its Shorty, Slim, Skinny, Fatty,
Squint, or Red as a prefix to BiU or Jack or Brown or Smith;
its Texas Joe, Arizona Kid, and Missouri Jim; its Cat Eye,
Hair-Lip, Freckles, or whatever as a prefix to Riley, Jones,
or White.
Sand-Blast Pete, now dead and gone, the small-pox that
pitted your face and gave you your name never pitted your
heart. You proved that one night in the desert, when,
although almost exhausted, you went forth alone and ob
tained help for a stranded party of strangers.
Although every "Greaser" (i. e., Mexican) might, in the
Southwest, live under his characteristic Spanish prenomen,
Juan, Jose, or what not, he automatically became Mexican
Joe for the purposes of the Northwest the instant he reached
that section.
A curious phase was that many a man passed always by
only his given name, and that none of his associates ever
stopped to consider that he must have a surname "cached
somewhere." The ranch foreman, on welcoming Mr. New
Yorker, a visitor, would say something like the foUowing:
"Mr. New Yorker, shake hands with Hen. Hen, this is
Mr. New Yorker from back East. He's a friend of the boss.
Mr. New Yorker, Hen's been with our outfit for six years,
and is generally reckoned to be the slickest rider in this half
of the county." If, after Hen had passed beyond ear-shot,
Mr. New Yorker had asked the foreman for Hen's last
name, the questioner would have seen a look of sudden
surprise, and would have heard: "WeU, I'm damned. I
never thought of that. He Ukely has got one somewhere.
I dunno what it is. He's just Hen, and if he thinks that's
good enough for him it shore is for us, and that's about the

70 THE COWBOY
size of it. Say, stranger, let me give you some advice.
You're a pUgrim. Excuse me, that there just means you're
new to this country. If I was you I wouldn't try to hurry
nothin', and I'd travel on the idee that Hen likely gave a
first-class funeral to the rest of his names, and I wouldn't
ask him for no resurrections."
Onto whatever single names sur'vived the West often
tacked descriptive phrases. By this system there was
avoided any confusion in identity among the "Johnnie
down with the Four Bar K Outfit," the "Johnnie who rides
for the Two Bits Ranch," the "Johnnie up on the White
River Range," and "that busted-snoot Johnnie."
As an incident of greetings between strangers it was good
form for each to bow to the extent of temporarily remo'ving
his hat, or at least to raise his right hand to his hat's brim.
This took the theoretically dangerous hand away from the
gun's position at the belt. Likewise good form required
that a man discard his "shooting iron" before entering an
other person's house. This latter result usuaUy was accom
plished by the man's unfastening his belt, and hanging it
with its attached holster from the horn of his saddle.
Furthermore, even at one's own table one's gun was no
proper attendant at an indoor meal.
Though a man when entering a dwelling-house had thus
to dispense with his revolver, he was not required to take
his hat from off his head save during the moments of a
bow or two. Behatted heads were common within doors,
even at the dinner table, though except in the earUer years
they were somewhat frowned upon at dances.
In New Mexico the local law recognized the wisdom of
the disarming custom, and forbade the carriage of weapons
inside the limits of a town. Wherefore the local official
charged with the duty of temporarUy impounding the
weapons of 'visitors would greet incomers with a statement
which, as phrased by one such official, was "Howdy, gents.

COWBOY CHARACTER 71
Sorry, but no guns allowed in town. Get 'em when you
leave. So skin yourselves, skin yourselves!" And there
upon the -visitors resignedly would "shuck" their weapons.
When a man was introducing to each other two of his
acquaintances, the operation was somewhat formal, though
of short duration. For the moment every one, according to
sex, was referred to as "Mister," "Miss," or "Missus,"
and there was employed, without any modification of word
ing, one of the four conventional phrases which, as adapted
to men, ran "Mr.  , shake hands with Mr.  ," "Mr.
 , step up and meet Mr.  ," "Mr.  , let me make
you acquainted with Mr.  ," or "Mr.  , meet Mr.

In aU affairs of ceremony every white male above six
teen years of age was a "gent" unless the matter were one
of icy coldness, possibly near to shooting. Then he was a
"gentleman," with syllables slowly spoken and widely
spaced. The title of mister as a token of honor was permanently
bestowed upon such elderly men as possessed dignity of
carriage and had made brave accomplishment.
The respectful word "ma'am" occurred repeatedly in all
conversations with women.
Except for an occasional "Adios," the universal parting
salutation was "So long."
The cowboy's reserve and even his suspicion had their
coroUary in the carefully foUowed precept that it was not
good form to exhibit curiosity. A puncher, passing a
stranger or entering the latter's camp, would not demean
himself by seeming to note the stranger's apparel or equip
ment. Nor, on lea-ving, would the cowboy gaze back over
his shoulder.
PunctiUous as were the ranchmen in compUance with aU
these customs, thek adherence to the code regarding women
travelling upon the Range transcended punctiUousness and

72 THE COWBOY
rested on the plane of highest honor. A woman journey
ing alone upon the open Range was as safe as though in
her own house, excepting only there were danger from In
dians or from border Mexicans. Any passing ranchman
could be impressed into an escort. Many a schoohna'am
has, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by a con
scripted attendant, ridden from the fringe of the settlements
to her little school in some hamlet far out on the plains.
Any violation of this code meant the hang-knot of the
-vigilance committee, or on occasion the latter's more ter
rible "staking out," wherein the culprit, minus eyeUds,
face to the sun, was laid upon an ant-hill of giant size,
wrists and ankles tied to pegs in the ground, to lose in a
few minutes his mind, and in a few hours the final vestige
of his flesh.
There ha-ving been no typical cowboys, there were no
typical tastes in which they as cowboys shared ; but as men
they, like almost all other men of parts, had only restricted
admiration for the masculine-mannered female. Years
since, some Englishwomen, exaggerated types of the hunt
ing set, visited at their brother's ranch in the Far West.
Horseshoe jewelry and loudest of mannish raiment were
predominant. Upon the visit's close and an hour after the
guests, homeward bound, had finally left the ranch, its
cook, red-haired, freckle-faced, one-eyed, thus addressed a
sympathetic cowpuncher in the hearing of another and un
suspected auditor: "Huh. If ever I have to git married,
I'm going to marry a woman what's aU over gol-durned
fluffs." One of these same women, riding up to a group of cow
boys, made to one of them a remark which contained no
impropriety beyond that the speaker placed herself and the
men upon a common level. There flashed back to her the
answer: "For God's sake, woman, why can't you let us
look up to you?"

COWBOY CHARACTER 73
Whatever might be any puncher's treatment of his own
womenfolk, woman in the abstract was an object of respect
and obeisance.
No ambulance from a metropolitan hospital could have
offered more gentleness in the transport of a female patient
than was intended by the group of silent men escorting
across the snow a figure huddled on a "travois" and bound
for a hospital -via the raUway over a hundred miles away.
More rude nurses, more solicitude accompanied this horse-
dragged, bumping stretcher than would have done so had
its contents been a man.
Feminine sick-beds as compared with those of the other
sex attracted a larger quantity of the medicines which, as
the news of serious illness passed up the Range, came in
on the gallop, and in a variety which embraced not only
most of the then current patent remedies, but also numerous
unlabelled and unidentifiable pills and liquids. With the
last-mentioned items would be vouchsafed: "I disremember
just what they is, but they done me a powerful lot of good
oncet. Take 'em and try 'em."
The Range, in medical matters, dosed itself, and took
naught but patent medicines; in dental affairs treated itself
with blacksmith's pincers; but, in surgical cases of serious
ness, conveyed its patients to the settlements, where real
doctors might be found.
Its nursing was faithful and untiring, however amateurish,
for a dangerous life tends to make men womanly; and the
average puncher was womanly, though Heaven knows he
was in no wise ladylike.
The Cattle Country's self-administered medicines were
limited to Jamaica ginger, cathartic piUs, "Cholera Cure,"
"Pain Killer," "Universal Liver Remedy," "Rheumatism
and Kidney Cure," and horse Uniment, this last being kept
only for human use, and being dUuted when administered.
The liniment's action not infrequently was supplemented

74 THE COWBOY
by a steam bath taken in Indian fashion. For this purpose
there was erected a "wickyup," a low, dome-shaped frame
work of sticks covered with hides. On the ground in the
middle of the stmcture were placed red-hot stones. The
patient stripped and nestled near them. A bucket of water
was thrown onto the stones, and human parboiling forth
with commenced.
Transport of such surgical patients as could not sit the
saddle was effected by wagon or by the travois. This latter
appUance was adopted from the Indians, and consisted of
two long poles, one attached to each side of a horse, and
both dragging behind him, just as would a pair of elon
gated carriage shafts if disconnected from the vehicle's
axle. Behind the horse's heels there was fastened, between
the poles, a basket or framework, and into this container
went the comfortless invaUd.
Sententiousness was another characteristic of the Range.
Sententiousness, which among the earUest cowboys may
have come whoUy from the loneliness of their Ufe, was in
their later generations founded not so much on this cause as
on mere convention. Ultimately it became more than
fashionable, it became socially obligatory, to speak in terse
terms, and when framing a sentence to "bobtail her and
fiU her with meat." So adverse was the man of the Cattle
Country to unnecessary words that he often advised a
discursive conversationaUst to "save part of your breath
for breathing." One puncher, when asked for his opinion
about his employer, repUed: "Can't put it in words. Give
me an emetic !"
This does not mean that the average cowboy was not
talkative. It means merely that he was epigrammatic.
It also indicates that he could make word-pictures. A
tramp suddenly appeared in a Montana cowboys' camp.
After the manner of tramps he had sUently, sUnkingly, self-
effacingly merely arrived. Bug Eye, whatever his last

COWBOY CHARACTER 75
name, one of the punchers, looked up, and to a companion
behind him announced: "One no work, much eat just
sifted in." Can there be found a better word than
"sift" for the typical, aimless, shifty movement of the
tramp? A man in chaps, takmg his first look down into the
Grand Canyon of the YeUowstone, remained quiescent for
two minutes, then straightened in his saddle and made a
soldierly salute to that great abyss and galaxy of color. AU
that he later said about it was "God dug that there hole in
anger, and painted it in joy."
Another man, Tazewell Woody, who, while not a ranch
man but instead a scout and hunting guide, yet Uved in
close relationship with ranchmen, was with a companion
searching for mountain-sheep. The men had reached the
summit of a peak the moment before the moming sun rose
from behind another peak, and shot a golden pathway across
the intervening field of snow. Woody's companion, with
eyes glued to binoculars which were pointed elsewhere,
said at that climactic instant: "There's a big ram," and was
answered: "Shut up. God's waking."
The sententiousness, and still more the reserve, led occa
sional observers to conclude that punchers, as a class, were
taciturn, even morose. This conclusion was erroneous. A
few punchers, it is true, were morose, but most of the
pimchers, like all other old-time Westerners, merely with
held their intimacy from every stranger until the latter
should fuUy have disclosed his nature and have established
whether he were a "white man" or else what, if in expur
gated form (as it rarely was), was termed a "son of a gun,"
the latter either unquaUfied or else "plain," "fancy,"
"natural bom," "self made," "pale pink," "net," or, worst
of aU, "double distUled."
For some inexplicable reason the word "net," when used,
always foUowed the "gun," or the word that it displaced,

76 THE COWBOY
while aU the other qualifying expressions, when they ap
peared, preceded the "son."
If the Westerner eventuaUy released his intimacy, he took
to his heart the stranger and forgot reserve completely,
though sententiousness not at all. The stranger by his own
worth had, in the language of the Westerner, "gotten under
the latter's skin."
The cowboy was quite apt to talk in quizzical terms.
Jim Stebbins and Joe  ( ?) accompanied a miUtary de
tachment during the Sioux campaign of 1876. In a skirm
ish the horse of one of them fell and laid a stunned rider
on the ground. There ran toward this man a squaw armed
with one of the stone-headed, long-handled hammers known
as "skull crackers," and used by Indian women for crush
ing the heads of wounded enemies. The semi-insensible
puncher was recaUed to action by his companion's announce
ment: "Look out, Jim. There's a lady coming."
Dave Rudio, of Oregon and Texas, thus described a
Texas ranger's kiUing of a renegade: "The ranger came up
and said quietly: 'You're wanted. You'd better come along
peaceable-Uke.' The outlaw he began to throw talk. The
ranger he said: 'Don't act up. Be sensible and come along
with me.' The outlaw, stiU jawing, started to reach. He
hadn't a tenderfoot's chance at that game, for the ranger
he just whirled out his own gun, and that outlaw stopped
plumb short talking to the ranger and began a conversa
tion with Saint Peter."
Digressing for a moment from the cowboys, but stUl
sticking to this quizzical phase and to old-time Westerners,
Jake Saunders of Denver was besought by an ex-ranchman
for a loan of twenty doUars. Saunders, knowing the man's
procUvity for borrowing, and so curbing his own usual
generosity, handed over to the borrower but one-half of the
sum requested. The borrower said: "I asked for twenty,"
and received the answer: "That's all right. We're even.
You've lost ten, and I've lost ten."

COWBOY CHARACTER 77
Pop Wyman, deservedly respected in LeadvUle, Dead-
wood, and elsewhere for his honesty, was deaUng faro. A
particularly obnoxious player had been fingering chips,
pushing them out on the table and then withdrawing them.
Upon the announcement of a 'winning card, the player
claimed that one of his peregrinating stacks of chips was
within the lines bounding the paying counterpart of the
successful card. He vehemently asked, "Am I on or off?"
and was told, "Neither, you're out." He was. He landed
on the sidewalk, and deserved it.
Among the punchers many words disclosed their in
tended meaning only from their context. For instance
"jamboree" might indicate, among other things, an inno
cent dancing party, a drunken debauch, or an active event,
whether the last were a pistol fight or a stampede of animals.
"Clean straw" either denoted exactly what it said, or else
it signified fresh bed-sheets.
A few other words and phrases had arbitrary meanings,
akin to those employed in the cant of professional criminals.
Thus a "blue whistler," because of the pistol's blued frame,
denoted a bullet, while a "can't whistle," for obvious
reason, signified a hare-lipped person. A "lead plum" was
a bullet, while a "sea plum" was an oyster. Many of
these arbitrary expressions had local rather than general
usage. The cowboy's utterances were permeated with slang.
Slang, since the foundation of the United States, has been
the natural expression of its youths, and the cowboy, what
ever his years, was at heart always a youth. To the slang
of ordinary young America the cowboy added by pictur
esque perversions of technical terms of his business, the
whole supplemented everywhere by gamblers' expressions;
in the Southwest by various Spanish words, and particularly
in the Northwest by limited extracts from the local Indians'
languages. The Latins' "hombre," "manana," "pronto,"
and "quien sabe" were as useful in Arizona and New

78 THE COWBOY
Mexico as was the Red Men's "teepee" (i. e., "tent") in
Oregon. The farther "quien sabe" drifted northward from the
Mexican border, the more damaged became its pronuncia
tion. A few leagues of northing produced "keen sa-wy,"
and a few more leagues "no savvy."
On some of the Mexican border's ranches Spanish instead
of English was the prevaiUng language.
Everywhere "waltz" and the French word "chass6"
were current as interchangeable synonyms for the EngUsh
word "go," though none of the three words attempted to
substitute itself for the homely term "git." "Git" or
"you git" was the most affirmative form of Western com
mand for an undesirable person to begin immediate retreat.
No qualifying profanity was attached, because custom had
decreed that none was necessary. Everywhere it was recog
nized that "git" and "you git," if unheeded, were possible
curtain-raisers to bullets. Mules might safely disregard
"giddap" or "glang," but they knew that "you mules,
git" prophesied the hissing of the whip-lash.
"Chass^d into" and "waltzed into" might be equivalent
to the phrase "happened upon," so that, when Joe Edwards,
to repeat his own words, "chass^d over to Albuquerque and
waltzed into my aunt's funeral," it meant merely that he
had travelled to the city in question and unexpectedly had
come upon his relative's burial.
Pidgin-English contributed its quota of words and phrases.
Its "long time no see 'em" conveniently set forth the status
of a searcher for some lost object, while its "no can do"
definitely expressed personal impotence.
In the extreme Northwest a few words were borrowed
from the Chinook jargon of the coastal trappers and trad
ers. The words most commonly taken from this last-
mentioned source were "skookum" (great), "siwash" (an
Indian; hence, in secondary sense, not up to white man's

COWBOY CHARACTER 79
standard, second-rate), "muckamuck" (food, or to eat or
to drink), "hiyu muckamuck" (plenty to eat), "muckamuck
chuck" (to drink water), "kaupee" (coffee), "cultus" (des
picable, worthless), "cuitan" (ahorse), and "heehee" (fun
or a j oke) . A " heehee house ' ' was any place of amusement.
Throughout the West references to Indian customs, be-
Uefs, or terms were used commonly, and in a slangy sense.
Thus a puncher was apt to describe as "makmg medicine"
his preparations for a journey, or his planning of an enter
prise; to state later that this "medicine" had been "good"
or "bad," according as his preparations had proved suffi
cient or insufficient, or his planning had resulted fortunately
or otherwise. His affirmative thwarting of a rival's project
was, by Uke adaptation, termed "breaking the medicine"
of the rival.
The puncher frequently would signify his acceptance of
an offer of a drink of whiskey by giving an Indian sign,
usuaUy that for medicine, or that for good or that for peace.
The punchers in general knew a number of these Indian
signs, and often used them in lieu of spoken slang in order
to dress up Ught-hearted conversation. But only such of
the cowboys as were brought into intimate contact with the
Red Men made any pretense of mastering the rest of the
Indian sign-language, that remarkable, voiceless means of
conveying information.
Tobacco often was termed "kilUkinic" or "kinnikinic,"
names given by the Indians to their smoking mixture of
wUlow bark, whether without or with an admixture of
tobacco. Many gambling terms were used in a figurative way.
Dice, faro, poker, casino, seven-up, and keno each con
tributed. The dicer's "at the very first rattle out of the
box" expressed prompt action, while poker's "a busted
flush" pictured plans gone awry, and poker's "jack-pot"
signified either a general smash-up or else a perplexing

80 THE COWBOY
situation. Poker gave also, among other terms, "show
down," "freeze-out," "call," "see you," "raise," "bluff,"
"ante," and "kitty," all with self-evident slangy meanings,
unless the uninitiated should faU to appreciate that "ante"
might include any payment for any purpose, and that
"kitty" might embrace any public or charitable fund.
Thus Lafe Brown, in Oregon, recei-ving from his mother an
appeal to contribute toward the rebuUding of the church in
his native Eastern town, advised her that he would "ante
ten dollars to the church's kitty."
Whatever idea or physical asset was expected when ulti
mately put in use to bring success was one's "big casino."
In the class of big casino were included not only schemes for
outwitting rivals, but also powerful weapons presumably
intimidating to enemies, attractive presents supposedly
irresistible by females, speedy horses assumed to be in-
-vincible in racing. If, as often, expectations miscarried,
the disappointed person ruefully asserted that his big casino
had been "trumped."
Faro's terms permitted one puncher to "keep cases" on
another man, rather than prosaically to observe the latter's
actions or analyze his plans; and further permitted this
puncher, if dissatisfied with these actions or plans, to
"copper" them by initiating a diametricaUy opposite sort
of performance or scheme. From this same source came
"getting down to cases" as an antonym for "beating about
the bush."
Because of seven-up, "It's high, low, jack and the game"
became an exclamation announcing successful accomplish
ment of any task.
Keno, of which the Sacramento Chinaman said: "Fline
glame. VeUy slimple. Dlealer slay 'Kleno,' and ellyboUy
eUse slay 'O hleU!'" though played in the early mining-
camps, was not played upon the Range. Nevertheless it lent
its name to the ranchmen for exclamatory use when herald-

COWBOY CHARACTER 81
ing the ending of any act. The throwing of an elusive steer,
the breaking of a whiskey bottle, the being thrown from a
horse's back, each might evoke "Keno!"
The average cowboy was a bit mthless in his treatment
of grammar; this, in some cases, from lack of education,
in other cases because not satisfied -with the amount of
damage done to conventional EngUsh by slang alone.
Despite this mthlessness, and despite the cowboy's gen
erous use of slang, his language was not generally as remote
from that of Easterners as many tale-writers have sug
gested. Except for grammatic lapses the puncher departed
from conventional English no more than do the average
American newspapers of this year 1922 in such of their
articles as describe the game of baseball.
The puncher's conversation customarily was redolent
with profanity; but, if profanity be identifiable from the
sense and not the spelUng of words, many of the puncher's
expressions, while sacrilegious on the tongues of others,
were but slang when used by him. The common misuse of
the name of the Deity signified no purpose to re-vile God.
All through the West the word damn descended from the
pinnacle of an oath to the lowly estate of a mere adjective
unless the circumstances and manner of delivery evidenced
a contrary intent. Words could be, according to the tone
of their speaking, an insult or a term of affection. Where
fore men frequently were endearingly addressed with seem
ing curses and apparently scourging epithets. From this
sprang the phrase beloved of tale-writers: "SmUe, when you
say it next. SmUe, damn you, smile!"
Damn as an innocent adjective had various quizzical
shades of meaning. It was, among other things, sjmony-
mous, or semi-synonymous, with "very" or "exactly."
Thus "promptly at one o'clock" and "immediately" might
severally come from a puncher's lips as "at damned one"
and "damned now."

82 THE COWBOY
Damn, however, was not the only oath used by the
buckayro. He had an impious repertoire which was of
amazing length, and contained appallingly blasphemous
phrases. Some men devoted considerable thought to the
invention of new and ingenious combinations of sacrUegious
expressions. To specialized phrases of this sort the admiring public
accorded a sort of copyright, so that the inventor was al
lowed to monopolize for a time both the use of his infamous
productions and the praise that they evoked. These indi
vidual creations were known as "private cuss-words."
Some men held in reserve, as private cuss-words, phrases
which sounded as of childlike innocence, but which, having
been arbitrarily appointed by their owners as symbols to
express the last stages of anger or despair, represented, in
fact, the extreme of profanity. To the owner's acquain
tances such phrases were danger-signals. Snake Wheeler,
Pinto BUI, or Nebrasky  ( ?), each could for many con
secutive minutes comment upon the topography and tem
perature of Sheol, upon the probable destination of the
souls of the bystanders or of certain cattle or horses, upon
alleged irregularities in the descent of various persons, yet
the human auditors remained entirely blasl. But when
Snake icUy said, "My o'wn Aunt Mary!" or Pinto fairly
hissed, "My dead sister's doll!" or Nebrasky quietly but
flrmly remarked, "Little WilUe's goat!" some indi'vidual
either ducked or "dug for his cannon," or else a horse or
steer learned how it felt to be martyred.
The ranchmen were so permeated with profanity that,
though most of them endeavored to refrain from it when
in the presence of decent women, but few of the men were
able long "to keep the Ud on their can of cuss-words." An
Eastern woman, riding on a forest-girt Wyoming road,
rounded a comer and trotted into the fuU blast of blas
phemy flowing from the lips of the driver of a bogged mule

COWBOY CHARACTER 83
team. The moment the driver saw the woman, he curbed
his tongue, and apologized sincerely and in these very words:
"Excuse me, ma'am. I didn't know there was ladies pres
ent. If I had, I wouldn't a swore. Hi there, you mule.
HeU's roarings be damned, ma'am. How in heU can a man
keep from dropping out a cuss-word now and then when a
lot of  mules jack-knife on him. Excuse me,
ma'am. I sure begs your pardon. It just slipped out. Hi,
there, you lead mule, you  ."
And the woman fled, pursued by first a plaintive waU of
"Excuse me, ma'am," and next by another "Hi there, you
mule" and its unprintable codicUs.
Nevertheless the puncher's swearing was, to no small
extent, a purely conventional exhibition of very human
and quite boyUke desire to impress bystanders. Humor
rather than wickedness was its principal source. Where in
the wide world, other than in the West, would grown men
have ridden miles to engage in a competitive "cussing
match," with a saddle for the prize, or a person been held
forth as probably the State champion in blasphemy?
Western tradition was that much the best judges of pro
fanity were mules, and that these animals instantly could
detect the difference between the bold, s'winging blasphemy
of a "regular" and the timorous "parlor swearing" of a
"pUgrim." "Regular," the antonym of "tenderfoot," began early
in the decade of the seventies to be whoUy supplanted by
the terms "Westerner" and "real Westerner." As be
tween these latter terms, a "real Westerner" was merely a
"Westerner" who had unusual force of character, and thus,
in another phrasing by the Range, was a "he man."
The subject of profanity suggests the subject of reUgion,
as regards which the cowboys as a class were negative.
Some of them, either atheistic or merely agnostic, were open
scoffers, and with unction displayed to aU newcomers a

84 THE COWBOY
certain vicious, stupid, and hopelessly -vulgar printed parody
on the Bible. This particular parody was scattered all
over the Far West, and was one of its recognized fixtures,
along with the lariat, tin can, and sage-brush. But most of
the men, whatever their inner feelings may have been,
touched Ughtly, if at all, upon reUgious matters. "Sunday
stopped at the Missouri River," and many of the men never
had opportunity either to enter a church or to talk with a
clergyman. A fair statement is that, never ha-ving been
religiously awakened, they were reUgiously asleep.
Very marked was the power of detailed and accurate ob
servation of such things as were within the realm of the cow
boys' interests, and, from the things observed, simple in
ductions were instantly, if unconsciously, made. Then,
too, the puncher by training had the eye of a hawk. He
had no need for field-glasses.
Whatever he "raised" upon his solitary rides, he diag
nosed at a single glance.
When an object suddenly appeared within an observer's
horizon, this observer, if a Westerner, would state that he
had "raised" the object; while an Easterner, under Uke
circumstances, would say that the object had risen.
Did the cowboy "raise" a horseman, however far away,
an instant's glimpse told whether this horseman were an
Indian or a ranchman. The differing poses in the saddle
were unmistakable; the Indian always squatting and seated
Uke a sodden bag of meal. Closer inspection would dis
close that the Indian's toes were pointed outward, and that
his heels drubbed on his horse's sides at every step the poor
brute took.
The lope could not carry a rider so rapidly past five or
six closely bunched animals that he would not note and
remember all the beasts' identifying points.
Were his progress slower, his observation would be much
increased. There approached each other upon the traU a

COWBOY CHARACTER 85
man and thu-ty horses, the latter herded by men behind.
The horses, some on the traU, some beside it, here one,
there two or three abreast, interrupted their steady walk
only by stops for an instant to snatch a grass tuft or to
place a kick. These movements of the head and heels
momentarUy so turned the animals as to show all their
markings to a practised human eye. The man swung off
the traU, around the band, and to its herders at its rear.
Two minutes of conversation and he resumed his way.
Then and for days thereafter he could have described with
certainty the color, marking, sex, size, and brand of every
animal. One brute did not attempt to dodge before re
cei-ving a kick upon its left shoulder. The man, of course,
noticed that, and it forthwith informed him that the animal
was blind on that side.
At the conversation behind the band there doubtless oc
curred a simple but characteristic act. At least one of the
men, to rest himself, would have thrown a leg over his
horse's neck and sat in the saddle, either with one knee
crooked about the horn, or else squarely sideways, with a
stirrup flappingly hanging from one toe. That was a typi
cal Western pose.
Smoking, whUe universal, was practically restricted to
cigarettes, which were pronounced cig-a-reets, and were
made by the smoker. Although in fact the great majority
of cowboys had to use both hands in the operation of roll
ing and fighting, consummate elegance dictated that but a
single hand should be employed ; and that the rolling should
be effected by the finger-tips of this single hand, or, better
stUl, through a method which was successfully followed by
some of the cowboys and was studiously attempted by all
of them.
In this latter method, the paper, laid above the knee,
received a charge of tobacco, and then, without change of
position, was rolled into shape by a quick sweep of the

86 ^THE COWBOY
ball of the thumb. Next, with the finished cigarette held
between the fourth and fifth fingers of the rolling hand, the
thumb and forefinger of that hand grasped one loop of the
tobacco-sack's draw-string, the puncher's teeth seized the
other loop, and a whirling of the sack like a windmUl closed
its aperture. A dab by the tongue along the papered cylin
der, a match drawn by that same rolling hand across tight
ened trousers, and the cigarette was "workmg." The per
formance of this feat was one of the conventional ways of
exhibiting ostensible nonchalance when on the back of a
bucking horse.
"Eating and spitting tobacco" was in common but far
from universal use.
Bowed legs were a sign of the puncher's craft. The West
erner, from his earliest boyhood, when not sitting on a
chair sat on a horse. With no small number of men, did a
pedestrian journey out of doors rarely exceed the ten feet
between the house-door and the horse-rack. So habited
were these men to riding, that a projected trip to another
building, two hundred feet away, would send them into
saddle. Nature, as her price, subtracted symmetry from
their legs, strength from their ankles, and created a gait
akin to that of a sailor ashore. Dear old Wedding Ring
Charlie bore a sobriquet descriptive of his nether contour,
and, though ever able firmly to sit his saddle through twenty-
four consecutive hours, could only with greatest difficulty
walk for twenty yards.
The feet at the ends of such curved legs were very apt
to toe in, not to "track" as the West, in wagon builders'
language, described a deviation from normal pointing.
The ranchmen, whether owners or employees, in common
with all other then Westerners, whUe thoroughly honest in
their mutual dealings, had a very easy conscience as re
gards accepting Eastern, and particularly English, money
in return for what was sold. They at times would go so

COWBOY CHARACTER 87
far as ostensibly to convey large rivers and huge tracts of
governmentally o-wned land.
This attitude was not due to affirmatively intended dis
honesty for personal gain, but arose from a combination
of factors which largely were in the nature of erroneous
assumptions. First of aU, the West, as an undeveloped section, was in
such dire need of money for the development of natural
resources that "bringing money into the country" was re
garded as a particularly public-spirited act. Each new
fund, when put into circulation, aided so many men that
the arrival of any fund obscured the inducement offered
for its coming.
A second factor was the Westerner's unflattering opinion
of Easterners and EngUshmen, this opinion having, as re
gards Easterners, a not iUogical tang of bitterness.
The West, despite its progressiveness in most matters,
was thoroughly unregenerate in its clinging to prejudices
of the sort by which early Anglo-Saxon America was beset,
and consequently affected a contempt for "foreigners," the
West including Easterners in that category. From this
view-point the Range had toward the financial trimming of
some "effete" person the same complacent attitude as the
world has ever maintained toward the misfortunes of such
people as had forfeited public respect, as for instance
toward the excessive gambling losses of gilded youths.
Nor did the West see any ground for pity for the victims.
The Westerner, having started life when financially "flat
broke," and ha-ving Uved in a country where lands were
given to the asker and natural products belonged to the
finder, confidently assumed that the -victim's monetary
losses could be fuUy compensated by his "huntmg up" a
mine or other national largess of value. Thus the West,
from personal experience, believed that "going bust" or
"being busted" was not a serious state and was terminable

88 THE COWBOY
at any time by the insolvent's initiative. Incidentally, this
was why the West always was ready to do what the East
often could not risk, to "take a chance" in a business opera
tion. Next, each Westerner arrogated, not to himself but to
his fellow Westerners, the possession of the major portion
of the nation's brains, and took the stand that, if weak-
Ungs chose to invade the country of men and to trade -with
them, the weaklings should look out for themselves. The
Range made no allowance for the fact that the settled busi
ness customs of England and the East, and the estabUshed
significance of the trade expressions used there might differ
from such as obtained within the Cattle Country. It as
sumed that its own customs and its own construction of
technical terms were exclusively controlling. With this
tacit creation of a seemingly fair field for contest, the West
viewed a business transaction of intersectional or interna
tional application as being to no small extent a competitive
trial of intellect, and considerable local pride was aroused
among the friends of a ranchman who had "shown some
Easterner or Englishman how to think." This ranchman's
success was measured, not so much by the amount of his
financial profit, as by the extent to which he cleverly had
outwitted his "effete" victim; and, if the latter had been
made to appear ridiculous, so much the better.
Furthermore, the Westerner, in addition to relegating
Easterners to the impersonal status of foreigners, stored
up against them three affirmative grievances. The West
erner resented, first, the East's lack of interest in the former's
country, resented, second, the East's so largely profiting
from a rehandling of the West's productions, and, third,
to some extent believed that the latter condition speUed
more than unfairness, and that he, the Westerner, ever was
being affirmatively defrauded by the East. Thus he coun
tenanced recoupment from individual Easterners.
The puncher's intense admiration for the scenic beauties

COWBOY CHARACTER 89
of his Western country, and the failure of Easterners m
general to visit it contributed largely to the creation of the
puncher's antipathy toward the East. Every Easterner
who went to Europe instead of to Colorado or to California,
every Easterner who mentioned the Alps instead of the
Rockies fertiUzed this prejudice. The West's censure of the
East in this regard was based, not on the theory that the
moneys spent in European travel might otherwise have
gone Westward, but on the fact that the Easterner pre
ferred admiration of the sights of Europe to worship of
Western landscapes.
The Westerner had never been brought face to face with
great buUdings, great paintings, great statues, and thus he
did not sense their possibUities, did not reaUze that there
could exist objects of this sort worth crossing the Atlantic
to see, and that Europe was their storage place. The single
beauty field of which he knew was natural scenery, and he
sincerely believed that, in this, nature had given her best
to America's West, to "God's Country," as all its dwellers
termed it.
The salient scenery of the West consisted of mountains,
canyons, and waterfaUs, punctuated by the geysers of the
present Yellowstone National Park.
The puncher confidently matched the Rockies against
the only foreign range with the existence of which he was
familiar, the Alps, and against the only Eastern range the
character of which he kept in mind, the White Mountains
of New Hampshire. With his back confidently braced
against the Rockies, anchored as they were to the Arctic
and Cape Hom, he called the Alpine "Mount Blank" a
badger-hole; and, discovering that the bottom of a deep
depression in a plain in Colorado had exactly the same alti
tude above sea-level as had the summit of New England's
highest peak, joyfully named the bottom of that hole
Mount Washington.
The West was particularly rich in majestic waterfalls,

90 THE COWBOY
their least one more important than any Europe had.
Wlierefore the puncher, with indignant partisanship and
great enthusiasm, berated Lauterbrunnen and the faUs of
the Rhine. Even America's Niagara at times was scolded.
One night, below the great cataract of the Snake River,
one of the tremendous spots of North America, Jun, i. e.,
Jim whatever his last name may have been, ha-ving dis
missed the Staubbach FaU of Switzerland as "a mere water
ing-pot," announced with exultant pride: "European water
faUs. Hell ! Bring over the biggest of them, and this here
real one wUl squirt it to a finish."
Did a tenderfoot mention canyons to a Westerner, the
latter merely grinned, said, "YeUowstone, Colorado," and,
if he chewed tobacco, bit his plug.
As for geysers, the West knew that there were three prin
cipal fields: New Zealand ("how did one reach there?"),
Iceland ("nobody went there"), and the YeUowstone. Eu
rope and the East had no geysers. From the cowboy's
view-point, they did not deserve any.
In the railroad yard at Green River, Wyoming, one hot
afternoon, there ran between a complacent native son of
Utah and a homesick ex-Bostonian a bitter debate on the
comparative scenic beauties of New England and the West,
and the relative merits of the inhabitants of those locali
ties. The debate bumped along now in favor of this side,
now of the other, until suddenly terminated and conclusively
won by this uncontrovertible argument: "By G  , if your
Eastern folks ever had guts, why didn't they get their own
geezers?" The cowboy could not understand why the Easterner
should prefer to stay on the Atlantic coast or to go to Eu
rope when, as the Cattle Country thought, ordinary com
mon sense should have taken him Westward.
And when the Easterner did go Westward, he could not
properly saddle a horse, he could not properly ride the beast,

COWBOY CHARACTER 91
he could not find his way through a trackless wilderness,
he could not take care of himself in the open, he expected
some non-existent woman to do his cooking and to wash
his clothes, he carried a very shiny and very small-bore
pistol, and, while tracking big game, he stepped on every
dry stick within his reach. He called the corral a barn
yard; and, though he had seen the West, he permitted his
relatives to remain "back East." The Range, realizing
that the Easterner was very bungling in every attempt to
do any of the particular, technical things that every West
erner had of necessity mastered, looked, when gauging
efficiency, no farther than the boundaries of the Cattle
Country, and did not appreciate that beyond those bound
aries might be an important field of activity and thought
with which the West was not conversant, and that the very
tenderfoot who called the corral a barnyard might be a
leader in that field.
The Cattle Country complained that the West exerted
itself to produce the nation's raw materials in the way of
meat, hides, wool, wheat, and precious metals, that the East
was whoUy unproductive, but that nevertheless the East,
by ownership of the factories and by control of the markets,
unfairly reaped the major portion of the profits from the
raw products which the Westerners laboriously had orig
inated. The cowman berated commissions and stock-yard
charges upon the sales of his cattle.
The Westerner, who was accustomed to obtain through
federal gift whatever lands, water, grass, fuel, buUding wood,
and wild meat he needed, did not pause to consider that in
the West alone did the government make such gifts; and,
on reading in his newspaper that some little parcel of New
York City realty had fetched a tremendous price, he vaguely
or more definitely concluded that "Wall Street" was al
lowed all the cream of the federal benefactions, and that
in some undisclosed manner the West had been cheated

92 THE COWBOY
out of its fair share of the profit. The puncher assumed
that, if land at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway.
in New York brought fifty doUars per square foot while
productive tracts in the Cattle Country rarely rose above
ten doUars for each acre, there was some dishonesty in the
situation, and he gave the blame for it to the East.
The Cattle Country had for itself the same kind of com
placent self-satisfaction that the then contemporary At
lantic coast had for what the latter called the United States;
the United States, according to the Atlantic coast's then
view-point, consisting of three thousand mUes in width of
territory which might or might not contain inhabitants
U-ving westward of Chicago.
The Cattle Country extended, out of its self-complacency,
a friendly interest to so much of the Middle West as did
not lie eastward of Chicago; but, beyond the easterly bound
ary of that city, the curiosity of the Cattle Country did
not go, save on occasional trips either to gather diverting
bits of information like a jumping from the Brooklyn Bridge
or Captain Webb's attempt to swim through Niagara's
whirlpool, or else to obtain a grievance against the East.
A considerable amount of admiring interest was incited
both by the rapid growth of Chicago and by the heights
of its successively erected "skyscrapers," particularly in
so far as they promised an ultimate, hopeless outdistancing
of the City of New York in both population and taU buUd
ings. A friendly interest was extended also to the Pacific slope.
Very definite acquaintance was had with Mexico, its
geography, industries, and political affairs.
The rest of the world did not function on the Cattle Coun
try's map except in so far as, even back in the early eighties,
a few prophets said that some day California might have
trouble with Japan. The only news the Cattle Country
received from Europe was that which, from time to time

COWBOY CHARACTER 93
and in squib-like form appearing in Western newspapers,
was largely of the Captain Webb variety, or else related
to royal assassinations or the burning of cities.
In all this, the West was relatively not a whit more in
sular than the rest of the United States. America has ever
restricted its intensive interest to itself, and has saved its
most burning curiosity until a new famUy should move
into the house next door.
Of its own affairs the Cattle Country had an astonish
ingly definite and accurate knowledge. The West's own
geography down to its minutest detaUs was at the finger
tips of everybody upon the Range. Whatever visitor might
wish information as to the crossings of the Rio Grande could
obtain rehable information at Sumpter, Oregon, or at Me-
dora in Dakota, information no less specific and trustworthy
than he could procure at Laredo upon the stream's very
bank. Texas knew as much about the Gallatin River as
did Bozeman, Montana, past which it flowed. Even every
little creek had Rangewide notoriety. Arizona had no more
knowledge about her San Francisco peaks than had Wyo
ming, while the dwellers by the Bitter Root Mountains of
Idaho and the people who lived in the shadow of Colorado's
Sangre de Cristo Range knew every principal trail and can
yon in both these chains.
This geographical knowledge had causation other than
merely abstract interest. The Range dweller was called
upon in connection with the business of his live stock to
travel often and far. He never knew when and whither he
next might journey. Distance never balked him. The
school of the Texas Drive taught the meaninglessness of
miles. And yet, though he saw many places, he could not
-visit every place upon the map. His intimate knowledge
of these unseen spots he obtained from the descriptions
given him by other Westerners, descriptions such as could
be given only by frontiersmen and by engineers, descrip-

94 THE COWBOY
tions by which his brain received through the medium of
his ears a picture and topographical plan as -vivid and de-
taUed as his eyes might otherwise have procured.
The Cattle Country kept somewhat close track of all its
people. Ranchmen on Montana's Musselshell knew in
general as to who was raising cattle in the Texan county
of Palo Pinto, while "down in San Antone," one not im
probably might learn the names of almost aU the outfits
along Nebraska's Platte.
Cattlemen on some of Oregon's Grant County ranges,
making an onslaught on local sheep, drove hundreds of the
"woolUes" into the forests of the Blue Mountains, and fire
did the rest. Presently the entire Cattle Country knew
aU the details, just as it promptly knew all the details when
"lumpy jaw" appeared in the Neutral Strip, "hoof and
mouth disease" crept in at North Park, drought struck
Judith Basin, or Green River was "up," i. e., in unusual
flood. A ranchman scarcely could move his thousand steers
at Laramie without their transit being eventuaUy reported
along the Pecos.
A man would aUght from a train in Nebraska at Grand
Island or in Kansas at AbUene. Some local resident in
chaps would give him a second glance, a searching if a hur
ried one, and would thus address the train's conductor:
"Captam, ain't that Angus, the new sheriff over in John
son County, Wyoming? I ain't never seen him, but a feUer
down in Texas told me what he looked like." Thus, in an
other phase, the frontiersman's descriptive power had func
tioned, and Sheriff Angus's picture had been painted with
accuracy as pronounced as had obtained when a mountain
range and the trails across it had by word of mouth been
set with 'vivid clarity before some inquirer.
IncidentaUy the Cattle Country obtained its news not
so much through the media of its newspapers and the maUs
as it did through the spoken words of men who, meeting

COWBOY CHARACTER 95
in the open country, stopped their ponies and "passed a
word." The Cattle Country was interested, of course, in things
other than those above enumerated; but, unless these latter
matters involved mechanical inventions, or either discoveries
or theories in science, or else epoch-making events, they
usually, to obtain a hearing, had first to prove that more
or less directly they would affect the Range. International
relations could find no audience.
The Cattle Country, as regards the inteUectual subjects
that interested it, had a very lively curiosity, was little dis
posed to be mentally lazy and to take anything for granted.
Nor was it apt, 'without investigation of its o'wn, to accept
as conclusive other people's opinions and to rely upon them.
It directed to these subjects painstaking, tireless, and ex
tensive consideration. The loneliness of the life gave am
ple time for thought, none of which was wasted on neurotic
introspection or was subject to interruption.
The constant working of this curiosity, the habitual exer
cise of the powers of accurate observation and of mental
concentration collectively produced, from time to time,
data valuable in the field of science. The range and habits
of the several species of wild animals, the location and area
of the way stations used by the different varieties of migra
tory birds, the latters' several migration time-tables, the
situs of fossil deposits, marked abnormalities in geological
formations, peculiarities in the dress and customs of various
Indian tribes, and other matters of like character were ob
served, and frequently were reported to the Smithsonian
Institution, to a local university, to some locally operatmg
scientffic expedition from an Eastern university, to some
field party of the federal government's Geological Survey,
or, occasionally and strange to say, to the nearest United
States marshal.
Though most of these reports brought no additions or

96 THE COWBOY
amendments to scientific knowledge as it then existed, some
did, and laid real foundation for new theories to be created
in scholarly laboratories, or else confirmed theories pre
viously so made but then not as yet conclusively estab
Ushed, or else they caused either a doubting or a complete
rejection of theories that had obtained.
It is safe to say that no equal number of amateur inves
tigators in any other section of the United States would
have produced anywhere nearly the same quantity of useful
data. The Cattle Country, thus committing its mind actively
to concrete, tangible matters, was not prone to interest it
self in abstract, intangible, philosophical subjects. It sym
pathized with the view-point of Steve Hawes, a cook 'with
convictions: "Such things, they don't bring no facts to
nobody. The feUer that's a-goin' to do the talkin', he just
natcherally begins by pickin' out a startin' pint that ruUy
ain't nowhars at aU. He brands that startin' pint ' Assoom-
in' that,' so he can know it if he runs acrost it agin. Then
he cuts his thinkin' picket-rope, and drifts all over the huU
mental prairie untU he gits plumb tuckered out. And when
he gits so dog-gone tired that he can't think up no more
idees to wave around and look purty in the 'wind, he just
winds up with 'Wherefore, it follows.' Follows. HeU ! It
don't foUow nothin'. It just comes in last."
Then, too, the Cattle Country, with its directness of
thinking, was apt to content itself -with ascertaining the
merely proximate cause of the phenomena that attracted
interest, and to consider that attempts to trace further
back into the chain not only were futUe, but also took one
into purely speculative channels and away from "facts."
That same Steve Hawes, after patiently listening to two
coUege graduates academically discuss the cause of Julius
Caesar's death, thus summarized the whole affair: "What did
recurrin' desire for constitooshanl guvnment, return of de-

COWBOY CHARACTER 97
mocracy, and them other vague things you've bin taUiin'
about have to do with it anyhow? All there was to it was
that Caesar, he didn't draw in time, and got in front of that
feller Cassius' s dofunny, whUe Brutus he come in with the
sweetener. Now it appears to me that them was the facts,
leastwise the tme facts and all that's wuth considerin'."
The essayist's type of presentation found small favor.
For the essays upon Ught subjects the Range had Uttle
sympathy, and for the frothy ones that not only delighted
many an Eastern dilettante but also marked the limit of
his intellectual research, the Range had an unmitigated
and robust contempt.
The West pinned its faith and its interest to "facts."
Incidentally, the salient, important, controlling elements
in any matter of fact were called the "true facts," or the
"real facts," whUe the occurrence or existence of imma
terial elements was acknowledged and dismissed by the
statement: "That might be," or "That might be so."
Reddy Rodgers, a Gallatin VaUey hunting-guide, having,
in company -with a tenderfoot sportsman spent an entire
day in unsuccessful quest for game, came toward nightfall
upon a bear. The tenderfoot became excited, broke a
branch lying on the ground, and the bear thus alarmed dis
appeared forthwith. Upon the men's return to camp the
tenderfoot, when giving to one of his fellow sportsmen a
recital of the event, described in minutest detaU and with
strictest accuracy every happening before the bear had been
sighted, while it remained in view, and for some time after
it had left. There was not a single statement that was not
absolutely tmthful. When he had finished, Reddy summed
up in these words: "All that mought be so. But the tme
facts was. The bar thar. The dude he stepped on a
stick. Skiddoo."
The West desired that persons, when describing "facts,"
should do so with definiteness and accuracy, but it did not

98 THE COWBOY
require that any effort be made to dress the presentation in
an artistic way. The West contained such endless quan
tity of beauty in its natural scenery, that, as already stated,
whoever upon the Range hungered for the beautiful turned
instinctively to nature and not to art. The result was that
the Cattle Country tended to ignore most of the human at
tempts to create beauty, and so brought upon itself the
Easterner's averment as to lack of cultivation.
The Westerner, with his methods of thinking and his un
interrupted opportunities for thought, was able in each
subject that interested him to arrive ultimately at a clearly
cut conclusion, and to hold in definite mental storage aU
the argument that had led him to that end.
Along would come an Eastern or EngUsh tenderfoot, and,
in the ordinary course of conversation, one of the Westerner's
favorite topics would arise. It very Ukely would be one
to which the tenderfoot had pre-viously given Uttle heed,
perhaps none at aU. The Westerner under such conditions
often had good reason to think that the tenderfoot in his
discussion made a sorry presentation as compared with the
Westerner's well-ordered offerings. The difference in ex
tent of preparation suggested itself to nobody, and the
tenderfoot, himself chagrined, was by the Westerner classed
as mentally his inferior and possible as markedly stupid.
On the other hand, was there put forward a topic in which
the tenderfoot was well prepared and in which the West
erner took no interest, one of two things would promptly
happen. Either the topic would be summarily changed, or
the Westerner would rid himself of an unwelcome phase in
the conversation by hastily forming an opinion and stating
it in very positive terms. He would assume both that the
subject was not worth his expenditure of thought and also
that nothing that the tenderfoot might say about it would
have any value.

COWBOY CHARACTER 99
The Easterner had his own social customs, and these were
largely predicated on urban life. Practically none of them
were compatible with, or were adjustable to, the style of
U-ving which conditions in the West locaUy compelled. And
yet the fact that Easterners, even when in their Atlantic
coast homes, should not attempt to foUow Western stand
ards, was a bit complained of by the Cattle Country as
against the East.
The Cattle Country did not resent the individual East
erner so long as he stayed in the West and tried to fit into
the life. It merely pitied him for his fancied total ineffi
ciency. But the Cattle Country did resent, and deeply re
sent, the fact that neither the man's relatives, his "folks,"
as the Range termed them, nor the vast majority of aU
Easterners either came to the West or showed any inter
est in that section. The people of the Cattle Country were
aggrieved at ha-ving their own existence as human beings
overlooked and at being abstractly considered as merely
so many annual pounds of wheat, silver, gold, leather, wool,
and meat. In other words, that which the West really
most resented was being ignored, and this resentment was
the fundamental motive for the specific and affirmatively
made complaints enumerated above.
The Western skin, despite its sunburn, was very thin
and very easUy hurt.
The resentment was a bit augmented by a secret dread
that adverse criticism of Westerners might come from the
Atlantic coast when the latter should eventuaUy direct
its attention to the Cattle Country. Pre-viously and for
years, the East had had the same fear of Europe. In each
case, it was the latent anxiety of a virile, youthful civiUza-
tion lest it be judged severely by an older people; and, in
each case, the anxiety came to the surface in the shape of
defiant antipathy. The Cattle Country's "tenderfoots"

100 THE COWBOY
and "effete East" spoke the same language as did the East's
prior raiUngs against "effete monarchies" and "worn-out
Europe." But the cowboy, although he did not understand the
Easterners, although he branded them as "effete" and
"stuck up," and very stupid, although he objected to their
governing themselves by their own settled customs, this
last despite the fact that he hunself unconsciously was mled
by convention as much as consciously were the Easterners,
although he ruffled when they ran counter to his code, never
theless welcomed them to his country; and, if they ex
pressed true admiration for it and fitted into it, he became
their undying friend.
The moment an Easterner settled in the West, his sins
of birth were forgiven him. He was assumed to have re
canted from his iniquity, and to have travelled in search
of light. His new companions did not arrogate to them
selves any idea that he had sought to be taught by them.
Merely he had come to "God's Country," to learn from it
and from all that was in it how contemptible his past had
been, how great his then present pri-vilege was.
Not even a large minority of Westerners would themselves
commit the sharp practices described above, but to such
men as were successful in pursuit of them was extended
the admiring and well-nigh unanimous sympathy of the
Cattle Country. However, these overreachings usually were
launched against only such persons as, either not U-ving in
the West, were regarded as impersonal and hence as fair
targets, or else, residing in the West, were generaUy dis
liked and so were considered legitimate victims.
As a whole, the matter represented principaUy a desire
to teach the disUked East and England "another lesson."
The sharp practices rarely were aired in the courts. The
denizens of the Cattle Country engaged in formal Utigation
and entered the courts only under either one of two condi-

COWBOY CHARACTER 101
tions; i. e., when they were dragged in by some aggrieved
tenderfoot -victim of an abortive local promotion scheme,
or they, with confident reUance on the bias of a jury of
friends, served process on an Easterner or EngUshman.
The tenderfoot -victim rarely thus dragged a Westerner
into court, because the stanch partisanship of the local
juries was well advertised.
Such disputes between Westemers as were not settled
by private treaty or on occasion across a gun's sights were
quite apt to be submitted for adjustment to the local sheriff.
He, jovial but firm, very friendly but sternly just, always
courageous and everywhere regarded with esteem, arbi
trated many such contests, and his decisions had moraUy
the same effect as they would have had if he had been a
circuit judge.
The cowboy had a very clearly defined regard for what
he conceived to be the dignity of his calUng, and would
brook neither disparagement of his trade nor any act or
statement which tended materiaUy to beUttle himself. He
deeply resented seriously offered derision.
Easterners in general, whoUy ignorant of the West,
thought the cowboy wofully conceited. He was not so.
Many of his statements about projected action may have
sounded boastful to such as were unacquainted with his
capabUities, but these statements usually were launched
as matter-of-fact announcements of readily performable
plans. When the puncher said that he was about to ride
what seemed to his tenderfoot auditors an unconscionable
distance, he not only was going to do so, but doubtless had
done so many times before.
Admittedly the cowboy was vain in a feminine way and
displayed his vanity with boyUke naivete, but his apparent
blatancy was not a direct bragging about himself. It was
enthusiastic advocacy of his Cattle Country and of the
people whom he loved. That he might be included among

102 THE COWBOY
those people by his auditors was of course no drawback.
But really the country and the people came first; and,
when he thought of them, he instinctively gamboUed like
a lamb.

CHAPTER V
WHAT THE COWBOY WORE
-WHAT THE COWBOY WORE AND WHY HE WORE IT — HAT, ITS FORM, DECO
RATION, USES AND NAMES — HANDKERCHIEF, ITS COLOR AND USE — SHIRT^
collar's ABSENCE — GARTERS — COAT AND TROUSERS — BELT — VEST — "MAK
INGS" — "natural CURIOSITIES" — MATCHES — FANCY VEST — OVERCOAT —
GLOVES — CUFFS — BOOTS — SPURS — " CHAPS " — FURS — " WAR PAINT " — HAIR
CHAIN — OTHER RANCHMEN's RAIMENT
The clothing worn by members of the trade was distinc
tive. Although picturesque, it was worn not for the pro
duction of this effect, but solely because it was the dress
best suited to the work in hand. Inasmuch as it was se
lected with view only to comfort and convenience, it knew
nothing of variable fashion and suffered from no change in
style. It, however, was subject, as were many of the cowboys'
customs, to differences in form according as the locality
involved was the Northwest or the Southwest. The Une
of demarcation between these sections, though never very
clearly defined, was in effect an imaginary westward ex
tension of Mason and Dixon's Line, this extension zigzag
ging a bit in some places.
The hat was, in material, of smooth, soft felt; and. In color,
dove-gray, less often light brown, occasionally black. It
had a cylindrical crown seven inches or more in height,
and a flat brim so wide as to overtop its wearer's shoulders.
The brim might or might not be edged with braid, which,
if it appeared, was sUken and was of the same color as the
felt. In the Southwest, the crown was left at its full height,
but its circumference above the summit of the wearer's
head was contracted by three or, more commonly, four, ver-
103

104 THE COWBOY
tical, equidistant dents, the whole resembling a mountain
from whose sharp peak descended three or four deep gullies.
In the Northwest, the crown was left flat on top, but was
so far telescoped by a pleat as to remain but approximately
two and a half inches high.
Few men of either section creased their hats in the manner
of the other. A denizen of the Northwest appearing in a high-
crowned hat was supposed to be putting on airs, and was
subject openly to be accused of "chucking the Rio," ver
nacular for affecting the manners of the Southwesterners,
whose dominant river was the Rio Grande. Present-day
Northwesterners, faithless to this tradition, have foresworn
the low crown and assumed the peak. The United States
War Department recently has flown into the face of history
by formally designating the dented high peak as the Mon
tana poke.
Around the crown, just above the brim and for the pur
pose of regulating the fit of the hat, ran a belt, which was
adjustable as to length. The belt was made usuaUy of
leather, but, particularly in the Southwest, occasionaUy of
woven sUver or gold wire. The belt, if of leather, commonly
was studded with ornamental nails, or, did the owner's
purse permit, with "conchas," which were flat metal plates,
usually circular, generaUy of sUver, in rare instances of
gold, in much rarer instances set with jewels. Rattlesnake's
rattles, gold nuggets, or other showy curiosities not infre
quently adorned the leather. For leather, some men sub
stituted the skin of a rattlesnake.
From either side of the brim at its inner edge, depended
a buckskin thong; these two thongs, sometimes known as
"bonnet strings," being tied together and so forming a
guard, which, during rapid riding or in windy weather, was
pushed under the base of the skull, but which at other times
was thrust inside the hat.
Did the brim sag through age or unduly flop, it could

WHAT THE COWBOY WORE 105
be rectified by cutting, near its outer edge, a row of slits and
threading through them a strip of buckskin.
The -wide brim of the hat was not for appearance's sake.
It was for use. It defended from a burning sun and shaded
the eyes under any conditions, particularly when clearness
of 'vision was vital to a man awake or shelter was desirable
for one asleep. In rainy weather it served as an umbrella.
The brim, when grasped between the thumb and fingers
and bent into a trough, was on its upper surface the only
drinking-cup of the outdoors; when puUed down and tied
over the ears, it gave complete protection from frost-bite.
It fanned into activity every camp-fire started in the open,
and enlarged the carrying capacity of the hat when used
as a pail to transport water for extinguishing embers. The
broad hat swung to right or left of the body or overhead
pro'vided conspicuous means of signalling; and, when shoved
between one's hip or shoulder and the hard ground, it
sometimes hastened the arrival of a nap. Folded, it made
a comfortable pillow. No narrow-brimmed creation could
have had so many functions.
A PhUadelphian manufacturer •virtuaUy monopoUzed the
making of at least the better grades; and, from his name,
every broad-brimmed head covering was apt everywhere
slangily to be designated as a "Stetson," instead of by either
one of its two legitimate and interchangeable titles of "hat"
and "sombrero." WhUe these two legitimate titles were
interchangeable throughout the West, the Northwest leaned
toward "hat," the Southwest toward "sombrero."
There were slang names other than the one just men
tioned, but none that had more than infrequent usage.
These other names included "lid," "war-bonnet," "conk
cover," "hair case," and a host of Uke inventions.
Southwesterners often wore, in lieu of the hat already
described, the real sombrero of Mexico, with its high crown
either conical or cyUndrical, its brim saucer-shaped, and

106 THE COWBOY
its shaggy surface of plush, frequently embroidered with
gold or silver thread. No Northwesterner ventured, while
in his home country, to "chuck the Rio" to the extent of
such a head-gear.
Most of these sombreros, though reaching the American
wearer by the route of importation from Mexico, had been
made in PhUadelphia by the very manufacturer who is
mentioned above.
Along the Mexican border, some men, principaUy
"Greasers," wore the huge straw hats of Mexico; but these
head coverings were not often assumed by Americans, for
there was a suggestion of peonage in the straw.
Many punchers had such vanity as to their hats that
the makers gave, in the so-called "feather-weight" quaUty,
a felt far better than that used in the shapes offered to city
folk, and so fine as to roll up almost as would a handker
chief, a felt so costly that only ranchmen would pay its
price, and thus they alone made use of it. Not infrequently
a puncher spent from two to six months' wages for his hat
or sombrero and its ornamental belt.
Those hats and sombreros, while by Western classifica
tion "soft hats," should not be confused 'with the unstif-
f ened, cheap felt hats worn by city-dwellers ; for these latter
head coverings, though admittedly "soft," were subject to
the contemptuous accusation of being mere "wool hats."
Furthermore the Range knew that the city-dweUers wore
also "hard" or "hard-boiled" hats, subdi'vided into the
two classes of, first, "derby" or "pot" and, second, "plug"
or "stovepipe"; but no "hard hat" attempted, unless ac
companied by a tenderfoot, to appear within the Cattle
Country. The handkerchief which encircled every cowboy's neck
was intended as a mask for occasional use, and not as an
article of dress.
This handkerchief, diagonaUy folded and with its two

WHAT THE COWBOY WORE 107
thus most widely separated comers fastened together by a
square knot, ordinarUy hung loosely about the base of the
wearer's neck; but, as the wearer rode in behind a bunch
of mo-ving live stock, the stiU knotted handkerchief's broad
est part was pulled up over the wearer's mouth and nose.
The mask thus formed eliminated the other-wise suffocating
dust and made breathing possible. It offered relatively Uke
protection against stinging sleet and freezing wind.
The cowboy did not dare risk being without this -vitally
necessary mask when need for it should come, and so he
ever kept it on the safest peg he knew; under his chin.
In color and material the handkerchief, though some
times of silk, usually was of red bandanna cotton; of red,
not because the puncher affirmatively demanded it, but
because ordinarUy that was the only color other than white
obtainable from the local shopkeepers. The shopping cow
boy was very tolerant save in his selection of hats, chaps,
spurs, guns, ropes, and saddles.
The handkerchief-selling shopkeeper in his own turn had
foUowed the line of least resistance; and, being subject to
no special demand for green, blue, or whatever, had forborne
to make among the manufacturers a hunt for varied colors,
and had stocked himself with an article which he readily
could obtain, the red bandanna.
Thanks to the requirements of the Southern negro, this
article constantly was manufactured. Thus the "Aunt
Dinahs" of the Southern kitchens unwittingly dictated as
to what the cowboy of the West should hang about his neck.
A relatively similar reason foisted the Texan heraldic
star upon the saddles, bridles, chaps, and boots of many of
the Northwesterners. The Texans, with their intense State
pride, asked for this adornment, and the manufacturers,
putting it on the Texans' accoutrements, standardized out
put, and starred the equipment of almost everybody who
did not object.

108 THE COWBOY
White handkerchiefs were eschewed by many punchers,
because these handkerchiefs, when clean, reflected Ught;
and thus sometimes, upon the Range, called attention to
their wearers when the latter wished to avoid notice by
other people or by animals. Moreover white soon so suffered
from dust as to appear unpleasantly soiled.
There was nothing peculiar about the shirt beyond that
it was always of cotton or wool, always was coUarless and
starchless (not "boiled," "biled," or "bald-faced"); and,
though of any checked or striped design or soUd color, al
most never was red. That latter tone was reputed to go
badly among the cattle, and, in any event, belonged to the
miners. Furthermore, the puncher's taste in colors was in
the main quite subdued.
Collars were unknown. A white one starched would
have 'wrecked its wearer's social position. This denying
the ranchman a white collar did not withhold it from such
of the professional gamblers as cared to wear it. A "turn
down" collar of celluloid (of paper in the early years), pro
vided the wearer's handkerchief and salivary glands occa
sionally functioned in unison, would make the gambler
showUy immaculate, and so would advertise apparent pros
perity. Each of the cowboy's shirt-sleeves customarily was dra'wn
in above the elbow by a garter, which was of either t'wisted
wire or of elastic webbing, and frequently, and as an excep
tion to the general demureness of sartorial tone, was brightly
colored, crude shades of pink or blue being much in favor.
Nor was there anything distinctive about the coat and
trousers, which were woollen and, in cut, of the sack-suit
variety; then, as now, the usual garb of American men, un
less one regards as distinctive the fact that almost univer
sally these garments were sombre in hue.
Possibly this predilection for black and darkest shades
found its source in Texas and Missouri, where the frock

WHAT THE COWBOY WORE 109
coat, string tie, and slouch hat of the Southern "colonel"
had ever been of black.
However, the cowboy sometimes substituted for his
wooUen coat one of similar cut, but made of either brown
canvas or black or brown leather.
Denim overalls were considered beneath the dignity of
riders, and were left to wearing by the farmers, the towns
folk, and the subordinate employees of the ranches.
The puncher's trousers, universaUy caUed "pants," stayed
in place largely through luck, because the puncher both
avoided "galluses," the suspenders of the tenderfoot, as
tending to bind the shoulders, and also was wary of sup
porting belts, as the latter, if drawn at aU tightly, were
conducive to hernia when one's horse was pitching. How
ever, if the puncher were of Mexican blood, he would gird
himself with a sash of red or green silk.
In the mending of rents the safety-pin often functioned
in Ueu of thread and needle.
The pistol's belt, wide and looped for extra cartridges,
ever loosely sagged, and so threw the weapon's weight upon
the thigh instead of placing strain upon the abdomen.
When possible the cowboy went coatless, but he always
wore a vest. The coat was arrestive to ease of motion. Also
it somewhat invited perspiration, and perspiration for a
man condemned to remain out of doors day and night in
a country of cold winds was uncomfortable, if not danger
ous. In every-day life the vest was of ordinary, ci-vilian type,
and usually was left unbuttoned. It was worn, not as a
piece of clothing, but solely because its outside pockets
gave handy storage not only to matches but also to "mak
ings," which last-mentioned articles were cigarette papers
and a bag of "BuU Durham" tobacco.
Mixed in with these necessaries were, in all probability,
a gold nugget, an Indian arrow-head, or an "elk tush" or

110 THE COWBOY
two. These "tushes," the canine teeth from the wapiti's
upper jaw, now widely known as insignia of a great secret
order, were in the West of years ago equaUy well known as
the most treasured jewels of the Indian squaw. Every cow
boy acquired all the "tushes" he conveniently could, doing
so usuaUy with no purpose of ultimate trade 'with the In
dians, but only because of a vague, boyUke idea that some
how, some day, they might be useful. In reaUty, as he got
them he gave them to Eastern souvenir hunters, as he also
gave the nuggets and the arrow-heads.
This naive predilection for so-caUed "natural curiosities"
went hand in hand with desire to benefit either science or
the federal government; was shared, in this pubUc-spirited
form, with the scouts and hunters, and worked for the in
convenience of the recei-ving clerks at the Smithsonian In
stitution. There flowed, for years, to the door of the latter's
museum and from out of the West a steady stream of use
less bones, horns, skins, crystals, pieces of wood, and other
things, all enthusiastically started on their journeys and
most of them ultimately and properly landing on the scrap-
heap at Washington.
Men would undergo great personal risks to obtain "fine
specimens." The prevalent desire to patronize "The Smithsonian"
was exemplified in the experience of two Northwestern
scouts who had the same beneficent attitude toward science
as had the punchers.
The Crow Indians had "jumped" their reservation and
were on the war-path. They were being traUed by Taze-
weU Woody and James Dewing, Woody riding a horse.
Dewing a mule.
These scouts discovered an enormous bald eagle, which,
feeding at a carcass, was so gorged as to be helpless. The
tremendous size of the bird suggested immediately that
Washington was in great need of this fine specimen, so a

WHAT THE COWBOY WORE 111
hea'vy stick was brought do'wn on the national emblem's
neck, and the latter's immediate o'wner was then pronounced
to be dead. The eagle's legs were lashed to the back of
Dewing's saddle, while a thong held in place the folded
wings of the hanging bird.
The men mounted, and forthwith a war party broke from
cover and attacked them. The scouts spurred their mounts
into a retreat, but were rapidly being overhauled by the
Indians, whose ponies were fleeter than De'wing's mule.
MeanwhUe shots were flying.
Just as it began to look hopeless for the two whites, there
happened simultaneously three things: First, a bullet struck
the ground in front of the galloping mule, raised a flurry
of dust, and caused the brute to spin around and to hurry
toward the foe. Second, a buUet cut the thong which had
bound the eagle's 'wings. Third, the eagle came to life, and,
though with legs stiU fastened to the saddle, stood erect.
Then the charge completely reversed its direction and
appearance. It had been to both whites and Reds a hun
dred armed warriors chasing two helpless victims. Now
it seemed to the Reds a pursuing demon hastening to de
stroy a fleeing Indian tribe. What Woody witnessed was
a screaming eagle with talons imbedded in the rump of a
crazed mule, with wings outspread and beating the air,
and with beak digging, amid the screams, into uncomfortable
Dewing's back, while the mule rushed after the Indians,
intermittently pausing to buck and bray. Dewing himself
meanwhUe shouting, cursing, and shooting.
The matches in the cowboy's pocket, like all matches on
the Range, were in thin sheets like coarsely toothed combs.
They had small brown or blue heads that were slow to start
a blaze, and, for some time after striking, merely bubbled
and emitted strong fumes of sulphur. To obtain a fight,
the West tightened its trousers by raising its right knee, and
then drew the match across the trouser's seat.

112 THE COWBOY
There has been described the vest of every day, but there
were occasional days which were not Uke every day, the
occasional days when the puncher went in state either to
town or to call upon his lady-love. On these infrequent
and important errands, he was fain to put on a waistcoat
which was specially manufactured for the Western trade,
and which, though normal in size and shape, was monu
mental in appearance. Plush or shaggy woollen material
was prey to the dyer's brutaUty, and on the cowboy's manly
but innocent front the Aurora BoreaUs, and the artist's
paint-box met their chromatic rival. A man of modest
taste, and such were the majority of the punchers, was con
tent with brown plush edged with wide, black braid. But
what was such passive pleasure as compared with the bounc
ing gladness which another and more primitive being de
rived from a still well-remembered vest of briUiant purple
checker-boarded in pink and green?
The overcoat was of canvas, fight bro'wn in color, with
skirts to the knee, was blanket-lined, and, to make it whoUy
wind-proof, commonly received an exterior coat of paint;
which latter process often successfully invited the sketch
ing of the owner's brand upon the freshly covered surface.
All men donned gloves in cold weather; this, of course, to
keep the hands warm. In warm weather most men wore
gloves when roping, this to prevent bums or blisters from
the hurrying lariat, and wore them also when riding buck
ing horses, this to avoid manual injury. But some men,
regardless of temperature or the nature of their work, wore
gloves aU the waking hours. This latter habit, whUe an
affectation, did not necessarily indicate effeminacy. It
rather was an expression of vanity, and permitted the wearer
tacitly but conspicuously to advertise that his riding and
roping were so exceUent as to excuse him from aU other
tasks. The hands of such men frequently were as white
and soft as those of a young girl.

WHAT THE COWBOY WORE 113
The ungloved fraternity, being without excuse for ab
sence from the wood-pUe, resented the fragUe hands, though
not their owners, and to visitors grimtingly descanted on
the theme that it was "cheaper to grow skin than to buy it."
The gloves were sometimes of horse-hide or smooth-sur
faced leather, but usuaUy were of buckskin of the best qual
ity. Whatever the material, they customarily were in color
yeUow, gray, or a greenish or creamy white, though brown
was not infrequent.
They had to be of good quaUty, lest they stiffen after a
wetting; for an unduly stiff glove weU might misdirect a
lariat throw, or even cause a man to miss his hold upon the
saddle hom when he essayed to mount a plunging horse.
PracticaUy aU gloves had flaring gantlets of generous
size, five inches or so in both depth and maximum width,
the gantlets commonly being embroidered with silken
thread or with thin 'wire of silver or brass, and being edged
with a deep leathern or buckskin fringe along the little-finger
side. The designs for such embroidery foUowed principally
geometrical forms, and very often included a spread eagle
or the Texan heraldic star.
Conchas not infrequently augmented the decoration.
When the thermometer was very low, either gloves or mit
tens of knitted wool or of fur made their appearance.
Almost always in the absence of gloves, and frequently
when gloves were present, men wore tightly fitting brown
or black, stiff, leathern cuffs, which extended backward
for four or five inches from the wearer's wrist joint, were
adjustable by buckled straps, protected the wrists, and
held the sleeves in pound.
Although upon the Range any one not professing to be
a puncher incased his feet in whatever form of leather cov
ering he preferred, all cowboys wore the black, high-topped,
high-heeled boots typical of the craft.
These boots had vamps of the best quality of pliable,

114 THE COWBOY
thin leather, and legs of either like material or finest kid.
The vamps fitted tightly around the instep, and thus gave
to the boot its principal hold, for there were no lacings,
and the legs were quite loose about the wearer's entrousered
calf. The boots' legs, coming weU up toward the wearer's
knees, usually ended in a horizontal line, but sometimes
were so cut as to rise an inch or so higher at the front than
at the back. The legs were prone to show much fancy
stitching. This was of the quUting pattem, when, as was
often the case, thin padding was inserted for protective
purposes. A concha or an inlay of a bit of colored leather might
appear at the front of each boot-leg at its top.
These taU legs shielded against rain, and supplemented
the protection which was furnished by the leathern overaUs
or "chaparejos."
The boots' heels, two inches in height, were vertical at
the front, and were in length and breadth much smaller
at the bottom than at the top.
The taU heel, highly arching the wearer's instep, insured,
as did the elimination of all projections, outstanding nails,
and square corners from the sole, against the wearer's foot
slipping through the stirrup or being entangled in it. The
taU heel also so moulded the shod foot that the latter auto
matically took in the stirrup such position as brought the
leg above it into proper fitting with the saddle's numerous
curves. The heel's height and peg-Uke shape together gave
effective anchorage to the wearer when he threw his lariat
afoot, instead of from his horse's back.
The sole usually was quite thin, this to grant to the wearer
a semiprehensUe "feel of the stirrup." To these necessary
attributes, the vanity of many a rider added another and
uncomfortable one, tight fit; and throughout the Range
unduly cramped toes appeared in conjunction with the en
forced, highly arched insteps.

WHAT THE COWBOY WORE 115
The conventions of Range society permitted to the buck
aroo at any formal function no foot-gear other than this
riding-boot. It was as obUgatory for him at a dance as it
was useful to him when ahorse.
The puncher with vanity for his tight, thin boots, and
•with contempt for the heavUy soled foot coverings of East-
emers, "put his feet into decent boots, and not into entire
cows." In very cold weather, this boot sometimes gave way to
one of felt or to the ordinary Eastern "arctic" overshoe
worn over a "German sock," this last a knee-high stocking
of thick shoddy. Save under such frigid conditions and
save also when the puncher was in bed, his feet were ever
in his leathern boots.
Spurs were a necessary implement when upon the horse,
and a social requirement when off its back. One, when in
pubUc, would as readily omit his trousers as his spurs.
The spurs were of a buUd far hea-vier than those of more
effete sections of the country. Their rowels were very blunt,
since they were intended as much for a means of clinging
to a bucking horse as for an instrument of punishment.
This assistance to cUnging was augmented in many spurs
by adding, to the frame of the spur, a blunt-nosed, up-curved
piece, the "buck hook," which rose behind the rider's heel,
and which it was reassuring to engage or "lock" in the cinch
or in the side of a plunging horse. A rider, intending to
lock his spurs, usually first -wired or jammed their wheels
so as to prevent their revolving. Ordinarily, the rowels
were half an inch in length, the wheel of which they formed
the spokes being sUghtly larger in diameter than an Amer
ican, present-day, twenty-five-cent piece; but spurs im
ported from Mexico, and ha-ving two-and-a-half-inch wheels
with rowels of corresponding length, frequently were used
in the Southwest as a matter of course, in the Northwest
as an advertisement of distant travel.

116 THE COWBOY
Each spur, or "grappUng-iron," as slang often dubbed it,
was kept in place both by two chains passing under the
wearer's instep and also by a "spur-leather," which last-
mentioned object was a broad, crescentic shield of leather
laid over the instep. This spur-leather tended as weU to
protect the ankle from chafing, and incidentaUy was usually
decorated by a concha and stamped with intricate designs.
The shank of almost every spur turned do-wnward, thus
aUowing the buck hook, if there were one, to catch without
interference by the rowels, and also permitting the wheel,
when the rider was afoot, to roU noisUy along the ground.
This noise frequently was increased by disconnecting from
the spur one of the two chains at one of its ends and aUowing
it to drag, and also by the addition of "danglers." Danglers
were inch-long, pear-shaped pendants loosely hanging from
the end of the wheel's axle.
A cowboy mo-ving across a board floor suggested the
transit of a knight in armor. This purposely created jangle
fought loneliness when one was completely isolated, and
was not abhorrent in public, even though it might announce
the presence of a noted man.
Not more speciaUzed than the spurs but more conspicuous
were the "chaparejos," universaUy caUed "chaps." They
were skeleton overalls worn primarUy as armor to protect
a rider's legs from injury when he was thrown or when his
horse fell upon him, carried him through sage-brush, cactus,
or chaparral, pushed him against either a fence or another
animal, or attempted to bite; but also they were proof
against both rain and cold wind.
Take a pair of long trousers of the city, cut away the
seat, sever the seam between the legs, and fasten to a broad
belt buckled at the wearer's back as much of the two legs
as is thus left. Then you have a pattem for a pair of
chaps. Reproduce your pattern in either dehaired, hea-vy
leather, preferably brown, but black if you must, or else

WHAT THE COWBOY WORE 117
in a shaggy skin of a bear, wolf, dog, goat, or sheep, and
you have the real article. You must, of course, make
your pattern very loosely fitting, have on the length of each
leg but a single seam, and that at the rear, and do a bit of
shaping at the knee. Should you employ dehaired leather,
so cut it that long fringe wiU hang from the leg seam, and
you might weU cover this seam with a wide strip of white
buckskin. You wUl hurt nobody's feeUngs should you
stamp the leather here and there with frontier animals or
with women's heads, or aU over in tiny checker-board, or
should you stud the belt with conchas. In so doing you
wUl be no inventor, but merely a foUower of custom.
The long hair or wool upon a pair of shaggy chaps repre
sented not so much artistic preference as it did judgrnent
that thereby protection would be increased. Naked leather
was not oversoft under a prone horse, and could not be
relied upon to withstand the stab of either the yucca's
pointed leaves or the spines of the tall cacti.
The cowboy wore chaps when riding and also when either
within the confines of a settlement or in the presence of
womankind. Chaps and his fancy vest, if he had the latter,
were, in combination with his gun and spurs, his "best Sun
day-go-to-meeting clothes," or what he called his "full war
paint." When there was no riding to be done, no social
convention to fuffil, or there were neither jealousies to ex
cite nor hearts to conquer, the chaps, unless their owner
was either a slave to habit or very vain, often hung from
a nail. They were heavy and, for a pedestrian, quite un
comfortable. "Hung from a nail," to be truthful, is poetic license for
"thro-wn on the floor." The Cattle Country, thoroughly
mascuUne, "hung its clothes on the floor, so they couldn't
faU down and get lost." Only saddles, bridles, lariats, and
firearms received considerate care.
Fur coat and cap for winter use, of buffalo skin in earUer

118 THE COWBOY
days or wolf pelt in later times, were regularly worn in cold
climates, but were distinguishing not of the vocation but
of the temperature. Generally they were not owned by
the cowboy, but were loaned to him by his employer.
The conditions which caUed forth the furs often com
pelled a cowboy, as a preventative of snow bUndness, to
"wear war-paint on his face," that is, to daub below his
eyes and upon his cheek bones a mixture of soot and grease.
This made him look, as Ed Johnson said, like a "grief-
stricken Venus."
Lastly and affectionately is recalled the horsehair chain,
which was laboriously and often most exceUently woven
from the hairs of horses' tails. These chains usuaUy were
of length sufficient to surround the neck and to reach to
the bottom pocket of the vest, and, at the lower end, had a
small loop and a "crown knot" wherewith to engage the
watch. They were a factor in the courting on the Range,
for among cowboys it was as axiomatic that the female
doted on horsehair chains as it now is among the cowboys'
descendants that she has no aversion to pearl necklaces.
The puncher, disdaining to shoot Cupid's arrows at his
inamorata, essayed to lasso her with a tiny lariat made
from the discards of his favorite pony's tail.
Ranch owners and such of their employees as were not
cowboys dressed as did the cowboy; save that, having no
dignity of position to maintain, they felt less compeUed to
wear fine quality of raiment and, as already stated, reserved
the right to use foot-gear other than the conventional, high-
topped boot.
A few of the ranch owners, either EngUshmen or such
Easterners as had been much in Europe, laid aside from
time to time long trousers and appeared in shorts. These
latter abbreviated garments, then stiU a novelty upon the
Atlantic coast, were to the cowboy an enigma, a cause of
irritation and an object of surprise and contempt. In the

WHAT THE COWBOY WORE 119
words of Kansas Evans, "BUI, what' je think? Yesterday,
up to that English outfit's ranch, I seen a grown man walkin'
around in boy's knee pants. And they say he's second
cousin to a dook. Gosh ! Wonder what the dook wears."
"Knee pants" were resented as being un-American, and
they cost their wearers no small loss of caste upon the
Range. None save a ranch owner would dare appear in
them.

CHAPTER VI
SADDLES
RrOING SADDLE, ITS NAMES, SHAPE, COMPONENT PARTS AND VARIOUS AT
TACHMENTS — latter's NAMES AND USES — MERITS OF SINGLE RIG AND
DOUBLE RIG COMPARED — FURTHER SADDLE ATTACHMENTS, THEIR NAMES
AND USES — CAMPING AND CAMP-COOKING  STILL FURTHER SADDLE AT
TACHMENTS — FONDNESS FOR SADDLE— SADDLING— ADVANTAGES AND DIS
ADVANTAGES OP STOCK-SADDLE — ^WESTERN RIDING RECORDS
The riding saddle of the cowboy merits description, not
only because it was the cowboy's work-bench or his throne,
according as one cares to picture it, but also because one
cannot understand the puncher's abUity to ride the bronco
except one understands the saddle.
Unless there had existed that particular form of saddle,
no man could have ridden the Western horse in the Western
country under the conditions that obtained long years ago.
There would have been no cowboys and no ranches. The
plains would have been forced to wait for their empeopUng
until the unadventurous farmer slowly had pushed West
ward. The course of Western history was determined by
that saddle.
The riding saddle universaUy used upon the Range was
of the type which, throughout the West, was known as
"cow saddle," "Range saddle," or, more commonly, as
"stock-saddle," and in the East was caUed "Mexican sad
dle," "Western saddle," or "cowboy saddle." It perhaps
should have been termed Moorish rather than Mexican,
for, in almost its present basic form, the Moors carried it
from Africa to Spain over a thousand years ago.
The flat English saddle the cowboy termed a "human
saddle," "kidney pad," or "postage stamp." He regarded it
as a token of effeteness, not as an accoutrement for a horse.
120

SADDLES 121
AU stock-saddles were alUie in fundamentals, though they
varied in incidental details.
The height and angles of the hom and cantle, and whether
the seat were short or long, wide or narrow, whether it were
of approximately uniform width or more or less triangular,
whether it were level or sloped upward toward either the
horn or the cantle or toward both, whether the horn were
vertical or inclined forward, and whether its top were hori
zontal or were higher at its front edge than at its rear were
aU matters purely of the rider's choice; save that the cantle
had to be high enough to prevent the lariat-thrower from
slipping backward when his cow-horse after the throw
squatted on its haunches and braced itself. Also followers
of the Texan custom of fastening the lariat's home end to
the horn before the lariat was thrown required at least a
fairly high horn. Such men had to have not only the space
thus occupied but also additional room for "snubbing,"
because, the instant the lariat caught its prey, the lariat
had to be wound for a few turns around the hom; i. e., to
be snubbed.
The several sUght variations in shape created special
names; and a saddle was designated, according to the form
of its tree, as CaUfornia, Brazos, White River, Nelson, Ore
gon, Cheyenne, etc.
The American ranchmen's saddles were built by profes
sional manufacturers and not, as commonly in Mexico, by
the cowboys themselves.
Extremely stout construction was required to withstand
successfully the terrific strains from roping.
Upon the front end of a strongly buUt hardwood "tree,"
comprised of longitudinal "fork" and transverse "cantle,"
was bolted a metal horn; and the whole, covered with raw
hide, was fastened down onto a broad, curved, leathern
plate which rested on the horse's back. This plate in its
entirety was called the "skirt," unless one preferred to dif-

122 THE COWBOY
ferentiate and to refer to the half of the plate on the horse's
left side as one skirt, the "near" or "left" skirt, and to the
half on the horse's right side as another skirt, the "off"
or "right" skirt, and thus, when mentioning the two halves
collectively, to term them as "skirts" instead of as a skirt.
Synonyms for skirt and skirts were respectively "basto"
and "bastos" (from Spanish "basto," a pad or a pack-
saddle), though some men restricted these latter terms to
the leathern Uning of the skirt, a lining known also as the
"sudadero." On each side of the horse there lay on top of the skirt
a leathern piece which was shorter and narrower than the
skirt, fitted closely around the base of the horn and cantle,
and had its outer edges parallel with, but weU inside of, the
borders of the bottom and rear edges of the skirt. This
leathern piece was the so-caUed "jockey." It usually was
in two sections, its portion forward of the stirrup-leather
being termed the "front jockey," whUe so much as was
aft of the stirrup-leather was styled the "rear jockey."
The composite structure fitted onto the horse's back in
the same way as would have done a headless barrel if halved
lengthwise, and to the entire barrel-like portion of the sad
dle was coUoquially appUed the term bastos, although that
term had technicaUy the more restricted meaning stated
above. In infrequent instances the skirt and the rear jockey
extended backward no farther than to the cantle, and then
there was sewn to the latter's base an "anquera," a broad
plate of leather which covered the otherwise exposed por
tion of the horse's hips, and protected the clothing of the
rider from his animal's sweat.
The skirt of usual size stretched from the horse's withers
to his rump, and well-nigh half-way down both his flanks.
It had so much bearing surface that the saddle tended to
remain in position even without the aid of a "cinch." A

SADDLES 123
large skirt was necessary when riding buckers or when rop
ing; but for ordinary pottering about a few ranch owners
used a saddle the skirt of which was much curtaUed.
Whether the saddle should contam a "roU" was a matter
of the rider's individual choice. Some men used the at
tachment, others did not. A roU was a long welt which
stuck out for a third of an inch or more from the front face
of the cantle just under its top rim. This cornice-like addi
tion tended to keep the rider from sliding backward out of
the saddle during roping and from moving skyward when
his pony was bucking.
The saddle was attached to the horse either by one
"cinch" passing under the animal at a point approximately
even with the stirrups, or by two "cinches," respectively
designated as the "front" and the "hind" or "rear cinch,"
and passing one just behind the animal's front legs and one
some twelve inches further to the rear. The saddle of two
cinches was designated technically as "double-rigged" or
"double rig"; popularly and in pistol-maker's phrases as
"double fire," "rim fire," or "double-barrelled"; while the
saddle of one cinch had, as its corresponding terms, "single-
rigged," "single rig," "single fire," "centre fire," and
"single-barreUed," and often was also called "California
rig," this last because Californians commonly used but one
cinch. However if a person, while using colloquial language,
wished to make technical subdi'visions among single-cinched
saddles, he would Umit "centre fire" to the saddle in which
the cinch was either slightly behind the stirrups or, at most,
even with them, and would specify as "three-quarters"
rig the saddle in which the cinch was in a sUghtly more
advanced position.
Some Texans called the cinches "girths," and the rear
ward of them the "flank girth."
Whether a saddle should be single or double rigged was

124 THE COWBOY
a matter of its owner's preference. The single as compared
with the double was more easily put on and taken off, was
a bit more flexible in riding motion, but it was more apt
to shift position during roping and bucking and upon steep
traUs. Riders differed greatly in the direction and force of the
thrusts which they imposed upon their saddles. With creat
ing this result, the men's weights in actual pounds had but
little to do. The controlUng factor was the method of sitting
the saddle. Some riders of however much or Uttle poundage
ever kept themselves not only in balance upon the horse,
but also in balance with it. Such riders made no puUs or
pushes that by antagonizing the horse's movements sub
jected the saddle to twisting or dislodging strain. Horse
men of this type could go for mUes without retightening
cinches, rarely galled their horses' backs, always could ride
their steeds long distances without an undue tiring of the
brutes, and, save in roping or bucking or when upon steep
"side hUls," little needed to care whether their cinches were
loose or taut. Such men were called "light riders." They
each might weigh two hundred pounds and yet "ride Ught."
Of such men, some used a saddle with single rig; others
preferred the riding motion of the double rig, or thought
the latter a more prudent risk and so employed two cinches.
Still other riders were by the nature of their saddle-sitting
forced to employ the double rig, and thus to "carry their
pony in a shawl strap." These latter riders would on occa
sion get out of balance, and would rectify themselves by
impulsive twists and yanks. They would sway a bit across
and not in strict accord with the line of the horse's motions.
All this would tend to divert the saddle from its normal
position. Such riders "rode hea-vy," had frequent cause
to taughten latigos, and caused many a saddle sore upon
their ponies' backs. These men could cUng to the bucker
and throw the rope as successfully as could their "Ughter-

SADDLES 125
riding" brothers, but they "gimletted" or "beefsteaked"
far more horses' backs and tired far more ponies.
Finally, in certain regions, the prevaiUng type of local
horse had a chest so short and sloping as to give insufficient
anchorage to but a single cinch; whUe, in other regions, the
shortness of the corresponding horses' "barrels" gave little
room for the double rig.
Users of double rig were careful to obey a regulation pre
scribed by horses and requiring that the front cinch be tight
ened before the rear one be puUed upon. This rule was
strictly enforced by the animals, which, upon its infraction,
waited only till the offender had mounted before they went
into executive session. Many a tenderfoot, unmindful of
this order of procedure, has "hit the ground," "sunned his
moccasins," or "landed," which is to say, in other forms
of Range English, has been "spilled," "chucked," or
"dumped," in any case to hear that conventional, derisive
call: "Hi there! You've dropped something." Many a
competent rider has been furnished with conclusive if cir
cumstantial e-vidence that, during his absence, cinches had
been tampered with.
Sometimes with a double rig the cinches, to avoid a sore,
or more firmly to grip a sloping chest, were crossed below
the horse, making a letter X.
GaUed backs and cinch cuts were common, but usually
were ignored by the riders, who credited the ponies with
ha-ving iron constitutions. Certainly the animals seemed
to suffer little pain from their skin abrasions.
Usually the under surface of the bastos was smooth. If
so, there was put between it and the horse's back some form
of padding, either a shaped pad caUed a "corona" or else,
more commonly, a folded blanket; and under the corona,
or blanket, for ventUating purposes was placed a gunny-
sack. In some saddles the bastos was lined with woolly
sheepskin, and in such case the padding was omitted.

126 THE COWBOY
The "cincha" or, as usuaUy termed, the cinch was a
broad, short band made of coarsely woven horsehair or
sometimes of canvas or cordage, and terminating at either
end in a metal ring. On each side of the saddle-tree was
attached, for each cinch, a second metal ring caUed the
"rigging ring," "tree ring," or "saddle-ring," and from
which hung a long leathern strap called a "latigo." This
strap, after being passed successively and usuaUy twice
through both the cinch ring and the corresponding tree-
ring, was fastened below the latter by much the same
method as that in which the present-day mascuUne "four-
in-hand" necktie is knotted. The latigo on the saddle's
off side was permanently left thus fastened, and, in saddUng
and unsaddUng, operations were restricted to the strap
upon the near side.
A variation from this method of fastening the latigo was
often used on the near side during the breaking of a horse.
A wide, metal buckle offered a speedier means of attach
ment, and haste was desirable when the steed was plung
ing. WhUe camped within a forest, punchers had carefuUy to
guard their latigos, because, for some inscrutable reason,
the latter bore to porcupines the same relation that candy
does to chUdren. It was no uncommon thing to see a dis
mounted puncher, when not using his saddle as a pUlow,
hang it from a limb or place it on a pole fastened horizon
tally and high above the ground.
The rough cinch adhered well to the horse's body and
offered a good hold to the rowels and hooks of the spurs.
WhUe the cinch was, strictly speaking, merely the broad
band, the term customarily was applied to the combination
of both this band and its own two latigos.
Despite the stout material of the cinch and latigos, one
of them occasionaUy would break under the strain of buck
ing, whereat both saddle and rider would disappear from

SADDLES 127
the horse's back. Out of this not infrequent occurrence
arose the myth of the prudent cowboy who, in his cinch,
substituted lead pipe for woven hair.
From each side of the saddle hung verticaUy, in unequal
lengths, the two leaves of the "stu-rup-leather," which was
a broad strap looped through the saddle's tree. The end
of the longer leaf was passed through the stirmp's top, and
then was made fast to the bottom of the shorter leaf. A
buckskin thong, threading a series of holes in the two leaves,
provided means of fastening and abUity to adjust length;
a thong, instead of a buckle, because so far as possible metal
was excluded from the saddle. The cowboy not only wished
his outfit to be susceptible of immediate repair, but he had
faith in the durabUity of leather and none in that of metal.
He might countenance the use of buckles upon saddles used
for breaking horses in the corrals near the ranch-house, but
he wished no buckles under him when he was riding far
afield. It was this reUance upon simpUcity as conducive to sure-
ness that made him prefer his pistol to be of single, rather
than of the slightly more complex double action.
Each stirrup-leather hung, as already stated, from the
saddle's tree. These two leathers at their starting-point
almost met behind the horn, and, severally lea-ving, one to
the saddle's right, the other to the saddle's left, rested in
shaUow grooves cut in the wood of the tree. In some sad
dles, the seat's leathern covering, starting forward from the
cantle, went only to this groove's rear edge. In other sad
dles, this covering extended over the entire seat and com
pletely hid the upper portion of the stirmp-leathers. Tech
nical names were given to these two forms of seat covering.
They were respectively "three-quarter seat" and "fuU
seat." Where each stirrup-leather emitted from the saddle's
side, was overlaid a flat leathern plate. This plate, known

128 THE COWBOY
indiscriminately as the "seat jockey" or "leg jockey,"
shielded the rider's leg from chafing.
Sewn to the back of each stirrup-leather was a vertical,
wide leathern shield, the "rosadero"; sometimes, though
incorrectly, caUed the "sudadero." It protected from the
horse's sweat and offered stout defense to the rider's leg.
At the bottom of each stirrup-leather, was a stirrup made
of a wide piece of tough wood bent into shape, bolted to
gether at the top, and so sturdy as to defy crashing by a
falfing horse. Into the stirrup went the rider's foot clear
to the latter's heel, his toe pointing inward and either hori
zontally or downward. The sides and front of the stirrup
were ordinarUy enclosed by a wedge-shaped, leathern cover
open toward the rear. The technical name of this cover
was "tapadero," though coUoquiaUy this almost always
was shortened into "tap."
Commonly each side of each of the "taps" was in the form
of a triangle with apex pointing downward, and was so long
that this apex barely escaped the ground; but some men
used "taps" which, following the historic Spanish model,
were shaped somewhat like horizontaUy laid coal-scuttles.
The "taps" prevented the rider's feet from passing com
pletely through the stirrups, being snagged by brush, or
being bitten by a savage horse. When long and flapped
under a ridden steed, they were of no smaU use as a whip.
"Open" stirrups, i.e., "tapless" ones, were rarely seen
upon the Range.
From each side of every saddle hung four sets of thongs,
two thongs in each set. One of these sets was at the saddle's
front, one near its rear, whUe the other two were spaced
so that the rider's leg just passed between them. The two
sets of rear thongs embraced whatever might be laid across
the saddle behind the cantle, almost invariably the "sUcker,"
which was a long rain-coat of yellow oilskin such as coastal
fishermen wear; though in the Southwest the thongs in-

SADDLES 129
stead of this sometimes confined a Mexican "serape." The
front and side thongs held any package of the moment.
If a cowboy were starting on a trip which, while forcing
him to camp overnight, did not call for many supplies and
a consequent pack-horse, he would, nevertheless, not limit
himself to the traditional Hudson Bay Company's ration of
a rabbit track and a cartridge, but would insert within the
folds of the "slicker" tied at his saddle's rear the journey's
necessaries. These were a frying-pan, some flour, bacon,
coffee, salt, and, as a substitute for yeast, either a bottle of
sour dough or a can of baking-powder.
When halting time arrived, the camp was pitched wher
ever both forage for the horse and drinkable water met.
The water, though drinkable, was not always pleasing, for
it might taste somewhat of sheep, contain the carcass of a
steer, or be girt by banks marked with the telltale white
of alkali. It might be so full of sand as to demand admix
ture of juice from a cactus leaf before showing clearness.
It might be so warm as to suggest the betterment of cooling
in a porous earthem jar clad in a wet blanket and hung
aloft for evaporation's chilUng aid. Will power, hard boil
ing, and a cactus leaf were avaUable to do away with un
pleasant thoughts, with ptomaine dangers, and with float
ing sand, but the earthem jar would be at the distant ranch
and unattainable. Thus the uncomplaining cowboy some
times, as he said, "drank his cold water hot." Fortunately
most of the Westem waters were not of this unpleasant
sort. OccasionaUy, in the desert, water was either non-existent
or else so alkaUnely saturated as hopelessly to "rust the
boUers" of whoever drank it. In the latter case, although
the horses were left grimacingly to gulp the biting fluid
and mn the risk of being "alkalied," the men might have
recourse to canned tomatoes. The liquid portion of the
can's contents assuaged thirst and counteracted the effect

130 THE COWBOY
of the already swallowed alkali dust, whUe the soUd vegetable
wiped across one's face would heal the bleeding cuts which
that cannibalistic dust had made. A tomato might occa
sionally be pressed against a pony's lips for their comfort
ing. The can-opener was irresistible, since it was a pistol
fired horizontally at the can's top edge.
The pitching of camp was a simple process. It consisted
of stripping the saddle and bridle from the horse, of turn
ing the latter loose to graze either at the end of a picket
rope or within the grip of hobbles, and finaUy of buUding
a fire. Lighting the fire was not always an easy matter,
for matches might be wet or lost. Then it would caU for
powder from a dissected cartridge, and the igniting of it
by a pistol-shot. Careless aiming might "hang the kin
dlings on the scenery."
If, as was usuaUy the case, the camp's coffee were un-
ground, its beans were mashed on a rock -with the butt of
a pistol. The resultant mixture of vegetable and mineral
substances was set aside untU the frying-pan should have
cooked, first, bread and, next, bacon.
The bread was quite eatable. With a thick batter spread
thinly over the bottom of the pan, the latter was laid upon
hot coals for a moment and untU a lower crust had com
menced to form. Then, tipped on edge, it was held far
enough from the fire for a little heat to reach it and to raise
the loaf. This achieved, the pan, stiU on edge, was pushed
to within baking distance of the coals, and was left there
until the pan's contents were done.
The thus baked bread, the historic "frying-pan bread"
of the West, vacated the pan, and into the latter went strips
of bacon. When these had been fried, the pan was rapped
against a rock or tree, to expel such of the grease as readUy
would leave, and then received a charge of water and the
coffee-gravel mixture. When the boiling fluid was fairly

SADDLES 131
weU covered with fat melted from the utensU's sides, the
dose-like beverage was ready for consumption.
There might be a sUce or two of jerked meat from either
beef or elk, or else, long years ago, from buffalo.
All this crudity was due not to epicurean depravity, but
entirely to the restricted transportation facUities which
beset the cowboy as weU as the scout, the trapper, the pros
pector, and the explorer.
The menu of the puncher upon his travels rarely became
more extensive than the one described above. A pack-
horse, when there was one, indicated quantity rather than
variety of food. But it did insure the presence of a coffee
pot. The lee side of a rock or bush, the saddle for a pUlow,
the sUcker and horse blanket for a covering, a pile of wood
for replenishing the fire, collectively made the bedroom and
its furnishings. "The moon now cleared the world's end, and the owl
Gave voice unto the wizardry of hght;
While in some dim-Ut chancel of the night,
Snouts to the goddess, wolfish corybants
Intoned their 'wild antiphonary chants —
The oldest, saddest worship in the world." *
Tents and extra bedding, because of their troublesome
carriage, were almost unkno'wn even in winter. In the latter
season, burrowing under the snow protected the sleeper
from the wind, while logs placed side by side atop the snow
made a platform for the fire.
In cold weather the puncher, when thus afield, custo
marily took to bed with him his horse's bridle, that the bit
might be kept warm and the horse be spared the pain which
mouthing frigid metal would have caused.
Camping in the colder climates was often a trying process
*From "The Song of Hugh Glass," by John G. Neihardt,

132 THE COWBOY
marked by noctumal contests between soporific desire and
rheumatic pains, a contest which vacUlated according as
a sleepy hand dropped fuel upon the fire or the embers
chiUed. However, the topic under consideration is the cowboy's
saddle and not his troubles.
There might be at the base of the saddle's horn a "buck
strap," which was a loop that offered a convenient hand
hold during pitching. Its owner never bragged about its
presence. Top riders scorned it, and excluded it from their
saddles. Not infrequently a pair of leathern pockets bestrode the
saddle, sometimes behind the cantle, more rarely at the
horn. These receptacles were caUed either "cantineses"
or saddle pockets.
The word "cantineses" was used also figuratively, and
in colloquial usage was extended to include any heterogene
ous medley of smaU objects. In this latter sense and par
ticularly when quaUfied, as often it was, by the word
"little," the expression was equivalent to the homely New
England phrase, "smaU contraptions."
If the saddle were being used in desert country, then from
the horn might hang a pair of felt-covered, metallic canteens,
or two water-bottles of leather or of coated canvas.
The leather of the entire saddle, inclusive of taps and
stirrup-leathers, usuaUy was covered with handsomely im
pressed designs of leaves and flowers. A saddle, if so deco
rated, would cost, in the decades of the seventies and
eighties, some fifty doUars. In the Southwest, occasionally
not only was sUver laid into the groundwork of the im
pressed designs, but both the horn and cantle were subject
to be ornamented with precious metal. Then the cost as
suredly mounted. Ten months' wages often went into deco
ration. At least one ranch owner had a horn and cantle
each of soUd gold.

SADDLES 133
Often on the cowboys' saddles there was appUed a home
made ornamentation consisting of brass naUs or, again, of
rattlesnake skins plastered flat and permanently stuck fast
by their own glue.
The saddle's coloring was usually Ught brown; but some
times, and especially in the less expensive saddles, it was
cherry-red. Each saddle best fitted its special owner, for it gradually
acquired tiny humps and hollows that registered with his
anatomy, and induced both comfort and security of seat.
These little mouldings, which suited weU the owner, would
often fight the contour of a stranger's legs. Wherefore each
man swore by his own saddle and at aU others. Texas Ike,
in good faith and with generous impulse, said: "Jim, don't
bother to get your saddle. Ride mine. It's the best that
ever came out of Cheyenne. It's as comfortable as a trundle-
bed." Jim mounted, squirmed, grunted, and in equally
good faith remarked: "Tex, where in heU did you ever find
this Spanish Inquisition chamber anyhow? You must be
using it like the priests wore hair shirts."
A cowboy so valued his saddle, particularly after it had
been broken in, that he almost never would part with it.
He has gone so far as, in a poker game, to lose his money,
gun, chaps, horse, and even shirt, and then, with saddle
on his back, to "strike out" for the ranch still thoroughly
cheerful and with "his tail up." Even such punchers as
upon completion of the Texas Drive retumed to Texas by
raU instead of on horseback carried their saddles with them.
Moreover, it was a bit disgraceful to sell one's saddle.
It was akin to disposing of the ancestral plate and family
jewels. The phrase "He's sold his saddle," became of gen
eral usage, and was employed in a figurative way to denote
that anybody in any caUing had become financiaUy or
moraUy insolvent. Years ago in a Uttle school at Gardiner,
Montana, a smaU, tow-headed youth, when asked by the

134 THE COWBOY
teacher as to who Benedict Amold was and what he had
done, repUed: "He was one of our generals and he sold
his saddle."
Because the saddle from its shape and large bearing sur
face had so good a hold on the horse's back, riders usuaUy,
except when on fractious animals or in a mountainous coun
try, let the cinches sag loosely. This gave comfort to the
lungs within the confining straps. The horses aided in pro
curing this sag, for Western steeds, when being saddled,
puffed themselves like adders at the first puU on the latigo.
They might be momentarUy thrown off their guard by a
kick behind the ribs, but the beasts reconcentrated their
attention upon inhaling before the strap could be pulled
again. To "cinch up" any bronco (he was "cinched up," not
merely "cinched"), one had to place one's foot against the
brute's ribs and, in the case of the front cinch, to puU with al
most aU one's strength upon the latigo, meanwhUe standing
ready to dodge precipitate bites from the indignant head-
tossing bronco. PulUng upon the rear cinch exacted much
less muscular effort, but much greater circumspection; for
bites were apt to be more frequent, and good measure might
throw in a kick or two.
The cowboy's saddle was not suitable for racing. It was
too heavy, thirty pounds at the very least and usuaUy forty
pounds or over. But the usual and useful gaits of the Range
were not of racing speed. They were the running walk,
the jiggling trot, the lope, with now and then a short dash
after errant Uve stock.
The cowboy's saddle well-nigh inhibited jumping of hur
dles. Its occupant, the instant he assumed the posture
necessary to encourage his horse to "take off," lost his bal
anced seat, and was, from the saddle's shape, unable to cling,
as on the English tree, by constrictive force. But there
were few hurdles upon the Range.

SADDLES 135
Nor could a rider, when in this saddle, rise to the trot.
But the cowboy did not wish to rise. In his own language,
he "postage-stamped" the horse.
Nevertheless the saddle was ideal for the service in which
it was used.
It made wholesale roping possible. It made possible
riding the American bucker. It made possible long and
compulsory rides on animals so indifferently broken as to
have been unser-viceable under a seat less secure. It made
possible the "night herd," because it permitted the tired
cowboy to sleep while stiU ahorse. Repeatedly men on
herding duty were, through storm or other circumstance,
kept upon their task for forty-eight consecutive hours. In
the wUd nights of winter, the most courageous puncher
did not dare to permit his pony chance of escape, so there
were cat-naps in the saddle, rather than more restful sleeps
beside a picket pin.
The saddle offered its occupant opportunity to sit in
perfect balance, and such a seat was the one best suited to
the type of horses and to the character of riding which were
involved. The saddle's occupant, because with body en
tirely relaxed and legs at full length and hanging flexed
below him, was shifted from and had instantly to regain
his equUibrium at every movement of his steed. The rider
thus reverted to the primitive and subconscious balancing
practised by the walker, the skater, and the bicycler, each
of whom is ever righting a wrong position. The horseman
with subconsciousness thus alert sensed through the stiff
ening muscles of his animal plan for untoward action, and
thereby was forewarned of intended whirls, balks, or jumps.
At first sight, the horseman when at high speed appeared
perhaps a bit grotesque, for his elbows were extended to
either side, were held even with his shoulders and bobbed
up and down, his hands were close together and before his
chin, his legs hung loosely and straight downward, and his

136 THE COWBOY
relaxed body, never rising from the saddle, swayed in seem
ing semidrunkenness. At second sight, the observer real
ized that aU this mutualized the rider and his pony into
rhythmic motion, and that the rider's security of seat came
from the synchronizing of man and beast.
This attention to the time beat was what insured the
seat even during bucking, the spurs and buck hooks gi-ving
but incidental aid. It was what enabled the buckaroos in
graceful swoops to lean from gaUoping horses and pick up
objects from the ground. It was what permitted the acro
batic puncher to drop from a mo-ving animal and mount
another plunging past.
Finally, the stock-saddle was the almost universal piUow
of the sleeping cowboy whether in the bunk house or afield.
It was on such a saddle that Leon, a Mexican, changing
horses, traversed in 1876 one hundred mUes in four hours,
fifty-seven minutes; in 1877, five hundred and five mUes
in forty-nine hours, fifty-one and one-haff minutes. It was
on such a saddle, though one of light weight, that, in a stiU
earlier year, F. X. Aubrey of the Pony Express rode across-
country eight hundred mUes in five days, thirteen hours.
Those homely-looking leathern structures helped to make
the West, and should be regarded with affectionate respect.

CHAPTER VII
BRIDLE, LARIAT, AND QUIRT
THE QTHHT AND ITS USE — LARIAT, ITS NAMES, FORM, AND USE — SBPnONAL
DIFFERENCES IN ROPING ABILITY — STAKE ROPE AND HAIR ROPE — PUTTO —
PICKETING — ARGUMENTATI-ITENESS OF RANCHMEN — HOBBLING — BRIDLE,
ITS VARIOUS FORMS — REINS — METHOD OP MOUNTING HORSE — BUCKING
— DISMOUNTING  ETIQUETTE OP DISMOUNT — BIT, ITS VARIOUS FORMS AND
THEIR NAMES — COW HORSE — HACKAMORE — GHOST CORD — TWITCH
Feom the saddle's horn usually hung the so-caUed "quirt"
(from Mexican "cuarta," a whip; and this, in turn, from
Spanish "cuerda," a cord), a flexible, woven leather whip,
which, exclusive of its lashes, was some twelve inches in
length. Its upper end ordinarily was filled with lead, this
"loading" pro-viding means to strike down a rearing horse
which threatened to faU backward. To its lower end were
attached two long thongs as lashes. A loop extending from
the upper end, or head, pro-vided means of attachment to
either the rider's wrist or the saddle's horn.
In some sections of the country the whip consisted of a
short wooden or iron stock carrying a lash a yard in length.
The quirt, occasionally in slang termed the "quisto,"
was all-important to the man who, as a "rough-riding
bronco-buster," or, as sometimes called, a "flash rider,"
broke his horses, not by patiently weaning them from their
desires, but by "busting their spirit."
Another intimate with the saddle was the reata.
"La reata" of the Mexicans became on the Range the
"reata" (Spanish for rope), "lariat" (contraction of Span
ish "la reata"), "lasso" (from Spanish "lazo" meaning a
snare or sUp-knot), or "rope," though the word lasso very
137

138 THE COWBOY
rarely was used and then only by visitors from Califomia,
and when employed served only as a verb. Rope was the
usual term, with reata, particularly in Wyoming, as a close
second. Lariat and rope, lUce lasso, might be used as verbs;
reata might not.
So much for the dignified synonyms. "Clothes-line,"
"lass rope," and "string" were occasional alternates.
The rope, when not in use, was gathered into a coU some
eighteen inches in diameter and hung from a spot which,
below the base of the horn, was on whichever side of the
saddle its owner preferred. Some men used the near side,
other men the off, according as to which side was found
the more convenient for rapidly mo-ving hands. The thus
stored rope was held in position by passing through the
hole in the centre of the coil either a looped thong, the two
ends of which were permanently attached to the saddle, or
else a strap, one end of which was simUarly attached; and
then either dropping the loop over the horn, or else fast
ening the strap's outer end to a metal buckle planted at
the horn's base.
In the earUer days of the Range the rope was made
usually of buffalo-hide, but the later cowboys threw ropes
of rawhide or, particularly in Texas, of fine hemp.
If of hide, they commonly were a half inch in diameter
and were braided from four strands, sometimes from as
many as eight. If of hemp, their diameter ordinarUy was
three-quarters of an inch. They varied in length from a
minimum of forty to a maximum of seventy feet.
The loop was formed by passing one end of the rope
through the "hondo" at the rope's other end. This hondo,
or, as often called, "honda," was sometimes a cunningly
devised, knotted or spliced eyelet, each in the rope itself
and lined with smooth leather; sometimes a metal ring;
but more commonly was a stout rawhide or brass object,
shaped Uke an inverted letter "U," with a bar across its

BRIDLE, LARIAT, AND QUIRT 139
openmg and firmly attached, at the middle of the bar, to
the rope.
Lariats varied in length, not only because of the differ
ing capabUities or preferences of their wielders, but also
because of differences in the methods of using them. Al
though the manner of enlarging the noose and throwing it
was universaUy the same, the home end of a Texan's rope
very commonly, before the throw, was tied by a half hitch
to the saddle horn. No such fastening was attempted in
the far Southwest or in the Northwest, except by occasional
men, and by them only when roping animals of light weight.
Because the last few feet at the home end of a thus "tied"
lariat were necessarUy passive, the user of that style needed
more length in his rope than did the man who threw a
"free" reata and thus, in other technical, interchangeable
terms for this form of throw, "dallied," "daled," "-vuelted,"
"felted," or "dale -vuelted," his rope. Each of these five
interchangeable terms was derived, seemingly, from the
Spanish phrase "dar la vuelta," which means to give a turn
to a rope or to belay it.
PracticaUy speaking, the Texan used a long lariat, but
actively employed only a part of it.
Conscience compels the reluctant admission that the
average Southwesterner, and particularly the Texan, not
only outthrew but also outrode his more northerly average
brother, and that the Mexicans were the most expert of
aU. The Mexicans outrode as regards abUity to stick to
the horse's back, but they were a faUure as producers of
weU-broken steeds. Their cruelty begat equine cussedness
that never was outgrown.
The Mexicans, however, did not reach that limit attained
by the Apache Indian when the latter not infrequently
rode his horse to exhaustion and then dismounted and ate
the beast.
Sometimes the puncher, for the fastenmg of his horse

140 THE COWBOY
when afield, carried on his saddle a hempen stake-rope or
picket-rope, or else bore there a line of woven horsehair.
This horsehair Une was useful for picketing, and laid
about one's bed was supposed to keep rattlesnakes away.
Tradition had it that certainly no snake, and probably no
centipede, scorpion, or tarantula, would cross its scratchy
surface. The wooden stake, which was driven into the ground
and to which one end of the picket-rope was attached, was
caUed by many Texans a "putto," a word derivf d from the
French "poteau," meaning a post.
A lariat was hesitatingly used for picketing I Bt it be cut
by dragging over rocks; although when new it would be
traUed from a saddle's horn, and thus, under hitman over
sight, would be puUed along the ground in order to induce
suppleness. The Western world divided on the subject of picketing
into two camps; of which one stoutly maintained that a
horse's neck was the only place proper for fastening the
rope, the other sect equally holding out for a front leg.
Many an hour in many a place was spent in supporting or
attacking the alleged merits of each system. The mere
fact that by no possibility could there be involved any ques
tion beyond whether it were his animal's neck or its leg
that the rider preferred to jeopardize never curtailed de
bate. This subject for argument was the one best Uked, be
cause custom permitted that, when it was under discussion,
close holding to the title was not compulsory. Invariably
sooner or later somebody interjected the coUateral title:
"What makes a pinto the hardest bucker of all, and a waU-
eyed white horse the next hardest?" The propositions
involved in this quoted coUateral title were traditional and
untrue, but were powerful producers of logic.
At times the debaters would stray off to the topics as to

BRIDLE, LARIAT, AND QUIRT 141
what hole rent, if any, the owl and rattlesnake paid the
prairie-dog, as to the comparative merits of single- and
double-rigged saddles, and as to why aU Easterners and
Englishmen were so "plumb wuthless and ornery"; but
sooner or later picketing and the waU-eyed white horse
would come triumphantly to the fore.
Although any cowboy gladly would drop at any time into
a picketing debate, he ordinarUy did not picket his horse
at aU, but instead "hobbled "it. A few men used the United
States Government's form of "hobble," a leathern cuff buck
led about each of the fore legs above the pastern joint, the
two cuffs being connected by a short, swivelled chain. The
great majority of men produced the same result through a
wide band of cowskin or buckskin, or, more commonly,
through the diagonaUy cut half of a gunny grain sack, either
of them so appUed that there was reproduced by knots the
effect of the cuffs, and by twists a rope which took the place
of the chain. With the cowskin or buckskin, a buttonhole
and wooden button, or cross-stick, sometimes, were sub
stituted for the final knot.
The purpose of the picket-rope and of the hobble was
self-evidently to hold the fettered animal at its rider's camp.
Hobbles did not always achieve this result, for many horses
became proficient in a ludicrous but effective gait, wherein
the hind legs walked while the front legs coincidentally
made short jumps forward. An adept would thus hop sev
eral miles in a night. Mares were the worst offenders in
this hoppity-skip method of flight. To forestall this retreat,
some brutes were hobbled by connecting a front and a rear
leg instead of the two front legs. This fore-and-aft hobbling
was designated as "side-lining," unless the legs involved
were on opposite sides of the horse, in which case some men
called it "cross-hobbling."
Picketing and hobbUng were employed only about a
camp. At the ranch, a horse, if not placed in a corral, was

142 THE COWBOY
turned loose, to be rounded up when needed. He and his
feUows were usually content to stay within hearing of the
beU, which ever hung from the neck of some eminently re
spectable old horse that long since had proved its un-wil-
lingness to stray far from home.
The bridle and bit deserve mention; the bridle because
of the specialized form of its reins; the bit because, to speak
enigmaticaUy, it either was speciaUzed to a high degree or
did not exist at all.
The bridle, "head staU," or, as the West often termed it,
"bridle head" most commonly employed was in form Uke
the ordinary equestrian bridles of world-wide use; and Uke
them comprised, when complete, a "crown piece," "brow-
band," "throat latch," and, on either side, a "cheek-piece,"
and had no special characteristic beyond that frequently
the brow-band was omitted, and not uncommonly hooks,
instead of buckles, were used for attaching the bit. These
hooks, one on each side, were shaped like a letter "J," the
shorter stem being sewn to the bottom of the cheek-piece,
whUe the longer stem rose verticaUy above the horse's
mouth. Another and common form of bridle was highly special
ized. It consisted of a single strap, which terminated at
each end either in a buckle or in such a hook as is above
described, and thus was fastened to the bit. The strap was
passed above the horse's head and was held in place by the
simple expedient of longitudinally slitting the strap far
enough to permit the horse's ears, or at least his left ear, to
project through the slitted opening. The strap, in order
that its length might be adjustable, usuaUy was in two
pieces, which were connected by a buckle.
The bridle, whatever its form, was made ordinarUy of
straps; but sometimes for some or all of the straps were
substituted finely plaited leathern strips or else cords of
braided horsehair. The bridle was subject to be ornamented

BRIDLE, LARIAT, AND QUIRT 143
at the horse's ears by conchas, and throughout by tassels
and pendants of horsehair or leather. A few men possessed
bridles made whoUy of woven sUver wire, but these ornate
constmctions were used only in affairs of state such as love-
making and hoUday trips to rival ranches or to town.
The reins, but one on each side of the horse, were, at the
saddle end, either "tied," i. e., fastened together (if so, not
uncommonly continuing into a flexible whip which thus
attached was called a "romal"), or else they were left "un
tied." Most men preferred this latter form, as with untied
reins a rider, when thrown, was spared the danger of being
entangled; and furthermore, a bridled horse turned loose
was Uttle apt to be ensnared in brush.
Rarely was a Westem horse made fast to anything after
his rider had dismounted. UsuaUy the reins were merely
thrown directly forward over the horse's head and aUowed
to hang downward from the bit and to the ground. The
animal was then at Uberty to wander about and graze, and
would make the most of this opportunity unless the reins,
when thus thrown, had fallen across a tree limb or the bar
of a hitching rack. In this latter contingency the horse
almost never questioned appearances; and, con-vinced that
he was firmly fastened, fearful lest he make a pull upon
his cruel bit, was wont to stand patiently with sagging head
for hours at a time before a horizontal branch or spar, and
to attempt no more activity than an occasional nibble at
his fancied cross.
Presently out came his rider, who, picking up the reins,
was careful not to replace them over the horse's head until
ready to mount, for reins over the head was the equine start
ing gong.
The nag was led away from the rack. The rider, stand
ing in front of the near shoulder of the animal and facing
toward its taU, seized with his right hand the near stirrup,
twisted it half-way around, and held it in that position.

144 THE COWBOY
The left hand threw the reins over the horse's head and
simultaneously caught the horn. That same moment the
left foot went into the stirrup. Instantly thereafter the
right hand either also clutched the horn or else swung at
the end of a fuUy extended arm, four hoofs moved, and the
rider was fairly snapped into the saddle.
Sometimes, and particularly with a horse prone to lunge
to the rear, this method of mounting was varied to the ex
tent of seizing, with the left hand, either the horse's left
withers, or the bridle's left cheek-piece, whUe the right hand
grabbed the horn.
Some athletic men, scorning the stirrup, trusted whoUy
to their grip upon the horn, leaped from ground to saddle,
and thus made a so-called "flying" or "running" mount;
what the programmes at modern WUd West shows term
a Pony Express mount.
In any of these forms the animal's quick start was for
a competent rider an aid to mounting, because the jerk
it created tended to throw the rider upward.
Swift movement by the mounter was necessary, for other
wise his horse might innocently move from under him, and
furthermore so thoroughly might resent slow motion as to
begin to buck.
The reason for this particular resentment was that Range
horses as a class were creatures of habit, and, however docUe
when meeting accustomed conditions, nevertheless were
apt to object to any happening that was unusual. They
had been broken at high speed, and expected its continu
ance. Objection ordinarUy was expressed in terms of pitch
ing. All ranchmen whUe breaking a horse stood at the latter's
left when placing the saddle on the brute's back, and made
the mount not only with swiftness but also, and unlike In
dians, always on the animal's near side.
Ever afterward, it was on its near side that the thus semi-

BRIDLE, LARIAT, AND QUIRT 145
broken Range horse expected human beings to effect their
initial close approach. As a result, if a prudent ranchman
had occasion before mounting to make a saddle adjust
ment on his steed's off side, he would open negotiations
from the beast's opposite flank, and then half circumna-vi-
gate the brute, preferably by the head rather than the heels
route. Under the latter circumstances the horse, suspicious,
would preserve an armed neutraUty, but would stand ready
to repel boarders from the right.
UsuaUy before mounting, the right rein was held in shorter
grip than was the left, this tending not only to prevent bites
but also to swing the starting horse under the ascending
rider. Neglect of this precaution has laid prostrate more
than one tjTO, whose horse, -with no motive save impatience,
has "whirled" and thus, like a compass needle, changed its
direction but not its locality.
The reins always at the mount were kept fairly taut.
A horse was more apt to buck at the moment of mounting
than at any other time, and he could not buck with satis
faction to himself unless aUowed to put his head between
his front legs, to "stick his bUl in the ground." The top
of his horse's head was a pleasing sight to the man haff-
way into saddle, and few in this defenseless position re
sented the absence of that taunting warning: "Good-night,
Ears." AU this relates to the mounting of already "gentled"
animals, or of animals which, although never pre-viously
ridden, tacitly promised reasonably decent behavior.
Brutes suggesting "trouble," supposed to be "mean
horses," were saddled, bridled, and mounted while impotent
under the imprisonment of the reata, and frequently while
"bfinded" by a cloth tied over the eyes. Either a lariat
about each foot pulled the latter to either side, with also
the front feet weU forward, the hind feet equaUy far to the
rear, thus reducing a -virile entity to the plane of a flare-

146 THE COWBOY
legged, sway-backed table; or else a lariat about both front
legs, a second reata about both hind legs, drawing them to
front and rear, threw the animal prostrate on his flank. The
rider climbed into the saddle upon the momentary table,
or stood astride over the prostrate if latent earthquake,
and called "shoot," "turn lose," "ease up," "throw off,"
or "let her go." In any case, "she went wide, high, and
pretty," and "rolUcked aU over the lot," while from the
side-Unes came much unwelcome ad-vice to "stay with it,"
to "cinch her when she bucks," to "rise to the trot," to
"tickle her feet," to "waltz -with the lady," to "throw in
your hooks"; comments such as "froUcsome Uttle beast,"
"real hunk o' death," and "cutey, Uttle grave-digger"; and
came also perhaps the babyhood message of "upadaisa."
Upon the signal the human ends of the holding-ropes
had "eased up," the "bUnd," if any, had been snatched
off, and the theretofore leashed beast slowly kicking free
from its bonds suddenly had reaUzed its freedom and had
acted accordingly.
It is stated above that a horse, to buck with satisfaction
to himself, should insert his head between his knees. Upon
mounting an animal that was standing and was free from
the grip of any lariat, the rider, if attentive to dra-wing in
the reins, could hold up the beast's head and so discount
a plan to pitch; but human ingenuity never evolved a
scheme for controlUng a fettered horse's neck and divorc
ing the brute from his wish to bathe his rider in the stars.
A horse, if held by lariats and standing -with legs puUed to
front and rear, was compeUed, for keeping his balance, to
stretch his neck forward and downward. This gave him a
gambUng chance, which he almost invariably won as against
his rider; for the horse could move his head stiU a few more
inches downward before the rider could drag it rearward.
The head once getting low enough, pulUng on the reins made
matters worse, for this tended not to raise the head but to

BRIDLE, LARIAT, AND QUIRT 147
haul it directly toward the horse's knees. A horse, if held
by lariats and if prone, had to be given free rein that he
might rise, and this free rein rarely could be drawn in be
fore the brute's head started toward the danger point.
Often a careless rider already safely mounted, ha-ving
thus far held his animal's head above what physicists well
might term the centre of devUtry, let loose the reins, to
see an equine head go do-wn and feel a human form go up.
Westerners usuaUy dismounted as rapidly as they
mounted, employing for the purpose either a single stirrup
or none at aU. The rider, whether using or scorning a stir
rup, might with one or both hands grasp the saddle horn,
and, during the descent, swing his body so -violently that
as his leading foot struck the earth he would spin part of
the way around and face almost with the horse. He also,
if acrobatic, might make a running dismount by throwing
a leg over the hom and sliding diagonaUy forward and to
the ground. At high speed, this exit from the saddle re
quired skUl. With the horse walking, it was a common
route, but then it lost its title of "running dismount."
Dismounts were made ordinarily on the horse's near
side. However, if the rider were quick in his motions, his
animal, without undue opposition, would aUow him to use
the off-side route. This equine tolerance arose from the
fact that, though the horse might make violent objection
to being mounted on the off side and so recei-ving its load
by an unconventional avenue, it did not deem to be equaUy
important the direction by which the load left, provided
it surely and speedily departed.
This off-side egress nevertheless might have human ob
jectors, for, in some parts of the Range, notably in Texas,
it was an insult to a man for a rider to go near him and -with
out apparent excuse to dismount to the rider's right. It
suggested that the rider intended to employ the body of
his horse as a protective breastwork, to "roU his gun,"

148 THE COWBOY
which is to say, "to set his gun agoing," and thereby to
"put windows in the skull" of the citizen thus mdely ap
proached. The affronted citizen would be justified, if he
"dug for" his own "blue fightning," "talking iron," "lead-
pusher," or "flame-thrower," and "unraveUed some car
tridges." Even when about to dismount on the near side, a rider,
if in the presence of strangers, usuaUy saw to it that he on
aUghting should not have his horse between himself and
the strangers. Courtesy forbade the seeming barricade.
So, before dismounting, he ordinarily took pains either to
halt to the right of the strangers or else to tum his horse
into proper position.
A very few ranchmen, principally EngUshmen, used ordi
nary bits of snaffle or straight bar form, but such men were
negligible in number.
The bit regularly employed was often a thing of beauty,
and always an instrument of latent torture. Artisans were
wont to fashion into intricate designs the cheek-pieces
and the bar or chain connecting them at their bottom ends,
to garnish them with gold and silver inlay, and to apply
conchas wherever there was room. Derived by the Range
directly from Mexico, the bit was of the Spanish and earUer
Moorish type, either in pure form or modffied, as its owner
saw fit, and according to the absence or extent of these modi
fications it was classified as "ring bit," "spade bit," or
"half-breed bit."
If the bar in the horse's mouth humped up in the middle
like a narrow croquet wicket for two or two and a half inches
in height, and within this hump, or port, were a "roller,"
that is a vertical wheel with broad and corrugated rim, and
there were added no other attachment save possibly a curb
chain, the bit was "half-breed."
If, for the hump, there were substituted a "spade," a
piece shaped lUie a broad screw-driver three to four inches

BRIDLE, LARIAT, AND QUIRT 149
in length and bent backward at its top, there was thereby
created a "spade bit." This was the bit most commonly
used. Not content with attacking merely the roof of the
mouth, the severity of the latter bit ordinarUy was aug
mented by inserting in the spade, at its bottom or at both
its top and bottom, a "roUer," and by adding two wires
for which there was no particular name and which, closely
strung with short metal tubes, extended from the sides of
the spade to the inner sides of the cheek-pieces. The wires
and spade punished respectively the cheeks and the roof
of the mouth. In rare instances the top of the spade was
sharply notched.
More than merely an occasional man employed a metal
ring which, fastened at the top of the port or near the sum
mit of the spade, according as to which was present, and
passing through the horse's mouth, surrounded the lower
jaw. This ring, more common in the Southwest than in
the Northwest, graduaUy tended to disappear from both
these sections, but remained in general use in Mexico. The
presence of this ring gave to the bit, despite any other at
tachment the latter might have, the generic name of "ring
bit." Fiends at times added to all these things barbed wire,
and exulted in the "tool-chest" thus produced; but fiends
were frowned upon.
The reins were fastened, usuaUy, not to the bit itself but
to chains six inches or so in length and depending from it.
The pony could not chew the chains asunder, and further
more they gave forth a pleasant, clanking noise.
The function of the bit was to suggest physical suffering
rather than to cause it. During an animal's good beha-vior,
his reins sagged in his rider's hand, since every broken horse
was bridlewise, and turned to right or left at the sUghtest
pressure of the appropriate rein upon his neck. A strand
of yarn would have sufficed to guide the beast. He was

150 THE COWBOY
thus tractable because he ever kept in mind the latent pos
sibiUties of the contents of his mouth. IncidentaUy, though
he instantly would have turned to the right if the left rein
were pressed against his neck's left side, he would not have
comprehended the meaning of a puU upon the right rein
alone. Even stopping a horse produced almost no strain upon
the reins. The stop usually was brought about not so much
through the rider's pulfing with his left hand, however
feebly, upon the reins, as it was through his coincidently
raising his right hand to the lariat-throwing position, and
perhaps, at the same time, prosaically saying "whoa."
All broken horses were thus "bridlewise," and most of
them would respond also to guiding signals given by the
rider's legs or hands. A push on, say, the right side, if made
near the animal's hind leg, would turn him to the right,
whUe, if made on the shoulder or neck, it would turn him
to the left.
In times of equine peacefulness, the bridled pony steadUy
champed the roller of his bit, which, untU the reins were
tightly pulled, was a pleasant thing upon which to work
the tongue and emitted an amusing, rattling noise. In
caterance to this desire of the Western horse for constant,
familiar and pleasant sound to break the otherwise awe
some silence, there was de-vised the "cricket," a Uttle
"roller" which was inserted in a colt's bit and produced
small result beyond a chirping noise.
The highly trained horses ridden when stock was being
tended and the lariat was swinging, caUed "cow-ponies"
by the Northwesterner, "cow-horses" by the Texan, were
accustomed to stop short as the reata left the thrower's
hand, and fairly to snap themselves into a posture akin
to that of a sitting bear. A horse of this ilk mentally asso
ciated the lariat with all movements of the rider, so that
either quickly extending an arm from the side, or else a sud-

BRIDLE, LARIAT, AND QUIRT 151
den raising of the reins, was apt to shoot the animal into a
burst of speed, whUe he was as prone to stop, almost in his
tracks, upon the vertical raising of a hand. Often has a
friendly wave by the empty hand of an equestrian novice
sent him "grass-hunting" through the sudden jump, or
equaUy sudden stop, which was ordered but not expected.
The antithesis of the severe bit was the "hackamore"
(from Spanish "jdquima," a halter). This was sometimes
an ordinary halter which carried reins instead of a leading
rope, and which offered to the rider no more control over
his horse than mere pressure on the beast's neck could ef
fect. More commonly it was a bridle which had, in lieu of
a bit, a so-caUed "bosal," a leathern, rawhide, or metal ring
around the horse's head immediately above the mouth.
The reins were attached to the bosal, and their pulUng
operated to shut off the horse's wind. EngUsh ranchmen
occasionaUy called the bosal a "cavezon."
The bosal stayed in position through being attached both
to the bridle's two cheek-pieces and also to a looped cord
commonly made of braided horsehair, and passing from the
bosal's front upward and over the top of the horse's head.
This cord was termed the "fiador," or sometimes, in cor
rupted form, the "theodore."
The hackamore, even when rigged to its limit of efficiency,
did not possess the bit's crael possibiUties, but commonly
was used on the initial ridings of a horse which was in the
process of being broken. Some riders continued its use
on their broken animals, ruling their horses more through
exercise of human personaUty than through mechanical
means. Mere leading halters, whether in the form of the Eastern
stable halter with a short rope attached or else evolved out
of various turns and knots in a longer and continuous piece
of Une, often were, in the loose language of the Range, termed
hackamores.

152 THE COWBOY
The hackamore, whether used for riding or for leading,
might, Uke the bit, have aUied with it an ilUcit companion,
the "ghost cord," a thin string tied about the tongue and
gums, and thence passed below the lower jaw and up to
the rider's hand. This string with its ingeniously devised
ties was, in competent hands, an instrument of either mental
diversion or extreme cruelty. Specially effective forms of
it known to some men were jealously guarded by the latter
as secrets of value.
This ghost cord should not be confused with the "twitch"
or "twister," although the latter abomination sometimes
used by "rough-riders" was on occasion caUed a ghost cord.
The twitch was a small loop of cord with a stick through it,
and was employed to punish a held horse. The loop was
placed verticaUy around the animal's upper Up, and then
was tightened ly twisting the stick. Often the horse would
fairly scream from pain.
There thus have been inspected almost all of the cow
boy's paraphernaha, and it is time to meet him face to face
and to see him in action.

CHAPTER VIII
EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS

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"PLUNDER AND DOFUNNIES — PACK-SADDLE, ITS VARIOUS FORMS AND
NAMES — ITS LOAD — VARIOUS HITCHES — WAR SACKS AND POKES — ALPORJAS
— HORSE-TRADING  STEALING OP LI-STE STOCK — ITS PUNISHMENT — LONG
HAIR — -VIGILANCE COMMITTEE AND ITS PUNISHMENTS— SCENES ON THE
TRAIL — RANCH BUILDINGS — TANK — GO DE'VIL — CORRALS — ABSENCE OF
FIELDS — EGGS — PERSONNEL — 'SnSITORS — PETS — READING — MUSIC —
LIGHTING A COWBOY was hired to work at a ranch. He arrived
there, wearing clothes such as have been described, and
mounted on a horse with accoutrements such as have been
outlined. If he had further personal belongings — and these
the West caUed his "plunder," as the East termed them
"dunnage" or "duffle," he would be accompanied by a
second horse bearing on a pack-saddle parcels of modest
size. The cowboy's extra belongings would be scant in num
ber, would include few, if any, luxuries and certainly few
useless objects beyond possibly some ore specimens.
Each of such useless objects and of such luxuries, par
ticularly if it were small in size or novel in construction,
was apt to be caUed a "dofunny." This word in its plural
form of "dofunnies" might be given a wider signfficance,
and denote also the entire personal belongings regardless
of their character. When used in this sense, it was synony
mous with "plunder."
The West employed two types of pack-saddle, respec
tively designated as the "cross-buck saddle" (usually con
tracted into "cross-buck") and the "apar^jo."
The cross-buck was named from its simUarity to the frame
known as cross-buck or sawhorse and used by wood-cutters,
153

154 THE COWBOY
and was the usual civiUan pack-saddle. The apardjo rarely
appeared save in the Southwest or upon the federal govern
ment's animals.
The cross-buck consisted of two short, paraUel planks
connected together at each of their two ends by a stubby,
wooden, Saint Andrew's cross, which rose verticaUy and
fronted at a right-angle to the saddle's length. To these
two crosses were fastened the ropes that held the pack in
position during the time that its principal fastening, the
so-caUed "lash rope," was being appUed. The saddle laid
upon padding and lengthwise of the horse's back, one plank
on either side of the animal's spine, was fastened to the
brute by two cinches. The saddle was always double-
rigged. The apar^jo was a stuffed, leathern pad which covered
the back of the horse and both his sides.
Whichever form of saddle was employed, its load was
made secure by a lash rope, which was a continuous Une
some thirty feet in length, was cunningly interlaced about
the load, and was connected with each end of a special cinch
that rested below the horse's chest. One species of this
interlacing, if made in strict accord with estabUshed formula,
produced on top of the pack the figure of a diamond, and
thus gave to this species its name of "diamond hitch." It
would be so called regardless of whether it were either a
" one-man diamond," or else took the sUghtly different weav-
ings of a "two-man" or "government" "diamond." The
hitch, when correctly thrown, was remarkable for its abiUty
to absorb the slackness generated at any particular point,
and firmly to imprison the held packages 'within its grasp.
It was regarded with considerable respect because it had
been so great a factor in Western transportation. Con
sequently, the Cattle Country resented the sight of a
sloppUy thrown diamond, just as it resented the sight of
an untidily rigged saddle, just as every one everywhere

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 155
resents the appearance of a military uniform worn awry.
As soon as a tenderfoot succeeded in throwing a diamond
hitch upon a pack, he thereby ceased to be a tenderfoot.
Every Westerner shot a glance at the lashing on every laden
pack-animal he passed, and, when he spied the hammock-
Uke, rope-consuming weavings by a pilgrim, he grinned.
No self-respecting man would speak of tying a diamond.
It always was described as "thrown," though the so-called
"squaw hitch," another rope-weaving for attaching a pack,
might be "thro-wn," or "tied," or made fast by any word
the speaker selected.
The arriving cowboy's parcels with their "plunder" con
tents doubtless consisted of commercial gunny-sacks which
had been promoted from their original function of holding
grain to that of serving as traveUing-bags; and which, when
in the latter r61e, commonly were termed "war sacks,"
though they sometimes, in the Northwest, were caUed
"pokes," or else "porfleshes," or "parfleshes," this last term,
whichever way speUed, being a corruption of the dictionary's
word, "parfleche."
IncidentaUy, throughout the West, the word "sack"
almost whoUy displaced the word "bag," and this latter
word was used rarely save as a verb and in the sense of "to
capture." The war sacks were laid directly upon the pack-saddle,
one on each of its sides and one atop it, unless the cowboy
happened to be in the Southwest. In which latter event,
aU or a part of the parcels might have been stuffed into
"alforjas," which were wide, leathern or canvas bags, one
on either side of the animal and hanging from the crosses
on the saddle's top.
That Spanish word alforja suffered much from American
spelling, for it was forced to appear also as "alforge," " all-
forche," "aUorki," "aKorka," and in divers other forms.
If our cowboy owned the horses with which he arrived.

156 THE COWBOY
he turned them into a corral, that they might accustom
themselves to the neighborhood and cease desire to "strike
out" for their former home. But probably the horses as
well as the pack-saddle had been borrowed either from our
friend's last employer, or from some more neighboring
ranchman who had provided substitutions for what the
more distant, late employer originally had loaned.
WhUe a cowboy invariably furnished his lariat, bridle,
riding saddle, and his clothing other than possibly cap and
overcoat of fur, he rarely o-wned the horses on which he
rode. He was hired to ride other people's animals, and
seldom was the proprietor of any Uve stock. This infre
quency of proprietorship prevented him from more often
than very occasionally setting to profitable use the combina
tion of his knowledge of horse-flesh and his gambUng pro
cUvity. Then, tOD, only -village-dweUers, farmers, and pass
ing Indians offered a trading field. Otherwise, the classic,
horse-swapping deacon of the bucolic novels would have
had a rival.
Bud Jackson, at daybreak, left a New Mexican ranch
and returned to it soon after nightfaU. He departed and
returned upon the same gaunt, buckskin horse. Old Buck;
but, in the interim of mere hours. Bud had made eleven
horse trades, in each of them obtaining a fittle cash. In
the first trade he had exchanged Old Buck for a bay pony
and five dollars. Then Bud, in rapid succession and for
short terms, owned pintos, roans, and brutes of other colors.
Finally, just after dark when close scrutiny was difficult,
he swapped to an unsuspecting Englishman a sleek but
useless animal in return for good Old Buck and a bit
of money. Thirty-seven dollars represented the earnings of
the day.
Horses and never cattle were the subjects of such trades.
The puncher, like the Eastern deacon, could see no sporting
element in swapping cows, and thus never attempted it.

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 157
But we must return to our friend, the newly hired cow
boy, who, despite our loquaciousness, is endeavoring for our
benefit to arrive with his saddle-horse and pack-animal.
If our friend had borrowed his horses, both of the latter
would be stripped of aU their trappings and turned loose,
to make inquisitive approach to other horses grazing with
in sight, indignantly to be rebuffed, and then with injured
mien to begin in single file their homeward trip. The pack-
saddle would be returned to its owner at the first convenient
opportunity and without fail.
The term "borrowed," as employed a few lines since, was
not intended to convey any sinister suggestion. WhUe
horses -willingly were lent, nobody but a thief would take
one however temporarUy or however far out on the Range,
unless 'with the owner's clear permission or unless the taker
were in real distress, a distress so real that he dared risk
that its patency later could exculpate him. Robbing a
rider of his horse easUy might effect in a sparsely watered
country the most cruel form of destroying human life. The
West in self-defense refused to permit a thief to plead that
his stealing had been done under humane conditions, that
the crime had not put any one afoot, and with common
voice prescribed the punishment.
Wherefore horse-stealing earned either death by hang
ing, or, if the -vigilance committee were tolerant, life banish
ment from "these parts," preceded often in the latter case
by loss of the upper haff of an ear, a mark which was dis
tinguishing and lasted to the grave.
Long hair could overhang the scar, but long hair in itself
was regarded as suggesting this purpose of screening or
else as indicating a desire to be in appearance though not
in fact quite "tough and wUd." Consequently long hair
did not meet with pubUc approval. A man with a "load
of hay on his skuU" might be an actual "bad man," but
usuaUy he was diagnosed as being either weak-minded or

158 THE COWBOY
a mere "bluffer." Long hair was of course permissible to
any one who wished to grow it, but the extravagantly
hirsute faUed materially in personal popularity.
The punishment for horse-steaUng, once established, was
promptly and arbitrarily extended to include the taking
of cattle; though cattle thieves ordinarily were rather leni
ently dealt with, and when raiding for poUtical reasons, as
in Wyoming's "Rustler War," were condoned by the pubUc.
The vigilance committee of years ago was no hot-headed
lynching party bound to claim a victim. It was the people
acting directly instead of through their formaUy elected
or appointed representatives. It gave due process of law
commensurate with frontier conditions, and aimed to sup
port, not to subvert, justice.
That soberness of thought underlay the whole matter
appears from the fact that the -vigUance committees ac
corded their prisoners actual, if informal, trials, often ac
quitted, and, when convicting, frequently prescribed as the
penalty banishment and not death. Then, too, when death
was prescribed, the committees, -with respect for law's long-
established usages, subjected the prisoner to hanging done
with orderUness and decency. The single difference between
executions by one of these popular tribunals and those by
sheriffs in Eastern States was the Westerners' enforced
substitution of a mo-ving horse, box, barrel, or wagon-tail
in place of the sheriffs' falUng drop.
It is true that the -vigilance committee sometimes kiUed
with buUets, but it was only when the accused, resisting
arrest, "put up a fight."
The committee held in reserve as a punishment for at
tacks upon women the awesome "staking out" upon an
ant-hiU, a punishment almost never caUed into play. The
few cases of its aUeged infliction were recorded by tradi
tion rather than by history, though its possibiUty of inffic-
tion was a forceful affirmative deterrent to the evU-minded.

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 159
Tradition relates that on rare occasions men were lynched
because they erroneously had been supposed to have been
the perpetrators of a particular crime with which in fact
they had had no connection, but tradition adds that each
such 'victim was known to have performed at least one other
act which by itself would have warranted the rope. Thus,
whUe there may have occurred an error in judicial process,
there had been none in moral result, even though some low
browed individual might seem merely to have been "hung
on his merits."
The -vigUance committee never advertised what it had
done, or where or how "the event" had occurred, and ever
sacredly guarded death-bed confessions of guilt. No non-
attendant at the final scene would, if wise, question upon
the subject any man who had been present there. This
meant on the part of the committee's members no cowardly
screening of themselves from the officers of statutory law.
Merely, the West considered lynching, however necessary,
to be a nasty job, and did not like to talk about it.
However, despite the ban of secrecy, history by chance
has recorded the last words of a few lynched men. Some of
these ante-mortem statements were picturesque and rather
inducive to goose-flesh.
Boone Helm, about to be hung at Virginia City, Mon
tana, and standing beside the gaUows from which writhed
the body of one of Boone's gang, made this peroration:
"Kick away, old feUow. I'll be in heU with you in a minute.
Every man for his principles. Hurrah for Jeff Davis. Let
her rip." At another time, George Shears more plaintively
said: "Gentlemen, I am not used to this business, never
ha'ving been hung before. ShaU I jump off or slide
off?" But the "strangulation jig" is not a pleasant subject.
Let us once more rejoin the arri'ving puncher.
His journey had represented for him a slow, steady grind

160 THE COWBOY
of several days, and would have been hopelessly monoto
nous except for various Uttle happenings, for the bigness of
the sweeping -views, and for the bubbling joy of Uving which
nature saw fit to give through Western air.
Upon the traU there were always happening Uttle things
which gently amused the plodding traveller's mind, but did
not rob him of the purring, sensuous pleasure that comes
from staying half asleep.
The marks upon the traU contained mUe after mUe a
definite, accurate log of the doings by every recent user
of the way.
On either hand between the path's edge and the horizon
was space where from time to time occurred something
to arrest the eye.
A hundred yards away, two sharply pointed ears warUy
rose above a bush. Presently under them appeared the
inquisitive, impudent, disreputable face of a coyote. He
gazed inquiringly a moment, and then commenced a retreat,
at first made with studied slo-wness and frequent stops for
rearward observation, but finaUy changing in a second and
after a derisive, laughing howl, into a distance-consuming
lope. A mUe or so further along the traU and squarely in it,
a fiat-domed disk of blotchy brown heaved, ran out at one
side into a wa-ving stream that led at once into a coU. Then
came a shriU, -vibrant whir. Our traveUer's horse, with a
tiny bit of fear, with unlimited abhorrence, and 'with a pru
dently cocked eye, deflected three feet or so to the side;
and having gingerly rounded the snake, dropped back into
the trail and ambled onward.
Some moments later, up popped a jack-rabbit, one ear
erect, the other hanging Umply. He gave a preliminary
hop or two, a shake of his stubby taU, a few, bewUdering,
zigzag jumps, shot forward, and was gone.
From time to time, antelope rose from their beds, and

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 161
Uke undulating, white-feathered arrows skimmed over the
sage-brush. SmaU isolated lots of cattle here and there in the distance
ate their way along in restless feeding, or, Strang out behind
a leader, were travelling at interchanging walk and trot
from the spot they had just deserted to nowhere in par
ticular. Far overhead was an eagle which, for many minutes and
with stiff-set, 'wide-spread wings, had been cutting circles of
a mUe's diameter; but he suddenly dropped like a stone
to 'within two f|,thoms of the ground, landed fluttering on
the plain, melted into the verdure, and passed out of sight.
All the way, our traveUer's pack-horse, true to type, had,
when not towed by a lead rope, been seized periodically
by 'violent thirst or equaUy insistent hunger. This desire
for water always had manifested itself when the traU was
far above the stream, whUe aU desirable food had seemed
to fie near the summits of steeply sloping hUlsides. Where
fore some of the progress of our cowboy had been varied
by detours and showered with swear-words.
He wiU swear at us unless we quit our own detours, so
let us from now on stick by his side.
There was nothing unusual in the structures of the ranch
to excite his curiosity: merely the typical layout, namely
a main buUding, a cowboys' bunk house, a barn with open
shed attached, a hitching-bar, two or more corrals, and, for
purpose of obtaining water, whatever appliances local con
ditions demanded.
Had not surface water abounded at the ranch, there
would have been near the barn a 'windmUl on taU metal
stUts, and adjacent to its base a series of watering-troughs;
or, had there been no sufficient water-supply, either sub
terranean or on the surface, there would have appeared a
"tank," a hoUow in the ground with its bottom and its
sloping sides lined with hard-packed clay and designed to

162 THE COWBOY
collect whatever rain might fall. In quite arid countries,
these tanks were scattered about the Range, and thus
opened to the Uve stock many miles of otherwise unusable
grass-lands. But in fact the ranch was beside a creek. WhUe, had
the latter's banks been low, there would have been a con
venient water system consisting of a series of ditches, the
banks inconveniently were high. Wherefore there was a
road pitching down to the creek's edge and used by a horse-
drawn pair of wheels bearing a trunnioned barrel, and was
also a "go devU," this last a taut 'wire which stretched from
the bank's top to an anchorage in mid-stream and carried
a travelling bucket.
The corrals, caUed in parts of Texas "round pens," were
aU circular in form and buUt of stout, horizontal, wooden
raUs which were supported by posts set firmly in the ground.
The corrals were circular, that there might be no comer
into which a pursued animal might dodge, or into which
an entering herd might crowd a beast to its physical in
jury. Always the raUs were lashed to the posts by strips
of green rawhide, which contracted as they dried and made
the entire structure as rigid and as strong as though it were
of iron. The structure had to be unjdelding, for it received
tremendous shocks.
Connecting two of the pens was very Ukely a narrow
fenced lane, which, 'without regard to orthography, the West
termed a "shoot," and which was used in the branding of
the maturer cattle. Fifteen or twenty beasts at a time
would be crowded into it, to prevent struggles whUe the
branding-iron was doing its searing work.
The West ran trae to form when it changed "chute" to
"shoot," for previously its Riviere Purgatoire had been
mispronounced into Picketwire River.
The barn held the oats and baled hay which, bought at
considerable expense and hauled from the railroad, were

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 163
to supplement bunch-grass or buffalo-grass as food for such
horses as drew the wagons. They were called "work
horses." They needed strong diet and to be sure of not
missing meals.
The operation of placing harness upon a horse as weU
as that of attaching the beast to a wagon was styled "hook
ing up." The verb "harness" was rarely used m the Cattle
Country. The barn possibly contained also staUs for sheltering,
during hard winter storms, the little group of "kept-up"
saddle-ponies. In the better weather, however cold, such
Uve storage was effected in the corral. Always a few horses
were thus "kept up" near the ranch-house in order that,
under any circumstances and at any instant, a saddled
animal surely could be obtained. Not uncommonly they
were termed "mght horses."
Save for the hitching-bar, the corrals, and the "shoot,"
there was no fencing, for there was no field of grain or hay,
no patch of vegetables, no garden of flowers.
Range animals were required to procure their own food;
and this they found in the wonderfuUy nutritious if ap
parently wUted grasses that, in Uttle, widely separated tufts,
were scattered over the plains, and, according to their several
varieties, went by the respective names of "bunch-grass,"
"grama," or "gramma," "grass," and "buffalo" or "mes
quite" "grass." Of all the grasses, it was only these so
sun-dried as to be half hay that were of interest to the Uve
stock. Occasional beds of vi-vid green might to human eyes
appear to offer a luscious meal, but the beasts knew that
they either harbored viciously stinging flies or would yield
merely unappetizing reeds.
Not until the later days of the ranching industry and
then only upon the smaUer establishments, was any at
tempt made to grow food for the animals. This effort was
limited to the raising of a small lot of hay or alfalfa, which

164 THE COWBOY
in severe winter weather was dispensed to the weaker cows
which had been "brought up" for feeding purposes to the
vicinity of the supply.
Except on Uttle estabUshments near the towns, no vege
tables were grown. Such "greens" as the country at large
ate "grew in cans," as did also aU the milk and cream. He
who would have attempted to milk a Range cow would
have dared pluck Ughtning from the skies.
Eggs, too, were imported, for hens were absent from the
Range almost as completely as were cathedrals. The im
ported eggs, coming as they did from commercial raisers
in the East, were termed "States' eggs," whUe the output
of the few hens that pecked about the "cow towns," -vir
tually the only hens -within the Cattle Country, were kno-wn
merely as "eggs." These latter objects, whether because
lacking the glamour of importation or because of the usually
bedraggled appearance of their parents, if parents be the
correct word, were not regarded as highly as were the crated
"States' eggs." Eggs were the only subject in which the
West conceded that the East was its superior. The West,
dazzled by the Eastern quantity and thus bUnded to the
West's greater freshness, agreed with Sad Hooper's dictum
at Laramie: "I dunno why it is, but them Eastern men
lays eggs betteren we do."
Even near the settlements, gardens were rare and be
tokened the presence or imminence of womenfolk. When
an unmarried man, a "batch" or "bach," planted a few
irregular rows of onions, it plainly evidenced that Cupid
had been in action.
Flowers were restricted to the bloom of the wild seedUngs
scattered on the roofs of the ranch buUdings and amid the
sage-brush, and to the geraniums, begonias, and fuchsias
that in such houses as sheltered women rose from tin re
ceptacles which in early Ufe had been tomato cans.
There appeared no wagon rats, because the vehicles went

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 165
forth but thrice annually, to the round-ups of spring and
fall, these up the Range, and once in the autumn to town
for a year's supply of food.
Our friend, ha-ving rid himself of his horses, turned to
ward the main buUding or "shack," the "ranch-house,"
and joined the group which was waiting for cookie to blow
upon his hom or more aristocratic conch shell, and there
after announce either "Grub pi-i-Ue" or "Come and get
it." The ranch at which our friend arrived was one of size
sufficient to employ numerous men. There was the fore
man, who sometimes was referred to as the "cock-a-doodle-
do," the cook who, if, as commonly, white, was to his face
caUed "cookie" and behind his back was spoken of as the
"old woman" or "old lady." But if, as in rare instances,
the cook were a Chinaman, these entitlements of cookie
and old lady severally were supplanted by "John" and
"that damned chink."
As further employees, there were several riders and also
two or three ex-punchers, who, efficient in their halcyon
days and later victims of physical injury, were virtuaUy
as pensioners now on both the constant pay-roU for wages
and the somewhat intermittent record for work. These
pensioners "helped up," and thus did aU the odd jobs upon
which the cook and cowboys welched — teaming, cutting
wood, drawing water, "wrangUng" the saddle-horses, and
making repairs to buUdings, harnesses, and wagons.
Thus there were on the scene at least ten or twelve men
aU ready, able, and wiUing to argue.
Possibly there was an additional man in the form of a
passer-by who had imposed himself upon the hospitaUty
of the ranch. Every traveUer had vested right to enter
any ranch-house at any hour of the day or night on any
day of the year, whether the regular inmates were present
or absent, and to expect food and shelter for so long as both

166 THE COWBOY
his necessities demanded and he did not abuse his pri-vi
lege. There was not a lock on any door in the Cattle Country.
Such a visitor, if forced by his own necessities to travel
on, and if in actual distress, might, in the inmates' absence,
help himself to food requisite for the journey to his next
prospective shelter and leave a written memorandum in
which he stated his name and what and why he had taken.
This writing, though strictly demanded by the Westem
code, was not exacted with any idea of assuring a refund to
the particular ranchers who un-wittingly had furnished the
suppUes; it was to impress upon the pubUc that it should
borrow only what it needed, and that, whenever once more
affluent, it should repay, not to the original lenders, if at
aU inconvenient so to do, but to some unfortunate vagrant
who was in the same predicament the -visitor once had been.
The West, thus generous to the needy, was severe to the
wanton thief who selfishly robbed the larder. He faced
the possibility of a pistol-shot, or else of a hempen noose
with the two folds and thirteen wraps which formed the
hondo everywhere restricted to the hangman's use.
No pay was expected from any guest or borrower. For
one of them to offer it was very close to an insult.
But, though every passer-by had vested right to enter
the house, it was his bounden duty first to ascertain whether
any of the inmates were at home, and, if so, to await their
welcome before attempting to pass through the door. Were
the visitor mounted and a follower of convention, he would
remain ahorse until requested to dismount. In Texas, it
was dangerous presumption for him to leave the saddle,
did the house have inmates present, until some one of them
had said "Light" (aUght), "Stranger, Ught." In the North
west, it was extremely discourteous to quit one's mount
before receiving an in-vitation such as "Climb down and
eat a bean with us," or "FaU off and stay a while."

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 167
Convention intended to give the host an opportunity to
inspect his prospective guest and to decide whether the
latter were a peaceful citizen or needed watching. Despite
the novelists' statement to the contrary, violators of cus
toms Uke these were rarely shot, but they did create dis
trust, and distrust was always more or less dangerous in a
country where each person was largely dependent upon
himself for defense against criminals.
The principle of open house made many a strange com
bination of persons, for the horse thief, the gambler, the
murderer had as good a claim to hospitaUty as had the
owner's friends, the passing ranchmen, the guests from Eng
land or the East, the "Bishops and other Clergy."
The men awaiting cookie's summons devoted themselves
to conversation, including perhaps a resumption of the
picketing argument at the point where weeks before it had
been discontinued when the homefolk were down country
at the newcomer's former ranch. For a whUe the conversa
tion held the debating group balanced on its toes and sitting
on its spurs, a squatting posture which the cowpuncher
habitually affected and which he alone could find comfort
able. About the time that all blades of grass within con
venient reach had one by one been plucked, thoughtfuUy
chewed and spat out, some one announced that there was
an animal in a corral. Thereupon all adjourned to the cor
ral's top raU, ten feet above the ground, and gazed in
terestedly at some commonplace old horse or cow which
for years had been a familiar object. Under circumstances
Uke those described, time and Uttle way to spend it, any
beast in a corral offered to the raU-birds possibilities as great
as does the bottom of any hole to every passer-by.
That top rail was the point from which gratuitous and
unwelcome ad-vice was hurled at round-up time to the cow
boys toUing and sweating amid the milling animals within
the corral. In some locaUties it bore the name of "opera-

168 THE COWBOY
house." The untidied ground under the bottom rail was a
favorite resort for rattlesnakes.
Pending cookie's summons, there was time also to in
spect the local pets, a bear cub waddling about whither it
would, a "bear-dog," a cat, and perhaps a cougar in a cage,
an elk, antelope, or mountain-sheep within a special corral,
these inmates of the cage and corral sooner or later to be
intentionaUy released.
In a country where man laid in a year's food-supply in
advance, and had wood-mice and pack-rats as neighbors,
pussy became almost a personage. It was no rare thing
to see a man riding across-country and solemnly holding
on his saddle horn a cat bound ranchward to guard filled
flour sacks.
A curious phase of this feline situation during the decade
of the eighties was the fixedness of pussy's money value.
This always was ten dollars. Whoever wished to buy a
mouser never bid a lower price. Whoever had a cat for
sale never named a higher value. Of course, the vagaries
of birth easily might overstock a ranch, and one large Utter
could glut the market of an entire Range. Nevertheless,
no threatened shortage of supply, no undue excess in reserves
made any difference. The catless man had to pay ten dol
lars in order to change his state.
As for the other pets, ranchmen, from their -virUe Ufe,
Uked -virile playthings. This quality, as exhibited in an
other phase, particularly among the cowboys, found vent
in the playtime harnessing together of two entirely unbroken
animals, either two broncos, or two renegade steers, or a
bronco and a maddened cow, fastening the insane team to
a wagon and climbing aboard it.
John H. Dewing, now of Livingston, Montana, and a
nephew of the James Dewing already mentioned, may still
remember the fifty-five-mUe drive that, some thirty years
ago, he and another man took from Gardiner into Li-ving-

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 169
ston. Of their two horses, neither had ever before been in
harness; and one of them. Slim Jim, had "two notches in
his tail," ha-ving on two occasions when under saddle kUled
his rider. But, as Dewing said: "Both the brates wiU be
quick learners." AU that saved the expedition was that
Slim Jim, with his sixteen hands of height, had in his short-
legged team-mate a pony that, despite its otherwise com
plete indecency, retained the instincts of its roping days,
and would, in answer to wUd waves from the driver's seat,
squat on its haunches. This would throw Slim Jim off his
feet, whereupon the pony, on its own account, would twist
about and kick the prostrate Jim into once more standing
up, and also kick him out of desire for the moment to run
away. Late in the afternoon of the second day, the expedi
tion reached the front of Li-vingston's Albemarle Hotel,
to be accosted by a livery-stable's runner with the question:
"Howdy, Gents; shall I put your bosses in the stable over
night?" Dewing said: "No, stick the hyenas in the county
jaU for six months."
Our cowboy friend and his associates before the ranch-
house presently heard cookie's summons. The men trooped
into the buUding to receive cookie's final and conventional
order: "Fly at it."
At the great majority of ranches, owners and employees
ate at the same table, and in seating themselves made no
distinction between wage-earner and wage-payer beyond
that the seat at the table's head commonly and by tacit
consent was ceded to whichever of the owners was regarded
as the leader among themselves. A few establishments,
particularly those of EngUsh cult, set a separate table for
employees, and so created some Uttle resentment in a region
where democracy was very potent.
Meals usually were of short duration, for the Westerner
made no formality of his eating, and but little interraoted
it with conversation. In addition, the cook was impatient

170 THE COWBOY
to begin the dish-washing; and, privileged by his position
to speak his mind, he customarUy exhorted dawdlers to
"swallow and git out." Meals ordinarUy were promptly
attended, as tardy inmates of most of the ranches received
from the cook only a grin, an airy pointing at the bean-pot,
and the words: "Beans, help yourselves."
The meal over, a return to work, if it were midday; or,
if it were evening, more conversation; or else either an in
cursion into the ranch Ubrary or singing.
The orthodox ranch Ubrary was composed of a patent-
medicine almanac, a weU-thumbed catalogue of a maU-
order house, several catalogues of saddle makers, and, finally,
fragments of newspapers from 'widely scattered locaUties
and of -vintage dates. That mail-order house's book 'with
its innumerable iUustrations was as fascinating as every
where used to be the final, pictured pages in the early Amer
ican dictionaries.
The absolute dependence of much of the Cattle Country
upon the maU-order system was confessed in the remarks
which accompanied almost every announcement of the
marriage of an acquaintance, remarks such as: "Say, boys.
Bill Smith that used to be down at the Two Star Ranch
has roped a heifer for Ufe. He corralled her back East in
Omaha. Don't know her name. Don't know nothing about
her. Bill must a got her from Montgomery Ward."
With no intended reflection upon the great commercial
house which, by the manner of its sales and the excellence
of its wares, did much to make the West a habitable place,
the entire Range dubbed any homely female a "Mont
gomery Ward woman sent West on approval."
Nor should the patent-medicine almanac be belittled. It
contained the signs of the zodiac, a fruitful field for dis
cussion as to their meanings and "the use of the durned
things anyhow." It contained also other matter which,
while of no use to the ranchmen, was vital to the Western

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 171
army posts; this was a schedule showing for each day in
the year the times of sunrise and sunset at various places
in the United States. MiUtary regulations required at
each army post a cannon-shot at both reveUle and retreat.
The practical, Indian fighting captain in command of a
one or two company post did not bother with voluminous,
laboriously prepared, governmentally issued tables of sun
rise and sunset times; but, referring to the fittle green-
covered almanac, picked out in the schedule the name of
the town nearest his post, calculated the difference in time
between the two places, deUvered the almanac and the
calculation's result to the sergeant of the guard, and from
then onward the gun boomed according to "Hostetter's
Bitters," as amended for difference in longitude.
At this particular ranch, because its owners were coUege-
bred, were additional books, novels of the day and a bat
tered set of Shakespeare. Only the owners and visiting
womenfolk found anything of interest in the novels; but,
to the shame of owners and guests, cowboys alone attacked
the Shakespeare. Trae, not even half of them did so. True,
none of them made more than occasional and limited in
cursions, but these Uterary expeditions were apt every
month or so to be repeated to the extent of "taking a whirl
out of" one of the more dramatic episodes in an historical
or tragic play, and later to cause the reader, with no small
enthusiasm and in complete obli-vion as to the murderous
effect of slangy paraphrase, to attempt transmitting to
some less-read companion the great author's message. The
vast intellectual -vitality that came out of Avon arrested
attention. It wrung from a top rider, first face to face with
the play of Julius Caesar and its "Dogs of war": "Gosh!
That feUow Shakespeare could sure spUl the real stuff. He's
the only poet I ever seen what was fed on raw meat."
As for singing, the cowboy was fond of music or rather
of that kmd of humanly created noise which on the Range

172 THE COWBOY
arbitrarUy represented melody. Musical gatherings, so-
caUed "sings," were very popular. Except for banjos, ex
cept for infirm -violins, each of these instruments with
usuaUy an iUicit number of surviving strings, except for
mouth-organs, jews'-harps, and an occasional accordion,
there was Uttle besides the human voice to awake dulcet
sounds. In this singing, nasal tones predominated, and the songs
were rendered usuaUy with very considerable seriousness
both of sound and of facial expression. Variations in high
notes were affectionately regarded, and notes long drawn
out were deeply loved.
The favorite songs had numerous stanzas, and in lugubri
ous terms referred to home or dying mothers. Wording
might vary with geography, but loneliness rarely faUed to
be a theme. "The home I ne'er wUl Uve to see" and "I'm
a poor, lonesome cowboy" vied in popularity with other
dirges such as "The night my mother passed away." It
required some ten minutes for that classic, "The Dying
Cowboy," to recite his pathetic history and arrive at the
point where, with every note held so long as breath en
dured, he, according to Northwesterners, "laid himself
down beside the traU and died," or, in the Texan version,
appealed: "Oh, bury me not on the lone prai-rie."
At times moumfulness was laid aside, and great pleasure
was derived from ditties of the class to which belonged "I've
found a horseshoe. It is rusty and fuU of naUs."
Again sentimentaUty would prevaU, and there would be
catarrhaUy produced "Rosalie the Prairie Flower" in its
entirety, or so much of "Annie Laurie" and of its kindred
ballads as the choristers could remember.
Among the few cheerful bits of music were "Roll on,
roll on, roU on, Little Dogies, roll on, roU on," the rolUck-
ing lay of the cattle, "Roll your taU, and roll her high; we'U
all be angels by and by," and that semichant, "The Uttle,
old, gray horse came tearing out of the wUderness."

EQUIPMENT AND FURNISHINGS 173
In this last-mentioned song, the animal never arrived at
his destination, for, whenever the choristers thus brought
him to the edge of the wUderness, a long-drawn, unctuous
"and" whirled the singers back to the song's initial word,
and automaticaUy replaced the Uttle, old, gray horse at
his original starting-point, whence presently, repeatedly,
but unavailingly he came tearing out untU Euterpe quit for
the night.
She retired soon; for so hard was the day's work, and
so early in the morning did it commence, that ranch eve
nings were very short. Bedtime followed closely on the
heels of supper.
There was smaU incentive to combat drowsiness, for
there was scant Ught in which to stay awake. Kerosene
marked the attainable Umit of Ulumination, and iU-kept
lamps -withindoors and smoky lanterns withoutdoors created
Uttle that suggested brilliancy. For these means of lighting,
candles, and even torches of fat pine, were substituted in
simple establishments far from the railway. The inhabitants
of such primitive places ordinarUy retired before darkness
set in.

CHAPTER IX
DIVERSIONS AND RECREATIONS
FURTHER DI'VERSIONS — TARANTULA DUELS — RATTLESNAKES KILLED BY
KING-SNAKES — ANTELOPE, ETC. — ^REPTILES IN BEDDING  LITTLE DANGER
FROM SNAKES — SECTIONAL CUSTOMS — HARMLESSNESS OP WILD ANIMALS —
DUELS BET-WEEN VARIOUS BEASTS — ^WOL-VTES AND BEARS — HORSE-RACES —
INDIAN ENTRANTS — FOOT-RACES — OTHER RECREATIONS — COURSING — ^HAZ
ING TENDERFOOTS — CARD-PLAYING — ^DRINKING AND EXTENT OF DRUNKEN
NESS — ^DANCING — PAUCITY OF RECREATIONS
Music was not the only recreation.
Not infrequent diversions in such sections of the coun
try as offered the raw materials were mortal combats fought
by two or more tarantulas, or waged between a king-snake
and a rattler.
The first was the more sporting proposition, as any con
testant might win. Each of the huge, repulsive spiders
which hopped about the bottom of a cracked soup-tureen,
carefuUy preserved for arena purposes, had financial backers
amid the owners of the overhanging human faces. Occa
sionally a hairy gladiator ceased its cheery occupation of
amputating its opponent's legs, jumped from the pit in
which it belonged, and bit a spectator.
Each enterer of one of the horrid bugs endeavored that
it should be a female, and not from the same colony as that
of any of the other belUgerents. Males would not bite fe
males or relatives; but the females, while sometimes spar
ing loved relations, had no pity for the males as such.
The conduct and result of the other duel was fore
ordained, a terrified rattlesnake making successive efforts
to crawl to safety and each time headed off by a mo'ving
streak upon the floor, a coil, a rattle, spiral progress which
174

DIVERSIONS AND RECREATIONS 175
made around the. coil was seemingly lazy but was assuredly
provocative of hate, another rattle, an angry, aimless strike,
a flash through the air, a blur, teeth sunk in just below the
rattler's open jaw, a 'vine-like embrace, a badly squeezed
rattlesnake dead from a broken neck, and an immediate
gUding away by a slender, graceful whip-lash, by three feet
of lithest sinuosity particolored with black and brUUant
yellow or orange, radiantly glistening as with a fresh coat
of varnish.
King-snakes, which were entirely harmless to man, com
monly were intentionaUy imprisoned by him in houses
located in rattler-infested locaUties, and were permitted to
go whither they wished withindoors. Otherwise there
always would be the chance of .a cucumber-Uke odor and
of a sharp, whirring sound beside the fireplace or in some
dark comer. The king-snake would not eat his victim,
but would kiU it at sight.
To procure 'with certainty such a snake fight 'within one's
cabin, aU one had to do was to go out of doors, capture
the nearest rattler by aid of a forked stick or an open gunny-
sack, and throw him through the cabin door and onto the
floor. The king-snake would do the rest.
OccasionaUy one saw such a combat self-arranged and
on the open prairie.
In Texas a black snake would be substituted for our
friend the king-snake, but the result of the duel would be
the same.
On the range one might see a rattlesnake being done to
death in either of two other and equally dramatic ways.
A snake would sound its rattle, and anywhere the antelope
or deer, or in the Far Southwest the chaparral-cock some
times would heed the caU.
A female antelope and her tiny fawn were quietly nosing
their way through the scattered bunch-grass. The mother's
head shot up and twisted to one side. She was both lis-

176 THE COWBOY
tening and scenting to the limit of her tense ability. Sud
denly she started, ran, say, a hundred yards, jumped six
feet into the air, and, with four hoofs held close together,
landed upon the rattler. Up and down she bucked with
rapidity suggesting an electric 'vibrator, with all the effect
of the sharpest knife. Her Uttle feet had cruel edges. A
moment later she trotted quietly back to her baby, and
left behind her reptiUan hash.
Or the chaparral-cock might stop its hunt for bugs, seize
in its bUl a group of cactus thorns, spread its wings 'wide
and low, and, running more speedUy than could any race
horse, dodging as elusively as does heat-Ughtning, drive
those thorns squarely into the snake's open mouth, peck
out both the beady eyes, and then resume the hunt for bugs.
At the extreme southerly portion of the Range the rattler
had another enemy, the peccary. Nevertheless, watching
a pig step on a snake, bite into it, puU it apart, and then
eat it did not stir one's imagination.
The rattlesnakes, though considered, except for certain
ones in Texas, to be much overadvertised as to dangerous-
ness and to be trading on the well-deserved reputation of
their Floridan brothers, nevertheless were regarded as being
distinctly unpleasant. Yet nobody ordinarily paid much
attention to them or had their subject in mind unless they
were in one's path or in or near one's house, or unless a man
were about to sit on the ground or to sleep upon it.
The average inhabitant of the Cattle Country acquired
a habit of circumspection before taking a seat. This desire
for a quick, snappy view became almost an instinct.
Colonel Pickett said: "You teU a good horse by his con
figuration, manners, and action. You teU a Westerner by
the way he sits down."
When a man was about to sleep on the ground, hard
pounding was done upon the earth to scare up from their
holes any lurking reptiles. Similar exploratory precaution

DIVERSIONS AND RECREATIONS 177
was taken against scorpions, centipedes, and tarantulas
within their domain.
Not infrequently, despite such a preliminary search and
despite the cocoon-Uke way in which every sleeping Wes
terner tightly roUed his blankets about him, a man on wak
ing in the morning would find that his bed had gathered in
various nocturnal wanderers, assorted according to the
latitude, a rattlesnake or two or perhaps only a single taran
tula, scorpion, centipede, horned toad, smaU lizard, or dis
gusting Gila monster.
There was little actual hazard in conducting such a lodg
ing-house; because its human proprietor always quit it
before the sun had warmed the guests into acti-vity, and
quit it in a maimer which, keeping the blankets stiU atop
the lodgers, deterred them from mo-ving to attack.
Safety required that this exit be not made in any violent
manner, but rather be circumspectly accomplished by gently
uncovering the shoulders, by strategicaUy anchoring the
hands into the ground behind the head, and by their rapidly
puUing out the body, which was kept as stUl as though it
were paralyzed from the waist down. Once freed from the
bed, its real owner always curiously investigated, to see what
prizes, if any, he had drawn.
There was very Uttle risk of being bitten by any of these
unpleasant creatures at any time. Seemingly they had no
desire to attack a man who was sleeping or otherwise qui
escent, and, save in infrequent instances, they fled from
any one who moved.
The only type of rattlesnake upon the major portion of
the Range either stayed on the ground or climbed no higher
than the bottom branches of low bushes, almost invariably
coUed and rattled before it struck, was, when striking, rarely
disposed to lunge a distance exceeding one-third of the rep-
tUe's length, very rarely was able to lunge further than one-
half of its length, and never more than two-thirds of it.

178 THE COWBOY
As this rattlesnake's length but seldom exceeded three feet
and almost never four feet, the striking radius was com
paratively short.
Moreover, the snake was easily killed. While a pistol-
shot or a "mashing -with a rock" were thoroughly effec
tive, there were other no less definitive methods. A sUght
blow from a quirt or switch insured a fatal break in the
spine, a result obtained for the neck by many a cowboy
through his seizing the taU of a gUding serpent and snapping
the brute like a whip. A coiled rattler patently could not
at the moment be accorded this latter debonair treatment,
so either he was kicked out of his coU and then seized and
snapped, or, having been allowed to strike the sole of a boot,
his head, before it could be retracted, was prosaicaUy
stepped on.
Although the Western rattlesnake was known to be death-
dealing in only rare instances, its bite ordinarUy provoked
heroic remedy. The historic antidote of whiskey was rarely
avaUable, and also was recognized as being a dangerous
ally of the serpent's poison. Snake venom from the out
set and whiskey from the commencement of its reactive
effect were each heart constringents. The wound, enlarged
by a knife-slash, and imprisoned by a tourniquetted thong,
might be plugged with either a searing coal or else a pinch
of gunpowder and a Ughted match. One chap, bitten on
the tip of his finger, drew his gun, and blew off that finger
at its second joint.
The alleged deadliness of the scorpion, tarantula, centi
pede, and repulsive-looking Gila monster belonged, so far
as appeared, in the category with the traditional venomous-
ness of the mythical hoop-snake.
If the ranchman ran but Uttle perU from the snakes and
bugs, he ran no danger at aU from any of the wUd animals
except possibly one, the "hydrophobia skunk," with its
traditionally venomous bite. AU the rest of the wUd beasts,

DIVERSIONS AND RECREATIONS 179
bears included, avoided man unless he overtly asked for
war. And, if he did, the grizzly bear alone was dangerous,
least of aU that terror in the novels, that spitting, snarUng,
harmless, cowardly, overgrown tabby-cat, the mountain-Uon.
OccasionaUy the open prairie or the forest's edge offered
entertainment of absorbing interest and of Homeric gran
deur. Either two huge buUs or two great wapiti, crashing
head on, charge after charge, struggled for the acknowledged
leadership of an onlooking and admiring harem. Or else
in springtime, the grizzly bear, hungry from its wintering,
salUed forth for food and fancied veal. Though the great
brute knew its discount through its stiU soft and tender
footpads, it faUed to make aUowance for the spirit that was
latent in every ox or cow upon the Range. On the bear's
approach, a bunch of cattle nervously threw up their heads,
snorted, and gaUoped off. Soon a stubby-legged caff was
overtaken and struck down. Upon its squeal, the herd
wheeled, and out of it shot, head down, the bereaved cow
or more probably a berserk steer, at times to hUt its horn
in Brain's chest and simultaneously to receive a neck-dis
locating smash from a long-nailed paw.
In early years one might have seen a buffalo make the
same assault upon a bear.
In the springtime, also, there might suddenly appear above
the sage-brush the blood-stained visage of a great, gray wolf,
interrupted at its meal upon the body of its kiU, a little calf
which its mother had "cached." With the cattle as with
the antelope, when a mother had occasion to travel far for
water, she did not take her baby with her, but instead hid
it in the brush. The youngster, as though hypnotized, would
he for hours, glued to the ground, absolutely motionless,
and would make no effort to escape from any intruder. He
might elude the eye of man, but rarely the notice of any
passing horse, and never the scent of whatever coyote or
timber-wolf might wander near.

180 THE COWBOY
In winter there were the footprints of wUd life upon the
tracking snow, and, from time to time, one might also watch
the bear as he, ha-ving interrupted his hibernation, inter
mittently came forth at noontime on pleasant days, and
either stretched and ya-wned on his seat in the sunshine, or
else, with rheumatic motion and crabbed temper, stubbed
through an exercising walk.
To whatever observant man loved the out-of-doors, na
ture was la-vish in her joyous gifts.
Another means of relaxation was the horse-race, not the
formal Sunday one run upon the track at the distant to-wn,
not a competition between ponies of the local ranch, for the
latter contest made no opportunity for bitter human parti
sanship, but a race between a pony of the ranch, and some
other steed which had come in either under the saddle of a
visiting puncher or under the lead of a smooth-tongued
indi-vidual unrecognized as being a professional horse-racer.
This oUy man, ostensibly interested only in cattle, presently
and with apparent reluctance rode to the starting Une.
Twenty-seven seconds after his reaching there, the race
was over and the hosts were in pecuniary distress. An ex
perience of this sort taught nothing to the cowboy, and
thus a considerable portion of his loose change periodicaUy
passed to fleet-footed vagrants and their hatchet-faced
gentlemen escorts.
Perhaps mounted Indians appeared, and then, the com
peting ponies ha-ving been selected, the punchers bet aU
their surplus possessions against the generous hazards of
the Red Skins. Ethnic pride goaded both the white man
and the Indian, and the passing of the stakes often left either
the punchers insolvent or the Indians afoot.
Such part of the cowboys' winnings as were in the form
of blankets or fur robes were necessarUy and forth-with
deposited by their new owners upon ant-hiUs, to rest there
several days in order that the industrious, ever hungry,
black ants might delouse completely the wool or fur.

DIVERSIONS AND RECREATIONS 181
Indians' visits were not welcomed by the cook, as the
latter not only had to produce food, but also was held by
the ranchers somewhat responsible for the condition of the
interior of the house. The visiting Indians had three salient
quaUties, one of which, great sense of dignity, did not ap
pease the cook's irritation from the other two, possession
of an insatiate appetite which was of appalUng capacity
and possession also of a superabundance of readUy emigrat
ing insect companions.
The horse-race over, a foot-race naturaUy foUowed. Of
aU occurrences upon the Range, the most frequent was
undoubtedly movement by Uve stock, but in close succes
sion came human argument and foot-races. It was almost
as easy to launch a foot-race as it was to start a debate.
Such a race was a contest more in strategy than in mere
speed. It occurred anywhere that there could be found
two men not hopelessly bow-legged, and also reasonably
flat ground which was sufficiently extensive to permit the
contestants without leaving the starting point to determine
with their eyes a goal "exactly one hundred yards away
to an inch." Coats, if any, and vests came off, but boots
and spurs stayed on. The contestants agreed as to which
of them should give the starting-signal, and then began
edging up the course. When the man intrusted with the
word "go" either considered himself in an advantageous
position, or by his sense of shame was prevented from
"scrouging" farther, he shouted the unleashing word. Al
though this cost him a Uttle breath, the disadvantage might
immediately be more than offset by his opponent's finding
himself stepping on a discarded can, confronted by a set
of rabbit-holes, rashing up a bUnd aUey in waist-high, sturdy
sage-brush, or dragging on his spurs long strands of rusty
baling wire.
Because of one's opportunity to chart the location of all
bunkers, pits, ditches, cans, and animal's skeletons about
one's home, prudence should have -withheld aU visitors

182 THE COWBOY
from competing near any ranch-house. But she was dis
regarded. The home talent always won, for they knew
when to tack.
The timing of the race was done by the contestants'
guessing, and in perfectly good faith the time was fixed
either at ten seconds or at a very sUghtly higher figure.
The cowboy did not reaUze the actuating motive for his
picking out this time. Fundamentally it was resentment
against the East. The Atlantic coast then contained prac
tically aU of the good running tracks, and so held all of the
records. The cowboys, learning that the official American
record for one hundred yards was ten seconds and had been
made in the East, not discovering that but two men had
been recorded as being so speedy, and reasoning that effete
Easterners should run no better than they rode, calmly
and with no conscious attempt at deceit or braggadocio
labelled themselves as peers of Mercury.
"Pitching horseshoes," a game identical with that of
quoits except that horseshoes were used instead of disks,
had here and there spasmodic popularity.
Boxing and wrestUng nowhere appeared upon the Range.
They were incompatible with the cowboy's temperament,
and were ill-suited to his distorted legs and enfeebled ankles.
Nevertheless, he would now and then in play fling his arms
around the neck of some corralled, wabbly-legged, week-
old calf or colt and attempt to "-wrastle it down," there
upon to be jerked off his feet and thrown into a heap.
Incidentally the puncher almost never engaged in a fist
fight. He used his gun instead of his knuckles.
Baseball was never played.
A pleasing sport was riding madly after jack-rabbits.
Sometimes it was done in a prearranged way and with the
accompaniment of coursing dogs. EngUsh ranchmen much
affected this. But usually the affair meant no more than an
impromptu, harum-scarum dash by a solitary horseman

DIVERSIONS AND RECREATIONS 183
who had been bede-villed into speed by a tantalizing bunny
with a sense of humor.
History records comparatively few cases in which the
shrewd, fleet-footed, quickly dodging rabbit was overtaken
by either dog or horse.
Coursing the prong-homed antelope with hounds, and
either with or without the strategy of "flagging," was at
tempted occasionally, this by Englishmen more often than
by Americans. Ordinarily it gave to each rider and his
horse considerable exercise, and to but few of the antelope
any vaUd cause for worry.
Horses, men, and dogs would creep forward under cover
to within two hundred yards of the quarry, and, firmly con
fident of success, would burst into the open. The antelope
would give one startled look, wheel, hoist their triangular,
white-lined tails, their Uttle, fuU-speed-ahead signals, and,
save in rare instances, promptly would change that two
hundred yards of intervening space into a mile or two.
"Now, Jack, it was all your fault. If you had used sense,
and not gone at it bald-headed, hadn't chass6d out there
ahead of the rest of us, we'd have gotten them this time
sure, and the worst of it is that that old buck had the aU-
firedest finest ivory tips I ever seen on any horns. Now,
remember next time." The next time doubtless would be
Uke this and almost every other time, save that Joe or Mike
or Bill might be the scolded one in place of Jack.
Occasionally, and particularly when the pursuit could be
made by successive relays of huntsmen and hounds, the
quarry was overtaken.
With these same dogs, sometimes the great, gray timber-
wolf was followed to the rock or clump of brush against
which he, snarUng, was "stood up" and "given his medi
cine" of lead.
From time to time, a puncher, coming unexpectedly upon
some wild beast, impulsively would rope it before it could

184 THE COWBOY
start its flight. Even the grizzly bear, and in early days
the buffalo, occasionally received the noose. In these latter
instances a repentant cowboy well might have lost his
breath if not his rope. The West would lariat anything
that suddenly bobbed up in front and looked saucy. If
certain records be accurate, more than one white man and
many an Indian quickly passed to the Happy Hunting-
Ground, jerked thither by a reata caught about the smoke
stack of a mo-ving locomotive.
A still further amusement was the hazing of tenderfoot
guests. This hazing was never more -violent than the -visitor
merited, and for manly, weU-liked innocents was usually
restricted to solemn warnings against the vicious bucking
alleged to be latent within the -visitor's very peaceful nag,
to nocturnal expeditions for the tjTo's snaring of imaginary
birds, to long-winded tales that ingeniously held the Us-
tener's interest, but eventuaUy disclosed that they had no
point, making this disclosure sometimes by reverting to
the starting-place and reiterating word for word, to exag
gerated stories of wUd animals, and to enticing the gulUble
man, by a weird howl raised just without the house, to rash
out of doors at night, and fire at a can punched with two
holes and containing a fighted candle.
The conventional -wild-animal stories were aU of the sort
intended to carry fear to the innocent and to make him a
bit ridiculous to his sophisticated fellow auditors. Ferocious
attacks by wolverines and huggings by grizzly bears were
favorite subjects, the latent points being that, though the
wolverine had great fierceness, he was probably the most
elusive animal in aU North America, and that neither the
grizzly nor any other bear, so far as appeared, had ever
hugged anybody. The bear's terrible right paw and his
teeth were his means of attack. A mythical animal known
to cowboy raconteurs as the "wouser" sometimes was
descanted upon. The wouser was accorded any physical

DIVERSIONS AND RECREATIONS 185
appearance and predatory habits which the course of the
earUer conversation had seemed to warrant. He usuaUy,
however, was permitted to have hydrophobia, and was made
a subspecies of either the bear or the mountain-Uon.
Probably also advantage was taken of the combination
of the newcomer's creduUty and of the wonderful clearness
of Westem air, on the joint basis of which he would be sent
afoot to reach a hUl which seemed to him a league away,
but which in reaUty was three times that distance. His
credulity might be -victimized in another way, for in good
faith he might ride miles to a ranch in a rocky, roadless
country, and there ask to borrow what that ranch patently
did not possess, a horse-drawn buggy.
A somewhat brutal trick was procuring a pilgrim to pinch
the taU of a freshly decapitated rattlesnake. If the ex
pected result occurred, the snake's body through reflex
action of the muscles would snap into a circle, the bleeding
neck's stump would strike the pUgrim's hand or wrist, and
the pUgrim would give a single scream, the audience a series
of guffaws.
Another form of amusement which might from time to
time be conducted for a few minutes at table or about a
camp-flre was a competitive reciting of the inscriptions
upon the labels of the cans of condensed milk and other
foodstuffs habitually used at the ranch. Partly for recrea
tive nonsense and partly out of loneUness when soUtary in
camp, every ranchman sooner or later committed to memory
the entire texts upon these labels and could repeat them
verbatim. With a penalty of five cents for each mistake
in punctuation, of ten cents for each error in a word, the
competitive recitals offered a sporting possibiUty.
They were most apt to occur when a tenderfoot was pres
ent, not so much because of the opportunity of -winning his
money (no tenderfoot "knew his cans") as because the
incongruity of the matter was apt to disconcert him, and

186 THE COWBOY
a conventional pleasure upon the Range was to "keep a
pilgrim guessing." A tenderfoot making his initial Westem
trip would, his first night at a ranch, be sitting at the supper
table Ustening with speUbound attention to the conversa
tion of men who had seen things and done things. This
tenderfoot would be trying to lose no detail from the talk
across the table about the best way in which to ride cer
tain bucking horses, from the talk at the table's end as to
just how one of the men in the room had succeeded in escap
ing from the Nez Perc6 Indians during the fight on the
Gibbon River, when suddenly some one would notice the
tenderfoot's rapt expression, would pound on the table, and
would begin "  Brand." Instantly mention of bucking
and of Indians would cease, and twelve or fourteen men,
being aU the persons present save only the astonished ten
derfoot, would gaze at the ceifing and s-wing into a fuU-
throated chorus beginning with "Condensed milk is pre
pared from," and continuing for some minutes. Or else,
the precentor having launched the opening words of a dif
ferent canticle, the crowd would take over its continuation,
and stentoriously would intone, "Of peaches. This can
contains," etc.
With the last word of the vociferous recitative, whatever
its subject, the whole insane revel would stop short; and
with no explanations or apologies, the former conversations
would be resumed at the points where they had been in
terrupted. But the tenderfoot would be "guessing." That
was what the Range desired.
The cowboys might play a game of cards, seven-up or
poker; but, if so, the stake was as apt to be reUef from an
unpleasant chore like cutting wood or going for water as
to be monetary. However, when "stacked up" against
punchers from rival ranches or against the public gaming
table, cowboys were prone to gamble recklessly; because,
once saddle, bridle, rope, quirt, chaps, hat, and gun were

DIVERSIONS AND RECREATIONS 187
paid for, there was Uttle to purchase except tobacco and
Uquor. Risking six months' wages upon the tum of a single
card was no uncommon bet, though its making would arouse
temporary interest among the men about the table.
There was fittle or no alcoholic drinking at the ranch,
for it harbored very Uttle alcohol to drink, usuaUy none at
aU beyond a small lot jealously preserved for prospective
medicinal use. The one source of supply was the to-wn,
and very few cowboys on visiting a settlement were after
the first hours of their stay financiaUy able to endow a -wine
ceUar. The only opportunities for inebriety were the visits
to town, made as a matter of course immediately after the
faU round-up and occurring at rare intervals at other times,
the semiannual visits to other ranges to assist in their
round-ups and be requited by wholesale, honest thanks,
good food, and possibly a Uttle whiskey, and also the very
occasional hoUday celebrations at the ranch where one was
employed or at another ranch -within reasonable distance.
Punchers were probably no more given to drunkenness
than were the contemporary American men of any other
non-reUgious caUing in any part of the United States. The
punchers assuredly were apt to drink to excess when they
first "struck town" after six months of enforced and con
tinuous abstention from aU Uquids except water, tea, and
coffee; but such of the cowboys as for busmess reasons
had occasion to remain in town for any considerable length
of time subsided after the initial exuberance had spent
itself, and thereafter imbibed no more than did the to-wn's
permanent inhabitants. The cowboy had to eam his Uv
ing, and he knew that in the long run wages and alcohol
were inconsistent.
When the cowboy got drunk he did not do it in any
highly speciaUzed way, or signify his inebriety by any tech
nical methods. He merely got drunk. On this point the
dramatist has attempted to make a false differentiation.

188 THE COWBOY
and, after filUng his puncher with Uquor, invariably has
caused him to shoot.
The drunken cowboy was like the drunken Easterner,
except in the subjects which he chose for maudUn discus
sion. One told of the magnificence of the saddle he o-wned
or was about to acquire; the other told of the mUUons of
doUars he had amassed or was about to amass, or else de
scribed the May flower' s voyage from start to finish and
fiUed the ship with his ancestors. Surliness brought up the
Easterner's fists and out the Westerner's gun. But that
gun rarely went off, for a friendly bystander usuaUy seized
it. Drunken cowboys often made picturesque statements.
Charlie (no last name, please, for he has grandchUdren now)
would offer to go into a biting contest with any grizzly bear,
and to "give that thar bar a handicap. He can have first
bite." When the puncher drank, he generaUy demanded Uquor
of good quality. Bourbon whiskey was his mainstay,
though in the Southwest he at times toyed -with mescal.
Whiskey was taken "straight." Mixed drinks were so en
tirely unknown that there was opportunity for some one
to invent the story of the Easterner who, in a frontier bar
room, said: "I guess I'll take a cocktail," and was told:
"You don't guess, you drink, and you gets it straight and
in a tin cup."
Courtesy required that the puncher, when he drank, fiU
his glass to the brim, and, in carrying it to his lips, use his
right, his gun hand. He so filled his glass not because he
wished to drink that much, not that he might impose upon
the purveyor, but solely because a filled glass both showed
to the giver that the recipient highly valued the quaUty
of the gift, and also established that the donor was not dis
pensing goods unpalatable to himself.
The Western barmen eventuaUy offset the draining effect

DIVERSIONS AND RECREATIONS 189
of thorough urbanity by investing m glasses with inordi
nately thick bottoms.
The cowboy avoided so far as possible sharmg as giver
or recipient any drinks with soldiers. This antipathy to
the miUtary was not founded on any lack of patriotism, but
it did have two clearly defined bases. The puncher, whether
mistakenly or not, confidently blamed the private soldier
for the physical contamination of a certain class of women
in the frontier towns. Then, too, the army had been the
only poUcer of the West, and thus the cowboy had acquired
toward the army as a whole the same quasi-resentment
that has ever marked the attitude of the college under
graduate toward the faculty above him.
As a further source of recreation there was an occasional
dance usually on the eve of a public feast-day, the round
up's close. Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year's. Al
though at these functions female partners were at a pre
mium, the men attended with alacrity.
Two hundred mUes was not too far to go. The dearth
of femininity was partly made good by such men as, un-
seffishly volunteering to "dance lady fashion," were "heifer-
branded" by a handkerchief tied on the arm, and aU swept
the floor with considerable enthusiasm. The dancing, whUe
not graceful, was assuredly -vigorous.
The truth was that, with ranches at least fifteen, thirty,
fifty mUes apart, and hard work to be done, there were
neither means nor leisure for much recreation. Argument
and repeated surveys of the mail-order catalogue were the
principal sources of relaxation. These surveys released
imagination's bonds, and let reason weigh the comparative
merits of various pictured grand pianos, wedding-dresses,
rowboats, seashore parasols, "nobby clothing for city use,"
and "best grade gUt frames" containing "genuine oU-paint-
ings."

CHAPTER X
THE DAY'S WORK
BEGINNING DAY's WORK — ^MORNING SADDLING — OUTRIDING — BLABBING —
animals' AILMENTS — PORCUPINES — ^WAGONS AND JERK LINES — BULL
¦WHIP — VARIOUS DEFINITIONS — SHOEING HORSES — CLOUDBURST — INDIAN
FIGHTING— MORE DEFINITIONS — PRAIRIE FIRES — THEIR CAUSE — CYCLONES
— WINTER HARDSHIPS — FREEZE — ^WINTER GRAZING — ^DROWNINGS — ^WAGES
—DRIFT — BOX CANTONS — STORMS — PRIDING IN DIFFICULT COUNTRT — SELF-
SUFFICIENCY OF BRONCOS — WOLPERS AND WOL'VES
The next morning's "sun up" brought every one, new
comer included, down to every-day work. This was usuaUy
of merely routine nature, but from time to time it swung
suddenly into exciting channels.
The day's business started early. With the first break
of da'wn, the crusty, ever-growling cook was out of his
kitchen bunk, Ut his fire, gave to the "horse wrangler" the
unwelcome, conventional, morning salutation of "roU out,"
and then set about preparing breakfast.
AU during the night the riding ponies had grazed in close
proximity to the house, had stamped about it, and occa
sionaUy had put their noses to its cracks, sniffingly to satisfy
either curiosity or a desire for human companionship. Al
though the wrangler rose the moment he was caUed and
limited his toilet to putting on his hat, the first wreath of
blue smoke from the chimney aheady had warned the horses
of impending work; and, by the time the wrangler got out
of doors, not within half a mile was there a single steed
save only the few dejected "night horses" inside of the cor
ral. One of the latter was saddled, and the much scattered
band of ponies was rounded-up, to trot with passive indig
nation into the fenced enclosure.
Breakfast did not long delay the men. In quick succes-
190

THE DAY'S WORK 191
sion, the lesser eaters first in order, they carried their sad
dles and bridles to the corral, and in a trice had the animals
equipped for service.
On cold days the more kindly riders held their bits a
moment before the fire, and shielded them by a glove or
a coat flap during the transit between the inner house and
the horse's mouth. They did this despite foreknowledge of
their broncos' prospective seeming lack of gratitude. Each
of those exasperating fittle brutes would stand, head hang
ing meekly downward, and would resignedly permit the
bridle to be put atop his crown, but the instant the bit
approached his mouth this latter part of his anatomy in
some mysterious way would be pointed almost directly up
ward and be projected from a semivertical neck.
After withstanding a slap or two and recei-ving many
profane requests, the pony would lower his head to an easUy
reachable position; would release the -vise-like set in which
his closed jaw had been; would accept the bit and busily
embark upon the champing of its roller; would fairly shove
his forehead against his master's hands that crumpled ears
might be made more comfortable; would take the saddle;
would gaze reproachfuUy at his tormenter; and then ap
parently would doze off.
Whoever was outside of the corral could by his hearing
alone accurately follow the events within. Seeing was un
necessary. At the house door a rider had paused and said: "I've
warmed up this bit, acause I'm riding the finest little cow
horse this State has ever seen. It sure has earned the right
to decent treatment."
Then the man had disappeared into the corral. There
wafted out of it statements which, if carefuUy censored,
would read as foUows: "Good morning, Pete. Hope you're
weU. Got a little piece of iron candy for you. Stop fool
ing, Pete. Stop your kidding. Stop that, I teU you. Pete,

192 THE COWBOY
stop that. Stop it, I say. Look here, you dodgasted, pale
pink, waU-eyed, glandered, spa-vined cayuse, puU down that
injur rubber-neck of yourn, or I'U skin you aUve, and mash
in your sides to heU and gone. Hold stiU, pony, and I'U
fix your ear. Is that comfortable? Now, Pete, here comes
the saddle. Whoa, pony, stop twitching your fool back.
Now, Pete, the front cinch's fixed. AU we've got left is
the hind one. Pete, you dog-goned, inflated, lost soul, let
out that -wind and do it quick, or I'U bust you wide open.
Quit that, Pete. Quit it, I say. Good, old Pete, you sure
are some horse."
During warm weather life was comparatively easy. There
were, of course, the spring and faU round-ups. The re
sultant "drives" to the "shipping point" at the railroad
were made in autumn only, if the ranch were one for raising
beef, or more frequently, possibly, than in both spring and
autumn, if horses were the product.
There was the "gentling" of these horses. If the ranch
were in a section that necessitated use of a different feed
ing-ground in winter from that of summer, the Uve stock
would be shifted semiannuaUy from one of these ranges to
the other, the "winter range" being in the "low country,"
whUe the "summer range" would be either upon the higher
"benches," or on the upper levels of the hUls.
There were inspection trips about the Range, so-caUed
"outridings," to discover the location and physical state
of the scattered groups of stock, to ascertain the condition
of the water-supply and grass, to move the stock to fresh
grounds if food or drink were found to be insufficient, to
fend the animals away from known patches of loco-weed,
to discover by "riding sign" whether any beasts were stray
ing too far afield and if so to turn them homeward, to rescue
through a tightly drawn lariat and straining pony some
bogged or mired steer or horse and possibly receive reward
in a charge by muddy, irate horns, to watch for signs of

THE DAY'S WORK 193
thieves, settlers, and predatory animals, and, if necessary,
to lay traps or poisoned baits for wolves, and finally, on
such ranches as "blabbed" their calves, to put "blabs" on
the noses of whatever baby cattle deserved the unsightly
Uttle board.
Here and there about the Range would appear a lusty
calf with an emaciated mother. If the calf were old enough,
a thin board, six mches by eight in size, was, at the centre
of one of its longer edges, cUpped onto the infant's nose.
Thereafter he could perfectly weU graze, but he assuredly
was weaned. Blabbing was not always easy of accomplish
ment. The calf and his mater had to be chased so far apart
as to permit the cowboy to rope and throw the calf, attach
the blab, and remount his horse before there should arrive,
head down and on the gallop, an irate and sharp-horned cow.
Diseased or injured animals were inspected, and, accord
ing to the nature of the disease or injury, were treated or
destroyed. If disease required the animals' isolation, the
latter was effected through herding the animals by them
selves under charge of a detachment of punchers; for, in
the absence of gathered hay, imprisonment in foodless cor
rals was impracticable. No oversight was given to ma
ternity cases, and births occurred wherever upon the Range
the mother happened to be.
The Northwest harbored one particular ailment con
ceming which many tenderfoots, and even many of the
ignorant farmers, had extraordinary misinformation. In
terrificaUy cold weather, cattle's hoofs and horns some
times would freeze, and thereafter the horns, on thawing,
would in some instances faU off. The discarded horns, of
course, were hollow, as were the horns of aU cattle; but
ignorant finders of the castaways created in good faith the
disease of "HoUow Hom," and deluged governmental of
ficers with requests for curative prescriptions.
In addition to aU these incidents of "outriding," there

194 THE COWBOY
might be the work of salvage at some cloudburst's scene,
a prairie-fire to suppress, an urgent caU for aid against ma
rauding Indians, or the start for a drive either on the Texas
TraU or from, say, Oregon to Wyoming.
Perhaps, also, there arrived a puncher testy from the
unport of his message: "A couple of you come up with me
to Indian Creek. The porcupines have gotten in there,
and ten of our best mares have kicked themselves plumb
fuU of quiUs." This meant for the unfortunate horses no
danger, but considerable discomfort. One by one they
would be thrown and triced fore and aft by lariats, whUe
a very irate gentleman squatted at their heels, pUed pincers
on the offending quUls and volubly cursed aU the members
of the Rodent famUy from the original immigrants down
to the then present generation.
Zoologists possibly know whether or not the porcupine
had functions in addition to the three he exhibited to the
cowboy. These were eating latigos and saddles, decorating
horses' hock joints, and using Towser's inquisitive nose for
a pincushion. MaU had to be carried to and from the post-office, per
haps a hundred miles or more away; and yearly the wagons
had to make a long trip for supplies.
These wagons, stout, springless, creaking things, travers
ing unconscionable roads and country devoid of road, tak
ing to the boulder-strewn beds of streams when the map
turned on edge, were dragged on their bumping, noisy way
by two or more spans, aU driven by a man seated upon the
wagon's front and handUng ordinary reins.
Or else the wagons were drawn by a "jerk-Une string,"
a string of horses or mules harnessed either in single file or
in a series of spans, and, in either case, foUowing a highly
trained leader controlled by a "jerk Une." This jerk line,
a single, continuous rein, starting from its fastening at the
top of the brake handle, extended to and through the hand

THE DAY'S WORK 195
of the driver, who either was astride the wheel horse (the
near one, if two) or was seated on the wagon's front. The
Une continued thence along the long file of horses' backs
and to the left side of the "lead animal's" bit, this without
touching the bit of any intermediate brate. A single, steady
puU on the line guided this lead animal to the left. Two
or more short jerks turned it to the right. Constant and
loudly voiced reiterations of the old, oxen-dri-ving commands
of "gee" and "haw" directed the intervening beasts; and
also, -with the leading one, supplemented the effect of the
jerk line.
Profanity and a whip did the rest; did it easUy unless
the wagon outran its brake, and sliding onto the heels of
its motive beasts caused them to "jack-knife," which is
to say, to turn backward at an acute angle. In such event,
profanity outdid itself.
Commonly, with animals in a series of spans, the left-
hand beast in the front span was the only "lead" animal,
and thus alone had the honor of holding the jerk line. In
such case, he and his span-mate would have their bits con
nected by a short strap, thus causing the span-mate to be
towed to the left when he was not either walking peace-
fuUy forward or, by his companion, being -violently pushed
to the right. But, if this span-mate were qualified to share
in the leadership, the jerk line, toward its far, outer end,
would, for a way, be split lengthwise, one branch so pro
duced being attached to the bit of the left-hand lead beast,
the other branch being fastened to the bit of the span-mate,
in each case to the bit's left side.
The driver of any "string team," whether it were single
or double, might operate it unassisted, or there might be
upon the wagon an aide who was termed a "lasher," and
whose task was to swing the whip, to push upon the brake-
handle as the driver, with his jerk Une, pulled it forward,
and finaUy to co-operate in the swearing.

196 THE COWBOY
The whip mentioned above either was a wooden stock
four feet or so in length and with a long, slender lash at
tached, or else was in the form of the now historic "buU
whip." This latter instrument was a short stock which
carried fifteen to twenty-five feet of plaited, rawhide lash.
This lash was quite thick near the stock and, weighted there
-with lead, tapered to a point, and so continued into a buck
skin "popper" three feet long. It could, at the -wielder's
choice, land anywhere, silently or with a pistol crack, and
this with either the gentleness of a falUng leaf or force suf
ficient to remove four square inches of equine skin.
Often on steep "side hUls," cowboys, riding above the
wagon, fastening their lariats to the top of its load, and
ha'ving their ponies puU back with aU their might were aU
that prevented an overturn or a sUp to the bottom of the
decU-vity. Upgrades frequently were negotiable only be
cause these cowboys, -with lariats taut between wagon and
saddle horns, rode beside the vehicle, their ponies "scratch
ing gravel," hauUng with prodigious enthusiasm, and gi-ving
welcome aid to the "work horses" straining in the harness.
The tractive power in the combination of a man, a horse,
a lariat, and a stock-saddle was at first sight astonishing.
The logs for many a ranch buUding thus were "snaked"
from the forest to the house site. It was the ordinary way
of transporting wood to the camp-fire.
Frequently, when descending a sharp decUvity, the wagon
was held in check by ropes tied to the rear axle, twined about
convenient trees, rocks, or saddle horns, and slowly paid out.
The wagons were driven by "teamsters," not by cow
boys. The latter essayed few tasks that could not be ac
complished from a bronco's back. The punchers described
themselves as being "too proud to cut hay and not wUd
enough to eat it." The puncher was so wedded to horse
back that, when he took to a wheeled vehicle, if only as an
extra passenger, he, as he said, "rode the wagon," and did

THE DAY'S WORK 197
not ride "on" or "in" it. Of course, a teamster might once
have been a cowboy, but no one "teamed" or "threw the
buU" so long as he still could sit the buck.
Did the teamster quit his ranching life and drive a freight-
wagon on some regular transportation route, he thereby
ceased to be a teamster and became a "freighter," this last
term having been untU well into the decade of the seven
ties interchangeable with "a professional." While stiU
called a freighter, he might coincidentally be termed also
either a "skinner" or "mule skinner," or else a "buU
whacker," according as his tractive animals were mules or,
as far more often in the earUer years than in the later, yokes
of oxen; and if his outfit were a jerk-Une one, he was apt
to be termed exclusively a skinner. In Range English, one
did not "drive" a jerk-line string, but instead "skinned"
it. Teamsters used all the cowboys' profanity, and in addi
tion had "private cuss-words" of their o-wn. Their "chari
ots," "sulkies," "barouches," "gigs," "buggies," or what
ever else they chose to term their hea-vy wains, fairly reeked
with blasphemy. Thus a "wagon outfit" was no sUent
cortege. The teamsters, whUe on their trips, were apt toward
evening to receive much flattery from attendant ranch
men. The reason for this was that each teamster had entire
jurisdiction over the "sheet" of his wagon, and this canvas
cover when laid upon the ground made a warm and wind-
proof bed for several men. Throughout the Range, any
custodian of a "tarpoleon" or "tarp," as the West termed
aU canvases not specificaUy entitled as either "pack covers"
or "wagon sheets," was very popular after nightfaU.
The paucity of bridges and the absence of decent roads
imposed upon the teamsters in rainy weather many a halt,
some of them each of several days' duration. Such com
pulsory stoppings were termed "lay ups," whUe voluntary

198 THE COWBOY
delays, particularly in towns or at ranches, were called
"lay overs."
The country might be too rough to permit the wagons
to reach far-outlying stations, and for such places the "pack-
train" of bundle-carrying horses was the only transporter
of food.
But the list of daUy chores is not finished. Horses had
to be shod, work animals on all four feet, saddle animals,
if at all, on the front feet only unless the beasts were to be
used in very rocky country. In this latter event, they were
usuaUy shod "all round," i. e., on each of their four feet.
Repairs had to be made to saddles and to wagons.
Lariats and harnesses had to be mended.
In the shoeing of horses, the shoes employed were every
where ordinary metal ones, except that in the far South
west occasionaUy an Apache Indian habit was adopted,
and green rawhide was wrapped about the hoofs, there to
dry and become almost as hard as iron.
The shoeing of the average Range horse was disturbing
to human trauquiUity. The shoeing of some horses was a
miracle or a de-vUment according as one viewed it. BUl
Evans one moming said: "I'U shoe that pinto cayuse right
arter breakfast, and I reckon I'd better pin shoes onto aU
his feet. Joe, you come down and help." Presently, from
the corral rose snorts and the sounds of scuffling, the strident
voice of BiU and the bellowing tones of Joe, all merged into
a single hymn of trouble. One of the ranch owners, saun
tering over that way, found an angry pony glarmg at two
perspiring men, and asked : ' ' Shod him ? " He was answered
by BiU: "Guess so. Tacked iron onto everything that flew
past. It sure is a heaven-sent mercy that broncs ain't centi
pedes." The cloudburst, when it came, produced a real task.
There had been a long period of rainless weather; and
panting cattle, for mile after mUe along the almost dried-

THE DAY'S WORK 199
up bed of a high-banked, meandering stream, were drink
ing at the isolated, surviving pools. Black clouds gathered.
They coalesced. Then lightning spUt the sky; and, be
tween the sky and ground, the do-wn-pouring water was
so dense as to make breathing difficult. AU of the deluge
that feU upon the prairie, baked as it was like a tUe,
ri-vuletted into the main stream. In too few minutes for
the cattle's realization they were in danger; and, merely
seconds after that, they were the playthings of a brown,
swirUng flood.
At some sand-bar or sharp angle, the floating cattle
jammed. Into that mess, which was here writhing, moan
ing, wounded, here straggUng but unharmed, there motion
less and dead, cowboys delved with lariats and tugging
ponies. Shots ended suffering. The next chapter was skinning
of carcasses and drying of hides.
A clash with Indians was often no mean affair. After
the government had forced the Indians onto reservations
and thus had left the bulk of the plains to the ranchers,
an Indian tribe occasionaUy "jumped" its reservation,
and in a carefuUy planned "uprising" or "outbreak" went
upon the war-path. Cowboys would be drawn into this so-
caUed war, either through running foul of the belUgerent
Red Skins or being taken on by the army for auxUiary ser
vice. But there was another and lesser form of Indian distur
bance which was more frequent, and with which the puncher
had more proximate connection. From time to time num
bers of the Red Men in entire peacefulhe&i? and, either pur
suant to shooting permits or in childlike defiance of regu
lations, wandered beyond their reservation's limits. With
the unreasoning inability of the Indians to resist their de
sires, attractive horses were presently "rastled" and driven
away, while fat cattle were killed and eaten.

200 THE COWBOY
A cowboy came onto the scene and attempted to save
the white owner's property. Shots eventually were fired.
News of the affair flashed through mysterious Indian chan
nels back to the reservation, and out poured its more mili
tant inmates. News of this leave-taking sped up the Range,
carried by a gaUoping horseman and by three shots from a
rifle. The ultimately concentrated cowboys advanced upon
a group of the still bewildered and indecisive Indians; and,
answering a single shot by a scattering volley, blew away
aU indecision and started an active fighting.
The soldiers arrived later, and brought to an end hostili
ties that never would have commenced had the miUtary
uniform appeared on the scene before the cowboy did. Once
the soldiers arrived, the punchers present might be asked
to assist as packers or guides; but often and because of
their notorious lack of interracial diplomacy they were
urged in the most forcible language known by the army to
withdraw from the neighborhood. The directness and
promptness of punchers' methods did not accord with In
dian mentality, and to the cowboys' honest but ill-advised
action in affairs of this sort must be laid many a subsequent,
serious . uprising by the Red Man.
The term "rustle" employed above had curious and in
consistent usage in that, when applied to live stock, it al
most always impUed stealing; but when relating to any
thing other than Uve stock it, with almost equal regularity,
denoted a legitimate getting.
The much-used term "outfit" had similarly diversified
meanings; and variously signified, according to its con
text, the combined people engaged in any one enterprise
or U-ving in any one establishment, a party of people travel
Ung together, or the physical belongings of any person or
grour; of persons.
Tne prairie-fire sometimes produced exciting duties.
Fires were frequent; but usually were of smaU importance.

THE DAY'S WORK 201
and, if promptly attacked, easUy exterminated. At other
times, however, they were terrifying.
For successive weeks an arid heat and a lifeless air, at
ten o'clock acrid whiffs and a blurred horizon, but at twelve
o'clock a biting smell and the horizon gone. Out there,
somewhere, was a line of grimy men desperately fighting
to stop the march of the advancing flames that the latter
might burn themselves out upon their self-selected battle
ground. Punchers with eyebrows and eyelashes gone, with
wet handkerchiefs over mouth and nose, in mad haste but
with cool reasoning, "straddled" the fire; two mounted
men, one on either side of the flames, dragging behind them
at their lariats' ends a green hide or wet blanket. Other
men either mounted or afoot, scarred and intrepid like their
brothers, beat upon the fire's side-Unes with similar utensils
or with bunches of brush.
The thickness of the grass or the velocity of the wind
might generate heat or movement such as to make strad
dling unfeasible, and then the only remedy was to "back
fire" across the enemy's prospective line of march. Along
the zone selected for the "back-fire," a horseman trailed
a bundle of burning fagots. The flames thus started were
held in check on their homeward side by straddUng them.
In the early stages of the contest, fi-ving warnings inter
mittently came out of the wall of smoke, for an occasional
deer or antelope, a solitary horse or steer would rush, wild-
eyed, past the toiling men. Thus the best experts on the
subject of danger had advised human retreat, but such
retreat was not to be considered.
The last of these fleeing animals had passed through the
Une of fire fighters. There was a sudden puff far in the
rear, and in an instant the prairie behind the men was
ablaze. It was mount and reach the shelter given by a
projecting hill, by the bottom of a coulee, by a grassless,
"buffalo wallow," or, in the language of the craft, it would

202 THE COWBOY
be "fried gent," "no breakfast forever," and the "long
traU to Kingdom Come."
With safety thus attained, the next and an immediate
task was to gallop down to leeward, again to move out be
fore the flames, and to re-engage the enemy upon the same
tactics as before.
There was perU in the extensive fires, for they would
sulk and make slow progress for a time, and then would
leap forward in irregular frontage more rapidly than a horse
could run. They, on occasion, would travel for many miles.
The perU was particularly for such as had to fight the flames
and so, having to stand their ground, could not materiaUy
shift position. But any one who merely sought escape
would find that, through the average fire, ran here and there
safe lanes made up of interrupted and quite dissimUar ele
ments, a stream's bed, a rocky ledge, a bit of grassless
earth. Of these fires, some were caused by Ughtning or by sparks
from locomotives, others had broken away from farmers
who had planned a merely local burning in order to fer
tilize their lands or to rid the latter of annojdng weeds,
others had escaped beyond the tract in which cattlemen
either were eliminating loco plants, or else, warring against
sheep, had deUberately kindled flames for the purpose of
"cooking mutton." StiU others came from the carelessness
of campers or of smokers, while, in the earlier years, stiU
others represented Indians' attempts to drive game ani
mals into strategic territory.
Within a forest floored deeply with pine-needles, one tiny
ember from a negUgently abandoned camp has more than
once been the parent of a subsurface, incandescent mass,
which days later has a quarter of a mUe away gnawed out
a breathing hole, and, tasting air, leaped into a holocaust.
For a whUe after the advent of the early farmers, the
latter were employed to "run fire guards" yearly here and

THE DAY'S WORK 203
there in certain sections of the Range, that is, to plough
two paraUel sets of furrows, which were some fifty yards
apart and had four furrows in each set. The grass between
the sets was then purposely burned by men who were traUed
by water-laden wagons.
At rare intervals, a cyclone whirled its way across the
flat lands, leaving in its traU dead animals, and on either
side of this trail U-ving, crazed brates stiU gaUoping in wUd
stampede. When such a tempest broke on a driven band,
"heU was a-popping and a-popping hard" for the herding
cowboys. Wind, thunder, and Ughtning in wholesale quan
tities brought out the hardest sort of riding before the sur-
-vivors from the punchers' maddened wards could be headed
back into orderly formation.
The cyclone's prelude was awesome. Its arrival was
terrffic. A sky of inky blackness suddenly in one quarter
suffused -with tones of copper and dark green. Whatever
-wind had been blo'wing ceased, and there fell a silence,
death-like save for the nervous lowing of the cattle and the
subdued conferring of the men. Presently from the sky
came a long-dra'wn moan; and next, with a roar, a screw
ing, Ughtning-capped funnel, point down, Uned with dust,
bushes, and trees, rushed out of the copper and green, and
tore across "the flat."
The punchers, with but seconds in which to act, strove to
guess the funnel's prospective course and to throw the cattle
from it and, if possible, into protecting gulUes. Despite
the limited time, there was some opportunity for manceu-
-vring, because the funnel was usually of comparatively small
diameter, a few hundred yards at the most. Moreover, it
occasionaUy would "hang," which is to say, would, for a
moment or two, slow or even halt its forward progress,
though stiU maintaining its dervish whirl. Then, too, the
awful contrivance might have the decency now and then
to "skip," "lift," or "raise," that is, for a while to retract

204 THE COWBOY
its tip from contact with the earth, and thus to saU along
harmlessly untU the tip again dabbed down to earth and
resumed its murdering.
The funnel, as though repentant of all this generosity,
would on occasion make frequent and erratic changes in
its course, and stab in unexpected places.
The hurrying punchers clung to the fleeing cattle untU
the last possible instant, then spun their horses into facing
the storm, leaned flat upon their animals' necks and, at
topmost speed, smashed headlong through the thin but
seemingly soUd waU of wind that flanked the cyclone's funnel
upon its right and left. It was not a comfortable impact.
It savored of coUiding with a pUe of bricks.
Taken sideways by the wall of wind might mean a horse
blown over. Taken in any position by the funnel almost
surely meant death.
Reputable witnesses have in seriousness reported cattle
and horses as picked up and carried more than a quarter
of a mile through the air before nature tired of her play
things and dropped them.
Other men, equaUy reputable, have with less seriousness
given other details. Johnny Nealan, a much-respected
rancher of Oregon's John Day country, recounted that he,
when lifted from the ground by the -wind, had in his hand
a twenty-doUar gold coin, but that, before he retumed to
the earth, the money had been blo'wn into two fifty-cent-
pieces and one plugged nickel.
Snuffles Jones solemnly averred that a certain Kansan
tornado had swept all the earth away from around the bad
ger holes, and left these holes sticking up into the air.
Asked how he could have seen them, he retorted: "Didn't
see 'em. Ran into 'em."
However, the cyclone had unpleasant elements in addi-.
tion to that of wind.
Vi-vid Ughtning, tossing itself about with constant flash,

THE DAY'S WORK 205
and just above a treeless plain, was in no way soporific to
rain-soaked men astride of rain-soaked horses.
After each particularly bfinding streak and the crash of
its thunder, at least one dripping puncher saucily would
implore nature to "raise your sights, raise 'em a lot," and
thereby far to overshoot him. Though not affirmatively
afraid, the puncher sometimes had a sneaking suspicion
that his invocation might not be heeded, because, as a rider
from BiUings, Montana, once observed: "Nature is a skittish
beast and no ways bridlewise." Occasionally, to sustain
good-nature amid a huddled, physically uncomfortable
group of men, one of the group would resort to bUthesome
fooUshness. Thus the rigmarole "She loves me, she loves
me not " was in more than one instance used to count off
recurrent streaks of awesome Ughtning, just as that same
rigmarole, at another time, foUowed the drone and spang
of Indian buUets which were arri-ving successively and with
unpleasant neighborliness.
On stiU another occasion three ambushed punchers took
to cover. Their range presently was found, and dust began
to spurt around them. The bullets, coming with the cres
cendo, acid whine that sometimes they affect, produced
no comment beyond "Merskeeters is gettin' thick."
Winter brought hard work upon cold ranges. Though
the tasks were few in kind, they were strenuous in perform
ance. Inspection trips with the thermometer at forty de
grees below zero, night-herding under like conditions were
not amusing, but the stock had to be guarded, however
loosely, night and day.
Upon a large ranch the work was performed in part by
punchers operating from the main buildings, in part by
punchers who, stationed in far-off outpost cabins, so-called
"Une camps," patroUed as "line riders" prescribed bounda
ries. These men were interchangeably called "Une riders"
or "outriders," though, strictly speaking, a "Une rider" had

206 THE COWBOY
a regular beat, while an "outrider" was commissioned to
roam anywhere.
Effort was made to minimize the duration of continuous
work, and the men served, so far as possible, in shifts each
of twelve hours. But the West stuck to its job untU the
latter was done, and never quit at any mere clock strike,
as do adherents of the modern eight-hour principle.
The riders had always to know where grass was plentiful
and the snow above it reasonably shallow, and constantly
to keep their wards shepherded -within such happy terri
tory, for the animals' only food was the grass, and they
could reach it solely by pawing through the snow. Horses
could obtain their provender through even four feet of cover
ing, if the latter were powdery; but let an ice crust form,
and the story would be very different. A thaw, immedi
ately followed by a freeze, spelled disaster on the Range.
Even in snowless stretches danger lurked, for rain, prompt
ly succeeded by tremendous drop in temperature, turned each
grass blade into an icicle so armored that the Uve stock
could not eat it.
The -winds however cold were friendly to the stock in
that they swept away the snow from -wide stretches of graz-
ing-ground. In the Far Northwest blew a speciaUy amiable -wind,
the Chinook, born above the warm current of the Pacific
Ocean, and intermittently coming to save the Range in
its hour of perU. In the early morning one saw the moun
tains dazzlingly white, the lowlands spread with snow;
then came advance couriers in little puffs of air, and next
the wind itself. The stout air-current wiped the white from
the hiUsides as a handkerchief clears a perspiring forehead,
and freed the plains from their murderous covering. The
transaction was so rapid that the snow did not seem to melt.
One moment it was -visible, the next it had gone.
Although during the winter the horse herd pretty weU

THE DAY'S WORK 207
could take charge of itself and needed Uttle guidance, the
cattle throughout that period were a constant care.
When snow feU the cattle frequently lacked initiative
to search for food. Bothered by the wind, they at times
left the hiUsides, where the grass was within pawing reach,
and sifted to the valleys' bottoms, where the drift-covered
forage would have been insufficient for the many brutes
even if they could have reached it.
One of them, becoming thirsty, started for a hole in the
ice formed upon the waters of a lake. The other animals
mechanically foUowed. Ton after ton of weight stupidly,
uselessly moved out from soUd shore and the ine-vitable
happened — loud, cracking sounds, wUd beUowings, tumul
tuous splashings, and then new ice, marred here and there
by a projecting horn or taU.
Upon sign of an impending storm, were it day or were
it night, off went the riders to hustle their charges behind
the protection of trees or projecting rocks, or else into val
leys or swales, which, at right-angles to the blast's promised
track, were less Ukely to be buried deep in snow and, above
aU, to keep the stock from "drifting."
Throughout the winter, numbed, ice-clad men sat night
and day atop exhausted horses, fighting the tempest, were
it Texan "norther," or Northern "bUzzard," that "away
back East" might eat roast-beef and ride in street-cars.
For such a life the maximum monthly wage in the decade
of the eighties was for a first-class or "top" rider forty dol
lars, with ten to forty dollars additional if he were a com
petent ranch foreman; for a rider of less than top rating
twenty-five doUars and upward; in each case with board
and lodging free. Of course, there were exceptions, and
some of the large ranches paid monthly as much as two
hundred doUars to an able foreman.
The "drift" was often tragic for both the animals and
their o-wners. It might send to death practicaUy aU the

208 THE COWBOY
cattle of a range. Cattle were its usual prey, for horses
almost always had sense sufficient to avoid it, and to find
shelter for themselves.
The drift was the Uve stock's marching in wholesale num
bers away from a particular locaUty, either to avoid the
local conditions or to seek better conditions elsewhere.
Deep snows ha-ving covered the grasses, the discouraged
cattle would assemble just as they did for the already de
scribed, unintentional drownings in a lake, would suddenly
in compact formation begin their trek toward their self-
selected, unkno-wn land of promise.
Were the weather not stormy, the beasts would march
along for mUes and until stopped by some insurmountable
obstacle, aU the way un'wittingly bettering themselves by
ploughing a -wide cut through the snows. Stopped by the
obstacle, whatever it was — a hiU, a canyon, or aught else —
the beasts would about face, and, retracing their former
traU, would browse their way along its partly cleared bot
tom and back to their starting-point.
But stormy weather might produce a very different re
sult. A bunch of cattle were pawing through the snow and
eating their hard-earned ration, when a storm broke upon
them. As the air became fiUed with bUnding flakes and
the kilUng wind increased, the beasts uneasUy stirred about,
then, seeking protection, huddled themselves into a compact
mass. With the water from their eyes freezing, with long
icicles hanging from their Ups, with their backs rime-coated,
they stood, head down, moaning, hopeless. Abruptly, in
sodden despair, with brain entirely dormant but muscles
automatically working, some forceful steer started down to
leeward, and behind him, in like condition, straggled the
staggering herd. Each animal, keeping true to the wind's
course, fought on tiU the animal dropped; and where it
dropped it died.
The numbed brutes feU one by one, first the weaker

THE DAY'S WORK 209
calves, then the stronger calves, each Uttle tumbUng body
causing its attendant, anxious mother to stop and wait and
perish beside a diminutive mound of snow. Next toppled
the weaker steers, then the more -virile animals, untU the
final sacrifice appeared in the frozen bodies of some grand
bovine monsters, Ijdng piled before the impassable barrier
of a high snow-drift, a deep cut, or a rocky waU.
Material was plentiful for the skinning knives and for
the birds and beasts of prey.
Could mounted cowboys, Uke a flsdng wedge, have
plunged their horses into the mass before the leading steer
began the hypnotic march to death, the herd might have
been driven to safe cover; but, once the fatal procession
started, the doomed animals would obey no order except
the summons to destruction and, in the frenzy of hopeless
ness, would savagely attack whoever sought to rescue them.
"Might have been driven to safe cover," but not assuredly.
Many a puncher has galloped into a "drift," and, exhausted
by his futUe efforts, perished with the beasts he tried to
save. A "drift" might occur in summer weather and be the
aftermath of a stampede or the result of drought-made
scantiness in local drink or herbage, but such a drift would
mean no more than that a group of cattle had wandered
far afield. It had no terrors.
In snowy weather the punchers had also to keep the
stupid cattle from self-immurement in "box canyons,"
which were gorges with but a single open end, the inner
terminal being against a waU of rock within the mountain's
mass. A high snow-pile across the entrance might insure
starvation for aU hoofed beasts within the prison.
Even when unhampered by any responsibUity, mere
facing of the bUzzard offered sometimes to the cowboy a
very material hazard. More than one man, lea-ving his
door for the purpose of obtaining wood from a pUe fifty

210 THE COWBOY
feet away, has been so confused and bUnded by the shriek
ing wind and the hissing, stinging snow as to lose aU sense
of direction, and, devitaUzed by aimless, unsuccessful
searches for some famiUar object, has wandered down to
leeward, the course instinctively adopted by aU storm-
numbed wayfarers when headed for the grave. To leeward
was whither rescue parties first gave attention in their sad
search across a waste of snow.
In particularly storm-swept areas, occasional prudent
men, before plunging from their house-doors into the flake-
filled air, tied one end of a rope to the door-jamb, and, as
they went forth, held grimly onto the other end of that
bit of saving hemp.
In the open stretches of the colder sections of the coun
try, there would form crast, often strong enough to support
a bronco, sometimes even a wagon with its draft teams.
Over such a surface ponies with sharpened shoe calks could
be ridden with impunity; but, under average -wintry con
ditions, the local riders were compeUed to do considerable
na-vigating in order to avoid soft drifts and deceptive, snow-
fiUed hoUows.
At times horses were useless, and for locomotion the men
were restricted to the ski. This form of snow-shoe was
carried into the West by the Scandina-vian linemen whom
the telegraph companies employed.
While at times horses were useless, such times were few,
for, broadly speaking, the bronco could go anywhere that
a man could, save only where the latter in climbing was
forced to use his hands, and save only where bog covering
or ice too fraU for the horse's weight would yet support
the Ughter human being. Up or down dizzy, trailless
heights, over rocks or snow, the wiry, sure-footed cayuse
would pick its way and carry its rider, occasionally paus
ing at some turn to gaze with nonchalant curiosity into the
valley a thousand feet almost vertically below.

THE DAY'S WORK 211
When descending particularly steep and dangerous slopes,
some animals sat on their haunches, and, stiff-kneed, using
their front feet as both rudders and brakes, contortingly
sUd themselves along. To a tenderfoot such an approach
to a canyon's rim was decidedly nerve-racking.
Upon ascents however steep, the cowboy usually remained
in the saddle and, leaning far forward over the neck of his
horse, aided the enterprise by a series of violent forward
swings, each in time -with one of the horse's upward
lunges. Nevertheless, upon long up grades over shifting gravel
or soft snow, the puncher might dismount, and, by seizing
the end of his animal's tail, obtain a powerful tow-line.
Prudent users of this tractive method cast loose just before
the steed passed over the summit, for a horizontal bronco
and a human head on a level with the beast's heels might
prove an irresistible combination. On the up-hill journey
the towed puncher was free from danger, since he was be
low his beast's kicking plane.
An open winter made life physicaUy comfortable; but
it caused worry about prospective drought, because sum
mer's waters came largely from the melting of the pre-vious
'winter's snows.
The subject of ice and snow suggests what has amazed
many an Easterner, the bronco's abiUty safely to drink the
coldest water. A ridden horse in a lather of sweat would
fairly fill himself at a semifrozen stream, and afterward
happUy go on about his business. He never had Uved in
doors, never had been blanketed, and so he had no fear of
being foundered or of catching cold from drafts of air.
Incidentally, he never had been groomed by any man.
Whatever person had touched a bronco with currycomb and
brash would have had immediate use for a tombstone.
The Western horse groomed himself. He would roU in
the dust and the bunch-grass, would shake himself, and, if

212 THE COWBOY
in good physical condition, would thereafter shine as though
hostlers had rubbed and waxed him.
This lack of acquaintance with currycombs was no more
marked than was the absence of aU famiUarity -with oats.
Many a pilgrim, at the outset of his initial Western visit
and -with best of intentions, has poured oats onto a bit of
canvas, and has led his pony up to what humanly was
planned to be an equine feast. A few suspicious glances
would be followed by an inquisitive sniff or two, by an in
halation that drew some prickly oat-grains up the pony's
nose, by a strenuous and disgusted snort, and by a shower
of oats. The cynical Uttle cow-horse, kno-wing whence his
saddle came, had smaU confidence in anything else man
offered him.
There has been mentioned, as being one of the puncher's
functions, the laying of poisoned baits for wolves. The
cowboy was reUed upon for this service only when the ani
mals were not uncomfortably numerous; as soon as in any
locaUty they materiaUy increased in number, and their
toU of murdered calves and colts became unduly large, there
was temporarily hired a "woffer." He was a professional
kUler of wolves; was a man usuaUy very "sot" in his ways,
and who, by instinct or training, could outwit the "var
mints" and cause them to walk into traps or to eat mortif-
erous meats when none of the ranch staff could entice them
to do more than emit derisive howls. The woffer had the
uncanny habit of stuffing his loose tobacco and cigarette
papers into the very pocket that contained a pound of un
wrapped strychnine crystals, of smoking aU day long, and
of being weU at supper-time.
Some ranches maintained packs of dogs for the purpose
of wolfing; though the majority of cattlemen, doubting
the hounds' wilUngness to spare the Uve stock's young when
the wild animal was absent, and also realizing that, should
the dogs, unattended, wander from home the brates might

THE DAY'S WORK 213
be shot, preferred wolves to a Range war, and accordingly
forewent canine protection.
The wolves throughout the Range did not begin whole
sale eating of calves and colts untU after the buffalo with
its calf had passed into history, or, more definitely speaking,
into sleigh-robes and fur coats, and into the stomachs of
the men who buUt the Union Pacific and Northern Pacffic
railways. The Western raUroads, through their cattle trains, en
abled ranching to become a national industry; thereafter,
through their eating buffalo, unloosed the wolves against
the commercial Uve stock; and finaUy, through their wheat
cars, took the farmer westward and enabled him to slay
the Range.
The wolves feU into two classes, one, a small animal, the
coyote or cayote, popularly known as "kiote," the other a
large beast which, without regard to possible scientific sub
division, interchangeably was caUed "timber-wolf," "gray
wolf," "big gray," "buffalo wolf," "traveller," "loper,"
"loafer," "lofer," "lobo," or else "woff," with any one of
the last-mentioned five words as a prefix, as, for instance,
"lobo wolf."
The lobos were often very hard to capture; particularly
when in rare instances they added to their own extraor
dinary sagacity the cunning of a pair of coyotes which had
attached themselves to the great woff's presence, and, as
sycophantic pages in waiting, accompanied him on aU his
travels, and scouted one on either side of him.

CHAPTER XI
LIVE STOCK
HABITS OP LIVE STOCK ON RANGE — VARIOUS DEFINITIONS — GROUND-UP —
ITS SCOPE, METHODS, AND DATE  CLASSIFICA'nON OF CATTLE — FURTHER
DEFINITIONS — ^PREPARATIONS FOR ROUND-UP — ITS CONDUCT — "CUTTING
OUT " — " PEG PONY " — GROPING — SNUBBING — VARIOUS DEPEWHONS
The stock, turned loose upon the Range and able to wan
der whither it would, and that is what happened to aU of
it, assembled itself through process of natural selection
into smaU groups widely separated from each other and
each headed by a dominant leader. There were here and
there, as exceptions, indi'vidual animals, which as Ishmael
ites Uved a soUtary Ufe and ranged alone. AU the beasts,
whether in groups or out of them, were in instinct and habit
almost as wUd as the deer.
The average group of horses contained from ten to fif
teen animals, very rarely more than fifty of them, and
tended to remain in compact formation. The average group
of cattle had a smaUer membership and, particularly when
pursued, was less cohesive. Each group, whether of horses
or of cattle, and each IshmaeUte, pre-empted for itseff a
particular section of the feeding-grounds, and thus the
entire Range was subdivided into tiny equine or bo-vine
principaUties. Each group commonly was caUed, according to the na
ture of its component animals, a "band of horses " or a
"bunch of cattle," though this distinction between "band"
and "bunch " was not always made. For purpose of com
bination with either of the two terms "stock" and "Uve
stock," "bunch " was by tacit consent the correct word,
214

LIVE STOCK 215
and not "band." Thus a "bunch of stock," not a "band"
of it.
Because of the usual sparseness of the Uve stock, the
Range was to tenderfoot eyes on most days a lonely-looking
area; but semiannuaUy the picture would for a short time
completely change, and show the great herds of the round
ups and of the drives.
Regularly in the spring and again in either the late sum
mer or early fall, as also at any other time that special cause
required, there was held a so-called "round-up," or, as it
was termed on the Mexican border, a "rodeo."
A round-up attempted to herd to a single point aU ani
mals within the territory over which the operation extended.
Little escaped its mesh, though occasional animals,
through accidental screening or intentional hiding in boul
der fields or clumps of trees, might elude the trap for several
successive years. "Man-kiUing" horses traditionally were
past masters at thus concealing themselves.
The round-up might cover only such lands as were apt
to be grazed by the animals of a particular ranch; and, if
so, was conducted primarUy in the interest of that ranch,
although other ranches benefited to the extent that stock
belonging to them turned up in the shuffle. Or it might
embrace the several feeding-grounds separately used by a
number of ranches, and in such case was principally for
the advantage of the ranches thus immediately interested,
though, as before, distant o'wners of visiting animals profited
through the unearthing of their errant stock.
The extent of the tract thus to be combed over was deter
mined by conditions. It might be an entire valley, or the
lands this side of a desert, or the space between two con
verging rivers, or, in default of natural boundaries, merely
such particular square miles as in all probability would
contain aU the interested owners' animals inclusive of those
with a touch of wanderlust. Although in later years Wy-

216 THE COWBOY
oming by formal law di-vided itself into definite "round-up
districts," which severally averaged about two and a half
miUion acres, the exact field of any operation in Wyoming
continued to be determined, as in other States, by the people
of the operation's locaUty. The size of the tract to be cov
ered, the number of the ranches financially concerned were
fixed automatically by the situs and quantity of the local
water-suppUes, for water regulated the extent and owner
ship of the stock on every range.
Frequently only part of a large range was "worked" on
a single day, the entire task being done in instalments.
In such a case the field of each such instalment was fixed,
as in the instance of the round-up as a whole, either by na
ture-made limits or by mere square mileage. Each such
instahnent's field might have its o'wn point at which to
concentrate that field's yield of Uve stock, or several of such
fields might use in common one such point.
The number of animals picked up in a day's operation
might be ten thousand. It might be only fifteen hundred.
In a "Uttle" country, it naight be even less.
All the ranches directly interested, caUed upon by cus
tom to contribute men in numbers proportionate to the
extent of the interest, actuaUy threw into the adventure
their entire active personnel; while, from distant ranges,
appeared volunteers, the latter realizing that their ser-vices
would be repaid in kind when their own home round-ups
should occur.
The men participating in the affair elected from among
themselves the various necessary leaders, these being the
"round-up boss," the "taUy man," etc.
Twice a year the West climbed into the saddle, and a
human drag-net in intermittent motion swept aU of the area
bounded by the Missouri River, the Sierra Nevadas,
Canada, and the Mexican border.
These doings permitted the stockmen to ascertain the

LIVE STOCK 217
extent of their possessions and to compute their financial
gains or losses, to impound the beasts desirable for sale,
to re^ster marks of ownership upon the animals that were
to resume their nomad life, and to gather in strays that
had wandered far afield.
The "spring round-up," which was primarUy for the
purpose of branding and thus among cattle-raisers was
often caUed the "caff round-up," occurred after the vernal
grass had come, and took place in March throughout the
South and on correspondingly later dates in the more
northern latitudes. Because of the time of its happening,
it yielded no cattle for the market, though on the horse
range it produced, as did every round-up there, horses
avaUable for sale. This spring herding provoked much
discussion of stock that "had not wintered weU," and of
"dogies," or "dobes," these last being calves or yearling
cattle that were still scrubby and anaemic from the scant
food of the cold months.
The next regular round-up, the so-caUed "faU" one, took
place in Texas in August or late July, and moved its date
later into the calendar in accord with the farther northing
of its scene.
This latter round-up gave forth kine fat for the abattoir,
sleek co-s<rs, and hea-vy steers. It frequently was termed on
a cattle range the "beef round-up," although technically
a "beef" was only such a beast as was both four or more
years of age and also not a bull. As a matter of fact, most
of the animals sold to the packers were "beeves"; but,
because weight rather than age was the controlUng factor,
large younger animals often were included in the proces
sion headed for the slaughter-house.
An animal of the cattle family, whatever its sex, was
born a "caff." If a male and reserved for breeding pur
poses, the brate later became successively a "yearUng buU,"
a "two-year-old bull," a "three-year-old bull," a "four-

218 THE COWBOY
year-old buU," etc; but, ff not so reserved, he, at the end
of his first year, passed into the class of "yearUng," to re
main therein for twelve months, to be termed, for the
two successive years immediately thereafter, a "steer," and
then to become a "beef." But ff the beast were a female,
she at the end of her one year's caffdom, became a
"heifer," a "yearUng," or a "young cow," according as
her biographer happened arbitrarily to entitle her. After
she successively had served as a "two-year-old cow" and
a "three-year-old cow," and meanwhile had by whoever
wished to flatter her stiU been caUed from time to time a
"heifer," she was promoted into the "beef" grade, wherein,
with no regard for feminine susceptibiUties, her age was
blatantly advertised.
The West, despite its creating of aU these technical dis
tinctions, was quite apt, when speaking coUoquially, to
use the word "cow" as a synonjnm for the word "cattle,"
and thus not only the "bunch of cows," which the Wester
ner reported as in the distance, might in fact contain merely
steers, but also he was very apt to call a cattle ranch a " cow
ranch." Nevertheless, he never termed the Range a "cow
Range," or the Cattle Country a "cow country."
The corrals used for a round-up were often far distant
from the ranch buUdings, and then "chuck wagons," as
mess wagons were caUed, took aboard their cooking
outfits and food suppUes, and rumbled out to the work
place. A chuck wagon usuaUy was made by imposing at the
back end of an ordinary farm wagon a large box which con
tained shelves and had at its rear a lid that, hinged at the
bottom and armed with legs, made, when lowered, a ser-vice-
able table. Some ranches, however, had wagons specially
designed for restaurant use.
To the round-up corrals, strings of extra saddle-ponies
were driven by hostlers whom the Northwest caUed "horse

LIVE STOCK 219
wranglers," this term being possibly a corruption of the
Mexican's "caverango," a hostler.
An unreasonable distinction, often made in coUoquial
usage, caused these men to "wrangle" horses in daytime,
and to "herd" them at night, although the services ren
dered were identical in nature, merely a keeping of the
horses from straying too far away, and an ultimate pro
duction of them at the place and time desired. This same
usage made the men wrangle the horses, and not wrangle
with them.
The extra ponies driven to the round-up corrals formed
an aggregation which the Northwest knew as the "saddle
band," but which in the Southwest was called by this name,
by that of "remuda," or "remontha" (this latter a corrup
tion of Spanish "remonta") and also by that of "cav-
-vieyah," "cavoy," "ca-woy," "cavy," "ca'wy," or, if the
dictionary were more closely followed, "cabaUada," "caval-
lard," "cavayard," or "caviarde." The West reserved
control of its spelUngs and pronunciations, and cared naught
that the lexicon gave the Westerner's two-syllabled "ki
ote," or "kiyote," as the three syUabled "co-yot-e."
The extra ponies were necessary, for the work at the
rodeo corrals was done at so fast a pace as to force the cow
boys to frequent change of mounts. The average puncher,
to do his best work, had to have four horses resting while
one was being ridden.
Each of these rodeo corrals was of a size sufficient to ac
commodate whatever animals a combing of the dependent
territory might yield. Thus, whUe almost all of these cor
rals were more extensive than those at the ranch-house,
they, as among themselves, varied much in area. Some
were very big. In the more extensive structures, advantage
often was taken of whatever conveniences nature had of
fered, and, instead of a continuous fence identical in char
acter with that in the ranch-house corrals, fencing of this

220 THE COWBOY
type would merely piece in the gaps between high pUes of
rocks, or would spring from each of two places on a forest's
edge and leave the intervening space to be guarded by hori
zontal raUs lashed to growing trees, or else would do no
more than run across the open end of a favoring "box can
yon." In any event, each rodeo corral had an entrance which
was closable by bars, and, from each side of this entrance,
flared out for many feet "wing fences" to shunt the edges
of the entering herd into the break in the pen's high bound
ary. Connected with this main enclosure might be sub
sidiary ones which had interopening gates and were thus
convenient for sorting stock.
These preparations made, the round-up itseff began.
Horsemen, widely separated in skirmish line, started
miles from a designated corral, and, as "circle riders," con
verging on it, drove slowly before themselves everything
that moved on legs. The animals thus gradually herded
together would be, with a few exceptions, all horses or all
cattle, according to what the local ranches raised.
The procession to some extent was seff-constructive, for,
although the riders frequently had to "round in" isolated
beasts or groups of beasts and to urge them into the driven
herd, the grazing brutes would in the main voluntarUy join
it. Stock quietly feeding would hear or scent the coming
procession; would, for a moment, gaze inquisitively at it;
and then, obedient to the instinct of gregariousness, would
trot across country and fall into Une.
The herding horsemen advanced with gingerly slowness,
fearful lest sudden movement might cause the quarry to
break and run; and, as they gradually converged, the crea
tures before them melded into a common herd. Quietly
there moved in ahead of it one rider, the "round-up boss."
He was the pacemaker, the general of the occasion. Pos
sibly he had beside him a lieutenant-general or two. Quietly

LIVE STOCK 221
there ranged along either side of the herd and from among
the circle riders a Une of flankers, riders less strategic than
the general in front or than the Ueutenant-generals who
"rode taU," and thus as "taU riders" stayed behind the
herd and kept it to the pace the general from time to time
might order.
UntU the procession had come so near the corral that,
ff walking were abandoned, the higher speed assumed might
continue surely to the end, the animals quietly were nursed
along. It was trae that they were more Uable to break
while walking than while mo'ving at a swifter pace, for at
the slower rate they had more time to think. But when
under the excitement of recent, rapid speed they were re
duced to a walking pace, they were almost certain to make
a "bobble." Accordingly, the men aU rode leisurely along.
A beast shot out to the side. If it were a deer or antelope,
none of the riders did more than to hope that its departure
would remain unnoticed by its late brute companions. If
the beast were a single steer and the herd were of horses,
ff the beast were a single horse and the herd were of cattle,
the decamping creature had reUeved the riders from the
prospective trouble of "cutting it out" after arrival at the
corral, so in muttered tone they gave the quitter a profane
benediction and hoped, as before, for inattention by its for
mer comrades. If the fleeing animal were of the same stock
as that of the herd, the brute probably would be let to go,
lest an effort to "head" it create confusion disturbing to
its crawUng but nervous mates. But, in fact, numerous
animals had started. They had to be headed at all cost,
for otherwise the entire aggregation would pour out through
the opening like water through a levee's break. The job
was accompUshed. The men and their charges quieted
do-wn and plodded along.
The general, with one of his eyes glued in his back, had
foUowed tensely every changing whim of the beasts which

222 THE COWBOY
he had held behind him, and from time to time had headed
from a forward dash. He sensed that the herd no longer
would tolerate quiescence. He knew that the corral was
not, in distance, beyond the breathing limit of more rapid
motion. He put his horse in trot. Rank by rank, the brate
platoons behind him, in quick succession, increased their
speed. Near the goal, with his pony for days groomed for the
effort, the general plunged forward, foUowed by the thunder
of six thousand hoofs and by a bUnding cloud of dust. The
wing fences showed in front. He headed directly between
them, but an instant before he otherwise would have reached
their limitations he "whirled" his pony, darted to one side,
and was out of the rush.
The insensate, now leaderless brutes had no opportunity
to swerve, and, like a U-ving avalanche, rolled into the cor
ral, the pressure from the rear often sending the forward
animals with horrid force against the farther fence. Occa
sionaUy one or more horses among these forward animals
would wUdly leap, and, as Ughtly as a scaling card, would
sail over the corral's fence.
The "flank riders" also had drawn off to the sides and
away from the mess, and no human was as yet within the
corral. Up went the bars across its entrance; cookie and
his crew having stood guard for this service.
Every horseman dismounted, dropped the handkerchief
which had been about his nose and mouth, wiped at sweat
and dust, said "damn," and congratulated the general.
The latter had paced weU and deserved congratulation.
Nobody, of course, suggested that, had the general's horse
gone down, a man and an animal would have been ground
to pulp. That was axiomatic and was aU in a day's work.
The tired ponies, for their reward, were unsaddled and
aUowed to roU and deUghtedly to writhe on their backs;
each rider furtively watching his own steed, to see whether

LIVE STOCK 223
on its third attempt it went completely over, and thus,
according to frontier diagnosis, proved itseff physicaUy
sound. Where did aU this happen? Its scene and its action, as
regards horses, was on any of the principal horse ranges
at any time during the Iffe of the horse industry. For a
smaUer range, the number of the corraUed animals should
be decreased. As regards cattle, the description is subject
to a corresponding adjustment in figures, and, for the years
subsequent to the seventies, must be modified in certain
other details.
When, in the decade of the seventies, cattle customarily
began to sell by the pound instead of, as theretofore, by the
head, ranchers commenced to realize that with cattle rapid
movement meant loss of weight, that the fat which dripped
away in sweat was the same as the fat the packer would
have bought. Consequently, cowboys were ordered to
hold cattle, so far as possible, to a walk, a result obtainable
by decreasing the number of beasts one man was expected
to control.
Wherefore, to make the description accurately appUcable
to the majority of cattle round-ups after the decade of the
seventies, one must alter the above recital so far as to have
the Uve stock effect, at a far slower pace than is above de
noted, both the traversing of the country and the entering
into the corral.
And, for certain sections of the Range during the later
years of the cattle industry, one must make the further
amendment of doing away altogether -with the corral, and
having the final bunching of the cattle not within high fences
but in an "open" round-up.
The selUng by the head or by the pound, as mentioned
above, relates to sales made to the pubUc. Ranchmen,
in such transactions among themselves as involved a
rancher's disposing of aU his live stock, sometimes sold

224 THE COWBOY
"on range deUvery." This meant that the buyer, after
inspection of the seller's ranch records, and with due regard
to the seller's reputation for veracity, paid for what the
seUer purported to own, and then rode out and tried to find
it. If we cease these digressions and return to the corral,
we shall find that the men beside it had scrubbed at the
black muck which sweat-mixed white or gray alkali dust
had laid upon their faces, had gorged themselves from the
results of the efforts made by cookie over his intrenched
fire, and now were about to attack the second stage of their
work. If the corral were filled with cattle and the season were
the spring, there would be much branding of calves to do,
but there would be very little dealing with the older animals
beyond sorting out and returning to their owners such brutes
as were -visitors from foreign ranges. If the corral were
fiUed -with cattle and the round-up were that of fall, while
there would be scant necessity for branding, the older ani
mals would be the principal subjects of the cowboys' labors.
If the corral knew only horses, there would be far more
branding at the round-up of the spring than at that of the
autumn; and, at each of these round-ups, mature animals
might be gathered for the market.
But whatever the season and whatever the kind of animal
involved, the punchers were now ready to resume then-
work. People, some outside the bars of the corral and others
on its top rail, prodded the imprisoned animals back from
the entrance sufficiently far to permit lowering of the bars
and an entrance by some of the remounted cowboys.
These men's ponies, sending front knees high in air but
taking mincing steps, impatiently waited for an inkling as
to the quarry's identity and for a raising of the reins, this
last the signal for a burst of speed.
These mounted cowboys, remaining ahorse, wormed

LIVE STOCK 225
through the herd, and separated the animals for which there
was no immediate need from those which were to be sold
or broken or branded, as the case might be.
This process involved "cutting out," which means that
the rider, sighting an animal to be segregated, rode between
it and the body of the herd. The animal dodged. The
rider had barely commenced to guide his pony into pur
suit before that knowing little de-vU sensed the entire situa
tion. Highly trained to the purpose, Uke a kitten foUowing
a ball, he gleefuUy, and with Ughtning-Uke changes of
direction, began with the quarry a game of competitive
dodging. In and out through the herd, they twisted and
turned. The cutting-out pony, leamed in all the tricks of
the contest, eventuaUy got the advantaged position for
which he had schemed; the quarry clear from the herd,
with a panting, man-laden imp in between.
The quarry, once clear from the herd, was fair target
for the lariat, and also, ff mo-ving, might be "taUed."
Amid this whirUgig, the rider, ff in playful mood, very
Ukely kicked his foot free from his stirrup, and dug his spur
into an animal gaUoping past. The pony under him, equaUy
joyous, would from time to time slyly nip at passing beasts.
When the objective for the lariat was a particular caff
or colt, usuaUy the cutting-out campaign was directed prin
cipaUy against the mother; for not only was she needed
near the fire, that her markings might show what should
be imprinted on her offspring, but also she was easier to
foUow, and confidently could be expected to sweep her
youngster along with her in her rush. No matter how great
the confusion, the mother never would mistake the identity
of her baby, although the latter might faU to recognize its
parent. A saddle-horse which when gaUoping could stop short
in his tracks, change his direction Uke a weather-vane, and
instantly bound off on a new course was caUed a "peg

226 THE COWBOY
pony," "peg horse," or "pegger." He was very dear to
his cowboy rider, but he "dumped" many a no-vice.
The animal recently cut out was now to be roped.
The pursuing puncher lifted his coUed lariat from its
home below the saddle's hom, his left hand holding, high
in the air, such portion of the rope as was not to be included
in the noose, that no part of this surplus rope might, when
fljong out, pass behind the puncher and do damage to his
temper, ff not to his neck. The puncher's right hand, grip
ping the "hondo," paid out through it, by a series of short
jerks of the wrist, rope sufficient for the noose.
When rope enough for a circle of six or seven feet in diam
eter had thus been emitted, the puncher's right hand, pahn
do-wn and twenty inches or so behind the hondo, grasped
tightly both the side of the noose and also that part of the
rope which had not already passed through the hondo and
thus become a portion of the noose. Then the noose was
started swinging. By the time that it had made its fourth
revolution, it was in the shape of an oval, was in horizontal
position over the wielder's head, and was sufficiently open
for the "throw."
UntU the throw was made, the noose was kept steadUy
revoMng; but, an instant before the throw, the noose was
for two or three revolutions whirled with tremendous speed,
the puncher meanwhUe twisting his right shoulder back
ward and forcing his right hand stiU further to the rear.
Then this hand shot forward and released the noose. Forth
with the latter landed, as the thrower wished, either over
the victim's head or else on the ground, from the latter
target to bounce up and catch whatever leg or legs of the
mo-ving quarry the thrower had selected.
The lariat then was jerked to semitautness, and instantly
was snubbed around the saddle horn.
Coincidently with the "catch," the ridden pony stopped
short, and squatted on his haunches, fairly sitting on the

LIVE STOCK 227
end of his spine. From that instant, his eyes stayed fixed
on the faUen victim. As the latter roUed one way or the
other, the pony, with front legs straight and braced stiffly
before him, pivoted on his seat; and, mo-ving his front feet in
inch-long side-steps, sat facing ever squarely at the contents
of the noose. So expert were some of the ponies, that their
riders could dismount and leave the holding of the roped
beast entirely to the management of the sitting little horse.
Sometimes, just as a lariat was to be thrown, a quarry
on the rider's right doubled in its tracks, and the thrower,
ff of abiUty, instantly turned his right-hand pahn up, which
overset the spinning noose and let a rearward snap of the
forearm make that throw admired in the "opera-house,"
the "backthrow," on the off side.
Also, by a simUar oversetting, the noose could be brought
down from its normal high level, and, by a backward round-
arm swing which ended as the holding hand advanced, be
shot forward upon a plane quite near the ground.
If, when a catch was made and the reata came to taut-
ness, the roping pony were at all sideways toward the
quarry, over went the pony and its rider with a crash. Ac
cordingly it was important, particularly when lariating
hea-vy animals, that the rider should make his throw only
when either the length of his pony's body was in Une with
the du-ection of the throw, or else his pony had itself so weU
in hand as surely to be able to spm into that position be
fore the reata gave its terrific yank.
It was necessary, in deciding when to throw, to consider
the possible movement of animals not directly concerned
in the matter; for, should one of them rush between the
roping pony and the caught victim, and the roper be unable
to let go of the lariat, an unfortunate Uttle mustang and
the man atop him would be snapped heels over head.
If, as the throw was made, the rider sensed that the pony
under him would not be in proper position when the prospec-

228 THE COWBOY
tive jerk should occur, the rider would not snub his lariat's
home end to the saddle horn, but would let the lariat hang
loosely from his hand. Usually whatever beast had been
so inconveniently roped would soon shake off the noose;
but sometimes, ff the catch had been made outside of the
corral, a chagrined cowboy would see his reata traUing
across the prairie behind a gaUoping steer. Such a sight
would mean a tiresome ride in order to head back the brute
-with its stolen property.
The roping pony, ff it had confidence in its rider, forgave
occasional spills; but, once there occurred an upset which
the canny Uttle beast considered inexcusable, that partic
ular rider could never thereafter make a catch from the
back of that particular pony. The beast's sUght outward
swerve at the instant of each throw would cause the noose
to land just short of its mark, but short every time; and,
throughout the whole adventure, butter would not melt
in the Uttle pony's mouth.
There were marked differences in the speed of the throw.
The noose of some men settled slowly and Ughtly on the
target, the rope behind in sinuous Une. The noose of other
men moved Uke a buUet, and stood at the end of a ramrod.
Save in Texas, few men attempted to lariat an animal
which was more than twenty-five feet away.
One now sees, upon the theatrical stage, men and women
who can vitaUze a rope, and can make its noose move when
and whither the actor wills. However remarkable the per
formance, it is not roping, for it is given from a platform
steadier than the back of a rashing, whirling horse, omits
all strategy to force a rapidly mo'ving target into fair posi
tion, and caUs for no nice instinct as to the proper instant
for the throw.
Cowboys frequently threw from foot instead of from the
pony's back, but these throws from foot usually amounted
to no more than dropping a noose either over the kicking

LIVE STOCK 229
leg of an animal already down and held by a horseman,
or else over the neck of some calf or colt.
Should a free animal of mature years be caught, the un
fortunate puncher at the other end of the reata turned side
ways, left flank toward the enemy, jammed the rope against
his own right hip, gripped with his left hand far do-wn the
lariat, dug his heels and the edges of his boots into the
earth, and leaned far backward, then to commence a series
of jumps, each concluding with a Uke digging in and lean
ing back.
After the noose had lodged and before the lariat had
tautened, this puncher might have transferred to the en
snared animal much of the puncher's share of the prospec
tive jerk, accomplishing this by swinging the rope's home
end in a -wide, vertical circle at a right-angle with the line
of throw. This would have started a "roll," a corkscrew,
wave-Uke motion, which, traveUing along the reata to its
far end, would have landed with a jar. If the jar and the
jerk had been coincident, there would have been a tremen
dous shock to the animal, and the latter pretty surely would
have somersaulted.
But if, at any time that there was a strain upon the
lariat, the cowboy had happened to be at other than ap
proximately a right-angle with the course of the beast he
had roped, and worst of all to be behind the brute, and so
subject, in this latter contingency, to what was termed a
"line pull," or "end pull," he would have been reduced to
the relative position of the traditional man who tried to
stop a runaway horse by holding onto its traces.
The roper, when working afoot, also might ameUorate
his task by using the "snubbing post," which was a ver
tical, round timber some five feet high, firmly set in the
earth at the centre of the corral, and stout enough to stand
the strains to which it was subjected.
He could hitch his lariat to this post; make a successful

230 THE COWBOY
throw; take the initial part of the strain in the acrobatic
way described above; and then, letting go of his lariat, allow
the post to assume the remaining stress. Or else, with a
"free" reata, he could make his catch, and afterward snub
his rope to the post.
However, the post could not with impunity be used for
the throwing of powerful animals. The tremendous pull
which their downfall caused might break a lariat so un
yieldingly held.
The throwing of an animal with a particularly hea-vy
crash was caUed, as was every other Titanic, masterful
act by man to beast, a "busting wide open" of the abused
brute.

CHAPTER XII
BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP
TAILING — BRANDING FIRE — BULLDOGGING — BRANDS AND MARKS — BRAND
ING-IRONS AND BRANDS  BRANDING CUSTOMS — MAVERICKS, DERIVATION
OF TERM — BRAND BLOTCHING — HOG-TIES^-ESTRAYS— OPEN ROUND-UP —
INSPECTORS — ATTACKS BY CATTLE — STAMPEDING THE BEEP ISSUE
For the downing of an animal, "tailing" sometimes took
the place of roping. Any member of the horse or cattle
famiUes could, when travelling at aU rapidly, be sent heels
over head by the simple process of overtaking the brate,
seizing its taU, and giving the latter a puU to one side. This
would throw the animal off its balance, and over it would
crash, onto its head and shoulder. Though the sUghtest of
yanks frequently was capable of producing the result, many
men assured success through a turn of the taU about the
saddle horn, this supplemented sometimes, in the case of
cattle, by a downward heave of the rider's leg upon the
straining taU.
Horses, unless patently worthless, were seldom taUed.
The process offered too much risk of springing a knee or
of spraining a shoulder.
OccasionaUy, under playful impulse, a puncher would
taU a feUow rider's pony, but this act rarely was intended
to accomplish more than to cause the little horse, by a sud
den jump, to jolt its rider. With simUarly jocose purpose,
a lariat would land about a man or around the neck of the
horse beneath him; though, under such circumstances, the
noose never was jerked to tautness.
WhUe we have been wandering far afield in general ob
servations, the cowboys have been sticking to their business
at the rodeo corral. Out of this corral, the undesired ani
mals finally were weeded, to sift in twos and threes over
231

232 THE COWBOY
the horizon, sooner or later to reform, so far as possible, into
the very bands which had been so rudely disturbed earlier
in the day, and to resume the very haunts from which the
beasts had unwilUngly been driven. As they one by one
passed through the corral's bars, they received fareweU
slaps from lariats' ends, mere slaps, save in the case of a
horse lea-ving a cattle corral, or of a steer or cow lea-ving
one of horses. These latter departing and excepted brutes,
however inoffensive, invariably were assumed to have in-
-vited themselves to the party, and venom was put into
each dismissal blow and into the words accompanying it.
WhUe cutting out and roping were progressing within
the corral, there rose from it a cloud of dust; and out of
this, ff cattle were the stock involved, came a constant and
pandemoniac chorus from bleating calves and beUowing
mothers separated in the m^l4e.
In due time aU the unbranded animals were discovered.
One by one, they were cut out, were herded to the -vicinity
of the bonfire which held the branding-irons, were there
thro-wn by roping, or, if horned, sometimes by "buUdog-
ging," and, when prone, not only were branded, but also
were subjected to such surgery, if any, as might be neces
sary. In the case of cattle, ff they feU inconveniently far
from the fire, they, regardless of intervening sticks and
stones, ignomiuiously were dragged at a lariat's end to the
desired spot. Horses were given more considerate treat
ment, in that some care was exercised that they be not
"dumped" so far from the flames as to require this skin-
abrading haulage.
The bonfire, if in Texas, was required by local law to be
inside the corral's enclosure, the purpose of the law being
to prevent branding in unfrequented locaUties, and thereby
to lessen stealing. In States other than Texas, the fire often
blazed just outside the corral's gate.
Toward the fire at an important round-up, animals sUth-

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 233
ered every few seconds, sUding on their sides, their backs,
on any part of their anatomies, all of the beasts highly in
dignant. Some cattle landed there as victims of "buUdogging,"
and not of roping. BuUdogging involved throwing one's
right arm over a steer's or cow's neck, the right hand grip
ping the neck's loose, bottom skin or the base of the right
horn or the brute's nose, while the left hand seized the tip
of the brute's left horn. The "dogger" then rose clear of
the ground; and, by lunging his body downward against
his own left elbow, so twisted the neck of the brute that
the latter lost its balance and feU. It was a somewhat ac
tive performance, because, the instant the dogger took
hold, the seized beast began to ran, and the man's legs,
when not touching the ground in flying leaps, were waving
outward to avoid his maddened vehicle's knees.
An animal, thus to be thrown, had to be moving at high
speed, for the beast had to be deprived not only of balance,
but also of abiUty to regain it. The feat, though favored
in public exhibitions, found little usage in every-day life;
except occasionaUy it might be applied to a youngster which
was of no great weight, was attempting to dodge, and, for
the latter reason, had its neck already somewhat twisted.
Roping would achieve the same result and was much less
onerous. In the bonfire were the branding-irons of aU the ranches
interested in the round-up. Beside the fire stood the "tally
man," a person selected for the position because of his
honesty and his clerical accuracy, or possibly because of his
physical inabiUty to render more strenuous service. He
entered on a " taUy-sheet " a taUy mark for each animal
on which an owner's brand or mark was placed ; and, while
he worked his stubby pencU, he monotonously chanted
somewhat as foUows: "Star K Outfit, one calf. Circle Nine
Ranch, one calf," etc.

234 THE COWBOY
As a sprawling beast was dragged up to the fire and its
ownership disclosed, there was pressed against the brate
the appropriate, red-hot iron, and there were added by the
knife such additional "marks," ff any, by way of cuts on
ears, dewlaps, or other folds of skin, as the owner had
adopted to further prove proprietorship.
These burns and cuts were permanent, and estabUshed
everywhere the o'wnership of the brate that wore them,
even though he strayed across the continent.
Each raiser of horses or cattle registered with the proper
official of his State or county a written instrument wherein
was claimed the exclusive right to burn upon a particular
part of an animal, such as a specified shoulder or ramp,
a particular design made of certain numbers, letters, Unes,
or of combinations of these elements, or to apply specffied
cuts or chippings to a stated ear, both ears, the dewlap or
other feasible fold of skin, or to do both these things. If
nobody had made prior claim for the use of the design, the
latter was formaUy allowed, was entered in the official
"brand book," and became in effect the trade-mark of the
the person who registered it.
To safeguard whatever cut or chipping was made, various
States required that not more than half of each ear be re
moved, that neither ear be whittled to a point, and that
no cut or chipping made by one owner be altered or ob
Uterated by a later proprietor.
Ears, because of their convenient 'viewableness, were the
usual seats of the cuts and chips.
Cattle commonly received both the "brand" and the
"mark" of their owner; while horses, to avoid disfigure
ment, were subjected only to the brand.
A rancher of large affairs might, through absorption of
other ranchmen's businesses, become the owner of numer
ous brands and marks; though, in many jurisdictions, he
was limited to registering in his own name a single set of
such emblems.

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 235
Likewise a man without capital but with definite plan
of seff-enrichment would in many instances procure the
recording of a series of such signs of ownership, one in his
own name, the others in the several names of his various
dummies. He would do this because he would anticipate
that, when he took to "rustUng" and to "pasting his
brand" on other people's animals, he would prefer not to
have it seem that each of his four or five mangy cows had
given birth to eight calves in a single season.
Although, strictly speaking, a brand was the product of
a hot iron while a mark was a knife cut, both in coUoquial
usage were termed brands.
The branding-iron was in the form of a straight poker
caUed a "running iron," used Uke a pencU, and producing
a "running brand"; or else it was in the form of a soUd
block of type recording at one touch the whole design and
thus creating a "set brand."
WhUe the brand might be of any size its owner wished,
convenience dictated usuaUy seven inches as the maximum
for both height and breadth, and two and four inches as
the respective minimums for these two dimensions.
The letters, figures, or designs in a brand commonly
bore some relation to the owner's name or to some event
of either business or sentimental interest to him, and al
ways were selected and placed in combination only after
.careful consideration as to the extent of their immunity
from forging alteration. A thief readily could retouch a
letter C into a zero or a letter O; whUe the letter I as readily
could be changed to any one of twelve other letters, or,
'with a numeral placed after it, be transformed into the
figure one. Slight effort would change a 3 into an 8 or a
B, would shift a H into an H. Crowding letters or figures
together, surrounding them with framing lines, placing
short, horizontal markings across their open ends, aU tended
to prevent improper alterations. So did the filling out of

236 THE COWBOY
geometrical diagrams in such way as that there should not
remain strokes, capable with sUght additions of forming
very different-looking markings.
The designs ordinarily used were simple, because com
pUcated ones, when the brands healed and their lines some
what shffted position, were apt to become confused.
When the brand's design bore framing lines, it was said
to be "boxed." In the absence of such enclosure, it was
caUed an "open brand."
Consideration was given also to the location of the knffe
cuts, and to the ad-visabiUty of ha-ving them in straight or
wa-vy sUts, and -with or without discard of a narrow wedge
of cartUage.
Ha-ving designed his brand, the ranchman next decided
and announced how he wanted it to sound when oraUy de
scribed, and thus fixed the order in which the component
elements should be mentioned. In so doing, he rarely exer
cised caprice, but almost always was obedient to the reason
able limitations of common usage.
When a ranchman sold an animal imprinted with his,
the seUing ranchman's, brand, there was given to the pur
chaser a written biU of sale; and the already decorated
animal might receive one, ff not two, additional brands.
Thus, the brate might be given one which was known inter
changeably as the "vent brand" (from Spanish "venta,"
meaning a sale) or "counter brand," and which was the
seller's admission of the fact of sale; and might be sub
jected also to the purchaser's ownership brand. Wherefore
a thoroughly etched side upon a cow meant that she had
had successive owners. The vent brand ordinarUy was a
facsimUe of the seller's ownership brand, though it might
be reduced in size.
WhUe members of the cattle famUy obtained, save in
rare instances, aU the decorations mentioned in the pre
ceding paragraph, horses ordinarily graduated from UabUity

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 237
to branding as soon as they received their initial ownership
impression, and their subsequent proprietors commonly
reUed upon possession of biUs of sale. Branding somewhat
injured the horse's appearance, so he was spared from an
overdose of hot iron.
Upon a cattle drive in which variously branded animals
were to participate, and which was to extend beyond the
limits of a single county, a special brand, known as a "road
brand," was appUed for the purposes of the trip. This brand
assisted the herders in identifying their stock, and also
tended to prevent these herders from improperly merging
in their herd, and spiriting out of the jurisdiction, animals
of uninterested o-wners.
Lastly, there was in Texas for the benefit of its ranchmen
a statutory series of so-caUed " county brands," a separate,
prescribed letter or group of letters for each Texan county.
Thus a Texan, ff he wished, might place upon his animal
not only his individual brand of o-wnership, but also the
county brand of the county in which he ranched; this latter
brand, ff used, going by legal requirement onto the anhnal's
neck. Thereafter a thief, seeking to alter brands, would
be compeUed either to change both the brands, or else to
change the ownership brand to one recorded in the par
ticular county to which the county brand related.
The road brand often was appUed through openings in
the fences of a "shoot," for, if the animals involved were
numerous and mature, their roping would be unduly oner
ous. At the round-up, upon each such unbranded animal as
was attended by a mother went a duplicate of the most
recent ownership brand the mother bore, unless the foUow
ing condition obtained. If the mother were locaUy owned,
and if also her brand were one of a distant State and did
not, upon the local range, appear upon the animals of an
other rancher, her local owner, through desire to protect

238 THE COWBOY
her from undue distress or for other reason, may have re
frained from imposing his own brand upon her. In such
event, her attendant offspring would receive the brand of
its mother's local owner, and not a dupUcate of any brand
the mother carried.
Furthermore, if a mother should display an assortment of
ownership markings so hopelessly confusing as not to dis
close the identity of her then o-wner, her attendant young
ster would be dealt -with as though it were a "maverick,"
which latter, conscience-destroying and trouble-creating
object wiU presently explain itself.
In the absence of such excepting conditions, the infant
received, as a matter of course, a dupUcate of its mother's
most recent ownership inscription, whether burned or cut
or both. She might have strayed -with her chUd from south
ern Texas but, nevertheless, northern Montana was bound
in honor to protect the presumptive Texan o-wner of many
hundred mUes away.
Any person ha'ving in mind these rales and customs and
watching the branding at the corral could confidently read
the branded inscriptions. He would know that "4-28,"
meant "four bar twenty-eight," since a hyphen always
was caUed a "bar"; that, because a capital letter of size
was commonly termed "big," "A2" was translatable into
"big a two"; that, because a letter or figure lying on its
side was termed "lazy," a prone letter "m" underscored
was the "lazy m bar." This person would know also that,
because a ring was dubbed a "circle," a letter "g" enclosed
-within a ring was the "circle g"; that, because a circle's
arc was, according to its length, designated as a "quarter,"
"half," or "three-quarter" "circle," a scant bit of a curve
foUowed by a letter "r" was the "quarter-circle r," and
that, because anything looking like a diamond or even its
cousin was called "diamond," a figure "5" within a lozenge
should be interpreted as "diamond five." This person

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 239
would know also that any paraUelogram, regardless of the
ratio between its length and height, was a "block," a "box,"
or a "square," whichever its owner cared to term it, that
the faintest resemblance to a pair of wings gave the prefix
of "fljdng," so that the numeral "9," between two mis
shapen bulges was the "flying nine," and that other de
signs were attempted pictures, and should be entitled
"broken pipe," "sombrero," "spur," "bit," "elk horn,"
"two star," "wheel," or whatever. FinaUy, this person
would know that stiU further designs had arbitrary, slangy
designations such as "waUop" (a wide letter "U" atop
another letter "U" equaUy wide but inverted), "whang-
doodle" (a group of interlocking wings with no "flying,"
central design), and "hog pen" (two paraUel fines crossing
two other parallel Unes at a right angle).
Sometimes a design had foisted upon it by a naive local
public a designation unexpected by the design's creator.
The late ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, when a ranch
man, registered in Dakota three brands in the respective
forms of an elk hom, a triangle, and a Maltese cross. The
last of these promptly became on his neighbors' Ups the
"Maltee cross," these neighbors supposing that "Mal
tese" was of the plural number.
No Easterner should too patronizingly smile at this inno
cence, for did not New England, years before, not only
share the mariners' belief that one lone Portuguese was a
"Portogee," but also, ha-ving assumed that "chaise" meant
at least two carriages, call a single one of them a "shay"?
All of the pictures used in a brand were of sufficiently
open drawing as not to hide prior brands; because, early
in the industry, it had been found necessary to frown on
cross-hatched markings, as also on burnt spots of abnormal
size, and thus to forbid the use of the "sash," or "window-
sash," the "frying-pan," and other Uke designs, aU capable
of effecting a general obfiteration.

240 THE COWBOY
The marks produced by knife cuts had no technical or
picturesque designations. The latter ran in this typical
manner: "One straight-edged, wedge-shaped sUt on left
side of right ear," etc.
The spectator at the corral could find interesting his
tory on the skins of many of the animals. Over there was
a beef which bore upon his neck "BZ," the county brand
of Brazos County, Texas, and upon his hip the ownership
inscription of a rancher in that county. The brute's sides,
scarred with signs of proprietorship, of sale, and of the road,
declared that he now belonged to the Double Triangle Out
fit of Montana; that, before passing into this ownership,
he had been an asset of successively the Three Flags Ranch
of Wyoming and the Diamond Bar K men in Colorado; and
that he had come northward "on the hoof," and not by raU.
Beyond him, was a steer which showed from his markings
that he had been either a maverick or the chUd of a too
gaudily decorated mother, and also had walked from a
Southern State to the spot at which the spectator saw him.
Of course, no ranchman attempted to remember the
ownership of aU the numerous brands and marks. WhUe
those of the larger, estabUshed ranches were -widely known,
those of smaU or new outfits often forced inquirers from
beyond the local range to apply for information to the
various registering officials.
If, during the transaction at the fire, a wrong brand mis
takenly were appUed to an animal, the beast, nevertheless,
was turned over to the owner of that brand; but, as soon
as an animal of his appeared for marking, it was "traded
back" to the owner of the first brate, and, onto this last
arriving beast, the "traded" animal, went the marking of
the man who had borne the original loss. Thus ultimately
nobody suffered privation from the error. True, for a year,
mother and offspring would carry inconsistent inscriptions;
but the official taUy-sheet would explain the cause. At the

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 241
year's end, parent and child would separate, and no ap
parent e-vidence of "mstUng" would then exist.
However, it might be that no animal would appear for
trading back, in which event the gainer would settle with
the loser by paying cash, by gi-ving an "I.O.U.," or by de-
Uvering an already branded animal, which beast now had
to accept both a vent brand and a second ownership brand.
Pursuant both to long-estabUshed custom, and in some
locaUties to formal edict, branding other than that per
formed by "rastlers" was done usually in the presence of
men from several ranches; but, whether it were so done
or instead were carried on by the men of a single ranch, it
generaUy was intended to be conducted honestly. Even
so, upon a range dominated by a single ranch that treated
weU its employees, the home brand had, through the enthu
siastic loyalty of the punchers, a careless habit of wander
ing, at a round-up, onto an orphan's prostrate form.
There rarely was from overt stealing as much loss as the
noveUsts have set up, for the thief ran too much risk of de
tection and faced the severest of penalties. Thievery in
directly accompUshed through the altering of brands pro
duced very considerable seepage; but its extent, except in
Wyoming, has never been ascertained, even approximately.
In the earUer years, whoever anywhere found a "maver
ick," or "sleeper," an animal unbranded and without ma
ternal escort, might impose on it the finder's ownership
brand. Later, and by successive steps, this broad principle
was greatly restricted. First, it was unofficiaUy decreed
that a man might place his brand upon only such mavericks
as he discovered upon his own range. Next, there was
added to this limitation a further one which not only for
bade any cowboy to place his own brand upon any maver
ick, but also required him, in return for a cash bonus
awarded him for each maverick which he discovered upon
his employer's range, to tum over his finds either, as in

242 THE COWBOY
some locaUties, to his employer or, as in other locaUties,
to the stockmen's association or stock commissioners of
the local State.
But even this amendment left the door open to grave
abuses by unscrupulous persons. The latter, whether
rancher desiring more Uve stock or puncher seeking a bonus,
easily could convert an attractive colt or caff into an actual
orphan. One shot would do it. Because of the acti-vity
of these so-called "maverick factories," as the Range termed
all exterminators of parents with their inconvenient brands,
stiff further amendments seemed necessary. Accordingly,
the bonus system was aboUshed, and on some ranges, it
was prescribed even that no cowpuncher might own Uve
stock. Furthermore, the law ordained that everywhere,
except in such locaUties as locaUy agreed to retain the ear
lier method of permitting a rancher to brand whatever
mavericks he or his men found on his o-wn range, the un
branded waifs should be sold at auction by the local stock
commissioners or association, the buyer then to have right
to add his ownership brand to the vent brand of the selUng
official body, and the cash proceeds from the sale to go either
to the support of the stock inspectors and detectives of the
State in which the transaction occurred, or else to some
other designated pubUc use.
Maverick, speaking from the dictionary, appUed to both
horses and cattle; but upon the Range, the term was re
stricted to members of the cattle famUy, and brandless
colts were termed either "sUck ears," or else, more com
monly and in plain English, "unbranded colts," though
they were dealt with as ff mavericks.
"SUck ear," was sometimes appUed as weU to cattle;
and, in such case, used as a synonym for maverick, it de
noted a whoUy unbranded and unmarked animal. Never
theless, in strict usage, it meant merely an animal the ear
of which was "slick," i. e., not sUt with any ownership mark.

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 243
In some locaUties, maverick was limited to animals which
were at least one year of age, although, in other locaUties,
it took in every unbranded calf the moment it ceased to
foUow its mother and began an independent Ufe.
When Samuel Maverick, a Texan rancher of long years
ago, refused to brand his cattle and continually bedeviUed
his neighbors with questions as to the whereabouts of his
straying animals, he Uttle knew that he thereby was forc
ing his name into the English lexicon.
Such is the kindlier of the two traditions as to how his
name crept into the dictionary. His detractors insist that
he arrived in Texas with no assets except a branding-iron,
a moraUty which was bUnd in one eye, a far-sightedness for
unbranded animals, and a tireless perseverance.
The honesty of the West was not so complete as to ex
clude the existence of so-called "brand artists," "brand
blotters," or "brand blotchers," these being gentlemen
who, with ingenuity and a piece of hot metal, added marks
to those already on a beast and made the final result iden
tical -with the "artist's" registered brand.
So flagrantly did these gentlemen miswield the "running
iron," that several States eventuaUy forbade its use by any
body, and everywhere its mere possession gave rise to sus
picion. Not only was this poker-Uke implement inducive to its
transporter's disrepute; but also it was heavy and was
awkward to carry on the saddle. Of course, honest men
had but infrequent need to carry irons, but the rustler felt
himself constrained never to be without one. He had al
ways to be prepared to "pick up manna," that is to say,
to steal, even though he might thus describe his loot as a
gift from heaven. For a while after running irons became
unfashionable, he affected broken horseshoes or the side
bars of riding bits, as being both portable and inconspicuous;
but they, when heated, proved hard to manipulate.

244 THE COWBOY
Baling wire or, with the majority of thieves, telegraph
wire took the place of all these appUances, and were much
more convenient. The wire could be folded and hidden
in the pocket, was light in weight, could be twisted into
the shape of many set brands, and, from its smaU diameter,
made Unes such as best melted into the already healed scars
of whatever legitimate brand was being "doctored."
Interposing a wet blanket or wet buckskin between the
beast's side and the hot iron or wire tended to make the
artist's work look, from the time he "painted his picture
on the cow," like a fairly old brand.
The artists' harvest days were those immediately foUow
ing the round-up when the legaUy made scars were stiU
fresh upon the animals.
During the progress of branding, the punchers often sub
jected cattle to two humiUating actions from which horses
were spared. Though a horse, when roped and thrown, was
accorded the dignity of being held by lariats untU aU work
on him had been finished, a caff was promptly deprived
of the reata as soon as the infant struck the ground. There
upon the Uttle brate, through a most impolite seizure of
its ears, had its head so twisted as to Ue flat on the earth
and to offer a seat to one officiating puncher. To effectuaUy
stifle any kicking, a second puncher, with one of his feet,
pushed one hind leg of the squealing 'victim weU forward,
and, with both hands, pulled the other hind leg far to the
rear. The Uttle caff thus lay helpless, its bulging eyes wUdly
rolUng, while stUl two other cowboys, one with hot iron,
the other with knffe, made brands and cuts.
Then too, very frequently mature cattle, after being
thrown by roping or taiUng or buUdogging, had their legs
(usually two hind and one front) fastened together by a
short piece of Une; whereupon the lariats, ff any, were cast
off. Thus "hog- tied," the 'victim was whoUy impotent.
As he was reached by the cowboys on their rounds of the

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 245
prone animals, he received such treatment as he was to
have, and then was released. Punchers of Mexican blood
frequently used for the tying, not a section of rope, but
the sashes which these men customarUy wore.
A horse was never hog-tied, and rarely, save by accident,
was roped on a hind leg. Doing either of these things might
cause such a strain as permanently to injure him for riding
purposes. With any member of the cattle famUy, the rear
legs were favorite targets for the lariat. A catch above
one or both hind feet sprawled the beast out with ungrace
ful elongation, and deprived him of tractive force. After
aU, a horse was a horse, but a steer was only meat.
So expert were the punchers that often has a single, un
assisted man accomplished, in terms of seconds, not of min
utes, the entire task of first "spiUing" a fuUy grown steer
by roping or "dogging," and of forthwith hog-tying it.
Eventually at the corral all the unbranded animals were
cut out, and all of them were branded, excepting possibly
some "strays," which belonged on a distant range. As
these vagrants were to be started immediately on their
homeward journey, it was decided by the people present
not to hamper them with burns and cuts, but to leave the
making of such decorations to a home-welcoming by the
vagrants' owners.
AU brute ¦visitors from other ranges, whether such visi
tors were cattle or horses, were technicaUy termed "strays,"
or "estrays," though, in colloquial usage, these technical
terms were usuaUy reserved for the cattle, leaving errant
horses to be caUed "stray horses." The beast's wander
ing from home might have resulted either from indi'vidual
likings for travel or else from the dispersion of animals in
volved previously in a drfft.
The term stray was applied to a single beast or to the
brates in a small group. When a large number of animals
"bimched up" or "banded up," and marched away from

246 THE COWBOY
their home range, they, so long as they clung together,
were referred to, not as "strays," but as "drifting" or
"drffted" animals, this last according as they were stiU
migrating or had reached their goal.
As one by one the strays were discovered in the corral,
they, whether branded or not, were segregated into sepa
rate lots according to their several home ranges, and, at
the conclusion of the round-up's work, were "thrown over"
to those ranges. This throwing over was accomplished
through the beasts being driven homeward by men from
their own ranches or ranges, or, if none such were present,
by other punchers assigned to the task.
If cattle were to be shipped to market, such as were cut
out for the purpose and thus formed the so-caUed "beef
cut" were herded into isolated groups, there being one
such group for each interested ranch, and each such group
being termed a "cut," unless some Texan happened by and
chanced to call it a "day herd." When any such cut had
received aU its members, it automaticaUy was, in nomen
clature, transformed from a "cut" into a "bunch" or
"herd," and was ready to begin its active progress toward
the railway and the slaughter-house.
When the last estray had been cut out and segregated,
when the beef cut had been completed, and when the last
animal to be branded had emitted its odor of burning hair
and singed skin, had scrambled stiffly to its feet and gone
in search of maternal sympathy, there ceased aU dealings
with the original herd. It had, in technical language, been
"worked." In other words, the job was done.
Though the round-up described in the foregoing pages
made use of corrals, and this was the prevalent method,
the final handUng of cattle in some locaUties during the
later years of the ranching industry was done, not within
fences, but in an "open" round-up. This modffication came
from reaUzation that corrals were not necessary adjuncts

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 247
for cattle, and from discovery that the ones already built
were being used by thieves, particularly in their nocturnal
work. Horses, if in quantity, stiU called for a corral. Without
it they were too difficult to manage.
For the open round-up there was agreed upon in advance
a "holding spot" at which the cattle herd should be stopped
and worked. This place would be a vaUey's end or lateral
extension, or a wide-spreading, shaUow depression, or, if
nature offered no such aid, then merely certain acres on
the flat plain. When the designated spot was reached by
the herd, the cowboys headed the cattle and started them
to "milUng" {i. e., marching in a circle). From the mass
thus "held" by these men, were cut out, as they were
needed, the desired animals.
If the primary task in hand were branding, the brutes
cut out for that purpose were free to wander whither they
would as soon as the hot iron had performed its function.
Then, too, strays required to be thrown over to their
home ranges would be coUected and started on their jour
ney. MeanwhUe, other and long-since branded animals, ff
showing contagious nervousness, would be cut out one by
one and chased away; but, if reasonably placid, they would
be kept as decoys to lessen the chance of a general stam
pede. When the last animal to be branded had received
its burn and aU the strays had been disposed of, whatever
beasts stiU were "held" were forthwith released to their
own de-vices, for the herd had been worked.
But if cattle were to be shipped, such as were cut out
for the purpose were driven to a second holding spot which
was a Uttle removed from the first, and there, as the "beef
cut," were held by mounted men employing the same meth
ods as those above described.
When, at this minor rendezvous, had been collected aU

248 THE COWBOY
the animals quaUfied for it, the bunch assembled there was
ready to be started toward its destination.
There would be as many of these separate concentration
stations as there were separate destinations for the cut-out
cattle, and each thus segregated lot of animals was termed,
as in the case of the corral employing round-up, a "cut"
or "day herd." Not only would each interested rancher
have at least one such rendezvous, but also there likely
would be one for each lot of strays which was to be thrown
over to its proper Range.
Very possibly during the progress of any round-up, quite
probably while the resultant product was being driven to
the railway, and assuredly from the instant it reached the
raUway untU it was slaughtered or otherwise disposed of,
all the beasts involved were under the active espionage
of Range detectives and of stock inspectors.
Those tireless men gUded Uke shadows about the Range
and along the routes of shipment.
At any moment between the time that, on the plains,
cattle were started for the raUway and the time that, in
Chicago, Omaha, or Kansas City, they were confronted
by the butcher's poleaxe, it might be discovered by one
of those official detectives or inspectors, by one of the ship
per's men, by an outsider, that in the herd were scattered
strays from ranges other than that of the shipper. If suit
able for beef, these beasts were not discarded, to resume a
life unprofitable to their owners or to pass permanently
beyond their owners' advantage; but were sent through
the ordinary channel of shipment, sale, and slaughter. Al
though in the earUer years the profit was to their shipper,
in later years their money proceeds were forwarded through
routine channels to their proper owners by the market in
spector maintained at the abattoir by the stock commis
sioners or association of the State whence the brates were
shipped.

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 249
Such an inspector might find, amid a consignment, beasts
with brands that belonged on the shipper's Range, but not
to the shipper, or else might find beasts with suspicious
looking brands suggestive of "artist's" altering. It was
his duty to ascertain ff possible the actual owners of the
questionable stock, and to remit to them the seUing moneys;
or, ff such owners could not be found, to pay over the funds
to the stock commissioners or association of the State from
which the animals had been sent.
If, in the case of an "altered brand," an official could
not, by external inspection, ascertain what had been the
original design, he might kill and skin the animal in order
to read the inner surface of its hide.
Immunity from steaUng was so utterly dependent upon
strict guarding of the branding system that, in Wyoming,
no person might slaughter unbranded cattle and, in every
Westem State, butchers were required to retain on pubUc
¦view, for a specffied number of days, the hides of all cattle
kiUed by them.
When branding a calf, the group of men about it some
times received a hurried visit from the Uttle fellow's mother;
which, unadvised that his wounds were so superficial as to
lose their scabs -within two weeks, and responsive only to
his vealish cry for mama, eluded her human guards and
arrived on the scene, head down and at considerable speed.
If no readUy climbable fence were at hand, escape was ef
fected by a matadorUke wait tiU the strategic moment,
by a handful of dust thrown into the charging animal's
eyes, and by a coincident jump or roU out of her course.
This dust tended not only to prevent the cow from dodging
with the dodging man, but also to discourage her from
promptly wheeling and returning to the attack.
The cowboy feared the Range cow more than he did any •
buU or steer. Except when "dusted" she kept her eyes
open, her mind on her job. She was exceedingly quick of

250 THE COWBOY
motion, for aU Range cattle were, for short distances, prac
tically as fast as ridden horses. With horns in Ueu of
a broom, she went about her house-cleaning 'with consider
able enthusiasm and thoroughly feminine persistency.
The buU or steer, on the other hand, lumberingly moved
himself into battle position, horns to the enemy, roaringly
advertised that he was about to annihUate, lowered his
head, shut both eyes, and came on Uke a runaway coal-truck.
The intended -victim had merely to bide his own time, and,
taking a short step to one side, to watch a blundering, con
ceited mass of flesh pound harmlessly by.
The cowboy's intimate knowledge of animals' natures
and his alert observation repeatedly saved him from sit
uations which otherwise would have meant disaster for
him. Some ranchmen's knowledge of animals' natures occa
sionally worked to the disadvantage of the Red Man who
was expecting to eat governmentaUy furnished beef. These
ranchmen knew among other things that cattle, removed
from the latter's Range but released -within a few days'
journey of their former haunts, would promptly journey
homeward. This homing instinct and the legal effect of
the brand together laid the foundation for an abuse prac
tised in connection with the Indians' affairs and kno-wn on
the Range as "stampeding the beef issue."
The United States Government, as an incident of its
care of its Indian wards, issued to them at stated intervals,
beef on the hoof. This beef was in the form of Uve cattle
bought from the lowest bidding ranchmen and herded into
a corral at the Indian Agency.
Each so many Indians was entitled to one animal, each
such Indian group being given for the purpose a serially
, numbered claim ticket. As a ticket's number was an
nounced, the group holding that ticket ranged itself at the
entrance of the corral. The bars were lowered, and there

BRANDING AND THE ROUND-UP 251
was let out one animal, which the Indians of the group
might, as they elected, kill on the spot or drive away.
Thus animals were successively released from the corral.
MeanwhUe, within it cowboys were urging up to the bars
two or three renegade steers which studiously had been
teased. Another ticket's number was announced. Up
stepped expectantly an Indian group. Down went the bars,
and out shot the renegades, with the whole herd, obedient
to cattle's gregarious instinct, galloping behind them.
The stock, thus freed, headed for home; and by reason
of its brands, became for aU practical purposes, once more
the property of the very persons who had sold it to the gov
ernment. As regards this abuse, the government would do nothing,
the Indians could do nothing, and the dishonest, benefited
ranchmen kept quiet.
The "beef issue" was of so unsavory a reputation that
many ranchmen would make no tenders for it.

CHAPTER XIII
THE CATTLE DRI-VE
CATTLE DRI-VE — SINGING TO CATTLE — STAMPEDE — BURIALS OF DEAD MEN
— DEFINITIONS — ^WATERING LI'VE STOCK — MORE DEFINITIONS — RAIL SHIP
MENTS — SHOOTING GAME FROM TRAINS — ^MORALITY OP 'WEST — FURTHER
DEFINITIONS — TEXAS TRAIL AND OREGON DRIVE — SWIMMING CATTLE —
QUICKSAND — ^MILLING — CROSSING A RAILWAY — QUARANTINE — ^FINANCIAL
RESULTS If, upon the completion of a round-up, the saleable stock
thereby yielded to a rancher were cattle, the next task for
this rancher would be to start promptly toward the "ship
ping point," the animals that were to be sold. But, ff the
stock were horses, the terms of sale might require that the
beasts be weU broken, an obligation which, on the Range,
was summed up in the single word "gentled," and which
would take the animals, in their first movement, not to
the raUway but to the corrals near their owner's home ranch-
house. Assume that the stock was cattle. Accordingly, when
aU confusion about the rodeo corral or holding spot had
abated, the brutes were herded into a ragged column and
were headed toward the distant railway.
The men accompanying the beasts were in number such
as, for a large herd, allowed — not counting the foreman
(usually termed "traU boss"), his assistant (sometimes
caUed the "segundo") and the cook — one puncher to each
two hundred and fifty cattle. A large herd was controUed
more easily than was a smaU one.
No puncher rode directly in front of the column, the
theory being that, the less the herd realized that it was under
constraint, the more disposed it would be to behave itseff
properly. Nevertheless, on each side of the column, paraUel
252

THE CATTLE DRIVE 253
with it, and at some distance from it rode a line of cowboys
with long intervals between the men. The foremost one
of the punchers in each of these lines was sUghtly more ad
vanced than the van of the herd and was called a "point
man" or "lead rider." Each of the men in line behind him
was termed a "swing man" or "flank rider." At the rear
of the column came the tail riders, the remuda and the men
in charge of it, and finally the chuck-wagon.
The function of the swing men was not only to block
their own cattle from sidewise wandering, but also to fend
off aU such foreign cattle as tried to merge themselves in
the driven herd.
For the first week, the herd was "shoved" to the reason
able Umit of its speed, that the beasts might tire into sub-
missiveness, and thereafter wiUingly keep to the course
which their owners had planned. During that week there
was made mUeage, but not all of it in one direction. When
eventually resigned to a single aim, the animals would make
a daUy sinuous progress of from ten to fifteen mUes accord
ing to the smoothness of the traversed country. But only
the kindUest of routes permitted a day's march to exceed
ten mUes.
It was tiresome grimy business for the attendant
punchers, who travelled ever in a cloud of dust, and heard
Uttle but the constant chorus from the crackling of hoofs
and of ankle joints, from the bellows, lows, and bleats of
the trudging animals.
The caravan started forth each morning at "sun-up,"
crawled on tiU late afternoon, and then, as a preliminary
to halting for the night and as a preventive of entangle
ment with other traveUing herds, was "thrown" or "thrown
off " a half mile or more froin the side of the traU, if at that
point it were narrow and in general use. For the halting
place, the so-called bed ground, the punchers, in order best
to satisfy the cattle's inborn preferences, tried to find land

254 THE COWBOY
that offered fresh grass to eat, old dry grass to Ue upon,
and, if the weather were warm, an elevation sufficient to
catch the breeze.
The animals, throughout their day-long march, nipped
at the grass that they passed; but at the evening halt they
set themselves to a solid meal. This eaten, the cattle em
barked, as did Range horses, upon the same regimen as
that which wild animals pursued. Two hours after dark
the cattle one by one sank down to sleep, to rise again at
midnight and to browse untU that depressing time of night,
two o'clock, when aU vitality ebbs and the Death Angel
frequently calls dying men. Another hour or so of sleep,
another browsing, another nap, and then the dawn sum
moned the cattle to their feet. But, with the full moon's
Ught, the beasts would eat practicaUy aU night long.
AU through the darkness men of the "night herd," work
ing in shffts of from two to four hours, rode about the ani
mals; and as the men rode they constantly serenaded the
beasts by crooning to them songs or chants, which, when so
used, were entitled "h3anns." This serenading was done
partly to hold the cattle under the compeUing speU of the
human voice, and partly to disabuse from the mind of any
fearsome member of the herd suspicion that either a
puncher's silhouette against the sky-line or else the noise
of his moving pony might represent a snooping dragon.
The rider, when "singing to the cattle," as his vocal
efforts were styled, disgorged aU the words he knew set to
all the tunes he could remember or invent, but omitted
any sound or inflection which might startle. Sacred airs
were usual, for from their simple melodies they were easy
of remembrance, and also they then stiU held the national
popularity which since has passed to the tunes of the music-
haUs; but the words set to these churchly airs weU might
have surprised the clergy. The proper words, accounts of
horse-races, unflattering opinions of the cattle, strings of

THE CATTLE DRIVE 255
profanity, the voluminous text on the labels of coffee or
condensed mUk-cans, mere humming sounds, aUke and
with seemingly deep religious fervor, were poured on many
a night into the appreciative ears of an audience with cloven
hoofs. Herded horses might wish for an occasional reas
suring word, but they lacked debased operatic taste.
Thus tired men, cat-napping but always crooning, were
out in the black, their ponies steadily, slowly patroUing,
though haff asleep; but man and horse were ready to wake
like a shot and to act the instant that a steer started to
"roU his tail," or, in less technical English, to gallop with
his tail humped up at its shore end, an infallible sign of con
fident expectation to disregard both distance and time.
There was for the men, throughout a cattle drive, no
recreation except swearing, and the eating of the very dusty
meals which the attendant chuck-wagon pro-vided. But
as for work, there was always the exacting labor of daily
routine punctuated from time to time by such extra gallop
ing tasks as, without warning, the temperamental natures
of the cattle interjected. And also from time to time a
"traU-cutter" might "cut the traU," which is to say might
require the punchers to halt the marching herd, to reduce
it to such form as would facUitate inspection, to permit
an inspection, to cut from the herd and deUver to the trail-
cutter such animals, if any, as he was entitled to demand.
This cutting upon the drive was termed "trimming the
herd." Each ranch owner whose Range was being traversed by
the driven cattle had the right to cut the trail, and might
do so in person or through any duly accredited employee.
Such a trail-cutter might demand from the drovers only
the animals belonging to the cutter's ranch. Each official
stock inspector and Range detective might also cut the
traU, and might demand aU animals which, though actually
within the herd, did not legally belong therein.

256 THE COWBOY
Day after day the marching cattle sauntered down the
traU. Presently, they encountered a second bunch of stock
coUected at another of their o'wners' corrals, and were
"bunched up" or "banded up" with these brutes. So it
went tiU aU that the owners were to ship was in a single
herd, and that ambled on by day and halted by night untU
the "our town," the "our shipping point" ofthe guarding
punchers, and its pens beside the railroad track were reached
and absorbed the expedition.
AU through the journey the animals had proceeded
quietly and rested decently until one moment when there
came a snort, a bellow. What caused the snort and beUow
nobody knew or could stop to ascertain. Merely "tails"
had "rolled," and a stampede was on. From a common
centre cattle were darting toward every point of the com
pass. It was "aU hands to the pumps!" and into saddle
and on the ran for every man. Riders armed with saddle
blankets, with doffed coats, hastUy plucked sage-brush
plants, anything that could be waved, holding pistols, the
only attainable objects that would make a commanding
noise, gaUoped out beyond the fleeing animals, headed and
flanked them, "cutting in" aU incipient, bo'vine meteors.
FinaUy, the frayed edges of the mass constricted, and the
whole was reduced to a ragged, narrow, rashing column,
one set of gaUoping cowboys guiding its van, another, as
flank riders, guarding its sides and endeavoring so far as
possible to soothe the animals. The forefront of this column
was, under the pilotage of the attacking horsemen, swerved
into the shape of a shepherd's crook, and a moment later
the herd was pouring itseff into the form of a capital letter
"U." When its two ends came opposite each other, they were
welded together by a yelling, wa-ving, shooting set of mad
men on the backs of flying, snorting horses.
This started "milUng," a merry-go-round which kept

THE CATTLE DRIVE 257
up until the participating cattle quit from exhaustion. Of
course, milUng did not take place in a circle, an elUpse, an
oval, or in any other geometrical form. It occurred in an
irregular chunk of grunting, beUowing cattle, overspread
and surrounded by an unbreathable cloud of biting dust,
with cursing cowboys acting as satelUtes.
To the miserable humans in charge of the milUng, its
disadvantage was the discomfort which it caused; its ad
vantage was that the cattle involved in it were, at its con
clusion, at the place from which they had started, instead
of mUes away.
The milUng stopped, the animals commenced peacefuUy
to graze, and the men were where they began, but were
very tired and very mad. In their next ensuing hymns,
they definitely told the animals what was thought of them.
After every stampede there was made a careful counting
and inspection of the rebunched cattle, since not only did
aU absentees have to be hunted for, but also there had to
be cut out and chased away any foreign beasts that might
have been absorbed into the herd during the sweeping prog
ress of the stampede.
If riders were enmeshed in the stampede or the miUing,
as they often were, they hastened along with the fracas;
and, as opportunity offered, worked their way through open
ings and shot out to safety. It was a dangerous game of
checkers played on the run.
A stampede at night and in a country beset with "cut
banks," i. e., precipitous hUlsides, beset also with deep can
yons, with vertically sided arroyos, with gopher and badger
holes, kUled many a steer, broke many a pony's leg, left
many a rider Ufeless on the ground.
After every night stampede there was a counting of
human noses. This was done with anxiety which always
was as tender in spirit as it was flippant in form. The riders,
returning one by one during the next day's morning hours.

258 THE COWBOY
came into camp, and an atmosphere of banter — ^banter which,
in joking phrases and with several participants, ran on one
occasion somewhat as follows: "HuUoa, Shorty, where'd
you come from? Thought you was dead. . . . Where's
Baldy? Guess he's gone off to git married. . . . No, he
ain't. Here he comes. . . . Everybody's in but Jack and
Skinny. They must a ridden all the way to Omaha. . . .
There's Jack now, comin' up over the top of that rise."
The banter suddenly ceased, for, as soon as Jack had
come completely over the top of the hUl and into clear -view,
he had begun to ride rapidly in a smaU circle. This was
one of the equestrian Indians' two signals of important
news or of request for strangers to advance for parley, and
was often used by whites as a messenger of Uke import
or of serious tidings. At the first circle, some one remarked
"Mebbe Jack's plajdng with a rattler. No, he ain't. There
he goes again. He's shore signalling," whUe some one else
added "Jack wouldn't do that for no cows. It must be
Skinny." The camp had risen to its feet and started for
the tethered ponies.
Suddenly there floated do-wn the breeze three faint sounds
evenly spaced. The wind had shifted, and its new course
straight from Jack to the camp gi-ving promise that sounds
would carry thither, he had used his gun. The camp gasped,
"My God, it's Skinny," and then the foreman said, with
machine-gun rapidity but icUy quiet tone, "Pete, quick,
get them two clean shirts that's drying on the wagon tongue.
We may need 'em for bandages." Nobody mentioned any
thing about a shovel, but a colUsion at the wagon's taU-
board and the sound of rasping metal showed that three
men instinctively had sought for the sometimes sad utensU,
and that it was in hand.
In rapid strides of exaggerated length the punchers ap
proached their horses. One beast shied away, but stopped
the instant there rang out with tinny sound, "Damn you,

THE CATTLE DRIVE 259
Bronc, quit that," and thereafter the brute crouched and
trembled and made no opposition to taking its bit and sad
dle. Bits were driven into horses' mouths like wedges into
spUt logs. No effort was made to gather in cinches and off
side latigos, to lay them atop the saddles, and to place the
latter gently on the ponies' backs. The saddles, each
grasped by hom and cantle, were waved in air to straighten
out the latigos, and were slapped onto cringing backs with
a sound like that of a slatting saU on a windy day.
At times like this when men were fierce and in a kUling
mood, their horses seemed to sense the situation. The most
chronic buckers would forego their pitching avocation, and,
squatting low in tremor, would receive their load and never
make a single jump.
The camp moved out to waiting Jack, and with it went
the two clean shirts, each clutched against a rider's chest.
There were jerky, vertical single nods of heads. Jack
supplementing his own nod by one later, slow, horizontal
turning of his head to right and then to left. A gentle sigh
rose from the arriving punchers, two hands impotently
opened and let two shirts flutter to the ground. Jack's
inquiring look was answered by Ike's sUght raising of the
handle of the shovel, which thus far he had endeavored to
conceal. Then came the first spoken words. Jack com
menced the conversation, and in part it ran: "He's up at
the end of the big draw, right by the spUt rock. Went
over that high cut bank, him and a mess of cattle. He's
lyin' under 'em. He never knowed what hit him. . . .
No, I wam't with him. Just now seen his sign as I was
coming acrost. I seen it was headed for the cut bank,
so I chassdd over there." The foreman added: "Well,
boys, let's get at it."
Then the little funeral cortege, having silently smoked a
cigarette or two, feU into jiggling trot and headed for the
big draw.

260 THE COWBOY
The funerals of the men who died in this way, of many
Western men, were deeply affecting from their crude, sin
cere simplicity. About the open grave, which was at merely
"somewhere on the plain," would gather a serious-faced
little group. The body, wrapped in a saddle-blanket, would
be lowered gently into its resting-place, and then would
come a pause. Each attendant strongly wished that some
appropriate statement might be made either to God or
about the dead; but each man felt himself unequal to the
task, and stood nervously wiping his forehead. Perhaps
the strain wrung from some one person a sudden ejacula
tion. If so, the requirement for utterance had been satis
fied, and all the mourners felt a buoyant sense of relief. If
nobody spoke, some wandering eye fastened on the shovel.
Whether by the ending of the spoken words or by the recog
nition of the spade, the signal for the filUng of the grave
had come.
When the fiUed-in earth had been pounded to smoothness
and had been overlaid with rocks, as a barrier to marauding
animals, it was time to leave. That parting would not be
accomplished or even begun untU there had terminated
the strained, awkward silence under which most American
men cloak their deeper feelings. The sUence usuaUy was
ended by an expression spontaneously emitted from over
wrought nerves, and often profane in form though not in
intent. Speech broke the tension, horses were remounted,
and the world was faced again.
At the foot of one of the noblest peaks in the Rocky
Mountains lies a grave. Its occupant died in a stampede.
All that was said at the interment came out hesitatingly
and as follows: "It's too bad, too bad. Tom, dig a little
deeper there. Hell, boys, he was a man," and presently,
when the burial had been completed, "Bill, we boys leave
you to God and the mountain. Good-by, BiU. Damn it,
Jim, look out for your bronc."

THE CATTLE DRIVE 261
Out of the darkness during a wUd, night stampede might
-vibrate the blood-curdling death scream of a mangled horse.
It was no more merry in tone than is the shriek of a woman
in the face of murder. Nature seems to have invented
various horrid sounds for the final leave-takings of the sev
eral species of her animal subjects.
From the insensate miUing of frightened bisons came
that picturesque Range word "buffaloed," as a slangy
synonym for mentaUy confused.
The term "stampede" too was picture-making, coming
as it did from the Spanish word "estampida," meaning a
crash or loud noise.
On various nights our punchers, bound townward with
their cattle, had seen the distant camp-fires of other "cow
outfits," which were travelUng just as our men were; but
neither our punchers nor those of these foreign "cow camps"
had had time for social -visits.
The punchers of one of these outfits caused, one day,
our punchers much trouble and some anxiety through failure
to "hold" the former's herd until our men's animals had
finished drinking at a waterhole. The aUen cattle, pushing
forward, had overran and so fully melded with those of
our men that it had taken the active efforts of all the riders
on the scene to cut the commingled beasts into their proper
herds. Competent punchers upon their gaUoping ponies required
but little time for separating two or more herds that thus
had tangled themselves, however confusedly.
But our men's anxiety had had real foundation. They
had feared lest their weaker animals — these weakly beasts
naturally had been the last to drink — ^might be crashed by
the thirst-maddened brutes advancing from the strangers'
bunch. Not uncommonly at drinking-places in dry coun
tries driven cattle were crowded to their death or mortally
trampled under foot by other cattle pushing in from the rear.

262 THE COWBOY
Cattle, when loose upon the Range, and on their own initi
ative seeking drink, performed somewhat curiously. They
would suddenly stop eating, would raise their heads, start
on a trot, steadUy increase their speed, and finally would
upon a gallop arrive at the waterhole. They quietly would
drink; but, when satiated, would leave as precipitately as
they had come.
Both the cattle and the horses in driven herds required,
because of the sustained effort and the awful dust, more
frequent drink than when the beasts were shffting for them
selves. In addition, the farther they were bred away from
the original "-wUd" blood, the more often they demanded
water. WUd horses and wUd cattle during a drought would
wander about for days without drinking, and would keep
aUve even though thirst might both sweU and blacken their
tongues. Range horses and Range cattle, when loose upon the
Range, demanded, for keeping in good condition, access
to water at least once in every forty-eight hours; but ff
caUed upon to do so, could withstand thirst for a number
of successive days. Many of the beasts, for reasons known
only to themselves, selected for their habitual grazing-
grounds tracts far from any waterhole, and so had regularly
to travel mUes to and from their drinking spot.
The recently mentioned Ughts of "cow camps," direct
attention to an inconsistency in American English where
by "cow camp" labelled a merely temporary stopping-
place, although "miffing camp," denoted a lasting settle
ment of some size. But should a "cow camp" attain a
substantial, human population and decide to root itself
in permanently, it automaticaUy became a "cow town."
As our men's cattle were so numerous as to fiU many
railway-cars, the owners of the beasts would send, as care
takers or as not uncommonly caUed "horse pushers" or
"buU nurses," two or three cowboys with the shipment to

THE CATTLE DRIVE 263
its ultimate destination, the abattoirs of Chicago, Omaha,
or Kansas City, theoretically to tend the stock en route,
practically to ride all the way in the caboose, and to com
pare the game of poker as developed on transportation sys
tems 'with that evolved upon the Range.
But, had the cattle been few in number, the brutes would
have been intrasted on the journey to some other outfit's
punchers bound eastward with their beeves.
Perhaps, upon the journey, the engineer would sight
game near the track, and would stop a few minutes that
the occupants of the caboose might stock the larder.
UntU the decade of the nineties, in the days when newly
laid tracks and hastUy built bridges not infrequently went
to pot, and made the time-table a nuUity, passenger-trains
were not uncommonly halted for this same purpose. More
than one now living person can recaU that, even upon the
Overland Limited, there has been a sudden stop, and that
presently thereafter the conductor has announced in each
car: "Gents, the dining-car is short on meat. The engineer
has just 'raised' a band of antelope. If there is any ranch
men or hunting-parties present that has Winchesters, will
they obUge?" With due warning of such impending
famine, a prudent conductor occasionally would break the
news that the dining-car was "ate out," and then add: "WiU
ranchmen and hunting-parties with rifles please obfige by
moving forward to the baggage-car? We're just about
entering the antelope country." This anabasis expedited
stalking, and produced through machine-gun effect a more
telling fire.
On one occasion, a Northern Pacific train, which had
for several days been stalled by a washout, began eventuaUy
its hungry journey along a bank of the Yellowstone River.
Above the river, flocks of geese for several miles flew parallel
with the railway-track. By the conductor's in-vitation, the
baggage-car had been temporarily converted into a mo-ving

264 THE COWBOY
shooting-lodge. Every time a shot goose dropped in shal
low water, the train stopped.
Not infrequently ranchmen "obUged" by aUghting from
a train, and kiUing such cattle as had wandered into a rail
way cut and been injured by the train.
Punchers, when bound for the Eastern abattoirs, scorned
to pack their spare belongings into gunny "war sacks,"
and pro-vided themselves at the "general store" -with
"boughten" bags of carpet or of imitation leather, bags
such as urban folk then employed. These new receptacles
the punchers often termed "go-easters."
In the youth of the cattle industry, long raUway trips
were infrequent for the ranchmen, because at that time
delivery often was made at the local railroad shipping-point.
There the animals were received as so many "head," or,
if on the basis of weight, then in terms of estimated pounds,
and when once so deUvered, passed out of the field of the
ranchmen's UabUity and into the purgatory of foodless,
waterless miles of bumping raUway journey.
Then came the decent laws which required, upon the
cars, fodder, periodical halts for drink and rest, and con
sequent necessity for human attendants; and came also
the habit of requiring deUvery to be made at the abattoirs,
with weights determined by their scales.
Let us follow the punchers to Chicago or wherever.
Hours, not days, after reaching the destination, there almost
always arose ample basis for that moot subject of school-
day debates: "Which can the better care for himseff, the
city boy in the country or the country boy in the city?"
Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona, and old Dakota have seen their sons taken
unawares, black-jacked and felled in the slums of the slaugh
ter-house cities of the Middle West.
However, for this the Far West never attempted to re-
taUate upon strangers within its borders. Whoever hunted

THE CATTLE DRIVE 265
there for trouble could find it, but trouble usually was re
served for the exclusive use of such as sought it. The Range
may have been untutored in Old World drawing-room con
ventions, but it was humanly decent and humanly generous.
It roughly hazed newcomers only when by superciliousness
they impUedly asked for the treatment, though the askers
received at least all they had requested. Such newcomers
as, instead of having positive quality and being affirmatively
disagreeable, were of negative worth and merely not agree
able were not overtly assailed. Simply they were ignored
and were left to wither away from ostracism.
A stone went under the saddle-blanket of such only as
did not meet the West eye to eye. The tenderfoot who
could not ride, had the courage to announce it, and was a
man, was given at the ranches horses ashamed to buck. A
man, who was of the same manly ilk, who for moral reasons
did not wish to drink alcohol, but did not make unctuous
advertisement of personal piety, could walk into any saloon
in any settlement in the Cattle Country, and, save in the
rarest of cases, be as happily treated over his glass of water
as he would have been had he asked for "red eye."
However, there was one thing which that tenderfoot
could not safely attempt. This was peremptorily handing
his coat to a Westerner to carry. Throughout the Range
such an offer was construed as an affirmative attack upon
personal dignity, and beyond that upon the very democracy
of the West.
The phrase "humanly decent," when used above, bore
no relation to the question as to whether or not the men
of the Range were any more devoted to the urban "red-
light districts" than were their Eastern brothers. They
were not so, if the testimony of many old-timers be credible.
Admittedly, at the end of lengthy cattle drives, notably
that of the Texas Trail, the attendant riders, as a rebound
from protracted, gruelUng duties, were prone to engage

266 THE COWBOY
in orgies. Dodge City, Abilene, Newton, and their sister
cow towns standing at the end of the long trail were, for
the dusty, tired, jubilant, arri'ving puncher, relatively the
same as for years was Paris to the ocean-crossing American
— Ucense rather than a place.
MoraUty with many a man was local. He might refuse
to foul his own nest; yet, when travelUng far away from
it, his restrictive decency was apt to decrease in ratio with
the square of the distance. As Smoke Murphy said at Jules
burg: "Many a -virtuous polar bear raises heU on the equa
tor." But long drives were, for any given man, unless he be
longed to the small coterie that speciaUzed upon Texas
TraU work, only an occasional function. For the most
part of his time he stayed comparatively near home, and
home as such, however simple, were it only a one-man dug
out, ever had compeUing moral effect.
West was, as regards its eastern boundary, a relative
term. For the purposes of this writing, the West is taken
as the country "west of the Missouri River," i. e., west
ward of approximately the meridian of Omaha, Nebraska;
but that country also had its intersectional comparisons.
With a peg driven into the ground at any point in the United
States westward of the Mississippi River, one found, as one
still finds, aU persons li-ving on the sunset side of that peg
regarding aU transpeg people as Easterners. Colorado has
ever been "back East" to Arizona.
The interchangeable phrases "west of the Missouri
River," "west of the Missouri," and "west of the river"
(with simon-pure old-timers the Missouri was merely "the
river") had a very definite meaning in the Cattle Country.
The ferries from present CouncU Bluffs, Iowa, to the site of
present Omaha, and from first Independence or Westport,
and later "St. Joe," to the Kansan shore, were the means
by which many of the westward-bound Forty-Niners and

THE CATTLE DRIVE 267
their followers crossed the Missouri River. It was there
that these gold-seekers left their "States," and entered their
"West." It was these gold-seekers who made that phrase
"west of the Missouri." The point which they thus fixed
as the one to mark where the West began stayed put, but
presently there extended from it a north and south Une that
reached to Canada and to the Gulf of Mexico. AU the area
westward of that imaginary Une was said to be "west of
the Missouri River," even though Dakota for much of its
territory was in fact eastward of the actual stream.
In addition to the almost constant driving of myriad
northbound cattle along the Texas TraU, there were some
times, -within the North itself, prolonged movements "upon
the hoof." These latter hegiras sprang out of exaggerated,
though temporary, differences between the conditions in
various locaUties. A drought-made differential between
Oregon and, say, Wyoming, or between Wyoming and, say,
Dakota, occasionally made it advisable to drive Uve stock
many hundreds of miles in order to reach an unscorched
refuge. Thus, for instance, animals have been herded out
of eastern Oregon and into Wyoming or Montana, while
again Wyoming's ranchmen have forced their thirsty herds
out of the latter's home lands and across the map to western
Kansas. When planning these intrasectional transfers,
care was taken that, so far as possible, the animals involved
should not finally be landed unduly far from the Une of
their normal course to market.
The bovine victims of a long, long trail were, when leav
ing Texas, known there as "coasters," but after they had
reached the Northwest they were caUed in the latter sec
tion "pUgrims." No special name attached to the suffer
ing animals that ploughed through dust to escape from a
blighted Northern Range.
The brutes' plodding journey upon aU these drives was
in details like the aheady described trek from the round-

268 THE COWBOY
up to the railway — like it, save in three regards. To make
fair comparison, one must multiply by ten, if not by twenty,
all the distances, aU the fatigue, aU the vexation accorded
to the shorter expedition. It took five months to make a
drive from the Rio Grande straight northward to the Cana
dian border. Then one, while recaUing the Texas TraU,
should at times increase the herd's size to four thousand,
even to ten thousand, animals; should not forget those
strenuous periods, each of at least two days, when below
the Colorado River, again between the Stinking Water
and the South Platte, and again below the Tongue River,
the punchers, on leaving one river, deliberately prevented
their animals from satisfyingly drinking there, in order that
mad lust for water might hold these animals to a steady
march through the semidesert that lay before the next en
countered stream; and finally not only one should bear in
mind the distressing possibility of having to drive, across a
sun-blistered country, cattle temporarily blinded by thirst
and frenzied in their blindness, but also one must remember
the strain of "swimming" the charges across a swoUen river.
Though the "swim" was not encountered on many of
the shorter drives, it was met on some of them, as it was
upon all of the long-distance hikes. It was no event for
weaklings. Hundreds of driven cattle were walking in a column
nearly a mile in length, and of irregular formation like scat
tered leaves blown slowly across a lawn. Their van reached
the stream's bank. Singly, in pairs, or in somewhat larger
groups, the forward animals broke from their formation,
lumbered down the bank, trotted across the sand-bar at
its foot, and finaUy side to side stood to mid-knee in the
water, muzzles immersed.
Cowboy strategists selected from the line of drinking
beasts one or two steers that promised courage and quali
ties of leadership, rode quietly into position behind them.

THE CATTLE DRIVE 269
and as they raised their heads, urged them farther into the
stream, thus into "swimming water"; and, by heading all
attempts to de-viate from the course prescribed, achieved
the satisfaction of seeing brown bodies churn wakes which
pointed directly at the opposite shore. A few adventurous
brutes, of their own volition, followed these leaders; and,
once all these pioneers showed their dripping, gUstening
bodies on the farther shore, the herd automaticaUy and in
tenuous line passed down the hither bank, into the water
and across it.
The Une once estabUshed, there was Uttle risk that the
marching column would rebound from the stream and scat
ter over the prairie. So, for the quiet, seductive methods
necessary to institute the crossing, there safely could now
be substituted more overt and violent means to speed the
rate and to force participation by slothful or timid beasts.
"Starting the swim" was an anxious task, for if the
selected leaders were to outwit the men and succeed in
"doubUng back," either before lea-ving the hither shore or
after fairly entering the water, it would mean an immediate
stampede, wherein the steadily arri-ving cattle, on reaching
the water's edge, would swerve from it and pursue the brates
which, though a moment before ahead of them, already
would have simUarly turned and now would be galloping
inland; or else it would mean at the riverside an interweav
ing jam of nervous animals steadily mushrooming from the
forward pressure of the stiU-arriving column, and ready
at any instant to "split," i. e., to form like a capital letter
"Y," and to launch a stampede from the tip of each of the
prongs. As soon as the continuity of the Une was assured, a cow
boy or two plunged their horses into the water, made their
way to the opposite shore, and set about clearing it of its
clogging cattle and marshaUing them in marching order
upon the plain beyond. The rest of the pimchers so timed

270 THE COWBOY
their own crossings as to make them in proper relation to
the varying sizes of the two sections of the stream-di-vided
herd. Some of the men, preferring sureness to comfort, made
while in the water no change in their riding position, and
"swimming wet," landed with clothing dripping to half-way
between knee and hip. Others, more finical, bent their
knees and raised their feet to a kneeUng pose with spurs
touching the cantle. A rider of the latter type ran the risk
of being unbalanced by an unexpected eddy or a bumping
steer, and thereby of rolUng his top hea-vUy burdened horse
directly upon its side; or else, upon Uke coffision and
through instinctive and unfortunate puU upon the reins,
of rearing his horse, to have it madly splash its front legs
and then flop sideways. A successful grab of a stirrup or,
better still, of a taU's end would give this hapless rider an
efficient tow to safety.
The men's famiUarity with this "crossing," as the West
termed a ford, as weU as the act of traversing it, reUeved
them from any anxiety about possible quicksands. Had
not every square inch of the shores been known to the
punchers, they would have "scouted" both banks before
the herd's arrival. The treacherous sands of many a West
em stream have swaUowed many a horse or steer, and many
a solitary cowboy has been eaten aUve by the very land
he loved. The only remedy for quicksand was a lariat and
a tugging pony.
Fortunately, during the crossing, there had occurred no
untoward event to drive into panic the swimming portion
of the herd and impel it to suicide through self-de-vised miU
ing in midstream. No low-lying sun had shone directly
into the animals' eyes. No Indians had attacked the opera
tion, no bear or wolf had appeared upon the farther shore;
no stick unexpectedly had cracked ; no f antasticaUy shaped
log had floated down the channel; nothing had happened

THE CATTLE DRIVE 271
to check the nautical pioneers, to break the brown thread
which they drew behind them, and to send the living con
tents of the river, first into a crazed, revolving mel6e, and
next into brown carcasses which would bob in the current
until disgusted waters spewed out the carrion upon a sand
bar. Had miUing started in the stream, mounted punchers
and the ponies under them would have done their best to
struggle through the whirling mess, to break its motion,
to resolve its participants into a sane, straight line, and
to connect that line's front end with the desired shore. A
pony might be crushed, might have his trappings entangled
in the horns of a sinking steer, but the plucky little horse
preferred excitement to ennui. A rider might meet with
simUar catastrophe. Yet, because of the self-sufficiency of
punchers, usuaUy the worst that befeU a man in breaking
a miU was to be capsized from his mount and to go ashore
upon a steer's back or by holding the end of its taU.
Horses, save in the very rarest of instances, had too much
sense to mill in water or even on land. When they, however,
did embark on it, their action was technicaUy called not
"milling," but instead "rounding-up," just as it was in the
case of their interwea-vings upon land when being forced
by cowboys to shfft from a scattered formation into a com
pact band. To the cattle was given a monopoly of the term
"mUl." If by chance a raUway skirted the river, either upon its
farther bank or at but little inland distance from it, there
very possibly was an occurrence such as one never sees in
these present days of fenced farms.
The moment the first steer entered the water, the entire
herd was, by in^violate custom, vested with the right of
way over every train, and this right continued untU the
fording was completed. The locomotive's whistle was of
no interest to the cowboys. They knew that the engineer.

272 THE COWBOY
with eyes out for swimming herds, under strictest orders
not to damage future freight or to antagonize its owners
and their kind, would come to a complete stop so far away
from the scene of ferrying as not to lend his train to the
starting of a stampede. Thus raUways frequently were
blocked, and for hours at a time, because in days now past,
"cattle was king."
The profanity which poured from the opened windows
of the cars and from the engine's cab melted into the low
ing of such cattle as had made the passage and into the
bellowing of those yet to essay it. The cowboys, indifferent
to the noise and their feUow man's impatience, stuck to
their own swimming job.
A northbound, Texan herd, once clear of the Panhandle,
had an excellent chance of being held temporarUy at any
spot upon its route by a quarantine against "Texas fever,"
"Spanish fever," or "splenic fever," according as the local
veterinarian chose to entitle that endemic disease. Then
the punchers in charge of the beasts had an enforced halt
of not less than sixty days, and so for at least sixty days im
patient men practised swearing.
The fevered Texan cattle, so soon as they reached a
Northern latitude, quickly ridded themselves of their aU-
ment; but ff not held in quarantine, the beasts would seed
mile after mile of traU with pestilential germs that would
lie in wait for uninoculated animals.
Some States permanently maintained for their entire
areas a quarantine of definite period. In other States, the
quarantine was intermittent and sometimes was limited to
a particular zone.
Commercial profit proved for the great majority of
ranchers a term of purely academic meaning. Taxless graz
ing-lands made possible large profits, if — . High seffing
prices potentiaUzed great earnings, ff — . The "ff" was
the drought or the snow-storm. The profits of the fat years

THE CATTLE DRIVE 273
went into high fi-ving or into additions to the Uve stock.
If into high living, they disappeared immediately. If into
additions to the Uve stock, their days were longer but
usuaUy were numbered. In the latter case, ordinarily
sooner or later the profits and capital lay side by side,
parched bodies on the sand or bloated carcasses appearing
from the snow according as the ranch was in the South or
in the North.
But no man who ever lived upon the Range regretted
later that he had had that residential privUege.

CHAPTER XrV
BREAKING HORSES
COW-PONIES — DEFINITIONS — BREAKING HORSES — BUCKING — EQUINB OUT
LAWS — MAN KILLERS- DANGER PROM CATTLE — SPOILED HORSES — MORE
ABOUT BUCKING  ITS DANGER — LYING DOWN — ^HUNAWATS— METHODS OF
RIDING BUCK — "HUNTING LEATHER" — REASON POR BUCKING  EUROPEAN
HORSES — PRESENT-DAT EXHIBITIONS — HORSE DRIVE — ^VISIT TO TOWN —
MONET — CONVENTIONS ON ENTERING TO'WN — SHOOTING-UP TOWN — BUT-
ING IT — ^DEPARTURE FROM TOWN
These pages thus far, though ha-ving seen the cattle
rounded up, branded, driven to the raUway and deUvered
at the abattoir, and though ha'ving also seen the horses
rounded up and branded, have faUed to watch the later
doings with the horses, for, in a prior chapter, they wan
dered off with cattle, and left the horses imprisoned within
the rodeo corral.
During this absence, the "stray horses" had been started
on their homeward routes, and the remaining horses had
been divided into separate bands according to their several
ownerships. Each owner, from his band thus obtained,
had selected the animals to be sold, and also a few choice
specimens, the latter aU "top" beasts, all suitable it was
thought for training into cow-ponies to be used at home.
Each of these choice specimens was small, patently sound
in body and quick of foot, and apparently promised intel
ligence and a sporting taste. Well-trained cow-ponies were
regarded as aristocrats. They brought prices three times
that of well-broken but more commonplace Range horses.
The term "pony" did not necessarily suggest diminutive-
ness, because the Northwest gave the title of "pony" to
almost every horse regardless of its size, and in fact ex-
274

BREAKING HORSES 275
empted from the "pony" class only "work horses," and
such brutes as by despicable -viciousness merited the ap
pellation of "that damned cayuse."
A horse that could travel notably far, particularly when
at high speed, was termed a "long horse." Consequently,
the best stayer in one's band would be called one's "longest
horse." There was no such phrase as " long pony," though
any given animal might coincidently be both a "cow-pony"
and a "long horse."
Ponies have been mentioned as participating not only
in cutting out and cutting m but also in roping. All these
functions were exercised by members of the class of "cow-
pony," or "cow-horse."
One pony might be particularly good at cutting out and
in, a fast runner in a spurt, but either a bit shy of a thrown
lariat, or not expert in doing his part after the reata had
made its catch. Nevertheless, he might be invaluable in
driving stock, despite his restricted usefulness in the game
played in the corral. Another pony, perfect at the roping
work, might be slow in a dash to head stock running in the
open; but, notwithstanding this, he might be capital for
business within the corral. Some ponies did all things well,
and they were regarded as being of almost royal rank.
As a result of this lack of uniformity in the horses' quali
fications, to an efficient cowboy on a large ranch were as
signed several ponies, one animal for one class of work,
another for another. To such a cowboy was assigned also
a horse of less attainment, and this beast was used in the
commonplace errand-running rides of the every-day. The
various animals aUotted to a man, however humble he might
be, were left severely alone by all other men on the ranch;
and the horses' assignee, so long as he rode for the ranch,
was sole lord of his string.
Ha-ving ostensibly "gentled" at the rodeo corral the
few inferior horses that it was desired should hurriedly be

276 THE COWBOY
put through at least a faint color of breaking, in order to
be able to make immediate delivery to a none-too-discern
ing buyer, the punchers landed these beasts at their destina
tion, and drove the remaining animals to the corrals at the
ranch-house. In and about these latter corrals would be
selected and, during the ensuing months, would be more
or less carefuUy broken such of the horses as were to be kept
as cow-ponies or were to be sold as really "gentled" ani
mals. They would stay in the corrals at night, and, when
not being handled, would browse under mounted guards
upon the open prairie during the day.
The hurried "gentling" at the rodeo corral brought out
the nearest approach to "rough riding" that weU-managed
ranches would permit. The reason for this bit of laxity
at the corral was that nobody seriously cared whether
the second-rate brates involved — aU veritable cuUs — were
spoiled or not. So the punchers, both local and -visiting,
made a bit of a lark of the affair, and somewhat reverted
to the same active use of quirt and spur as that from which
the wUd horses of early days had suffered.
Because there were present men from various ranches,
competition in horsemanship occasionaUy displayed itseff,
and then the rail-birds, with strong partisanship, wagered
heavUy on the various competitors.
There was not much spectacular roping of the horses
driven for breaking processes to the corrals near the ranch-
house, for the horses gentled there represented the best
quaUty that the ranch could boast, and were not jeopardized.
With a weU-managed establishment, there never was any
where more rough roping than had to be, except that occa
sionally at a round-up a puncher might for a whUe cut loose.
Grown horses in process of breaking were thrown by the
lariat, only when necessity demanded. More commonly,
with neck through the reata's loop, they pranced about at
its extremity like kites in a storm. The reata was graduaUy

BREAKING HORSES 277
gathered m and the man at its home end presently found
himseff holding a rope of controlling length and withm
handling distance of the captive.
Next the hackamore was shown the trembling animal,
and was girt upon his head, to rest there a haff hour or so.
That same day or later, similar exhibition was made of
the saddle. It was placed as gently as possible upon a
twitching back, and the cinches, after being circumspectly
and successfuUy fished for, were as quietly as might be made
fast. A long crooked stick was most convenient for this
fishing operation, because at times the air was quite full of
hoofs. After the horse had become accustomed to the feeling
of the hackamore and saddle, a matter of minutes and a
soUtary saddling, or of a day or two and repeated saddUngs,
a rider mounted him.
Later the beast was, with simUar consideration, intro
duced to the bit.
The reason for this quasi-tenderness was that the object
of most ranchmen was not to make horses buck, but to
keep them from doing so. The cowboy was hired, so far
as concerned horses, not to inculcate but to discourage pitch
ing. He was paid to turn for his employer unbroken horse
flesh into money, and the buying pubUc ordinarily would
not exchange its doUars for useless, vertical motion. Hence,
one ordinarily saw about a well-managed ranch only the
bucking that could not be avoided. One saw much of af
firmative efforts to wean a horse from the habit. There
were of course exceptions, but the number of "rough rid
ing" men was comparatively small.
The foregoing account of breaking horses sets forth the
method employed by the majority of the ranchers after
the first years of the Range, when "busting wide open"
by "quirting a plenty," and "shoving in the steel," were
the accepted means of gentling, though it should be re-

278 THE COWBOY
membered that these later ranchers dealt principally with
the "graded horse," while the earlier stockmen had Uttle
save the unmixed wild horse.
The rough rider's object was to "break the pony's heart,"
on the first riding; for, if then the idea of human supremacy
could be impressed upon an animal physically exhausted
by its own efforts to the point of staggering, mentally de
jected from the faUure of its confident expectation, it was
almost a surety that the pony never again would make so
violent an effort. Trae, it might buck again and often, but
never again so fiercely. The latent dread of man would
cloud every subsequent plan to pitch. To create this dread,
the rough-riding buster brought down the quirt at every
jump the pony made.
These rough riders usually were either owners of smaU
ranches, or else were men who, as itinerant "contract bus
ters," wandered about the Range and temporarily leased
their ser-vices to such establishments as could not afford
to maintain a first-class rider of their own. These busters
received five dollars for each animal they "busted,"
"broke," "peeled," "twisted," or "gentled," according as
one termed the operation.
The method of these men was to intimidate, first, by
roping and -violently throwing the brute entrusted to them,
next and as soon as the saddle was in position, by whole
sale use of the quirt, a lashing which on occasion was aug
mented by the whips and howls of assistant terrorists, some
times called "hazers." When the men's arms grew tired
and it was agreed that the pony was in chastened mood,
the buster mounted ; and, ff the welted animal made serious
effort to pitch, the quirting commenced anew.
The buster might do the initial riding with one of the
cruel bits described in former pages, but he was more apt
to use at first a "hackamore" rigged with a "bosal," and
to reserve the bit for a later lesson.

BREAKING HORSES 279
The buster frequently extended his training beyond the
moments that he himseff was in the saddle, because, after
dismounting, he was apt to leave or place upon the pony's
head a hackamore, and to fasten its reins to the end of a
long rope affixed to a peg driven in the ground, thus to the
end of what was caUed by Southerners a "stake-rope," by
Northerners a "picket-rope." With or without encourage
ment from the hazers, the fastened horse was wont to run
to the end of his tether, to have his wind suddenly cut by
the pinching hackamore, and, at the rope's terminal, to
somersault onto his back. This action might be repeated
several times before the animal desisted.
He very Ukely also sooner or later thoroughly entangled
his feet in the rope, and so rubbed bits of skin off his
legs. By plenteous quirting and the stake rope's aid, the
buster endeavored to inculcate "fear of leather," and dread
of "running against rope."
If the gentled animal were to be sold to strangers, two
days of such rough treatment might suffice to satisfy the
conscience of the ranch, but if the beast were to be used
at home, it would receive a week of training and abuse.
The intelUgent, orderly method which is first above de
scribed, and which did not avoid firmness though it at
tempted to abolish cruelty, should not be confused with
the affectionate, misguided, and desultory schooling occa
sionaUy given by amateurs and productive of one of the
meanest, most unreUable objects in the Cattle Country — a
"pet horse."
Although the decent method of breaking was far more
gentle than was the "buster's" riot with the steel and quirt,
its relative softness did not wholly free the bronco from the
lash and rowel, or rob him of a wholesome respect for the
possibiUties of "leather." A pony, once thrown, never there
after outgrew the recoUection of the lariat's spilUng ability.

280 THE COWBOY
This doubtless explains why "gentled" horses, however
mean, could surely be corraUed by an enclosure made of a
single line of rope held withers high.
Upon the round-up, in camp, anywhere, lariats were tied
end to end, and were stretched along a fine of nondescript
posts which might be wholly or in part trees, men, wagon-
wheels, or the horns of saddles atop sedate old nags. A
band of saddleless riding horses would arrive upon the gal
lop, and at sight of that one strand of rope would stop short
to stand there and await the saddle. This effective though
very loose corral needed not to have even three enclosed
sides. A wide-opened letter "V" was an efficient form. A
straight line would do. It was the compelling fear of the
reata that held the animals. And yet a few years before,
when as yet unintroduced to leather, they had rocked the
sides of a log enclosure with its rawhide fastenings.
There was less of equine -violence during the "gentling,"
process than some of the tenderfoot spectators had expected,
for usuaUy the animals were ridden by competent horse
men. Impropriety in human conduct might send at any mo
ment into ecstatic pitching even a horse which had long
since been broken, and for years had been thoroughly docUe;
because, broadly speaking, no Western steed, so long as
he remained physically sound, was so craven as surely to
tolerate at aU times incompetent horsemanship upon his
back. As a judge of equestrian ability, the Range pony
was both quicker and better than any riding-master that
ever Uved. Put your foot in a stirrup, and in an instant
you had been accurately appraised by the horse you were
mounting. Some men, for a reason unknown to themselves and un
disclosed to human observers, in-vited bucking. Women
riders as a class were less apt than men to start a horse to
pitching.

BREAKING HORSES 281
Breaking, as actuaUy done by competent horsemen at a
number of ranches, produced averages recorded as fol
lows: PracticaUy every horse, at its first saddling when it was
on the leash of a hackamore and before any attempt was
made to mount the brute, "bucked the saddle." If the
horse were not abused at this stage of its training, and, while
held by the hackamore or by a lariat about its neck, were
cajoled, it in eighty cases out of one hundred quieted down,
and either eventually on that same day or else at the second
saddling on the morrow, tremblingly, hesitatingly permitted
itseff to be mounted by a competent horseman, and this
without offering to buck the rider.
A few of these pious eighty might for a while "crowhop,"
i. e., jump about with arched back and stiffened knees, but
this was bucking seen through the large end of an opera-
glass. Any thoroughly competent park rider, if a real horse
man, could have sat it, at least, ff he had been warned as
to when the hopping would commence.
There were left from the hundred animals twenty, all of
which would buck more or less at their first riding, ten of
which would continue to buck more or less at their second
or even third riding, and but two of which could be counted
on to remain permanently versed in the art of pitching.
Of these two, one could be so well broken that it would
"go after" its rider only when long rests in pasture had
lessened recollection of human supremacy. The other
though rideable would buck whenever it became excited
or irritated.
One horse in approximately each five hundred was an
"outlaw," a brute that never could be broken and that
would buck almost in its sleep.
One horse in, it was supposed, approximately each ten
thousand was sufficiently like a "man-kUler" as deliberately
to jump on his thrown rider's prostrate body.

282 THE COWBOY
The actual man-killer, traditionally always a male, was
a horse so rare that the average ranchman in his whole busi
ness Iffe saw not more than one.
The beast was a very de-vil masquerading in the body of
a horse, a devil that at sight of man cunnmgly planned to
kill him.
Ensconced amid the stock placidly feeding on the Range,
the brate would sight an approaching horseman or pe
destrian, would gently disengage itself from its feUows,
would trot quietly forward as though mUd and friendly
curiosity were its only incentive, and then suddenly and
without warning would spring ahead in a frenzied rage,
and strike down the man, together with the saddle-animal,
ff any, under him.
If one of the mad beasts, through enmeshment in a swfftly
moving round-up, had no opportunity thus to stalk its prey,
it would bide its time and would, in apparent innocence,
hasten along with the driven band, meanwhUe edging
toward the intended victim. When the moment for attack
arrived, the brute would wheel, and, with hard-set face,
open mouth, and glittering eye would come on Uke a de-
strojdng demon.
While the man-kUler at times would kiU riderless horses,
either in the corral or out upon the range, the favorite
prey was the human being.
Although, during the peaceful moods of the insane beast,
men usuaUy could not distinguish it from a normal animal,
ridden horses frequently diagnosed it from afar. It was
traditional among riders that, when in the vicinity of loose
horses their mounts began to quiver and to swerve away,
the "six gun" should be drawn at once. "KiU him, the
second he shows he's one, or he'U get you sure," was the
slogan of the ranchmen.
The pedestrian while on the open range ran a danger
from man-kilUng horses, danger, however, so sUght as to

BREAKING HORSES 283
be almost academic; but he was in constant risk from all
the cattle, especially from the cows.
For a dismounted man, the Range cow was, under average
conditions, a far more dangerous adversary than was the
grizzly bear. Under those average conditions, the cow would
always attack; the bear would almost always avoid a con
flict. No Spanish bull-fighter would have dared to fight, with
sword, a Texan "long-horn" cow.
A man on foot would be far out in the grass. A cow amid
a bunch of cattle would spy him and start toward him. The
other brates would follow.
The bunch, starting at a walk, would break presently
into a trot, and finally would begin to move in a spiral about
the -victim. So far, inquisitiveness apparently had been the
only stimulus. Suddenly "taUs would roU," and, with sav
age fury taking the place of the prior motive, the herd would
quicken to a gallop and sweep over the helpless victim.
Hoofs would crash out his life.
The herd had never before seen a pedestrian in the open
country, and seemingly had concluded that so unusual an
object must be an enemy.
So great was the danger from cattle to persons afoot,
that ranchers imposed heavy fines on such of their em
ployees as, without vaUd excuse, dismounted on the range
when within a quarter of a mile of a bunch of cattle.
Men had, of course, to work afoot always at the brand
ing fires, and sometimes within the corrals; but these men
constantly were guarded by watchful horsemen with ready
lariats. No dismounted man dared to stay alone -within a
corral containing cattle, for he was convinced that the happy
issue of Daniel from the lions' den could not safely be re
lied upon as a precedent.
Memories of the Texan "long horn " make many a white-
hau-ed grandfather of to-day, a graduate of the Range of

284 THE COWBOY
long ago, intuitively cringe as under guidance of his Uttle
granddaughter he goes afield to come suddenly upon a placid
mooley cow.
Cattle, save for occasional ones bent on "prodding,"
were little disposed to approach a mounted rider. Possibly
they thought the man to be part of his horse.
Scattered about the West were "spoUed horses," animals
which man, by kicks in the face or by other abuse during
the breaking period, had ruined as to character, and which,
engra-ving on their hearts the motto, "No one shall ever
stay on our backs," held throughout their lives as closely
as they could to their resolve and bucked and bucked and
bucked. They were merely man-made " outlaws."
Bucking itself needs little description. It was in part the
antics of an angry cat on a hot plate. Every one who is fa
miliar with its component motions, can draw in his imagina
tion a picture as accurate as the pen can make, can run the
gamut from "straight bucking" through "sun fishing" and
the "end for end" to the "back throw," can appreciate
the significance of the Western phrase: "Bucking off a
porous plaster."
Between "bucking" and "pitching," there was no dff-
ference except that of geography. The Northwesterner
called the horrid motion "bucking" or "buck jumping,"
the Texan termed it "pitching."
A horse was doing "straight work," when he kept his
body headed in one general direction, however high he might
arch his back at one moment, however sway-backed he
might momentarily be the instant afterward. In accom
plishing this, he might land always upon the same spot,
or he might "pitch a plungin'," otherwise caUed the "run
ning buck," or "bucking straight away," that is, jump for
ward with each buck. An ingenious brute could embeUish
his straight work by either a seesaw effect wherein he landed
alternately on his front and hind feet (this sometimes caUed

BREAKING HORSES 285
"walking beaming"), or else by bucking not in the vertical
plane but diagonally upward, and leaning first to the right
and then to the left. He also could vary the motion by
snakelike contortions of his spine, by shakes and shivers,
by rearward jumps, and by sudden downward and sideway
lunges of a shoulder or hip.
When a brate added abUity to leave the ground while
headed at one compass point and to land while headed at
another, he was "pitchin' fence-cornered."
If he twisted his body into a crescent, with its horns alter
nately to right and left, he qualffied as a "sun fisher," and,
in producing this motion, he was apt to merge in it an ex
aggerated "fence-cornering." Going up headed, say, north
east and landing headed, say, northwest was the passing
mark for this latter phase of the sun-fish degree.
If a beast substituted for these directions straight north
and south, he accomplished the third degree in bucking,
the "end for end," in which he effected a series of semi-
revolutions, and so, as the West said, kept "swapping ends."
Bucking might be terminated sometimes by a "rear
back," or "back fall," sometimes by a "back throw," some
times by a "side throw," or on very rare occasions by a
"pinwheel." Usually it was ended by the mere failure of
the bronco to buck any longer.
The difference between the "rear back," or "back fall,"
and the "back throw," was one of speed and motive. In
the "rear back," or "back fall," according as one termed it,
the horse, attempting to stand erect upon its hind legs,
quivered, unintentionally lost its balance, and fell. In the
"back throw" the brute with rapid movement and aflSrma-
tive purpose overreared and hurled itseff backward and to
the ground.
The "pinwheel" sent the beast on a forward and upward
jump, to turn feet up in the air and to land on its back.
The crest of a steep hiU gave best opportunity for this awful

286 THE COWBOY
gyration. Most fortunately, it was extremely seldom that
a horse achieved this movement.
The direction of the " side throw" appears from its name.
Such were the outstanding, technical expressions which
ear-marked the various specialties in pitching. They,
though slangy in origin, were not intended to be slangy in
usage, and they functioned seriously as an integral part
of the West's legitimate English. The West, however, had
its conscious slang, "cat backed" for "buck," any phrase
human humor could invent as applicable to the several
motions which the horse and the de-vU between them had
devised. This conscious slang was ephemeral, because it
came from word mines of the moment, from social and poUt
ical sources that, -vital for an instant, passed into history,
and through it into obUvion.
Modern days have filched terms from modem sources,
and appUed them in slangy sense to modem buckers. At
oresent-day Western riding competitions one hears of horses
"a-viating," doing "nose dives," "high dives," or "taU-
spins," being "skyscrapers," having "six cylinders," and
"skipping on two of them," "stepping on the gas," doing
the "cake walk," being the "best pitcher in the basebaU
leagues," being a "side winder," and "good thrower to
second base." But such phrases are creations of the pres
ent, and were unknown upon the open Range of bygone
years. Every rider of a "bad actor," a horse that acted viciously,
was on the watch for kicks and bites, and kept himseff in
hand for the dreaded rear back, back throw, or less dan
gerous side throw, but could dismiss the pinwheel from
the list of prospective probabilities.
If a horse reared and threatened to faU backward, the
"loaded" end of the quirt striking between his ears would
knock him down to normal position, would make him do
what the cowboys termed "come down in front," but if

BREAKING HORSES 287
stunned he promptly might roll onto his side. Incidentally,
the quirt's blow might kill hun. This roll onto the side and
the side throw itself each could crash the leg of the rider,
but notwithstanding this danger the man had good chance
of landing clear of the horse. If, however, the animal, sud
denly rearing, threw itself directly backward, there was
some chance, though very little, to escape crushing by the
saddle's hom. There was no escape from the pinwheel,
and no method of preventing it.
Motion was accompanied by music, for the average pitch
ing bronco emitted grants and snorts, and usuaUy loud
"bawls" of rage, while a bucking mule rarely forgot to bray.
This word "bawl," because the technical term for the
bronco's yelps of de-viltry, popularized throughout the West
the slang phrase "bawUng him out," which meant one man's
vocfferously scolding another.
In -violence of pitching motion, the mule outdid the horse.
Bucking imposed sudden, pitiless strains upon the
abdomen of a horseman, and -viciously twitched his neck.
The shock of bucking was so severe that many a rider
bled from the nose, the mouth, sometimes the ears; not
a few men fainted in the saddle; they occasionally, through
involuntarily, constricted muscles, insensately maintaining
their seats untU the horses surrendered. Many men were
raptured, and in very rare instances men fell dead from
their animals' backs. An autopsy upon the body of a rider
who had thus died, disclosed a Uver entirely torn from its
moorings. Pitching horses frequently bled from the nose, and some
times, though rarely, bucked tUl stopped by self-imposed
death. The average pitching animal far from attained the ex
tremes of turbulence indicated above, but he always was,
even for the best of riders, excessively uncomfortable, and
at least latently dangerous.

288 THE COWBOY
An animal bucked tiU he unseated his rider, or sooner
either was satiated or made to the man atop him an af
firmative surrender of spirit.
With such a surrender, the rider was said to have "ridden
it out," or have "ridden to a finish."
Bucking might last five seconds. It has been known to
continue almost uninterruptedly, though with sUght -vigor,
for an hour. If an average time be demanded, there is hesi
tatingly put forth three minutes, this covering groups of
jumps, each group consuming some ten seconds, and there
being, between each two groups a slight pause, during which
the horse sulked or, as the West said, "suUed." This aver
age of three minutes means the average for aU bucking
horses collectively, not the average for the very -violent
spasms of a single confirmed pitcher. This latter type of
brate was ordinarily no time-consumer. He threw himseff
so whole-heartedly into his task, as to use up his -vitaUty
in from ten to thirty seconds.
The cowboy, except as an occasional outlet for over-
bubbUng -vitaUty, "topped off" buckers only when duty
required. It was not danger that deterred him. It was
merely that such riding was inhumanly tiring.
Some animals, planning to unseat their riders, resorted
at the instant of mounting not to the buck, but to more
prosaic running away or to calmly lying do-wn. The per
formance of this last-mentioned trick automatically, though
however iUogically, brought from aU bystanders derisive
advice to the cowboy formerly aboard the supine beast.
Such a prone horse very likely received uncomfortable
treatment, for his erstwhile rider, now standing over him,
might with steady, upward puU upon the reins keep the
beast's head from off the ground, and with one foot press
steadily do-wnward upon the saddle horn. The horse thus
was deprived of the leverage of its neck, the balance weight
of its head, and consequently of abUity to roll its body or

BREAKING HORSES 289
to regam its feet. When the pony's neck had received suf
ficient cramping pains, the beast would offer to rise, and as
it reached its feet the cowboy would land in the saddle.
Or else the rider, mstead of foUowing this course of af
firmative action, deUberately kept his feet in the stirraps,
so that one of his legs remained under the down-lying horse.
The man, for the safety of this leg, confidently reUed on
the softness of the ground, the strength of his stirrup, the
thickness of his chaps, and the Ught weight of his horse,
and trusted that the bystanders would rope and hold the
feet of the animal, should it attempt to roU.
When the horse became tired of its prone position, it
would lurch to its feet and have the man stiU aboard.
As to whether or not a rider should so risk his leg was
a question for his indi-vidual decision. Some riders endeav
ored under any circumstances to stick to their mount, be
lieving that their quitting would give the horse undue
confidence, and would retard if not annul his growing belief
in the supremacy of man.
AU the time that the horse was lying prone he would be
talked to by his rider in soothing tones though profane
terms. Throughout bucking, the rider poured a conver
sational voUey at the pitching beast. The sound of the
human voice was supposedly one means of proving to the
horse that he had met his master.
Running away was often interjected by a hard pitcher
as a special scene between the regular acts of his real per
formance. Runaway horses would go astonishingly long
distances, and not infrequently would wheel at the end of
the course they had selected, and retum at high speed to
the starting-point. Their riders customarily were showered
with vociferous fareweUs from the human spectators at the
outset of these lonesome races.
One puncher many years ago mounted, and in a moment
was flying due westward, soon to disappear behind a point

290 THE COWBOY
of trees. Unseen from the corral, he rounded these and
made his next appearance some time later headed for the
corral, and coming from the east. The instant of his ar
rival, he received, in addition to a circular bit of leather
hastily cut from a wide strap, the greetmg: "You shore
has proved the earth is round."
The man on top of the runaway usuaUy was wUling to
let the beast "run down its mainspring," but he could
promptly stop the animal ff he cared to jeopardize his own
neck. If this man were to reach forward, grasp either the
rein or the bridle at a point close to the bit, and, as the horse
Ufted its front feet, were to puU the brute's head sharply
to one side, the horse would land on its flank upon the
ground. A less strenuous method was to lean forward and
to hang a coat, handkerchief, or hat before the eyes of the
horse. In this latter case, unless the brute promptly fell
or was a "locoed" animal, it would quickly cease its gaUop
ing. There were two methods of riding the buck. One was to
"sit it," or, as otherwise termed to "ride straight up," i. e.,
to sit uprightly and squarely in the saddle, shffting one's
balance with every change in the horse's position.
If the man sitting the buck were an expert, a top rider,
he kept his seat and legs so closely to the saddle as never
to bounce upward, and thus, even for an instant, to "show
dayUght" beneath his body; and his hands, after he had
mounted, never touched the saddle, much less felt for the
buck strap. But a single hand held the reins.
Less accomplished men in large numbers might be wiUing
to "hunt leather," "take leather," "touch leather," "puU
leather," or "go to leather," as a hand hold upon any part
of the saddle, its accoutrements, or the horse was inter
changeably kno-wn, might be wiUing to " choke the horn,"
or "choke," or "squeeze," "the biscuit," as a hand hold
upon the saddle horn was more specifically designated, but

BREAKING HORSES 291
not so the jaunty top rider. He scorned such aid, as also
locked spurs, tied stirraps, and other mechanical assistance;
and thereby he "rode sUck." Not only was the buck strap
absent from his saddle, but his specialty was roUing and
smoking cigarettes while on top of a living windmill. Fre
quent waves of his hat or its slapping on the windmill's
sides, thereby "fanning" the brute, his withdrawing a foot
from its stirrup and swinging this foot far forward and back
ward to spur or "scratch" the horse on neck and rump,
thereby "raking" the beast, his refusal to use his spurs for
the purpose of clinging were additional, conventional, if
insincere, e-vidences of an ostensibly care-free state.
The other method of riding the buck involved the rider's
seizing the horn by one or both hands, his pushing himself
sideways out of the saddle and standing in one stirrup, with
his knee on that side flexed, and his other leg at its midway
point between hip and knee resting horizontally across the
saddle's seat. His flexed knee-joint and his two hip-joints,
thus coUectively absorbed the shock. Some users of this
system, sometimes called "monkey style," stood in the
left stirrup, others in the right. But however they stood,
their method patently necessitated "choking the horn,"
"taking leather," and "showing daylight."
In formal riding competitions, whoever, competing in a
class reserved for top riders and in which "hunting leather,"
naturally was barred, gave merely an accidental, momen
tary, and sUghtest touch of any part of either hand to any
portion of the saddle after mounting had been completed,
received a demerit for each offense or, if the rales were such,
was at once disquaUfied.
Indifferent horsemen, more fearful of pitching than of
the tauntmg tongues of beholders, used when upon the
range to "tie," or "hobble" theu- stu-raps, in other words
to connect them by a strap or rope passing under the horse.
This had the advantage of furnishing a firm anchorage dur-

292 THE COWBOY
ing bucking, but the disadvantage of imposing a social stig
ma. Bystanders were wont to insist that no real horsemen
"tied," whUe "sheep-herders ride with tied stirraps and
one spur." "Tsdng" was forbidden in the riding compe
titions, on the theory that the latter were a test of horse
manship and not a "test of string."
Occasionally some daredevil puncher rode with "slick
heels," i. e., without spurs, or else rode a horse, a mule, or
a steer either bareback or with only a cinch or lariat about
the animal's body. All this, however, was an "exhibition
stunt," and was no part of ranching work. Some irre
pressible youths have successfully accomplished the feat of
sitting a bareback animal while facing its tail. This last
mentioned method of horsemanship is not recommended
for beginners in riding.
Bucking sometimes is stated to have had its origin in
defensive kicking by the original horses against attacking
wolves. This statement is not conclusive, for neither Euro
pean nor Asiatic horses are apt to buck, and wolves have
ever been present on those continents. The only explana
tion at all satisfactory to one who has just dismounted from
a "beast with a belly full of bed-springs," is that offered
long ago by June Buzzell, a puncher of the Dakota and
Wyoming Ranges, and which was: "Bucking started from
the back door of hell on a hot day, and came out on the
run." It was only the Ught weight of the American broncos that
made their pitching humanly endurable. If the heavier
European horses, as a class, had pitched, and that with
jounce which, measured by bronco standard, was propor
tionate to their weight and muscle, riding would have been
a rarely exercised accomplishment in Europe, because only
an occasional man would have had vitality enough to stand
the punishment. One of America's best cowboy riders ac
companied a "WUd-West Show" to Europe some years

BREAKING HORSES 293
since, and there met ahnost his death from the terrific
thumps and strains received while upon the back of a buck
ing stalUon that never had been outside of France.
Moreover, the importation of European horses into
America, and their crossing with the bronco would sooner
or later have eliminated most of the "graded up" broncos
from the list of saddle animals. For commercial reasons
he had to be "graded up" to increased size and weight.
He was too small for the great majority of harness uses,
and it was the harness and not the saddle that furnished
to the Range its principal market. There very probably
would have been continued, with animals in limited numbers
and for riding purposes, a strain of bronco blood either un
mixed or else crossed with such larger, imported beasts as
had proved themselves to be non-buckers. In any event.
Western horse-raising would have had a history quite dif
ferent from its actual one. Buck Taylor and various other
horsemen might never have ridden into fame.
The whole situation was saved by a fortunate provision
of nature which, in the average case, whUe permitting the
imported horse, on crossing with the bronco, to pass down
the former's quaUties, nevertheless prevented it from also
giving mere exaggeration to qualities which the bronco
alone possessed. Thus a six-hundred-pound bronco, with,
say, six hundred pounds of bucking force inside it, mated
with a nine-hundred-pound non-bucker. Their colt would
eventually weigh, say, seven hundred pounds and would
have at most six hundred pounds of bucking force. Suc
cessive generations would tend to increase the figures for
the animals' weights and to decrease those for their buck
ing force.
The spectator at one of the present-day formal riding
competitions at Cheyenne, Pendleton, BUlings, Prescott,
Las Vegas, Wichita Falls, etc., sees, in a single afternoon,
a much greater number of violently bucking horses than in

294 THE COWBOY
olden time he would have seen, during an entire week, at a
ranch, however large. The reason for this is that no horses
except "spoUed" animals or "outlaws" are employed at
these modern competitions. The spectators at these com
petitions see punchers ride at least as weU as the latter's
fathers and grandfathers used to ride, but these punchers
of to-day are spared one danger that their fathers and grand
fathers had to risk. The puncher of to-day, standing in,
say, Pendelton's or Prescott's arena, assumes that while
every one of the horses he is caUed upon to "hairpin" wiU
go to the limit of roughness in legitimate pitching, none
of them wiU prove itseff a deUberate man-kUler. He as
sumes this, because present-day horse-raising is done in a
populous country and so allows the idiosyncrasies of prac
tically every horse to become known to its owner.
But the father and grandfather, dealing whoUy with
animals seff-raised on the lonely Range, had no foreknowl
edge of any particular beast's pecuUarities. Although the
father and grandfather, entering the corral of years ago,
surmised that but a smaU proportion of their prospective
mounts would buck to the limit of roughness, these bygone
men could not be confident that they were not to meet a
"back throw," or that among the horses was not a pro
fessional murderer.
The "gentling" of the horses which had been gathered
at the round-up was eventually finished. At last came the
time to ship, and the punchers headed toward the raUway
with their charges.
The expedition traveUed by day and rested by night in
the same manner as though the men had been dri-ving cat
tle. But it moved a bit more rapidly, and there was much
less fear of possible stampede; though a horse stampede
once started was far more difficult to stop than was the
"bust up" of a cattle herd; and beyond all was that of
mules. Horses had as much curiosity as had cattle; but.

BREAKING HORSES 295
unUke cattle, would not feel impelled to run for miles be
cause a rumbling brown stream of buffalo had flowed into
sight (this of course only in earlier days), or Indians had
been scented, or a wolf had howled, or a stick had cracked,
or a tin can had been dropped, or a wagon cover had slatted,
or any one of a thousand and one things had occurred. Any
happening, however trivial, might, if unexpected, send the
cattle into racing frenzy.
The expedition traveUed onward, and eventually reached
the railway. The horses were herded into the shipping
pens, receipted for, and, as none of the punchers was to
travel with this particular shipment, their work for their
employers was for the moment finished.
But important business was ahead of the men. They
had of course to -visit their " our town," their "our shipping
point," "the biggest Uttle town in aU the West," a typical
Uttle cow town that lay a half-mile down the track.
They had in their pockets the coins of six months' wages —
coins, because paper money was unkno-wn upon the Range,
where coins of gold or silver were the only money seen, a
half-doUar if not a doUar was the smallest coin used, and,
in lieu of fractional currency for the making of change, car
tridges of standard sizes not uncommonly functioned.
Thus opulent, the men, their foreman and top riders in
accord with social usage leading, headed for town. Had
they been dri-ving live stock, they would have entered the
settlement or skirted it at the slow rate demanded by
the driven herd. But, being free from convoying cares, the
party kept its horses at a rapid walk or mincing trot, the
gaits usual for country travel, until there was reached
the first outlying buUding, when mstantly, and in accord
with custom, aU horses were sent into a lope.
The men clattered thus into a town such as countless
writers on Western subjects have described, and forthwith
embarked upon the ostensible joys and rapid roads to in-

296 THE COWBOY
solvency which those same writers have so repeatedly em
ployed as themes.
But there was far from the quantity of exploding gun
powder and flying buUets that many of these writers have
portrayed. Probably there was none at all.
When the men entered the settlement, they made con
siderable noise, but it was the sound only of kindly yells,
of hoofs, of bridle chains, and of spur steel. They did not
attempt to "take the town" by "shooting it up," or by
otherwise threatening its inhabitants. There was no in
centive to do this. Every one knew the men, so there was
nobody to bluff.
At times such shooting did occur in larger cow towns, as
at Dodge City, AbUene, Newton, OgalaUa, Julesburg, and
Cheyenne, but it represented in the main, apart from oc
casional, serious drink-caused duels, little more than youth
ful prankishness, and an egotistical desire by passing
punchers from distant regions to impress the local inhabi
tants with the fact of the visitors' presence.
Young, trained athletes had just completed a drive of
perhaps four months of actual riding in the awful dust of
the cattle herd, possibly had been delayed for three or four
additional months by stock quarantines upon the route.
Now they had reached their destination, and their task
was done. "Whoop !" Of course it was "Whoop !"
At times their bojdsh ebuffition was attempted to be
checked and the punchers turned to -violence; just as to
day the home-coming, cheering attendants of some sedate
coUege's -victorious football team, busy with coUecting dis
carded boards for a celebrating fire and undiplomatically
admonished by the single local constable, instantly acquire
axes and right and left demolish gates and fences.
And yet the records of the cowboys' temporary incur
sions into de-viltry have come down through the years, and
falsely advertised themselves as being pictures of the aver-

BREAKING HORSES 297
age Iffe of the average cowboy. The very picture that shows
a day of drunkenness, of shooting and of brothel Iffe, and
puts itseff in the lime-Ught, omits any portrayal of the three
hundred and sixty-four days of hunger, thirst, stampedes,
fires, cloudbursts, drifts, quicksands, of uncomplaining and
complete fiUing of a job that it assuredly took a man to fiU.
Our punchers not only did not take the town, but also
did not even "buy" it. Had they felt unusuaUy hUarious
and been markedly weU-treated by whatever goddess pre
sides over faro, and particularly had representatives from
any rival ranch been present, one of our punchers as spokes
man for his party might have turned away from the gam
ing-table, might have laid from five hundred to a thousand
doUars upon the bar, have given that all-including hand
sweep practised by queens, prime ministers, and drunken
men, and have announced " Gents, it's on us. She's opened
up. The to-wn is yourn." Thereupon the local purveyors
would have syndicated, and, until the exhaustion of the
money thus laid upon the bar, none of the restaurants and
saloons in town would have made any charge to any cus
tomer for whatever food or drink he might consume. This
patronizing gfft of a town to its o-wn citizens, this complete
reversal of the European spirit in conferring the freedom
of a city was known as "buying a town," or "opening" it
"up." Tradition, true or false, relates that Cheyenne on
one occasion was "bought" for thirty thousand dollars by
a convi-vial English group.
Another phase of this recklessness with money, a reck
lessness which in those days of optimism was locally epito
mized in the sayings: "Easy come, easy go," and "Spend
ing next year's profits," found expression in the ordering
of inordinately large and useless quantities of useful things.
"Gimme a bottle of beer and fffty dollars worth of ham
and eggs," has greeted more than one restaurant's waitress.
It may not be amiss to digress for a moment to later years

298 THE COWBOY
and to Alaska in its booming days. Tradition there relates
that a spurned suitor for the hand of a woman "took to
the hiUs," dug out a fortune, and one December returned
to her presence. Knowing her regard for what Alaskans
conceived to be the greatest gastronomic delicacy, he quietly
cornered aU the packed eggs both in the territory and in
the ships bound toward it; and, at supper-time during the
Christmas baU and in the presence of his rival, proudly
directed a waitress to "give the lady a hundred thousand
doUars worth of scrambled eggs."
As stiU another phase of this same spirit, audiences at
the little theatres which were boasted by some of the larger
cow to-wns were apt to throw coins to actresses who had
earned acclaim. SUver doUars were the conventional offer
ings; but, at Cheyenne, one lusty man became so enthralled
at the way "The last kiss my darling mother gave," was
described in coyote tremolo by a blonde soprano, that he
hurled a twenty-dollar gold piece, which, accidentally hit
ting the songstress behind the ear, knocked her senseless.
But none of these spectacular things befeU our men.
They merely "went broke," in commonplaceness, though
with rapidity. The folio-wing day, the members of the party
made, in the order of their entering insolvency, announce
ment of their intended departure; and, after being donated
a fareweU drink, mounted and ruefully "hit the trail" for
the ranch and six months more of work.
The men had come into the town boldly, but they faded
out of it.
AU of the party had gone except one man. He was leav
ing the Range forever, to go to some city "back East,"
and enter a prosaic but profitable office. He stood, gazing
sadly at the distant rear-guard of his late companions.
There staggered up to him a cowboy whom he never before
had seen, a cowboy befuddled in speech but not in heart,
a cowboy who, taking one look at a troubled face, asserted:

BREAKING HORSES 299
"Say, stranger, you're out of luck. I've got four bits left.
Here's haff of it. HeU, no. Here's aU of it."
Such was the spirit of the Western Plains in the days
when lariats were freely swinging.

CHAPTER XV
RUSTLING
early stealing — lincoln county war — ^nesters — beginning of rus
tling — ^definitions — sentiments permitting rustling — range-d'well-
ers — their several attitudes toward rustling  rustlers' methods
— ^Wyoming's rustler war — ^its significance
In the earUer days of ranching, the stealing of Uve stock
was accomplished by the simple and direct means of openly
riding up to it and dri'ving it away. The transaction might
be thus unvarnished, or it might be "decorated with gun
play." This thievery might be effected by a single indi'vidual
or by an organized band. In this latter phase, smaU, local
ci'vil wars occasionally were fought.
New Mexico suffered the worst of these beffigerencies;
as, after criminals had begun to gnaw at John Chisholm's
cattle, the men of an entire county took sides, and at least
two hundred of them in a struggle of slow, sniping attri
tion were "passed out" by bullets. An exact count was
never made; and, for years afterward, here and there in
box canyons or between high rocks, wajffarers would stum
ble on grinning skulls with a round hole between the sockets
for the eyes. Such was the "Lincoln County War." The
contiguous New Mexican counties of Lincoln and Dona
Ana truly were splashed with blood.
The Rio Grande too knew murder. International rob
bery never has been good-natured.
In these ci-vil wars, steaUng or its prevention sometimes
was the primary object. At other times, the steaUng was
tacked as an incidental matter onto a campaign against
encroaching sheepmen or farmers or onto a feud between
two ranchers of horses or cattle. Then a better class of
300

RUSTLING 301
men was drawn into it and the robber was apt to salve
his conscience with the thought that he was merely col
lecting the money-cost of efforts made in support of a moral
cause. Thus arose the bloody, Texan straggle between the local
ranchmen and the "nesters," sometimes called "nestlers."
These nesters, individually smaU farmers, and in the main
immigrants largely of Germanic birth, had obtained by
State grant or by other means scattered parcels of farming
land. Each of these farmers, acting on the faith of ostensi
ble, legal title, threw about his Uttle tract a fence that cut
off from pubUc use whatever waterhole was within the tract.
The Uttle farm so fenced was, by the local cattlemen, con
temptuously termed a "nest." These cattlemen, with
despotic lordliness, not only fenced their own lands; but
also, ignoring both law and the theory of an open Range,
fenced where they chose; and not infrequently embraced
in their enclosures one or more aheady established nests.
This loosed the fence-cutter and the Winchester, and there
began wholesale piffering of Uve stock. Both sides were
at fault, and so were compelled to compromise. Accord
ingly the ruction eventually worked itseff onto a peaceful
ff jealous basis whereon each faction began to observe the
law. By the commencement of the decade of the eighties, the
Cattle Country had grown tired of bald raidings, of the
disciples of Slade, Watkins, Lacey, Amett, SpUhnan, Henry
Plummer, Bignose George, Dutch Charley, Opium Bob,
and BUly the Kid. Wherefore it purchased additional car
tridges and further hempen rope, "took" some criminals,
"got" more of them, and quite thoroughly ended stealing
done in flagrant, primitive form.
Promptly appeared the wUey "rustler," who by more
indirect and intelUgent methods increased the total of the
annual pUf erings.

302 THE COWBOY
But, before entering upon that subject, one well may
turn to those two picturesque Western words, "took" and
"got." The law sent out its sheriff, "took" a man, and
tried him. The citizens "dug for their guns," "got" their
man, and examined his corpse.
To understand "rustUng," one first must consider the
pubfic sentiment which made its existence and scope pos
sible; and, as a prerequisite to this consideration, one should
weigh certain underlying principles which at first blush
weU might seem wholly unrelated.
Every Westerner was an intense indi'vidualist, and de
manded exclusive management of his personal affairs. At
the same time, ha'ving no curiosity whatever as to the pri
vate matters of other people, he was perfectly -wiUing that
these other people should do as they Uked, pro-vided they
neither improperly interfered with his rights nor contra
vened such of the tenets of the Cattle Country's code of
ethics as the West deemed to be -vital and fundamental both
to the maintenance of Iffe and Uberty and to the pursuit of
happiness. He was ready and usuaUy wUUng, for his own actions,
to account to the ultimate authorities of competent juris
diction, namely his God and the officials of either State or
federal government; and he assumed that, when his neigh
bors felt impelled to make a relatively similar reckoning,
they would, without appeal to his advice, ascertain where
confession should be made, and would act accordingly. It
never occurred to him that he might be his brother's keeper,
and he knew how he himself would feel, ff any one, even an
intimate friend, "butted into" his concerns.
So set was the disinclination of every Westerner to in
trude into other folks' affairs, that he volunteered to the
public officers practically no assistance, save in such mat
ters as pertained to his own cattle and horses.
Even though a notorious robber had quizzicaUy an-

RUSTLING 303
nounced that the Union Pacific Raihoad was running its
trains too rapidly for pubfic convenience, or that his "side
pardner," Skinny Joe or Black Bart, either had a contract
to re-vise the schedule of the Santa F^ RaUway or else was
to act as head flagman on the Oregon Short Line, it would
not have occurred to any citizen of the Cattle Country to
forewarn the sheriff or even the representatives of the
threatened raUway. The citizen's -view-point would have
been that these representatives "shore knew about it," or
"shore would learn about it"; would notify the sheriff,
and would otherwise sufficiently protect themselves, or, if
unable to do so, would call upon the public for aid.
However, for a while the citizen idly would have scanned
the headings of whatever newspapers he ran across, to dis
cover ff possible whether the robbing Squint-Eye had
"puUed it off," or, instead, had lost his entire head before
the short-barrelled, nail-loaded shotgun of some alert Wells,
Fargo messenger. Whether Skinny Joe had "made good,"
or "had shore got his'n" would also have been worth mak
ing desultory effort to ascertain. But aU these transactions
would have seemed as impersonal, foreign, and unimportant
as though Squint-Eye, Black Bart, or Skinny Joe had been
an Eskimo, and, amid the Arctic ice, had attempted to
purloin a piece of seal meat from an oil-soaked tribes
man. If any old-timer in the West had heard that there was
about to be robbed a bank with the management or owner
ship of which he was not connected, he would not for a mo
ment have thought of informing the cashier. The old-timer
would have felt sure that if he gave warning, the bank's of
ficials would have ground to complain that too many people
were trying to "play in the game," and that he himseff was
"feeding off his own range." The old-timer's view-point
would have been that, if he knew of the prospective
"party," the officials doubtless either also did or else would

304 THE COWBOY
obtain foreknowledge; and, if they wanted his aid, they
would send for him.
If they ultimately had sent for him, he would have gone,
as he would have gone at the call of the raUroads when
Squint-Eye or Skinny Joe "held them up," and this on the
instant and, ff need be, ready to die. But, if his assistance
had not been requested, he would have displayed in the
matter no more activity than some day to inquire how far
the safe door had flown.
These men were not thus close-mouthed in order to con
ceal any crime which they themselves approved, had com
mitted, or were about to commit. The vast majority of
them had intentions of the strictest honesty. They merely
had a dread of "horning-in."
The West was then not yet old enough to realize that uni
versal protection came only out of concerted action.
This close-mouthedness, this non-interest in other people's
doings was the principal factor in opening the Range to
the rustler's trade.
This factor had a companion, fuU advantage of which
was taken by the thieves, particularly by such of them as
"did not come West for their health." This put-upon com
panion was the kindly, tolerant pleasure which the Cattle
Country derived from seeing any "likely young man"
"get a start in fife" and "get ahead."
To any one in the West the government gave, without
charge, title to lands, and use of grass and water, and also
said, in effect: "I shaU make you a gift of minerals, of fire
wood, and of aU the wUd meat you possibly can eat, ff you
but go and find them."
Under such conditions, there was not a brutally out
standing, brilliantly clear-cut line of moral demarcation
between, on the one hand, a noble-looking wapiti that fifty
miUion people had donated to whoever wanted it and, on
the other hand, a scrubby, anaemic calf that claimed either
to belong to a distant English earl who had no knowledge

RUSTLING 305
that he o-wned the beast, and seemingly did not care, or else
to belong to a "snotty city chap," who patronized his fel
low ranchers and deserved a "taking down."
The owners of the Uve stock feU into two classes, the
locaUy popular and the locaUy disliked.
The latter group was made up in part of non-residents
who, spending the major portion of their time in England
or upon America's Atlantic coast, Uved upon their ranches
only during short and widely separated periods. Their
visits frequently were restricted to the autumnal seasons
when big-game shooting was at its best. Such men, because
they failed to reside in the West, and, when there, used
the Range largely as a shooting cover or private country
club, were assumed to regard their holdings as an incidental
luxury, not to be financially dependent on them, and not
to feel the pinch ff any of their stock were "borrowed" by
acquisitive persons.
The West had the same mental attitude toward such
corporations as, being of size, were owned by numerous and
scattered stockholders. These corporations also lacked the
cogent, tangible element of a man who stayed on the spot
and "had his pocketbook in his herd."
The second unpopular group was composed of such local
residents as both did not fit into the scenery, and also pal
pably were intending a stay of but at most a few years'
duration. The Old West Uved in its then to-day, and planned for
its then to-morrow, but, except for recoUections of Range
tenets and of human friendships, its yesterday was but
vaguely remembered, whUe its last week was for it as re
mote almost as when JuUus Caesar lived. The Cattle Coun
try recalled every word and comma of its unwritten code,
it recalled the looks and statements of its dead friends, and
right there it "plumb petered out," on any affirmative in
terest in history.
The graded Herefords or Short Horns before a youthful

306 THE COWBOY
rustler's eyes bore the brand of, say, the English Middlesex
and Montana Ranch. The young man probably restricted
his reflections to calves, to pocketed telegraph wire, and
to trails. But, ff his thoughts drffted into scholarly chan
nels, he foggily called to mind that the Spanish had aban
doned a lot of Uve stock, and that it had spread about the
plains, and he concluded that the Englishmen must have
done a few years before a "right smart lot of roping." Then
he hazUy decided that, ff the Englishmen had been so sel
fishly wholesale in their acquisitions, it could do no harm
if he himself were merely to nibble at the herd which, though
the English now claimed, the Spaniards earUer had o'wned
and thrown away.
And yet, in the very locaUty where the only surely safe
repository for a caff was a bank's deposit-box, a man's sad
dle, pistol, clothing, money could, with impunity and 'with
out guard, be left beside the traU.
The recital thus far has disclosed that, in a country where
the government made almost all necessities free, there wan
dered about huge herds of animals, which in some part were
recognized as legally belonging to people that were supposed
to merit chastening, and in other part, thanks to the Span
iard, were assumed to pertain morally, despite the brands,
to nobody in particular; that, in this country, were im
pecunious, -virile men whose desire to arrive at honored
position was publicly acclaimed, and whose path for travel
ling thither was Uttle scrutinized, seldom fully known or
much discussed.
For another purpose of this present writing, the inhabi
tants of the Cattle Country were separable into five classes.
Of these classes, the first represented men who were un
compromising advocates of law, were of absolute integrity,
and who scorned either to aggrandize themselves through
any dishonesty or to give consciously the sUghtest aid to
others in the latter's wrongful doings.

RUSTLING 307
The second class was composed of men who, while equally
set against improper personal gain, would, because of less
stanch admiration for law, extend a bit of passive or even
active assistance to a friend who personaUy was engaged in
"picking up a few ownerless animals."
Men of the third class were Uke those of the second, ex
cept that these men of the third class were more easy-going
in character, and were willing to "skim a Uttle cream " them
selves pro-vided it hurt no "real Westerner."
The fourth class brings us to the man who in more or
less degree resented affirmatively the restrictions of the
law, and who, ff he wanted beef, "went and got it," though
to his credit it must be said that he usuaUy first visited the
undesirables' ranches, and generally spared the widow,
orphan, and poor. He commonly was as tmstworthy to his
neighbor as were the men of the two immediately prior
classes, excepting only that he was constantly "sentimental
about cows," and temperamentally "couldn't help making
love to them."
The fifth class, numerically the smaUest, was restricted
to the thieves as the novelists depict them, and was com
prised of men who would steal Uve stock from almost any
one, and who would take "even a sheep."
But even many of these last-mentioned men had redeem
ing characteristics, and were treated accordingly. With
the better of them, ff they limited their peculations to
reasonable quantity, the Range shut one eye and said:
"Jim, you eat too much meat, and need exercise. Come
up to the ranch, and I'U give you a permanent job." The
Range did so, because it knew that Jim would be faithful
unto death in everything except in matters of cowhide,
and possibly also his treatment of stages and railway trains.
If Jim's appetite in time were not duly curbed, he would
be given the address of a distant State and kindly but firmly
ad-vised to "hunt it up."

308 THE COWBOY
A few of this fifth class were truly anarchistic, "had snake
blood," in them, were in fact "bad men," and therefore
had not the backing of the Range. Sooner or later they
would go the way of all "bad men," and would disap
pear. For the sake of subsequent bre-vity, the men of these
various five classes wUl be hereinafter arbitrarily designated
by the several letters, A, B, C, D, and E, the letter A repre
senting the first class, B the second, and so on. For the
sake of clear understanding, let us keep in mind the prin
ciples already discussed, particularly the one to the effect
that "other people's business is none of mine." Then we
shaU be prepared to fathom the subject of wholesale rus
tUng. A "low down, snake-blooded" E started to "gather"
from anybody's stock, and raided the -widow and orphan.
AU of A, B, C, some of decent D, and a temporarily regen
erated E "went looking for him," for he had raised his hand
against the Range.
A decent E began a modest "coUection," from the herds
of disliked o-wners, i. e., from permissible sources. During
the acquirement of so much of his "coUection" as the pubUc
tacitly sanctioned, very Ukely B, C, and D helped him to
rope animals and to alter brands; C, ff a weU-Uked in
di-vidual, reser-ving as a commission a single comely beast;
D -withholding on this score all that E would let him have.
Very possibly the entire party, on its way to or from the
piracy, stopped for a night at A's ranch. Of course, there
was made to A no mention of the expedition's purpose.
It was none of his business, for neither he nor any other
"real person" was to be or had been looted. But A, by
Range custom, was ready to house all passing travellers,
good, bad, and indifferent, and to ask no questions.
Presently the public, thinking that decent E had made
sufficient acquirement, warned him to "throw on the

RUSTLING 309
brakes." If he obeyed, the matter was ended. If he did
not hearken, he moved to another State.
-D, in his own efforts, would receive stiff more extensive
aid from B and C, and would be aUowed a larger looting.
There was a generally popular C, who jauntily salUed
forth on his own account and "picked some blossoms."
B worked like a dog for him, while the Range smUed, said
nothing, did nothmg, for the Range knew that C would
never "overplay his hand." But no disliked C or D could,
without the Range's impUed consent, be "careless -with his
branding-iron." As already stated, overt stock-raiding, so-caUed "brass-
band stealing," had ceased by the commencement of the
eighties, to be succeeded immediately by the more finished
methods of highly speciaUzed rustUng. For some ten years
this rustUng continued in a widely spread but somewhat
desultory manner. During that period the operations in
each State were largely confined to its own citizens, its mem
bers of our alphabet below the letter A. The herds of weU-
Uked owners were left quite inviolate; but our letters B,
C, D, and E modestly whittled away at the holdings of the
English and other vacationers, and occasionaUy were kUled
whUe at their work.
In this period the owners sowed seed for future trouble,
because they began the system of paying bonuses to cow
boys for finding mavericks, and later not only abolished
the system, but also, on some ranges, forbade cowpunchers
to o-wn Uve stock.
This prohibition against OAvning Uve stock was in strict
accord with the tendency which the entire West possessed,
and incidentally which obtained in various Eastern States,
the tendency to enact remedial laws of sweeping effect and
general appUcation, and to expect the laws to enforce them
selves, and also to enact laws without first considering as
to whether or not they probably would prove enforceable.

310 THE COWBOY
The prohibition availed nothing toward checking steal
ing, because the punchers had, in their bonuses, already
tasted monetary blood.
The piffering methods used by rastlers were both the
altering of brands, and also the wrongful branding of
thitherto unbranded animals; followed, in either case, by
separating from their mothers such of these misbranded
brutes as were maternally escorted, this last to insure that
there be no combination of close companionship and di
vergent markings wherewith to advertise that "bossy had
a stepfather." This separation was achieved by impounding
in isolated corrals such of the youngsters as showed fiUal
affection, and keeping them there untU weaned away from
their mothers, or by searing or scarffying the soles of the
mother's hoofs to prevent her from foUowing her baby
when it was led away, or else by the very direct method of
shooting the mother and thereby "pinning crape on the kid."
MeanwhUe, paralleUng the Union Pacific RaUway, an
other transcontinental railway, the Northern Pacific, had
been buUt across the Cattle Country; but the buffalo had
lasted long enough to feed the railway's constructors, so
the cattle had not as yet been much cut into. Nevertheless,
these very buffalo had created a menace, for they had caUed
together numerous men of a curious tj^e, the queer beings
who earned their livelihood either by killing buffalo for
their skins or by merely coUecting the dead buffaloes' bones.
When "skinning" and "bone-picking" ended, the men of
those trades were ripe for the rustUng of cattle.
Meanwhile there was pushing, in quantity and over the
edges of the Range, a new type of citizen or prospective
citizen, the smaU farmer, who frequently was fresh from
Europe. He already was or quickly became sufficiently
"Americanized" as to look with en-vy upon the wandering
assets of the earlier settlers.
Soon still another railway, the Burlington's Western

RUSTLING 311
extension, was projected into Wyoming, and so into the
very heart of the Range. It attracted to itseff workers
from distant places, and, in addition, unloaded at its ad
vancing railhead not only legitimate farmers but also many
of those unwelcome characters who haunt the rails yet
shrink from steady or honest work. Of the men who came
to fiU construction jobs, some proved inefficient and were
discharged. There thus seeped out among the cattle a new lot of citi
zens containing a leaven made of persons possessed of then
as yet dormant criminal instincts, made also of fugitives
from the justice of far-off States, made also of men who,
out of jobs, turned to rustling for intended temporary UveU
hood, but, once in the dishonest caUing, would not quit it.
While the leaven of these human misfits was filtering into
the country, the political leaders were stirring the newly ar
rived farmers to have active interest in citizenship, and to
exercise its duty, the casting of the vote. Simultaneously,
poUtical demagogues were descanting upon the themes that
aU these recent comers were the "real people of the land,"
and that the herds which these recent comers saw repre
sented wealth improperly withheld from them.
Eventually, in Wyoming, the small farmers, with the
perhaps unnecessary, but nevertheless enthusiastic, assis
tance of the ne'er-do-wells, held all the public offices in
an entire county, and thus controUed the issuance and dis
position of all its judicial process, a process that was prone
not to attack the rastlers but was disposed to deal curtly
-with long- vested interests.
But all the disgruntled of the small farmers and aU the
confirmed thieves within Wyoming could not have gashed
the stock industry as it presently was gashed, if it had not
been that such of our above friends from the alphabet as
lived within that State had the moral attitudes hereinbe
fore described, and that the traly Americanized of the new

312 THE COWBOY
immigrants already had distributed themselves among
those various lettered classes.
The railhead of the new railway, the BurUngton, pushed
further into the Wyoming Range. There were no buffalo
for the railway's builders to eat. Some unrecorded, enter
prising youth, who pre-viously had outgrown the tedious
process of stealing calves, rebranding them, raising them
to maturity, and then smuggling them into legitimate East-
bound channels, who later had adopted the more direct
method of shooting adult animals, skinning them, destroy
ing either the telltale markings of the hide or else the entire
hide, and deUvering the carcasses to butchers in the farm
ers' Uttle towns, now made a great discovery. It was
that the layers of ties, the drivers of spikes, the shoveUers
of dirt, in fact everybody in the construction camps of the
raUway had unlimited capacity for eating fresh meat.
Immediately eastern Wyoming ran amuck. Except for
such of the old-timers as were austerely honest, and except
for such men of the absentee landlord type as happened to
be within the State, the male inhabitants in an astonish
ingly large proportion madly turned to rustling. Such of
the better element as engaged in it did so with a grin, some
times with no more definite purpose than a lark, but usuaUy
as a means of "getting hunk" with some weU-to-do but
hated rancher. The other participants were actuated by
resentment against wealth or by affirmative desire for gain,
and, in the latter case, materiaUy differed in the amounts
of their cupidity.
Almost every man of strong dislikes and weak conscience
joined with his more ignoble brothers in devastating such
of the large herds as belonged to unpopular owners, and in
selfing to the railway contractors the meat of "slow elk"
and "big antelope." This movement, among the more
dishonorable rustlers, extended first to raiding any large
herd and, later, on the simple theory that "beef was beef,"

RUSTLING 313
to ignoring completely the question of identity of owner
ship. The movement became so weU estabUshed as to have a
jargon of its own. The movement had also miUtant apostles
in the "waddies," men faithful to the Ulegal art of rus
tling; and these, by the weapon of derision, tried to wean
honest punchers from protection of their employers' in
terests. These honest chaps were taunted with wiUingness
to "slave," to be "peoned out," to be "servants," to be
"low down enough to carry a bucket of sheep dip," to be
"sheep-herders at heart," and, if in EngUsh employ, to
"shine coronets." They sneeringly were termed "sheep-
dippers," "bucket men," "pUersmen," "saints," and again,
ff in English employ, "royal crowns."
The more sober-minded citizens began to reaUze that
the very Ufe of the cattle industry was threatened.
Suddenly there happened an event which brought the
whole situation to a focus and resolved it into sanity. In
1892, some of the larger suffering ranches launched from
Cheyenne an armed expedition which was intended to ex
terminate certain of the rustlers. This expedition presently
opened fire upon the ranch of a man accused of being a
"waddy." Forthwith many of the smaller ranchers and
of the farmers hastened to reUeve the threatened thieves.
Out came the local sheriff with a posse, which was exceed
ingly large, and in which were many "waddies."
Throughout the whole affair, but a few shots flew, but
two men fell. United States cavalry cut short the hostili
ties. Yet the episode had affirmative result.
The relative numbers of the people aUgning with the sev
eral factions showed conclusively that the old order had
ended, that the Range had ceased to be a poUtical entity
and had been apportioned among the States, that the cat
tle kings had forever ceased to rale, that the control of
what had been the Cattle Country had passed from the

314 THE COWBOY
herd-owners and top riders to the farmer recently from
New Jersey, the clerk just come from an Ohio -viUage, the
shopkeeper who, through unreasoning fear of Indians, had
long delayed his immigration from Iowa, the settler newly
arrived from Europe and armed 'with his first papers of
naturalization. The Old West had passed. The New West had come.
Thereupon such of the robbed ranchers as were not in
entirety of old-time Westem spirit disposed of the wreck
age of their holdings, and retired both from the industry
of raising stock and from the country where their animals
had ranged.
The men who continued in the business came into closer
mutual relationship 'with one another. They were joined
by the better class of men among the rustlers ; and, through
a revitaUzed machinery for the guarding of the cattle in
dustry, there was soon suppressed the stealing which the
more confirmed rustlers had endeavored to continue.
Very presently, by reason of increased activity in polic
ing throughout the West, rustUng became everywhere there
"virtually extinct.
Those happenings in Wyoming terminated by that shoot
ing, which was the so-caUed "Rustler War," or "Johnson
County Raid," had a distinct poUtical and social sigmfi
cance. That final burst of thieving represented, for some
of its performers, mere robbing; for others, a reckless, rol-
Ucking lark; for others, opportunity for punishment or
revenge; but, for the majority, an uprising against concen
trated wealth; and, at the end, it signified an accomplished,
social and poUtical revolution.
Though Wyoming alone pitted armed man against armed
man to decide a fundamental problem, all the other Western
States sooner or later arrived at the same conclusion that
Wyoming did in Johnson County in 1892. From the Mis
souri River to the Sierra Nevadas, the open Range as a

RUSTLING 315
dominant, poUtical entity passed into history. True, there
after cattle-owners as such had great poUtical power; but,
to obtain results, they often had to seek the assistance of
the farmers, of the townspeople, and, at times, ye gods!
of the sheepmen. It was a power which, though able still
to make a legislature hesitate, was no longer capable of
imperious dictation from a horse's back.
The open Range had everywhere overstayed its leave.

CHAPTER XVI
TRAILING
RIDING SIGN — TRAILING — COWBOYS' PARTICIPATION — AXIOMS — ^FACUL
TIES INVOL'VED  OBJECTIVES — OBSERVATION — ^VISUAL "siGNS" — AUDIBLE
WARNINGS — SMELL — TOUCH — DEFINITIONS — ^DETERMINING AGE — PSYCHO
LOGICAL FACTORS — EXPLORA'nON — FALLIBILITY
"RmiNG sign " was one of the duties of the cowboy. This
act of following the track which had been made by an ear
Uer traveUer, whether man or four-footed animal, was guided
by the same principles as those that had been adopted by
the scouts against Indians. The act was termed by the
scouts either "trailing" or else "foUowing sign," and by
the cowboys "riding sign."
Some of the cowboys were extremely proficient in pur
suing trails; but of course few of them rose to the highly
speciaUzed abifity of the men who as Indian scouts devoted
their Uves to this one function. These scouts, as one of
them, James Bridger, remarked, preserved their scalps by
tying them to their brains, and as another of them, John
Yancey, said, were taught in a school in which the Indians
periodically conducted examinations, and in which any
scholar who flunked was scalped.
Nevertheless, cowboys working upon the open Range
had in the main to abide by the same methods as those
which were employed by these Indian scouts, and had been
copied by the latter from the Indians themselves. The
principles hereinafter enunciated were those utiUzed by the
scouts; and, save for so much of those principles as related
to ascertaining the tribal identity of the makers of Indians'
traUs, were pursued by the more capable trailing cowboys,
316

TRAILING 317
and were attempted to be practised by aU cowboys even
though they were caUed upon merely to ride sign after live
stock. Each of the various Indian tribes had indi'vidual and
very distinctive peculiarities in its equipment and in the
form of its camp. UsuaUy a short section of an Indian traU,
and always an Indian camp, or even the mere site of an
abandoned one, disclosed definitely to the scout the identity
of the tribe involved. But only in Indian-infested coun
try did the cowboy have to acquaint himseff with these
distinguishing technicaUties.
An underlying axiom gave to traiUng practical results.
This axiom was that no two species of animal, man included,
left similar traUs; and that no two animals of the same
species, man included, could so divest themselves of their
several indi-vidual peculiarities as to be able to leave traUs
that were whoUy aUke.
Trailing was no more or less than detective work. Sher
lock Holmes of English fiction would have been a great
Indian scout, had he Uved on the Western plains. Trail
ing involved both intensive exercise of the powers of ob
servation, and also careful reasoning from the facts ob
served, this reasoning taking into consideration at times
human or animal psychology.
The powers of observation employed were, in the order
of the importance of their ser-vices: sight, hearing, scent,
and touch.
The traU might be so clearly blazoned as to be self-evi
dent to any tyro. Then its pursuit was so facile as to
amount to no more than, in the scout's vernacular, "sUding
the groove." But, when the inductive facts were few and
appeared at widely separated pomts, traiUng rose to the
level of an art.
The scout's work might have either one of two objec
tives, namely, the overtakmg of a fi-ving fugitive or else the

318 THE COWBOY
reaching of a definite spot upon the map. These two ob
jectives caUed for very differing methods of procedure.
The first, the chase, required for probabifity of success
that the quarry's course be in the main strictly followed;
although not infrequently, when pursuit had continued
sufficiently long to satisfy the pursuer's mind as to the
quarry's intended destination, short cuts across country
might safely be hazarded.
When the scout's task had to do only with the reaching
of a geographical objective, his work was more akin to that
of the engineer. The scout then was concerned -with two
propositions: first, how surely to attain the point; second,
how best to avoid aU intermediate obstructions. In this
he was not interested, like the scientific explorer, in ac
tuaUy mapping the details of the intervening country,
though the scout might have to give attention to them in
so far as they might promise to be factors in the then present
expedition or in some future one.
For the successful exercise of the art of pursuit, the traUer
first concentrated his scrutiny upon the face of the country
through which his quest was to fie, in order that, becoming
thoroughly famiUarized with the normal appearance of aU
the detaUs, he might have his attention instantly arrested
by any infraction of that normaUty. Once intimately ac
quainted -with the usual appearance of things, the trailer
thereafter could confine his observation exclusively to
watching for the unusual. The unusual, the infractions
which the quarry had imposed on usual conditions, wrote
the story of the eluder's journey and prophesied his destina
tion. The simplest situation was the following of a fugitive
which, untU overtaken, kept himseff in clear -view; but
so bald a "sliding the groove" deserves no consideration,
for it involved no element of detective work. Not unless
the pursuit were of a hidden quarry did the operation rise
to the dignity of traUing.

TRAILING 319
An otherwise in-visible fugitive might disclose his position
by unwittingly permittmg sunlight to reflect from some
bright object worn upon himseff or upon his horse. Upon
briUiant days such flashing would, in the clear air of the
West, be -visible for mUes. For this latter reason aU law-
abiding Westerners in either Indian-beset territory or the
country of big-game shooting, and everywhere all law-break-
mg Westerners, eschewed anything that might throw off re
flections. Bright nickel was at a discount, whether it were
upon rifle, pistol, spur or bit. White handkerchiefs and
shirts were not held in high esteem.
The flashing from a reflecting object was particularly
noticeable when that object was in motion. Because of
this the traUer, the instant he thought himseff observed
by his quarry, stiffened into immobiUty, to remain quies
cent so long as he deemed himseff or his location to be under
observation. Many a tenderfoot, riding alone and solemnly brandish
ing his shiny pistol during a seff-imposed driU, has thereby
sent to far-distant, grinning punchers advertisement of his
coming. The route of the man or animal pursued might be visually
reported by impressions left underfoot or at the traU's side,
by foreign objects dropped in the way, by the fugitive's
routing of birds and animals from their stations and send
ing them scurrying into the pursuer's sight. It might be
audibly reported by the fugitive's footfaUs, his rolUng stones,
or his breaking sticks, and, if the fugitive were a man, by
also his discharging weapons. FinaUy, it might be reported
to the nose by identffying odor, and to the sense of touch
by the temperature of dropped objects.
These memoranda of travel could be read; and, when
accurately perased, they disclosed the identity of the quarry,
his course, and, save in the instances of the audible messages,
the time elapsed since he had made any given "sign," as
each tangible memorandum left by him was termed.

320 THE COWBOY
The impressions left underfoot might show as more or
less clear imprints of the foot, as mere scratches upon a
rock, a frozen surface, or a sun-baked soU, as breaks in sticks
or herbage, or as displacements of natural objects from their
wonted positions.
Because the fugitive's footprints were the most satis
factory e-vidence of his identity, the first function of the
trailer was so to acquaint himseff with the impressions of
his quarry's feet as to be able thereafter to distinguish them
from aU other tracks. To accompUsh this, he might, untU
he came upon a set of complete imprints, have to rely, in
the case of each foot, upon a composite construction made
up of a heel's impress here, a toe's print there. A haff dozen
fragmentary impressions might be aU an expert traUer had
seen before he had formed an accurate, detaUed conception
of a foot's shape, size, and characteristics.
With the prints once clearly pictured in the mind of a
competent scout, he, despite their infrequent appearance
in complete form upon anything but moist soU or damp
snow, would foUow them from such surfaces across the sand,
the rocks, the ice, through myriads of other and temporarUy
conflicting tracks, confidently recognizing teUtale pecuUari
ties which were from time to time disclosed, on this print
a worn-over heel, in that impression a twisted toe.
If the traUer had not before his start been ad-vised as to
the physical pecuUarities of his quarry's feet or their shoe-
ings, he quickly learned them from the imprints. The size
and shape of each foot, as also lameness, de-viations from
normal pointings of the toe, undue throwing of weight upon
any special portion of a foot, length of stride, projecting
seams, indented breaks, each wrote a memorandum. The
form, size, and character of sewn seams, of a repairing patch,
of an unmended tear or hole would, for the human moccasin
or boot, leave a record as instructive as would a broken
shoe or a mafformed hoof for a fleeing horse.

TRAILING 321
Limping not only drove a lame leg's foot more deeply
into the ground than a sound leg sent its foot, but also was
apt to cause both a t-wisting on the sole and a variation
from the normal length of stride. Drunkenness and physical
exhaustion each were recorded by prints which showed
successive staggerings from and to the course; as also undue
indentings, here of the heel, there of the toe; and finally
signal inequaUty in length of stride.
At the scene of an Oregonian "hold up," the footprints
of the bandit e-videnced a patched sole and a lame leg. A
puncher, foUowing the prints, ascertained promptly that
the bandit had walked two hundred yards to a tethered
horse, had mounted, and had ridden away. The puncher,
by clinging to the horse's traU, arrived at a ranch tem
porarily emptied of its inmates. Earth markings showed
that the bandit had dismounted before the door. The
patched sole had clearly recorded its entering the building,
but had made no record of its lea-ving. The puncher's study
of aU the local impressions soon offered the explanation.
The prints made by an unpatched sole under a limping foot
told of a change of shoes, led to the corral, and, in combina
tion -with the hoof-marks within the corral and leading from
its gate, advertised that the bandit had saddled a fresh
horse, and had trotted away upon it. That puncher within
two hours caught that bandit.
Incidentally, all Indians toed in and wore moccasins, the
sole marks of the latter frequently by their shapes estab
Ushing the identity of the wearer's tribe. Also no Indian
shod his horse with metal; or, unUke the white man, let
his fire, when not used for signalling, emit dark smoke.
Length of stride was, as between a man's two feet, apt
to be unequal. UsuaUy the right foot took the longer step,
direction being maintained by twisting on the longer-step
ping foot as the other was in the air. This twisting im
printed a distmctive swirl upon the track.

322 THE COWBOY
Some men, when walking, brought down their feet with
even pressure. Others stressed upon either heel or toe.
A running man rarely touched to the ground any part of
his foot that was back of its ball. If he did otherwise, the
heel print would be but sUghtly impressed. A man could
run backward, but this only for short distances, and when
he both was upon his toes and also was taking short strides.
When he was walking backward, he would, after the first
few yards, aU done with great physical effort, throw his
weight upon his heels, and also drive them into the soil
accordingly. These simple, natural characteristics saved
a competent trailer from being long deceived by that hoary
subterfuge of thieves, walking backward.
A pedestrian, ff hea'vily laden, would markedly indent
his heels.
A CaUfornian bank was robbed of some sUver bars. A
single set of human footprints, all of them showing deeply
impressed heels, led from the bank's buUding to the hoof
marks of a horse; and thence, with much lessened depth
of heel impressions, continued to a second and dissimilar set
of equine hoof-marks. The two sets of hoof-marks forthwith
diverged. There came upon the scene a competent traUer.
He reasoned and, as it soon developed, correctly reasoned
that but one robber had dismounted, had entered the build
ing, and had removed the sUver; that this robber had car
ried the loot to a confederate who had remained in the sad
dle; that the dismounted robber then had mounted his own
horse; and that, to confuse pursuers, the two men had fled
in opposite directions. The trailer, on the faith of altered
depths in human heel prints, guessed accurately as to
which horse carried the silver; and the traUer made his
capture. A ridden horse clung to a fixed course. A riderless horse
would wander hither and thither.
A horse, when walking or trotting, made two paraUel

TRAILING 323
lines of hoof-marks, one with his two right feet, the other
with his two left feet.
In each of these lines were widely and regularly spaced
sets of imprints; each set consisting of the closely adjacent
impressions of the front and hind feet belonging on which
ever side of the horse was the one to which the line related.
Each set showed, for the normal horse, the hind foot's im
pression slightly in advance of that of the front foot; while
a lame animal was apt on his infirm side to reverse this order
of precedence. The intervals between the sets of normal
prints would be for a horse, when walking, approximately
five feet, and, when trotting, approximately eight feet.
The walking horses, when riderless, made with aU four
feet such indentations as showed the heels and toes equaUy
impressed. But the walking horse, when ridden, acted as
did any trotting horse ridden or unridden, and tended to
accent the impressions of its toes. Trotting hoofs also
scarfed up a bit the ground immediately ahead of them.
In the lope, and also in the gaUop or so-called run (a horse
does not run), all four hoofs tended to track in a single line.
A loping horse, ff leading with his right front foot, made
his hoof impressions in the foUowing order: (1) right front,
(2) left hmd, (3) left front, (4) right hmd, (6) right front
again. The length of the intervals between the several impres
sions depended on the indi-vidual peculiarities of each ani
mal; and also, in the case of each animal, varied with the
levelness or hUliness of the course, and the character of the
footing. For the average, normal horse on level ground
with good surface, the intervals, other than that between
the marks of the left hind and the left front foot, would
be approximately twenty-four inches. The excepted inter
val would be either very short or else non-existent, possibly
one inch in length, or, perhaps, instead of this, the hind
foot's print would cut into the front foot's mark.

324 THE COWBOY
In the gaUop the order of imprints changed, and, for a
horse leading with his right front foot, was (1) right front,
(2) left hind, (3) right hind, (4) left front, (5) right front
again. The intervals would be much longer than in the case of
the lope, and there would be no counterpart of the loper's
single, inch-long spacing above mentioned.
In both the lope and the gallop, if the animal were to
lead with his left foot, the serial orders above given would
be correspondingly transposable.
In all these higher speeds, added to little mounds before
the imprints were splays of earth thrown back from the
prints; both the depth of the prints and also the lengths
both of the splays and of the intervals, aU considered in
connection with the character of the soU, accurately an
nouncing the rate of speed.
In 1894 the federal government's scout in the YeUow
stone National Park came upon the hoof -prints of a poach
ing outfit. After following the traU a short distance the
scout suddenly turned to the army officer with him and
said: "No use. They've seen us and their horses are faster
than ours." The scout had observed the prints of a walk
continue into the prints of a gaUop, and had recognized
that the intervals were longer than the horses of his own
detachment could make. That he had reasoned accurately
appeared when, a day or so later, the poachers were ar
rested, told their story, and confessed their own horses'
racing quaUty.
Hoofed animals other than horses left, within the Umits
of their several gaits, tracks open to an analysis like that
aheady described.
Observation made from these -view-points permitted
accurate diagnosis between the hoof-print of an antelope
and that of a mountain-sheep. Each of these animals had
cloven hoofs of the same shape and size, the two sections
of each hoof making collectively an impression somewhat

TRAILING 325
in the form of a triangle. The apex of this triangle was,
in the case of the antelope, at the forward end of the im
print, and, in .the case of the sheep, at the imprint's rear
end. A traUer would discover whether the track were that
of a sheep bound north or of an antelope travelling south,
the moment that there appeared the tracks which the beast
had made after it had broken from a walk.
A given print seemingly might have been made by a steer,
a large wapiti, or a small bison, but sooner or later there
would appear upon the traU some sign that clearly estab
lished the identity of the animal.
Sometimes the surface trod upon was rock or ice, and
thus incapable through hardness of taking a complete im
pression. Nevertheless it could, from an iron horseshoe, a
stone caught in the hoof, or a nail in a boot's sole, receive
scratches which, from their freshness, stood clearly forth
to an observant eye. In granitic rock, recently scored mica
shone like a galaxy of Uttle stars. Ice-cuts would for a while
display scintillating crystals.
Freshly broken sticks had evidential value as to both
the fact of passage and the identity of the traveller. Ex
cept through occasional inadvertence or when in the reck
lessness of terror, wUd animals never stepped upon avoidable
sticks, particularly on such as patently would break. The
Indian adopted this habit of the wUd animals, and over
stepped branches and t-wigs lying in his path. It remained
for the white man, the cattle and the horse to tread ruth
lessly upon aU wood within the way. These last two ani
mals, the white man's only rivals in stupidity, outdid him
merely in that they, from their greater weight, broke the
wood into smaller pieces and pushed the fragments further
into the ground.
Two broken branches overhanging a wide flat rock of
fered to trailers the first proof as to the direction taken by
an Idaho horse thief in 1888.
Logs dropped across the traU were apt to receive scratches

326 THE COWBOY
from the overstepping foot of a white man or of a large
hoofed animal; and also were wont, through this same
agency, to have broken from themselves bark and outstand
ing branches or stubs.
Grass or other herbage, trodden upon by man or a
weighty beast, usuaUy was so bruised as for some time to
remain at least partly prone. WhUe it remained depressed
it, ff long-stemmed, definitely told the direction which the
traveUer had taken. A man always kicked knee-high or
taller grass away from him, and thus the depressed plants'
heads lay pointed in the direction in which the man had
gone. A large hoofed animal, by reason of the semicircular
sweep of its front feet, dragged backward the tops of high
grass. Wherefore these tops would point toward the direc
tion from which the animal had come.
That sticks or stones had been kicked out of their normal
positions in the trail would appear from the unweathered,
sharply defined contours of their former beds, from the non
appearance as yet of any attempt by these sticks and stones
to reseat themselves in new position, and from the unweath
ered soU clinging to such of their surfaces as had fitted
within their former resting-places.
Trees, plants, rocks beside the traU might, on their sides,
record breaks or scratches of import correlative with these
underfoot markings.
Foreign objects in the traU told their own story. They
would include a bit of leather, a stone carried in a hoof and
later dropped, a leaf or branch or flower that had adhered
awhile to a boot, a spur, or a saddle strap and then fallen
off, a piece of charcoal that had for some time clung to cloth
ing and then been jarred away from its hold, sand that, col
lected upon the foot at a stream's crossing and thereafter
drying had been graduaUy discarded, any leakings from the
pocket of a coat or saddle or from a sack, anything that
nature herseff did not put upon the traU.

TRAILING 327
James Bridger from his horse's back saw an eagle feather
upon the rocks. ReaUzing that such a feather always
merited inspection, he stopped, dismounted, and found
that attached to the butt of the feather's quUl was a strand
of buckskin. He needed no warning additional to that
given by this dropping from a war-bonnet. One minute
later and he had picked up the traU of a marauding Indian
party. James Dewing, travelling through a sprace forest in
Wyoming, came upon a pathway among the trees. In the
path lay a fresh leaf of an aspen-tree, a tree strange to that
forest. Dewing dropped, crawled to one side, and found
ambushed behind a log an Indian, to whose clothing was
stuck an aspen twig with three leaves stiU adhering, and
the attached stem of the one that had gone.
In the present YeUowstone National Park was a cliff of
obsidian from which the local Indians, the Crows, quarried
their arrow-heads. These heads were highly prized by the
members of other tribes; and, in times of intertribal peace,
were bartered in more or less sparing quantities to these
outside Indians. There had been rumor of impending up
rising among the Red Skins. James Bridger, wandering
across country and traversing a wide ledge of exposed rock,
strayed onto a Une of obsidian arrow-points that, leaking
through a hole in some carelessly carried pouch, had fallen
onto the bare stone. There patently were too many of
these heads for them to have come from any white man's'
curio sack, probably too many for the Crows to have spared
in barter; and assuredly no peaceful savage would care
lessly have portered so valuable belongings. Bridger
reasoned that the Crow Tribe was very likely on the war
path. He soon found that his surmise was correct; for he,
scouting around the ledge's rim, came in a few moments
upon a discarded Crow moccasin and the fresh tracks of
numerous ponies, but there was not a mark of any dragging

328 THE COWBOY
lodge pole. When the savage went forth to battle, he left
his tents at home.
Kit Carson in Colorado recognized, as coming from a
certain sand-bar, grains of sand that, when drying, had
gradually fallen from the hoofs of a horse which, having
crossed that sand-bar, had been ridden onto ice. These
grains of sand, many inches apart, guided the patient traUer
two miles to where clear hoof-prints again appeared upon
soft ground.
If a thieving Shoshone Indian had not included in his
plunder a slowly leaking bag of copper rivets, he would
have left no trail during the haff mUe that he walked in the
swfftly flowing, clear waters of Wyoming's PUgrim Creek.
The manure dropped by animals, and the clots of blood
shed by a wounded quarry often offered valuable proof.
The amateur trailer was apt to mistake for blood-stains
the crimson markings imposed by frost on various kinds
of leaves.
Birds and loose animals, disturbed by the fugitive and
fleeing from him, not only revealed the fact of his motion,
but also advertised its course. Crows were the most useful
of these wUd alUes. They would fly promptly and to a dis
tance upon a white man's approach, would rise as promptly
upon Indians' coming; but were apt to tag behind the Red
Skins' party, because the latter's distinctive odor suggested
the certainty of future meals of discarded meat.
Crows, suddenly arri'ving from nowhere in particular,
instalUng themselves in the tops of a group of trees, re
maining thus aloft and constantly jabbering, meant not
that they had convened for conversational purpose, but
that an Indian camp was on the ground below the birds.
Mere carrion would have called the birds to the ground,
and eating would have stopped their caws.
Canada jays also would advertise the location of a camp.
A traUer, perched upon a hiU and looking down upon a

TRAILING 329
forest, could accurately chart the progress of an unseen
traveUer beneath the trees; and do so solely from the dart-
ings of the birds and the hurried exits of the four-footed
beasts. Dave Rhodes of Montana, looking down into a wooded
vaUey north of Jackson's Hole, Wyoming, remarked: "Here
comes an outfit." He had noticed that, along an approxi
mately straight line, not only successive birds had risen
from the treetops but also some wapiti were hurrying from
the woods. Presently four men rode into "view.
Jim Scott, lying in a Kansan couMe with prairie-dogs all
about him, saw the Uttle animals one by one falling like
tenpins and di'ving into their holes. He took the hint and
stUl more fuUy hid himseff. Twenty warriors presently
came over the hilltop.
Every mounted trailer kept close watch upon the horse
beneath him. The Range pony was alert to aU movements,
sounds, and odors; and, by his suddenly cocked ears, his
quickly erected head, his sniffing, would direct his rider's
notice to the quarry, or to some factor indicating its where
abouts. Sometimes the Uttle brute's nose had to be held
in order to stifle the whinny that was apt to haU the quarry's
mount. To avoid giving information to the quarry, the trailer
often had to shun positions directly to the quarry's wind
ward, lest scent drfft on the breeze to a sensitive nose.
Hearing more rarely was important, and usuaUy only
when 'within fairly close distance from the fugitive; though
the audible radius greatly could be increased by the scout's
putting his ear to the ground. The steps of a moving horse,
particularly when the animal was traversing hard ground
and was travelling rapidly, could in this way be distin
guished from quite far away, and distinguished so clearly
as to disclose the identity of the gait the beast was using,
i. e., whether a trot, a lope, or a gallop.

330 THE COWBOY
At close range the kind of noise coming from breaking
sticks told as to who was fracturing them. Horses, cattle,
and white men, with their ruthless motion, produced sharply
sounding cracks. Indians and aU wUd animals, however
large the latter were, had a more stealthy step, and pro
duced a slower, more crunching, and less insistent breaking
noise. Wet sticks and dry ones had, as compared with each
other, quite dissimUar breaking tones.
Canvas or corduroy, when rubbed upon itself, upon rocks
or upon tree branches, emitted a telltale sound. For this
reason Indian scouts refused to include these materials in
their clothing.
Sounds, particularly those from firearms, advertised to
a trained ear the approximate position of the quarry; for
the quaUty of the noise would teU the identity of its creator,
and the quantity of the noise would e-vidence the distance
it had traveUed. In a matter of this sort the wind's direc
tion and force were often factors for consideration, since
the wind might be either an aid or a hindrance to the transit
of sound.
With black powder (the only powder used tiU the decade
of the nineties), no two rffies, even though of the same make
and caUber, produced, when fired, sounds identical in char
acter. Some occult difference in their steel differentiated
their noises. And between weapons of unUke calibers, the
difference in sound was very e-vident. If the traUer were
famiUar with the report of his quarry's weapon, a single
shot from the latter would often indicate the fugitive's iden
tity. The trailer's sense of smeU revealed to him the presence
of neighboring Indians, wapiti, or fires, and also frequently
permitted him to identify the ownership of objects dropped
on the trail. Buckskin of Indian tan might, through long
usage or rough treatment, change its appearance, but it

TRAILING 331
never could rid itself of its characteristic odor. An exces
sive user of tobacco might have all his belongings so per
meated with the weed's smeU that his handkerchief or piece
of cloth lying in the way would speak more definitely to
the nose of the scout than to the latter's eye.
John Yancey, prowling through the Wyoming woods
when the Indians were "out," saw a tiny bit of leather ad
hering to a tree. One look and one smeU told that it was of
Indian tan. No footprint appeared nearby, but inspection
showed freshly broken bark above the bit of leather. What
had happened was that an Indian, using treetops for a road,
had come part way down to ground, but, on seeing Yancey,
had climbed again.
The traUer's sense of touch had useful play in but two
fields. Through that sense, there could, for the purpose
of estimating age, be gauged the temperature of the manure
which the fugitive animal had dropped. It also aUowed one
to ascertain, by feel at night, what one, in daytime, learned
through the eyes, the trend of direction of the principal
branches of the trees. These branches indicated the course
of the prevailing winds, and thus a definite compass point.
This latter phase had to do primarUy with the exploratory
function of scouting.
The discussion thus far has had to do only -with ascer
taining the identity of the traU of the quarry, and discover
ing the fact and direction of passage.
Ascertainment of the fugitive's distance ahead of the
pursuer was a -vital factor; for it not only determined
whether the speed of the chase should be accelerated, but
also often established whether correct diagnosis as to iden
tity had been made. A, footprint which had been assumed
to have been that of a murderer of yesterday was suddenly
proven to be three days old. Wherefore it was either not
the trail of the quarry, or at least not his current traU.
Old markings were termed "old sign," and made a "cold

332 THE COWBOY
trail"; while recent ones were called "fresh sign," and
created a "hot" or "fresh" traU. Clearly visible sign made
a "plain trail," indistinct sign a "blind" one. If the
quarry's trail had been trodden upon by an animal or per
son, it was said to have been "fouled."
From the moment that a record was made, nature began
to obUterate it. Its edges and projections were attacked
by the wind, which carried against them sand, smaU sticks
and stones or particles of ice; first rounded and later
levelled them, and set about rolling debris into the Uttle
hollows; while possibly rain beat down protuberances,
and washed flotsam into depressions.
The dust emanating from the scratching of a rock or of
sun-baked soU was graduaUy dissipated. As soon as a branch
broke, the clearly colored fibres at the point of fracture
began to cloud from within and to coUect dirt from with
out; the adjacent bark, if -vital, began to parch; the leaves
beyond the fracture commenced to wither; and, in some
varieties of trees, sap gathered at the break.
From the moment that a plant was badly injured by
being trod upon, there promptly set in around the wound
rapid changes in coloration and in texture.
Blood clots tended to dry quickly, and to change their
showy redness into inconspicuous black.
Temperature, the wetness or aridity of the ground, the
humidity or dryness of the air, the velocity of the wind, the
quantity and rate of change in the coloration and moist-
ness of soU freshly exposed to weathering, the extent of the
soil's normal wilUngness to cUng together, the characteris
tics of wounded vegetation all came under the trailer's con
sideration; and usually he was able, from the appearance
of "sign," closely to estimate its age. This conclusion as
to age was reached through intelligent calculation as to
the quantity of obliterative work that nature had done
to the "sign" since its creation.

TRAILING 333
The quantity of melting or of freezing in and about a
track that was impressed in snow or scratched upon ice
told its story as to lapse of tune. During frigid weather,
drops of water oozing from a track offered clear e-vidence of
the latter's freshness. Such drops would appear at a ford
or drinking spot.
Upon a freezing day Tazewell Woody in Montana, break
ing out from brash at a ford, saw upon the opposite bank a
clearly defined imprint of a Sioux moccasin. Three drops
of water were roUing down from the print's toe. Woody
ducked, and a buUet went over his head.
Even upon dry soil, experts could reach close approxi
mation as to age. It was only in windless, arid valleys that
tracks were baffling to such men.
None of the foregoing is intended to suggest that the
traUer made pretension to any knowledge of chemistry or
botany. He merely kept his eyes and ears open, was in
tensely observant, and ever used common sense in making
inductions from the very commonplace, very natural, and
quite openly displayed matters that he observed.
There were other simple effects of nature's processes
that gave definite information as to age.
Grass growing upon dry soU, and trodden-down but not
severely bruised, would quickly rise to erect position when
later wet by rain or dew. Grass growing in moist soil, and
likewise stepped upon and. fairly uninjured, would also
promptly straighten and become vertical. But, in an arid
country -with a burning sun, herbage, flattened after the
heat of the day had commenced, would Ue for hours pros
trate, much of it sullenly to wait for the coming of the next
night's dew.
Dew, and stiU more markedly rain, by their action on
the ground's surface, aided an observer in his gauging the
age of tracks. The faUing moisture wiped out the sharp
ness of all prior markings, and put upon the surface of the

334 THE COWBOY
bare soil a smooth finish which recorded aU indentations.
Any cut upon that finish patently had been made after
the finish had been created.
The edges of charcoal rounded under the slightest stress
from -wind or water, and placed almost a clock stamp upon
the date of an extinguished fire. StiU smouldering wood
or steaming ground of course showed a more recently aban
doned camp.
Frequently a footprint of the quarry merged with an im
print made by some other person or animal. If the trailer
knew, as he often had reason to do, the exact age of the
foreign track, his ascertainment as to which print was atop
the other would give information of practical value.
The final matter to be taken into consideration during
the chase was the psychology of the quarry. Persons or
animals under pursuit had resorted since time immemorial
to certain subterfuges for escape. These included entering
running streams or other bodies of water, travelUng for a
distance in the water, and then returning to the land. These
also included, for men, the ascent of trees, and the travel
for a time through the treetops before returning to the
ground and resuming ordinary method of locomotion.
These also included, for men, placing their successive steps
atop the bulges on the bases of the trunks of gro-wing trees,
and, by handholds upon higher portions of these same trees,
S'winging from tree to tree.
So much for the physical acts.
The mental element was the plan which nature since
pursuit began had seemingly put in men and beasts pur
sued. In approximately nine cases out of ten a human quarry
would not foUow a straight course for any considerable
distance, but would subterfuge as foUows:
In approximately nine cases out of ten he, ff merely seek
ing safety and not hastening to a definite goal, would leave

TRAILING 335
a stream upon the same side as the one on which he had
entered. Whether he turned down-stream or up it would
depend upon the position of his pursuers or the physical
appearance of the stream. If the pursuers were to one side
of the quarry, the latter almost surely would, in the stream,
proceed in the direction away from the side on which the
pursuers were; but, if the pursuers were approximately to
the quarry's rear, the latter, with almost equal certainty,
would start in whichever direction a hurried glance at the
stream's bottom suggested would give the speedier footing.
In approximately nine cases out of ten a man taking to
the treetops would turn back upon the course which he had
been foUowing on the ground, and, unless hurrying to some
definite spot, would ultimately leave the forest upon the
same side as that at which he had entered it.
In approximately nine cases out of ten a man swinging
from tree to tree would circle his way from his earUer course,
and, on reaching the ground, would have reversed his initial
direction. The bear acted much as did the man. Dumb brutes
other than the bear "doubled back" at streams only when
the latter were of some size. SmaU watercourses seemingly
did not strike them, as they did the bear and a human
quarry, as being sufficient in size for manceu-vres wherewith
to deceive a pursuer.
The innate desire to deceive by doubUng back was im
planted by nature before the dawn of history; and still
finds expression not only under the semUieroic conditions
above described, but also among all chUdren as they play
games of pursuit. Watch a boy at his play and you can
see what a murderer would do ff chased.
One morning in the early nineties John H. Dewing, who
would have been a very able Indian scout had he been an
adult in the war-path days, was standmg with Tazewell
Woody in a hunter's camp near the southern end of Jack-

336 THE COWBOY
son Lake in Wyoming. There came to them a rider from
Sargent's Ranch 'with news that, a Uttle way to the north
ward during the pre-vious night, one man had kiUed another,
and that the kUler was "wanted." The rider reported that,
although the kUler was horseless and probably the only
pedestrian in the country, the rider did not know the char
acteristics of the kiUer's feet.
Woody and De-wing walked across the vaUey, and, within
five minutes, had picked up a pedestrian's trail and ascer
tained that it was atop the tracks which horses of the hunt
ing-camp's saddle band had made the preceding evening.
As Woody and Dewing foUowed this track. Dewing sud
denly turned to Woody and said: "Mr. Woody, here's our
man. First he saw our camp and circled it, and right here
he is trying to make up his mind whether to double back
or not."
What Dewing saw were human footprints which, at the
beginning of a -vista toward the camp, e-videnced a sudden
slackening of speed, a sfight wandering about, and then a
plunging rapidly upon a circular course centred upon the
camp, and next a variation in length of stride and a twist
ing of the feet. Dewing guessed that this last phase meant
that the kUler had become dissatisfied -with his direction,
and had been looking to right and left to determine whether
or not to leave the traU, and if so which way to tum.
Dewing was correct in his guess, for, less than one hun
dred yards farther along the trail, the man had gone off at
a right angle and had headed directly for Jackson Lake.
Obtaining the only boat upon that lake, he had rowed to
its northem end and the foot of Mt. Moran, there left the
boat, climbed across the shoulder of that mountain,
straggled through the heart of the Teton Range, and so
made his way to the ra,Uway in Idaho. IncidentaUy, the
hurrying fugitive had, upon his journey, no food save a
hawk which he shot with his -victim's rifle and ate raw.

TRAILING 337
Through John Dewing's reasoning guess Tazewell
Woody almost overtook that man; and, if he had been
caught, Trampas of Mr. Owen Wister's "The Virginian,"
would not have had a real, flesh-and-blood murderer precede
him over the very mountain route along which Mr. Wister,
in his delightful book, later sent Trampas.
Trailers, foUowing a quarry to the water's edge, would
first scan the far bank for signs of egress; and, if seeing
none, would look then at the stream's bottom for disturbed
stones, braised moss, broken sticks and whirls of discolored
water, in order promptly to learn whether or not the water
had been entered at aU.
TraUers, losing footprints in the forest, would first scan
adjacent trees for telUng abrasions by a climbing fugitive.
With or without those identifying signs, the psychological
element had to be kept in mind until the normal traU should
again appear upon recording land.
The traUer in his exploratory work was, through his previ
ous close watchings of natural conditions, able to look down
from the summit of any mountain he might have climbed,
and accurately to diagnose the footing in aU the vaUeys
'within sight. Accustomed to keep distances in mind and
to reaUze their importance, he weighed the country's topog
raphy 'with a view to making no unnecessary steps. He
would take short cuts along the tops of hiUs rather than
undertake, as would many an amateur, longer journeys
about the latters' bases.
Whenever he was on a hiUtop, he studied the topography
of the land below. He always had in mind sense of direc
tion. In daytune the bearing of the sun, and at night that
of the moon was never forgotten. Once "catching" the
North Star, a brilliant planet, or a constellation ; he marked
the north, and thereafter the sky could cloud over for hours
without causing him anxiety.
He knew the compass direction of the prevailing wind.

338 THE COWBOY
Although, in certain sections of North America, moss upon
tree-trunks grew most thickly upon the latter's northem
sides, such was not the general rule; but, everywhere that
the winds had a prevailing direction, the winds clearly re
corded their own course. AU foliage adapted itseff to the
situation, and extended its longer branches to leeward.
Striations upon the snow or upon the ground mosses came
from these same winds, and gave like e-vidence as to direc
tion. Pierre Duval, for six days, journeyed in a dense Far
Northern fog across a country he never previously had seen,
and came out upon the Arctic beach within two mUes of
where he had wished. He had had no guide other than both
the wind striations upon the moss and the leeward leanings
of the dwarfed herbage.
Trailers, even the best of them, were not infaffible. A
quarry at times would perform an act so unprecedented as
completely to delude his pursuer.
In this sort of ingenuity, there ranked, among aU crea
tures north of the Mexican border, first, the Apache In
dian, next, the Sioux Indian, the wolverine, the lobo woff,
and the coyote, and, next, a heterogeneous mixture made
up of aU other Indians, of the grizzly bear, and the more
cunning white men.
Frank P. Fremont, late major U. S. A., relates the fol
io-wing anecdote.
Mounted Apache Indians ha-ving raided some Arizonan
ranches, Fremont, then a lieutenant, started with a de
tachment of troops in pursuit; and, picking up the Indians'
traU, followed it across a desert and into a forest. The trail,
once amid the trees, showed that, every haff-mUe or so,
the hoof-marks of three, four, or five of the Indians' pomes
led off sharply to right or left. This sloughing, according
to all previous experience of the army with marauding "hos-
tiles," declared that the Apaches had definitely ended their

TRAILING 339
foray, and were harmlessly dispersing for the sole purpose
of quietly sneaking back to their reservation. Accordingly,
the troops clung to the main traU until aU of it had flowed
away through these tiny, lateral leakages, and then the
soldiers about faced, "back-tracked" through the forest
and out into the desert. When they had marched several
mUes into the desert, they drew in aU their outriders ex
cept a rear-guard; and, over flat treeless sands and under
a withering sun, confidently jogged along, heads down,
haff asleep, bound for the fort.
The unforeseen element was that the Indians would vio
late a precedent of many years.
WhUe the soldiers were far within the woods, unexpected
things happened on the desert. The savages who had rid
den off on those little sidings had promptly headed for pre
arranged concentration spots, one on each side of the main
traU. Thus, without "fouling" this trail, there soon had
been assembled two bands, each of some size. These bands
then had moved out on foot into the desert by routes paraUel
-with the trail, though at some distance from it; and, at an
agreed time, had turned and marched toward each other,
eventuaUy to meet and to form across the traU a line, which
bore to the traU the same relation as does the crossing of a
capital letter T to the latter's stem. Next, except for a few
of the Indians, each of the latter had dug directly in front
of himseff a shallow grave; and had crawled into it, with
back up, and face and gun pointing in the direction from
which the returning troops would come. Then the few
excepted Indians had filled in the earth above the ambush
ing warriors, lea-ving however holes for breathing and sight
ing; had smoothed the ground's surface; and had fled.
The sleepy troops were jogging along. Suddenly, but a
hundred feet ahead of them, painted, naked, whooping
bodies, like de-vils on the Judgment Day, rose out of the
ground and fired a volley. The soldiers did not break.

340 THE COWBOY
They put the Indians back into the graves for a permanent
stay. Trailers may not have been infallible; but some of them
were nearly so, and most of them were invaluable in their
ser-vices.

CHAPTER XVII
LATER PHASES OF WESTERN MIGRATION
ORDER OP WESTERN MIGRATIONS — EFFECTS PRODUCED BY MINERS AND
OTHERS — RANCHMEN PRINCIPAL CREATORS OF SPIRIT OF -WEST — THAT
SPIRIT — ^IMPRESS LEFT BY RANCHMEN
History discloses that an affirmative public conscious
ness, an affirmative national spirit, occurs only among such
people as are mutuaUy engaged in active business affairs
of however diverse sorts, and that, to exist, it must be
founded on a lasting and overwhelming popular support of
such principles as, deeper than mere matters of party
poUtics, are sociaUy and governmentally fundamental.
Before the gold excitement of 1848 but few whites Uved
beyond the fair edge of the narrow strip which skirted the
westem bank of the Mississippi River. These few whites
consisted of the scattered hunters, trappers, and Indian
traders who, with bUthesome contempt for distance, were
wandering about the entire territory between that river
and the Sierra Nevadas; consisted also of the scanty popu
lations of CaUfornia's and New Mexico's Spanish settle
ments, of an isolated group of ranchmen in southeastern
Texas, of a pitffuUy smaU and astonishingly brave commu
nity in western Oregon, of the Mormon colony in Utah, and
finaUy of a handful of expatriates who, quitting ships whal
ing or hide-droughing upon the CaUfornian coast, had settled
on its shore.
These few whites were too few in number, and, save for
the people of Oregon and of the Spanish settlements, and
for the Mormons in Utah, too widely dispersed, too differ
ing in interests, and too indi-vidualistic to form even a local
pubUc consciousness; although the hunters, trappers, and
341

342 THE COWBOY
traders passed down traditions which made an impress
upon the consciousness of the entire West when that con
sciousness appeared.
The Oregonians and all their accretions of later years
were merely a transplanted slice of New England, and, to
this day in the year 1922, the peoples of coastal Oregon and
of New England have been identical in thought, ideals, and
action. The Mormons and the peoples of the various Span
ish settlements each formed an isolated ci-viUzation, and
were wholly self-contained.
The Oregonians, the Mormons, and the peoples of the
Spanish settlements were not originators of the spirit of
the West.
The next to invade the West were the miners, who, struck
¦with the gold fever, began in numbers to make migration
to CaUfornia in 1849, to Colorado in 1851, to Oregon in
1852, to Nevada in 1859, to Idaho in 1860, to Montana in
1862, to Wyoming in 1867, to Dakota m 1875. But these
miners, confining themselves to the circumscribed tracts of
the ore beds, produced no general settling of the country.
Nor did they create a public consciousness. Once west
ward of the frontier, these miners, Uke the hunters, trappers,
traders, and the expatriates mentioned above, considered
themselves to be in a foreign land; regarded the territory
in which they were as merely space from which wealth might
be extracted; and restricted their ideas either to the labor
in hand or to recollections of conditions "back home," in
" the States."
These miners, self-cloistered in the areas of the orelands,
gathered -within those areas and about "rich strikes," Uke
bees about a hive. They all stayed put where they were,
and pecked away at the ground untU the announcement
that some one had elsewhere "struck it rich." Instantly
some bearded, red-shtrted, enterprising soul, seizing his
shovel, pick, and pan, would desert his companions, and

LATER PHASES OF WESTERN MIGRATION 343
would "strUce out" for the "new excitement," to be fol
lowed by a portion of the members of the "camp" just as
a part of the inmates of a hive emigrate with a queen-bee.
But this transit by the miners would mean merely a shift
ing from one settlement to another, the two identical in
thought as weU as in work.
This thought was limited largely to the contents of the
ground and their extraction; and the miners' relations were
with the earth rather than with people. The miners not
only did not come into contact with persons Uving outside
of the mineral belts; but also, as among themselves, had
scant business intercourse. Their vocation, from its nature,
required indi-vidual effort or at most that of smaU squads;
and, from its severity, reduced life to digging in daytime
and to sleeping at night.
Then too, natural desire to monopoUze the results of eager,
persistent, and successful search engendered secretiveness as
to one's delving operations. Secretiveness, pursued on
this point, tended to create uncommunicativeness in all
important matters.
The miner carried with him to the West aU the customs
that he later followed there; and he changed them not at
aU except in so far as they related to the mechanical proc
esses of procuring and refining ore, and save that he rough
ened his social manners.
He did found various towns, and he was the principal
factor in their subsequent development into cities of im
portance and of multiple interests. Thus came Denver.
He did enter sleepy fittle Yerba Buena, a Mexican ranch
ing hamlet Ijdng upon the borders of a bay that had seen no
ships except naval vessels, occasional Mexican coasters drop
ping in for trade, more occasional Yankee or Kanaka hide-
droughers calling for hides or drinking-water, and equaUy
rare Yankee whalers putting into port for either a refitting
or an overhauling. Trae, he entered Yerba Buena; and.

344 THE COWBOY
both directly by his local business and indirectly by the
commerce which he induced, he converted a tiny, drowsy
cluster of adobe huts into one of the cities of the world,
San Francisco.
But he founded places, not the civiUzation which ulti
mately pervaded them.
He produced nothing except the structures in these cities
and except extracted mineral wealth; and, as a class, has
left no imprint beyond that of the recorded fact of his civic
foundings, and that of a few phrases and of a picturesque
memory. He for himseff grew rich, and for us made Bret
Harte and Mark Twain possible.
The miners were closely foUowed by their two pro-viders,
the merchant who sold suppUes, and the transportation
man, the latter portaging across the continent at first by
wagon and later by raUway train. The Westem merchants,
through the close of the nineteenth century, took on the
color of their en-vironments; and, untU the comparatively
recent urban development, were not sufficiently numerous
to be a inaterial factor in forming a pubUc opinion. The
transportation man, whether of the wagon or of the later
railway, ever completely immersed himself in his immediate
job, and customarily regarded the country he traversed
not as the home of a populace but merely as a gap between
terminal stations. These transportation men, who, with
the army's aid, enabled the peopled West to be born and
to grow, did not create or shape its spirit.
The superb Old Army was in the West, but officer and
men dated their thoughts so generally from the city of
Washington, kept their minds so much in national instead
of local lines, tended so strictly to their miUtary knitting,
and Uved so inside their own traditions that they left no
imprint, although they primarily had made the West gen
erally habitable.
The sheepmen, by the unadventurous nature of their

LATER PHASES OF WESTERN MIGRATION 345
anunals, were withheld from the Cattle Country untU it
had been permeated by the raisers of horses and cattle,
and its spirit had been crystaffized. Furthermore, the
sheepmen were too few in relative number, and were too
much under the -vituperative domination of the cattlemen
to have been at any time a considerable factor. Among
these sheepmen, were very able persons; but even these
the Cattle Country said "smelt of wool," and so they were
denied an influence.
Gamblers too were in the West, but they were of course
merely incidental.
If the so-caUed spirit of the West was not made by any
of the classes thus recited, who did make it? It had been
formed in its entirety before the advent of the manufacturer,
the professional man, and the farmer, so they could have
played no part.
There is but one class left, the class composed of the
rancher, the cowboy, and their fellow ranchmen. These
men rode out into a vacant empire; met the traditions and
the customs of the hunters, trappers, and traders, the primal
pioneers; -with unanimity adopted aU of the traditions
and the usable part of the customs; added to them;
crystalUzed the whole into a code of compulsory usage, and
actively embarked in the pursuit of a vocation by which
they kept themselves in touch with aU conditions of people
and aU four corners of the map. These men thus fulfiUed
the historical requirements for leave to create a public con
sciousness, and they performed the task.
If one -wishes further proof, let him consider the present
basic principles of the Far West. They stand forth in weU
advertised, clear-cut lore, even though in action they often
be disregarded. They are the traditions of the open Range;
and, when now transgressed, are so transgressed not by the
ranchman, or by his chUdren, but by some recent settler
who knows not Israel, who has mistaken EUjah's mantle

346 THE COWBOY
for a rag carpet. Mere Uving west of the Missouri River
does not make one a Westerner.
If one desires stiU more evidence, then from his dictionary
let him Ust aU the words and phrases which have crept into
popular use from any of the caUings that were represented
in the West before its spirit came. Let him take the words
and phrases that were either invented or vitaUzed within
each such calling. If he -wiU ignore the numerous gambUng
terms (and logically they should be ignored), he wiU find
the ranchmen to have been by far the largest contributors.
But a few moments' search will give numerous expressions,
like stampeded, bucked at it, caught in the noose, roped
in, rounded up, rounded in, hobbled, hog-tied, corraUed it,
cinched it, it was a cinch, a lead-pipe cinch, ranch (in sense
of home), cut it out, milling around, locoed, rattled, buf
faloed, rustled, threw my hooks into him, throw the buU,
horned in, butted in, bawled him out, to but a few verbal
gifts from the miners with their now classic phrases, pros
pect around, good prospect, panned out, lucky strike, pay
dirt, and struck it rich. Philologists assert that the best
measure of the influence by one nation upon another is the
extent of the modifications imposed upon the second na
tion's language.
The miner and the ranchman, though each fi-ving in the
West, and thinking of the entire West as his own, did not
conffict; for each dealt physically -with only the sections
for which the other calling could find no use. The miner,
while beginning his West at the Missouri River, ignored
the countless miles of flat lands, and pictured the country
as, in part, a series of busy towns which, blocking the en
trances to sombre gulches, filled the air with acid fumes,
with the smoke of chinmeys, -with the ceaseless pounding
of the stamps; pictured it also as in part a series of lonely
canyons, within which isolated men either dug aU day into
rocky waUs or stood aU day upon a river bar and shovelled

LATER PHASES OF WESTERN MIGRATION 347
gravel into an ever hungry sluice-box; pictured it also as,
in part, a wide surrounding area of uninteresting, oreless
lands not worth investigating, of no advantage to himself,
but of reputed value to the ranchman, and geographically
a part of the West, in which the miner took such pride.
The ranchman, beginning his West also at the Missouri
River, knew intimately every rise and swale throughout
aU the grass lands. He had no reason for entering the
gulches and the canyons save to gratify curiosity or sec
tional pride. He thought in terms of sweeping stretches of
open country, and had no instinct to found a city. How
ever, as one of the exceptions, he did start Cheyenne upon
its way.
Thus there were, coincidently within the geographical
limits of the West, and each at heart claiming aU of its terri
tory, two Wests, that of the miner and that of the ranch
man. Such was the Old West.
What was the spirit of the West, of the Old West? It
was a spirit that begat personal service and extreme self-
reUance, which, in their exercise, were at aU times, upon
the instant, for however long duration, and without expec
tation of reward, as subject to the caU of others, were they
friends or entire strangers, as to the requisition of their
o-wner. It was a spirit that offered a contempt for distance
or danger as an impediment to duty or pleasure. It was
a spirit that gave to a man an intense indi-vidualism, and
not only a hatred of class distinctions save such as the West
itseff created, but also a bitter antipathy to aU social usages
in limitation of personal action except those which either
were prescribed by universal fundamental law or were in
the Western code. It was a spirit that nurtured an undyuig
pride m the country of the West, a devoted loyalty to its
people as a class, a fierce partisanship in favor of that coun
try and its people, and a complete sUence about and very

348 THE COWBOY
generous forgi-ving of whatever wrongs any of the latter
might have done.
The exhibition of these qualities was governed by the
closely followed conventions which earlier pages of this
book have attempted to portray.
Out of this spirit of the West, out of the forces which
produced it or from the men who made it came three af
firmative, continuing results. Of these three, two are pat
ently of national importance and the third may ultimately
prove itseff to be so.
The first of these results was that Mason and Dixon's
Line as a purveyor of sectional prejudices was never al
lowed to extend into the Cattle Country. It never yet
has invaded where once the Range was open, and the lariat
used to swing. Although Eastern emigration, obedient to
nature's law, moved westward on paraUels of latitude, al
though Texas had seceded and been in the Confederacy,
although New Mexico and Arizona later were enpeopled
dominantly by Texans, there was no North vs. South in the
Cattle Country. Montana, Texas, and the States between
met amicably over the cow's back.
The Texas Trail brought Southerner and Northerner of
the Range together in intimate human contact, and fused
them into the Westerner except in so far as the Texan re
served the right to pay obeisance primarUy to his beloved
Texas. Thus present-day Americans owe to the bygone
man, atop a pitching bronco, thanks that the United States,
for purposes of sectional prejudices, has but three di-visions
and not four.
The second result was a coroUary of the first. It was
an intense solidarity among aU trans-Missouri River people;
a soUdarity still existent, and which, when the geographical
centre of national population goes materiaUy further west
ward than it now is, perhaps may speak dominantly at the
poUs. The West has not yet outgrown, gives no present

LATER PHASES OF WESTERN MIGRATION 349
evidence of ever outgrowing the example of the average
cowboy. He had for his particular Western State and
county an affection which, were he a Texan, was so strong
as to make him caU himseff a Texan rather than a Westem-
er, but wliich, were he not a Texan, was not strong enough
to prevent his terming himseff a Westemer instead of a
Coloradan, an Oregonian, or whatever. Nevertheless, and
in any event, his ultimate, ff not his primary, abject, blind,
devoted allegiance was to the entu-e West, "God's Coun
try." And, when the geographical centre of national popu
lation moves far westward, it wiU be poUtically weU for
the East ff the then people of the one-time Cattle Country
forgive the citizens who used to talk of the Alps instead of
the Rockies.
The third result was that not only did Western democracy
retain its vigor, unabated in quantity and unaltered in na
ture, but also it set itseff affirmatively at work for the pro
duction of certain tangible results.
Although the methods of production and the tangible
results produced were such as had been advocated by poUt
ical sociaUsts, the Westerner had no leaning toward social
ism when he thus harnessed his democracy. His mind still
functioned in terms of the neighborliness and of the wiUing
ness for mutual ser-vice that, in the early days, existed of
necessity, and as a logical result, from both the scarcity of
population and also the paucity of equipment for meeting
untoward conditions. In this he was not inimical to the
sociaUsts. But he still preserved his insistent demand for individual
ism, and bitterly resented any factor which might jeopardize
its continuance. In this he was in diametrical opposition
to the basic theory upon which poUtical socialism rested.
Nor was any part of the Westerner's actuating motive
a desire to dispense charity. He wished to benefit not the
poor alone but the entire public, of which he formed a part.

350 THE COWBOY
With this attitude of mind, he was disposed to require
that whatever institutions of higher learning, whatever
hospitals, whatever orphanages, asylums, and other elee
mosynary institutions might be locaUy needed be not left
to the chance of private foundation or to support from pri
vate endo-wment. He took it for granted that he and his
neighbors should get together and buUd and support a uni
versity, a hospital, or whatever, just as in primitive days
he and his neighbors had joined forces when the round-ups
called for collective efforts. Thus, save for the Rice In
stitute in Texas, and for various raUway companies' hospi
tals, there are as yet, -within the former Cattle Country
and under private management, -virtually no institutions
organized for any of the purposes above enumerated.
The Cattle Country did not, of course, invent public
foundation and public support, for the Eastern States al
ready had institutions so set up. But these Eastern States
were accustomed to additional institutions, aU of private
creation and, for their income, making no demand upon
the taxpayer. It, however, remained for the Cattle Coun
try wholly to omit from the pubUc's reckoning all thought
of private institutions in connection with plans for local
betterments. This omission did not come from any resentment against
privately owned wealth. It did not signify any opposition
to private endowment and management. It was not due
even to scantiness of population. It was a direct inheritance
from the enforced co-operation of the pioneer days.
It was not tinctured by any thought that Washington
might provide at least a portion of the necessary moneys.
True, the West had been accustomed not to pay for lands,
grass, water, wood, or minerals, but rather to receive them
as federal gifts; but the West had not yet awakened, as
had some portions of the East, to the pleasing taste of fed
eral cash. In the matter of its local institutions the West
expected to foot the entire biU.

LATER PHASES OF WESTERN MIGRATION 351
Perhaps the most picturesque task at which harnessed
democracy was set was that of installing and maintaining
in various locaUties, and for the gratuitous use of the entire
pubfic, camping-places, each available for occupancy by
numerous parties at a single time, and many equipped with
permanent cooking grates flanked by piles of free wood.
These camping-places were for the use of the entire public,
local or foreign, and not of only that portion of the entire
public which represented what the East amid its own popu
lation caUed the "general pubUc," which is to say the poor
and also such of the financially more well-to-do as at political
meetings were given mere admission tickets and not re
served seats. All Westemers, regardless of class or wealth
distinctions, used and stiU use these camping-places con
ducted under the democratic doctrines of "for everybody,"
and "first come first served," but nevertheless not requir
ing any more social intimacy than the various camping-
parties might care to have with each other.
These Westem recreative spots stand out in contrast
with most of those within the East, a contrast which re
flects adversely upon the East unless its cause be under
stood. Heretofore such public playgrounds in the East
as have not consisted of mere roads have been devoted
largely to people financiaUy unable to purchase recreation
elsewhere. That some persons have studiously avoided
these resorts the West has believed to have been due wholly
to snobbishness, a word and a quaUty detested in the Cattle
Country. The West has ignored the other side of the pic
ture, and thus has overlooked the fact that the habitual
users of these places have commonly resented the attendance
by such persons as supposedly had means to go elsewhere
and by faUing to do so, have occupied space which other
wise a poorer man might have enjoyed.
However, whatever the causes, the East has not what
the West has, pubfic parks filled with the spirit of democ-

352 THE COWBOY
racy. That spirit in those Westem parks, that cooking
grate flanked with piles of wood and avaUable to aU who
come, is neither more nor less than a perpetuation of a Uttle
fire of sage-brush twigs which, built long years ago far out
upon the Range, heard its buUder say "Light, stranger,
light." Not only was Western democracy thoroughly -virile, but
also, because it was created and regulated by the pubUc
itseff, it was thoroughly practical in both spirit and opera
tion. In aU this it differed much from the laboratory de
mocracy which cloistered poUtical theorists have, from
time to time since America's founding, sought academicaUy
to purvey to what they termed the masses.
The West but fittle welcomed such abstract prescriptions
for social betterment as on occasion detached theorists,
however high-minded, formulated and presented at long
range to an ungrateful pubfic. The West had no wish to be
uplffted from afar, no wish to be uplffted by any one claim
ing superiority to it, no wish in fact to be uplffted at aU.
It was quite content -with its O'wn system of democracy.
This system, while starting with the American axioms
that aU men were created free and equal, and thus that a
man might not acquire by inheritance an assured social
position, decUned nevertheless to admit that aU men had
to remain socially equal, but, on the contrary, ungrudgingly
accorded to a man whatever position he by his indi'vidual
worth had achieved. The Cattle Country thus recognized
very distinctly defined social gradations. Brains, moral
and physical courage, strength of character, native gentle-
manliness, proficiency in riding or shooting — every quafity
of leadership tended to raise its owner from the common
level. The aristocracy of the Cattle Country consisted of
the likable element among the scouts, the ranch foremen,
the "top" riders, the "crack" shots, the drivers upon prin
cipal stage routes, and the forceful ranch owners.

LATER PHASES OF WESTERN MIGRATION 353
The West had such keen admiration for individual
achievement that there were admitted to at least the fringe
of this aristocracy such of the train-robbers as, not being
"bad men," pfied their vocation on bold lines, with con
spicuous success, and with a tincture of chivalry.
The truth was that the West was so human and so mascu
line that it was somewhat addicted to hero-worship.
An Englishman's possessing a title of nobility or ha-ving
close relationship with it did not in itself insure admission
to the Western inner circles, though it universally made
the man an object of curious interest. However, most of
the English ranchmen of the type in question had so much
innate social adaptabiUty as, when in the country, to
"travel on their own and not on their titles." Many of
them were of great popularity, but they aU, when absent
from the country, were subject to be considered as imper
sonal absentees.
Nevertheless, aU this is beside the mark, inasmuch as
the West was made by its citizens and not by its guests.
The men who made the spirit of the West, who forbade
Mason and Dixon's Line to extend, who harnessed democ
racy, wore "chaps."
Wherefore this book closes with the appeal that these by
gone, -virile, warm-hearted men of real idealism, of high
courage and brave achievement, of maturest force and child-
Uke simpUcity, of broad tolerance if often of -violent prej
udices, these buUders of an empire, may not, through the
drama's stressing of their picturesqueness, be forgotten as
to their bigness and be recorded by some definitive, his
torical treatise m the future as having been mere theatric
characters.

YALE UNIVERSITY L

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