<h2 class="vspace"><SPAN name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></SPAN>CHAPTER III.<br/> <span class="subhead">WHAT IS A COWBOY?</span></h2>
<p>Around the name of cowboy hangs a romance that will
never die.</p>
<p>It is a romance interwoven with deeds of daring, nerve, and
big-heartedness that will survive long after civilization has
stamped out every need for the brave men who have been
known by the name of cowboy.</p>
<div id="ip_36" class="figcenter" style="width: 496px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_035.jpg" width-obs="496" height-obs="260" alt="" />
<div class="caption">COWBOYS LASSOING WILD HORSES.</div>
</div>
<p>Our country is one that has sprung surprises upon the world
from its very beginning, and it has produced men possible in
no other land.</p>
<p>Without the services of the cowboy the vast grazing-lands
of America would have been worthless.</p>
<p>As the buffalo, like the Indian, perished before the march
of emigration westward, there came to take their place vast
herds of beef-cattle, feeding on the plains where the once wild
monarchs of the prairies had roamed.</p>
<p>With these immense herds it was necessary to have herders,
and they became known by the somewhat picturesque
cognomen of cowboy.</p>
<p>They are known from the flower-bespangled prairies of
the Lone Star State to the land of the Frozen North, and
their worth is recognized by those who know them as they
are, for to their care is given the vast wealth of the cattlemen
of the country, which is not alone in the beef furnished
for the markets but to be found also in the tan-yards and
factories of the East.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</SPAN></span>
By many, who do not know him as he is, the cowboy is
despised and generally feared.</p>
<p>He is looked upon as a wild, reckless fellow, armed to the
teeth, keeping half-full of bad whisky, and always ready for a
fight or some deed of deviltry.</p>
<p>How little is he known, and thus abused, for no braver
hearts, no more generous motives, are to be found among men
than are those that beat beneath the hunting-shirt of the cowboy,
whether he comes from the country bordering on the Rio
Grande, the great plains of the Southwest, the level prairies
of the West, or the grazing-lands of Wyoming.</p>
<p>During night and day, storm and sunshine, danger and
death, they are at their post of duty, always ready to be called
upon, shrinking from no hardship, driven off by no peril, suffering
untold privations, but ever ready to protect and care
for the valuable herds that they control.</p>
<p>At times, when a temporary relief from duty comes to
them, is it a wonder that they break forth into reckless
hilarity?</p>
<p>They mean no harm to any one, and if, as in all communities,
one goes beyond all bounds and the death of a comrade
follows, the many must suffer for the deeds of the few.</p>
<p>The cowboy is composed of that stern stuff of which heroes
are made, and the poet and the novelist have always found
in this rover of the plains the richest material for song and
story.</p>
<p>In olden times it was that the boys of every land turned
toward the sea as the Mecca of their hopes and ambitions.</p>
<p>They saw upon its broad bosom a field of adventure, a life
of romance; and they sought to emulate great captains, good
and bad.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</SPAN></span>
But with the coming of steam-vessels the romance of the
seas faded into oblivion; foreign lands were brought near; the
mystery of the blue waters was solved in a most matter-of-fact
way, and the growing youths of the country turned to new
fields of adventure.</p>
<p>Columbus had won the admiration of would-be young
heroes, and the heroic deeds of the grand old sailor were read
with avidity, the boy longing some day to emulate them.</p>
<p>Even Kyd, Lafitte, Morgan, and other pirate captains
became heroes in the minds of the average boy, who longed to
run away to sea and make his name known in the world.</p>
<p>But steam dispelled these ambitions, and the American
boy was forced to turn his hopes upon the land of the setting
sun.</p>
<p>Daniel Boone was a hero to admire; David Crockett, Kit
Carson, and others became the beau ideal of border heroes,
and the heart of the youth thrilled in reading of these men in
buckskin.</p>
<p>And these men of the wild West, of whom Buffalo Bill is
the most conspicuous figure, made it possible for other border
heroes to appear.</p>
<p>They sprung from the ranks of the army, from the emigrant’s
cabin, and from among those rangers of the plains, the
cowboys.</p>
<p>These brave fellows have produced many a hero in their
ranks, and they have been ever ready to battle for the weak
against the strong.</p>
<p>The ranch and the cattle interests are being encroached
upon by the advance of civilization, the mask of mystery
is being torn from the wild borderland by the westward
march of the iron horse, and in a few more years, like the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</SPAN></span>
scout, the guide, the trapper, and the hunter, the cowboy will
be a thing of the past.</p>
<div id="ip_40" class="figcenter" style="width: 331px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_039.jpg" width-obs="331" height-obs="371" alt="" />
<div class="caption">A BUCKING BRONCO.</div>
</div>
<p>To be acknowledged as a true cowboy, and to the prairie
born, one must possess accomplishments for the perilous and
arduous work they have to undergo.</p>
<p>He must be a perfect horseman, handle a rope, catch a
calf, throw and tie a steer, stop a crazy cow on a stampede,
lasso a mustang, and be a good shot, guide, scout, and Indian
fighter as well.</p>
<p>Let me here refer to a few incidents of a trip over the
plains of a herd of cattle to the markets of the North, through
the wild and unsettled portions of the Territories, varying in
distance from fifteen hundred to two thousand miles, time
three to six months, extending through the Indian Territory
and Kansas to Nebraska, Colorado, Dakota, Montana, Idaho,
Nevada, and sometimes as far as California. Immense herds,
as high as thirty thousand or more, are moved by single
owners, but are driven in bands of from one to three thousand,
which, when under way, are designated “herds.” Each of
these have from ten to fifteen men, with a wagon-driver and
cook, and the “king-pin of the outfit,” the boss, with a supply
of two or three ponies to a man, an ox-team, and blankets;
also jerked-beef and corn-meal—the staple food. They are
also furnished with mavericks, or “doubtless-owned” yearlings,
for the fresh-meat supply. After getting fully under
way, and the cattle broke in, from ten to fifteen miles a
day is the average, and everything is plain sailing in fair
weather. As night comes on the cattle are rounded up in a
small compass, and held until they lie down, when two men
are left on watch, riding round and round them in opposite
directions, singing or whistling all the time, for two hours,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</SPAN></span>
that being the length of each watch. The singing is absolutely
necessary, as it seems to soothe the fears of the cattle,
scares away the wolves or other varmints that may be prowling
around, and prevents them from hearing any other accidental
sound, or dreaming of their old homes; and if stopped
would in all probability be the signal for a general stampede.
“Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,” if a cowboy’s
compulsory bawling out lines of his own composition:</p>
<div class="poem-container">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Lie nicely now, cattle, don’t heed any rattle,<br/></span>
<span class="i6">But quietly rest until morn;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">For if you skedaddle, we’ll jump in the saddle,<br/></span>
<span class="i6">And head you as sure as you’re born,<br/></span></div>
</div></div>
<p class="in0">can be considered such.</p>
<p>Ordinarily so clumsy and stupid-looking, a thousand beef-steers
can rise like a flock of quail on the roof of an exploding
powder-mill, and will scud away like a tumble-weed before a
high wind, with a noise like a receding earthquake. Then
comes fun and frolic for the boys. Many a cowboy has lost
his life in one of these wild stampedes of cattle, which would
put an army of men to flight in a mad charge down upon them.</p>
<div id="ip_41" class="figcenter" style="width: 474px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_042.jpg" width-obs="474" height-obs="279" alt="" />
<div class="caption">A CATTLE STAMPEDE.</div>
</div>
<p>The next great trouble is in crossing streams, which are
invariably high in the driving season. When cattle strike
swimming-water, they generally try to turn back, which eventuates
in their “milling”—that is, swimming in a circle—and if
allowed to continue would result in the drowning of many.
Then the daring herder must leave his pony, doff his togs,
scramble over their backs and horns, to scatter them, and with
whoops and yells, splashing, dashing, and didos in the water,
scare them to the opposite bank. This is not always done in a
moment, for a steer is no fool of a swimmer. One has been
seen to hold his own for six hours in the gulf, after having<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</SPAN></span>
jumped overboard. As some of the streams are very rapid,
and a quarter to a half mile wide, considerable drifting is done.
Then the naked herder has plenty of amusement in the hot
sun, fighting green-head flies and mosquitoes, and peeping
around for Indians, until the rest of the lay-out is put over—not
an easy job. A temporary boat has to be made of the
wagon-box by tacking the canvas cover over the bottom,
with which the ammunition and grub is ferried across, and
the running-gear and ponies are swum over afterward. Indian
fights and horse-thief troubles are part of the regular rations.
Mixing with other herds and cutting them out, again avoiding
too much water at times and hunting for a drop at others,
belongs to the regular routine.</p>
<p>Such is the cowboy of the wild West, who, if not without
faults, has virtues to compensate for the little eccentricities
that cling to men of the frontier.</p>
<div id="ip_43" class="figcenter" style="width: 372px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/i_043.jpg" width-obs="372" height-obs="282" alt="" />
<div class="caption">A GROUP OF HOSTILES.</div>
</div>
<hr />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</SPAN></span></p>
</div>
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