STILL REAL COWBOYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 234, 3 October 1932, Page 9

STILL REAL COWBOYS.

SCATTERED IN WEST. CHAPS AND TEN-GALLON HATS. A RETREATING FORCE. Just how wild is the West to-day? Are there any " real " cowboys left? 'Have the dude ranches completely supplanted true ranch life?' The city dweller or train tourist, whose closest approach to the West is through a story, motion picture, or Pullman window, may well wonder whether the old days, of the buckaroo and vaquero have vanished completely, but in fact they have not. Scattered along the edges of the most desolate parts of the West, where they have been driven- by the inarch of sheep and civilisation, are ranches where tiie old traditions are still observed. Wild Horses There. Near Aiiiadee, California, the capital of what was once as rich a cow country as any in the United States, a number of such men arc now living. One is the foreman of a cattle ranch owned by the Humphries interests, large operators throughout north-eastern California. Another has his own ranch and makes a living partly through trading and selling horses he rounds up on the surrounding.mountains and.high basins. Wild horses roam a part of this region. They are few in number now, but constitute an unwanted quantity at best. Cowboys finding them either round them up and corral them or shoot them, for a wild horse now is usually fit for one thing only —chicken feed. Most are small, poorly formed, and untamable. Making Their Living. Holding the lines along the »iore remote ranges are "real" cowboys. Home of them have nothing to do but remember the old days when thousands of cattle grazed the summer and winter ranges, but others are still making a living keeping the dogies in check, riding fence, or breaking horses. Chaps and ten-gallon hats are put to practical use as well as ornamental purposes, and riding is a necessary art among them.