THE WESTERN COWBOY OF TO-DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2391, 28 December 1899, Page 59

THE WESTERN COWBOY OF TO-DAY.

We frequently hear it asserted with considerable confidence, and not without a tinge of regret, that the cowboy of the West, if not already a tiling of the past, is on the rapid decline. This is a mistaken idea. While his sphere of action may have become to a certain extent circumscribed and his ancient privileges curtailed, he still exists. To be sure he does not possess the land, nor does he capture as many towns as he once did, yet he holds his own with much tenacity. And so long as there remain millions of acres of land in the domain of cattledom that are fitted by nature for little else than pasturage there seems but little prospect of his passing away. The advance of civilisation, of course, works changes in his surroundings. The homesteader invades the more choice morsels of his dominion and builds fences and ditches and county roads. Railroad corporations have no respect for his feudal rights, and cut across his ranges with their bands of steel, and some of them go so far as to en-

close their right of way with stout fences, finding it cheaper in the long run to do this than to pay the damages demanded by the herdsmen when their cattle persist in refusing the right of way to some fast freight. - These things are annoying, but are not to be helped. Intimidation, if not persecution, has in many instances been resorted to as far as the settlers are concerned, but in the end the tide is too strong to be overcome, and the nomad succumbs to the will of the permanent citizen.

Yet the ranges, broken though they may be, are all occupied, and the cowboy of today is sometimes obliged to herd his stock along the country highways, even to the stubble field of the granger. Still, when one gets outside of the barb wire fences there are great broad stretches of unbroken prairie, too arid for cultivation, but yielding an abundance of nutritious grasses that will for many years to come furnish excellent pasturage for unnumbered herds. Then there are the bad lands and the foothills country, fitted for little save cattle ranges, where yet for a long time to come the cowboy will hold almost undisputed sway. So while it may be true that the cowboy is changing somewhat in his character and mode of living through the softening influences of civilisation he does not cease to exist nor show signs of an early decay. In dress and demeanour it is" no doubt true also that there have been some changes, yet the cowboy is a distinctive being. Unless off duty for an extended period of recreation he maintains his ancient garb — the broad-brimmed hat, originally white, but now ding} 1 - with much wear, with its leathern band ; the thick,- flowing shirt, sometimes of wool and sometimes of buckskin, and in some instances supplanted by the modern sweater ; the broad leathern belt, seldom used for the carrying of cartridges, but for girding up the loins, fche broad leathern " chaps " worn over the pantaloons foi protection against weather and accident ; the high-topped, high-heeled boots, adorned with jingling spurs — these make up the bulk of his apparel. There may be a pair of buckskin gloves and a pair of leathern wristlets, and a " quirt " swinging jauntily from the right wrist, and possibly a gay-coloured handkerchief knotted, about the neck. If long in service he has acquired a gait all his own. His legs have become bowed by bestriding the saddle so many long dcTys at rough riding, and when he walks he bends forward from the hips, and at each step takes a peculiar lurch in the direction of his best foot, habits also acquired in the saddle. He does not move with ease or suppleness, for he has sat so long in the saddle that his legs have become well-nigh paralysed and are, perhaps, stiff with rheumatism, a complaint quite common among cowboys, attacking the lower limbs and feet, the combined effects of hard riding in all weathers and sleeping overmuch under the stars.

As to- disposition, the average cowboy is not the "holy terror" that he has time and again been painted. Time, no doubt, has had a sobering effect upon him. The cowboy of the early period was something of a " bad man," for he was picked up from the purlieus, but now he is the young man who has come West to see life and to grow up with the country. Possibly, he is collegebred, and reads the classics between roundups. Nearly all, I imagine, are tinctured with a strain of romance, which propensity in nowise abates with their wild and adventurous life. I have in mind a friend who is one of the craft — a most inveterate reader of poetry and romance, who can quote " Bobby " Burns by the yard without a slip. Nor is he college-bred, either, possessing less than th© ordinary common school education, yet with the most consuming ambition to some time write the great American novel. And I have but little doubt that he will do it, for though ho is still a young man, he has lived several of them. And, furthermore, he ■will doubtless illustrate his work with his own hand, as he has attained already quite a proficiency with the pencil. It is no more than natural that the cowboy should occasionally show a disposition to be frolicsome, especially when off duty after a long and arduous round-up ; for he has been paid his wages, which are usually good, and he has not a soul depending upon him for support, and his money is absolutely burning holes in his pockets. So he hies him to the nearest town, and the range sees him not until his last quarter is blown in. In former times he was wont to descend upon the town like a troop of Cossacks, shooting to the right and left as he dashed througli the hastily-vacated streets. Then lie used to demand the best the town afforded both n dry and wet goods, but he was always gentleman enough to pay, and pay liberally for all he got. But there came a time when the citizens did not propose to be held up, even if they were paid for it, and saw to it that a sufficient police force was on hand to receive the visitors, and if the police were unable to cope with the intruders there was straightaway formed a very efficient " posse comitatus," composed mayhap of a goodly number of ex-cowboys who were to the manner born, and knew just how to manage the business 'in hand. But very few and far between are such occurrences at the present day, and though the cowboy may dash into town occasionally in a more or less precipitate manner, he goes no further than to give a free exhibition of expert horsemanship or of bron-cho-busting, or, when dismounted, may proceed along the sidewalks in a more or less reckless manner with the musical accompaniment of a pair of jingling spurs.

Yet the average Gowboy is neither a braggart nor a swaggerer, and many a one will privatety assert that he has no* much " sand " at best. Still, if the truth were known, he is more or less of a hero after all in spite of his self-depreciation. Actual war has a smaller percentage of casualties than the ordinary round-up. For are there i*3t days and nights of hard riding ove** treacherous plains and along precipitous chasms ; deadly combats with untamed Texas steers, and encounters with onrushing herds of wild animals, frantic with terror, and desperate personal conflicts with bucking bronchos, to say nothing of exposure to the terrible thunderstorms that frequently burst with wild fury upon the great plains? These perils and mere, too, is the

cowboy when in active service exposed to. And when there are dangerous enterprises on foot the cowboy is not found wanting in. sluck,5 luck, as witness the performance, of the . ough Riders- before Santiago. " .Possibly - the cowboy of the West is better understoid " and more thoroughly appreciated since that , brave fight they made in the Cuban jungles. . — H. A. G., in the Chicago Breeders' Gazette. ,