The Days of a Man Cissg 



man who was the best teller of cowboy stories in my 

 Lost arts acquaintance. Full of information concerning the 

 days of the cowpuncher, the round-up, and the rodeo 

 or branding, he looked with scorn on newer methods, 

 ranges set off by barbed wire, and stock rounded up 

 with ''nubbins of corn." One of his dramatic tales 

 concerned a boy whose parents had been robbed 

 and killed by marauding Indians, though he himself 

 was saved and adopted into the tribe. Years after- 

 ward, while employed as waiter in the Harvey 

 Eating House at La Junta, he recognized among the 

 passengers of an overland train the slayer of his 

 parents — a renegade white who had led the Indian 

 band. And on the youth's testimony, confirmed by 

 others, the murderer was convicted. 



From Manitou Springs I walked to the summit 

 of Pikes Peak — not a difficult task, though the 

 mountain is 14,147 feet high. But the view is not 

 greatly impressive, as the top is very wide and 

 without precipices. 

 Utah From Colorado we crossed to Utah, refreshing my 



knowledge of the fish fauna of the Great Salt Lake 

 basin and greeting again my Mormon acquaintances, 

 The political crisis was then past, and people talked 

 no longer of crushing out polygamy by force of 

 arms or confiscation of property. In the absence 

 of martyrdom the system was already dying a 

 natural death. ^ 



Having barely reached home, I was asked by 

 Macdonald to explore the rivers of the Yellowstone 

 Park with a view to finding out which already 



' See Chapter ix, page 233. 



C 3363 



again 



