IN COWBOY LAND. 221 



Meanwhile, however, Fowler had cut up an- 

 other prominent citizen, and they already had 

 him in jail. The friends of law and order 

 feeling some little distrust as to the perma- 

 nency of their own zeal for righteousness, 

 thought it best to settle the matter before there 

 was time for cooling, and accordingly^ headed 

 by Simpson, the mayor, the judge, the Turk, 

 and other prominent citizens of the town, 

 they broke into the jail and hanged Fowler. 

 The point in the hanging which especially 

 tickled my friend's fancy, as he lingered over 

 the reminiscence, was one that was rather too 

 ghastly to appeal to our own sense of humor. 

 In the Turk's mind there still rankled the 

 memory of Fowler's very unprofessional con- 

 duct while figuring before him as a criminal. 

 Said Simpson, with a merry twinkle of the 

 eye : " Do you know that Turk, he was a right 

 funny fellow too after all. Just as the boys 

 were going to string up Fowler, says he, 

 * Boys, stop ; one moment, gentlemen, Mr. 

 Fowler, good-by,' and he blew a kiss to 

 him ! " 



In the cow-country, and elsewhere on the 

 wild borderland between savagery and civiliz- 

 ation, men go quite as often by nicknames as 

 by those to which they are lawfully entitled. 

 Half the cowboys and hunters of my acquaint- 

 ance are known by names entirely unconnected 

 with those they inherited or received when 

 they were christened. Occasionally some 

 would-be desperado or make-believe mighty 

 hunter tries to adopt what he deems a title 



