In Cowboy Land 257 



sage-brush; and they named both the towns 

 and the canvas buildings in accordance with 

 their bright hopes for the morrow, rather 

 than with reference to the mean facts of the 

 day. One of these towns, which when twenty- 

 four hours old boasted of six saloons, a "court- 

 house," and an "opera house," was over- 

 whelmed by early disaster. The third day 

 of its life a whirlwind came along and took 

 off the opera house and half the saloons; and 

 the following evening lawless men nearly 

 finished the work of the elements. The riders 

 of a huge trail-outfit from Texas, to their glad 

 surprise discovered the town and abandoned 

 themselves to a night of roaring and lethal 

 carousal. Next morning the city authorities 

 were lamenting, with oaths of bitter rage, that 

 "them hell-and-twenty Flying A cowpunchers 

 had cut the court-house up into pants." It 

 was true. The cowboys were in need of 

 shaps, and with an admirable mixture of ad- 

 venturousness, frugality, and ready adapta- 

 bility to circumstances, had made substitutes 

 therefor in the shape of canvas overalls, cut 

 from the roof and walls of the shaky temple 

 of justice. 



One of my valued friends in the mountains, 

 and one of the best hunters with whom I ever 



