I0 RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



the ground ; but their appearance is striking for all that, and picturesque 

 too, with their jingling spurs, the big revolvers stuck in their belts, and 

 bright silk handkerchiefs knotted loosely round their necks over the open 

 collars of the flannel shirts. When drunk on the villainous whisky of the 

 frontier towns, they cut mad antics, riding their horses into the saloons, 

 firing their pistols right and left, from boisterous light-heartedness rather 

 than from any viciousness, and indulging too often in deadly shooting 

 affrays, brought on either by the accidental contact of the moment or on 

 account of some long-standing grudge, or perhaps because of bad blood 

 between two ranches or localities ; but except while on such sprees they 

 are quiet, rather self-contained men, perfectly frank and simple, and on 

 their own ground treat a stranger with the most whole-souled hospitality, 

 doing all in their power for him and scorning to take any reward in return. 

 Although prompt to resent an injury, they are not at all apt to be rude 

 to outsiders, treating them with what can almost be called a grave court- 

 esy. They are much better fellows and pleasanter companions than small 

 farmers or agricultural laborers ; nor are the mechanics and workmen of 

 a great city to be mentioned in the same breath. 



The bulk of the cowboys themselves are South-westerners ; but there 

 are also many from the Eastern and the Northern States, who, if they begin 

 young, do quite as well as the Southerners. The best hands are fairly 

 bred to the work and follow it from their youth up. Nothing can be more 

 foolish than for an Easterner to think he can become a cowboy in a few 

 months' time. Many a young fellow comes out hot with enthusiasm for 

 life on the plains, only to learn that his clumsiness is greater than he 

 could have believed possible ; that the cowboy business is like any other 

 and has to be learned by serving a painful apprenticeship ; and that this 

 apprenticeship implies the endurance of rough fare, hard living, dirt, 

 exposure of every kind, no little toil, and month after month of the dull- 

 est monotony. For cowboy work there is need of special traits and 

 special training, and young Easterners should be sure of themselves 

 before trying it : the struggle for existence is very keen in the far West, 

 and it is no place for men who lack the ruder, coarser virtues and physical 

 qualities, no matter how intellectual or how refined and delicate their 

 sensibilities. Such are more likely to fail there than in older communities. 

 Probably during the past few years more than half of the young Eastern- 

 ers who have come West with a little money to learn the cattle business 

 have failed signally and lost what they had in the beginning. The West, 

 especially the far West, needs men who have been bred on the farm or in 

 the workshop far more than it does clerks or college graduates. 



