12 



RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



Cowboys, like most Westerners, occasionally show remarkable versa- 

 tility in their tastes and pursuits. One whom I know has abandoned his 

 regular occupation for the past nine months, during which time he has 

 been in succession a bartender, a school-teacher, and a probate judge ! 

 Another, whom I once employed for a short while, had passed through 

 even more varied experiences, including those of a barber, a sailor, an 

 apothecary, and a buffalo-hunter. 



As a rule the cowboys are known to each other only by their first 

 names, with, perhaps, as a prefix, the title of the brand for which they are 

 working. Thus I remember once overhearing a casual remark to the 

 effect that " Bar Y Harry " had married " the Seven Open A girl," the 

 latter being the daughter of a neighboring ranchman. Often they receive 



IN A BOG-HOLE. 



nicknames, as, for instance, Dutch Wannigan, Windy Jack, and Kid 

 Williams, all of whom are on the list of my personal acquaintances. 



No man traveling through or living in the country need fear molesta- 

 tion from the cowboys unless he himself accompanies them on their drink- 

 ing-bouts, or in other ways plays the fool, for they are, with us at any 

 rate, very good fellows, and the most determined and effective foes of 

 real law-breakers, such as horse and cattle thieves, murderers, etc. Few 



