FIRST THROW OF THE ROPE 



came, sorry not to be able to offer her a regular lunch, 

 but said he would stop the train somewhere and get her 

 a cup of tea. When they did stop, each man debouched 

 from the freight and brought her something. 



It was warm and dusty, the poor, rickety little car 

 had seemed impossible but Miss Virginia obtained a 

 new perspective of the real spirit of the West. The 

 West, that in many places still feels life is too big to 

 give change for a nickel — (all coppers taken in the 

 saloon at Ennis were flipped over the mirror top behind 

 the bar), the West, where in some places it is still more 

 polite to ask a man what he calls himself than what 

 his name is, the West where it matters little what a 

 man's folks were or to some extent even what he's been 

 himself, it's what he is. Miss Virginia had pryed open 

 the heart of the West — and this happened today, since 

 the first of this book went to press. The reason the 

 book has gone to press is threefold. 



To help to preserve one of the most important pages 

 of American history — the Winning of the West and 

 the part the pioneer and the American cowboy have 

 played in it. 



To show the significance of the cowboy contests 

 which are fast disappearing, and particularly of that 

 passion play of the West, The Round-Up held at Pen- 

 dleton, in Eastern Oregon about which country so 

 much of the history of the Northwest is wrapped. 



To help to perpetuate and enlarge the ennobling and 

 just Spirit of America through the true and positive 

 Spirit of the West, that in so doing, we may be ener- 

 gized to a greater national consciousness. 



Our Atlantic seaboard is established, our western 

 still in the making. Our trade Star of Empire is still 

 West, the Far East. Portland, Oregon and Puget 



xii 



