FIRST THROW OF THE ROPE 



the early history of Oregon and the West to enable 

 me to paint with a broad brush in the simple, primary 

 colors of fact, a background which will serve as an 

 adequate stage-setting for the actors and episodes of 

 Pendleton's great annual epic. 



I have sought to portray the big, free spirit and sig- 

 nificance of range life through type similes, simple in- 

 cident and outstanding feature and thus record a verse 

 or two of the swan song of the cowboy before his 

 range cries die away. 



This book represents the results of some seventeen 

 years of close personal study of and participation in 

 the life of the range in our West and in the countries 

 of South America and also in four annual Round-Ups 

 at Pendleton. 



But within these pages, one can but touch upon a few 

 of the many stirring performances and present only 

 a small portion of that lore and custom linked with 

 them. On each of the three days of the Round-Up, 

 a lifetime on the frontier is lived in an afternoon. The 

 picture drawn here is a composite one, extending over 

 more than a decade of round-ups. Contestants have 

 come and gone and some have ridden out into the 

 Farther West. But I have tried to make the picture a 

 true one, though composed of thumb-nail sketches, 

 snapshots caught as it were, through the open noose of 

 a flying lass rope. 



As the cowboys are being run off the ranges and 

 cowhands are yearly less in demand many are turning 

 the art of their calling to more profitable use, by 

 "ridin' the shows," that is, competing for prize money 

 in the rodeos — little round-up shows held all over the 

 West — in which some make several times their forty 

 bucks and found. Still others, mostly star perform- 



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