MILLING WITH THE NIGHT HERD 



neer, for often the rancher in the old days was the 

 range master; the cowboy is not an imported product, 

 but was born and brought up in the Old West and was 

 the West's firstborn. Many newcomers from all 

 nations and callings of an adventurous or elemental 

 nature hired on as cowherds, and after serving their 

 apprenticeship, were enrolled in the ranks of the cow- 

 boy. The romance of this life made a particular ap- 

 peal to the men of red blood who realized the danger 

 of sedentary occupations and the stupidity of sitting 

 two-thirds of one's life on the end of one's spine, to 

 the man who loved nature, to the laboring man re- 

 stricted by overcrowding in his trade in his old world ; 

 even to the man of culture, of whom perhaps no one 

 section of the country, except possibly the old South, 

 has contributed more recruits than New England, 

 which also sent out the early explorers and a large por- 

 tion of the pioneers. Even today the most popular 

 pictures on the walls of many a school and college boy 

 of the East are those of Frederic Remington and 

 Charlie Russell, our two greatest painter historians of 

 the West. 



Banded together the cowboys have dispensed wild 

 justice to many outlaws. There occurred sometimes 

 the inevitable war over property between ranch and 

 ranch, and the stockmen's wars between sheepmen and 

 cattlemen. But the cowboys have essentially stood for 

 the protection of law and property in a territory where 

 the only writ that ran was that signed by the strong 

 hand. Their fight against thieves has been a good 

 fight, especially against horse thieves, the arch crimi- 

 nals in a new country where everybody must ride. 



A part of the day's work may be dragging a steer 

 out of quicksand and then dodging the grateful beast 



121 



