OF A RANCHMAN 19 



and are frank and hospitable to a degree. 

 The Texans are perhaps the best at the actual 

 cowboy work. They are absolutely fearless 

 riders and understand well the habits of the 

 half wild cattle, being unequalled in those 

 most trying times when, for instance, the 

 cattle are stampeded by a thunder-storm at 

 night, while in the use of the rope they are 

 only excelled by the Mexicans. On the other 

 hand, they are prone to drink, and when 

 drunk, to shoot. Many Kansans, and others 

 from the northern States, have also taken up 

 the life of late years, and though these 

 scarcely reach, in point of skill and dash, the 

 standard of the southerners, who may be 

 said to be born in the saddle, yet they are to 

 the full as resolute and even more trust- 

 worthy. My own foremen were originally 

 eastern backwoodsmen. 



The cowboy's dress is both picturesque 

 and serviceable, and, like many of the terms 

 of his pursuit, is partly of Hispano-Mexican 

 origin. It consists of a broad felt hat, a 

 flannel shirt, with a bright silk handkerchief 



