CHAPTER XXX. 



COWBOY LIFE. 



HE workings of the law of evolution 

 are plainly discernible in the 

 development of the ' ' cowboy, " a 

 certain prominent and now well- 

 defined character of the far West 

 . one that was made necessary by, 



(V and has grown out of, the vast cattle interests 

 which have, in the past two or three decades, spread 

 over that mystic region. His counterpart is scarcely 

 to be found anywhere else in the civilized world, for 

 the very good reason that such a species of man- 

 hood is not required anywhere else. True, cattle- 

 raising is carried on extensively in many States of 

 our Union and in various other countries, but 

 nowhere under the same conditions and on the 

 same plan as in the West; hence, though herders, 

 drovers, and the like are employed elsewhere, there 

 is no locality in which u class of men endowed with 

 such characteristics and requiring such peculiar 

 tastes and faculties are to be found as are combined 

 in the cowboy of our Western plains. The life he 

 leads and tlie services he is required to perform call 

 into the business young men possessing tastes and 

 traits different from those of average human nature, 

 and such as are not found in men following any other 



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