THE CATTLE COUNTRY OF THE FAR WEST 7 



regularly used either by the United States Government, by stage-coach 

 lines, or by freight teams become deeply worn landmarks — as, for in- 

 stance, near us, the Deadvvood and the old Fort Keogh trails. 



Cattle-ranching can only be carried on in its present form while the 

 population is scanty; and so in stock-raising regions, pure and simple, there 

 are usually few towns, and these are almost always at the shipping points 

 for cattle. But, on the other hand, wealthy cattlemen, like miners who 

 have done well, ahvays spend their money freely ; and accordingly towns 

 like Denver, Cheyenne, and Helena, where these two classes are the most 

 influential in the community, are far pleasanter places of residence than 

 cities of five times their population in the exclusively agricultural States 

 to the eastward. 



A true "cow town" is worth seeing, — such a one as Miles City, for 

 instance, especially at the time of the annual meeting of the great Mon- 

 tana Stock-raisers' Association. Then the whole place is full to over- 

 flowing, the importance of the meeting and the fun of the attendant frolics, 

 especially the horse-races, drawing from the surrounding ranch country 

 many hundreds of men of every degree, from the rich stock-owner worth 

 his millions to the ordinary cowboy who works for forty dollars a month. 

 It would be impossible to imagine a more typically American assemblage, 

 for although there are always a certain number of foreigners, usually 

 English, Irish, or German, yet they have become completely American- 

 ized; and on the whole it would be difficult to gather a finer body of men, 

 in spite of their numerous shortcomings. The ranch-owners differ more 

 from each other than do the cowboys ; and the former certainly compare 

 very favorably with similar classes of capitalists in the East. Anything 

 more foolish than the demagogic outcry against "cattle kings" it would 

 be difficult to imagine. Indeed, there are very few businesses so abso- 

 lutely legitimate as stock-raising and so beneficial to the nation at large ; 

 and a successful stock-grower must not only be shrewd, thrifty, patient, 

 and enterprising, but he must also possess qualities of personal bravery, 

 hardihood, and self-reliance to a degree not demanded in the least by any 

 mercantile occupation in a community long settled. Stockmen are in the 

 West the pioneers of civilization, and their daring and adventurousness 

 make the after settlement of the region possible. The w^hole country 

 owes them a great debt. 



The most successful ranchmen are those, usually South-westerners, 

 who have been bred to the business and have grown up with it; but many 

 Eastern men, including not a few college graduates, have also done 

 excellently by devoting their w^hole time and energy to their work, — 



