8 RANCH LIFE AND THK HUNTING-TRAIL 



although Easterners who invest their money in cattle without knowing 

 anything of the business, or who trust all to their subordinates, are natu- 

 rally enough likel)- to incur heavy losses. Stockmen are learning more 



THE OUTL\ i;,i. LAMl', 



and more to act together ; and certainly the meetings of their associations 

 are conducted with a dignity and good sense that would do credit to any 

 parliamentary body. 



But the cowboys resemble one another much more and outsiders 

 much less than is the case even with their employers, the ranchmen. A 

 town in the cattle country, when for some cause it is thronged with men 

 from the neighborhood, always presents a picturesque sight. On the 

 wooden sidewalks of the broad, dusty streets the men who ply the various 

 industries known only to frontier existence jostle one another as they 

 saunter to and fro or lounge lazily in front of the straggling, cheap-look- 

 ing board houses. Hunters come in from the plains and the mountains, 

 clad in buckskin shirts and fur caps, greasy and unkempt, but with resolute 

 faces and sullen, watchful eyes, that are ever on the alert. The teamsters, 

 surly and self-contained, wear slouch hats and great cowhide boots ; 

 while the stage-drivers, their faces seamed by the hardship and exposure 

 of their long drives with every kind of team, through every kind of 



