CHAPTER XIII 



SOME COWBOY CHARACTERISTICS 



I SHALL write of cowboys as I found them in the 

 spring of 1902, when I came to the S.M.S. Ranch 

 in Texas. There were whole outfits of trained, sea- 

 soned men, almost born in the saddle. This situa- 

 tion obtained pretty well up to the war, when volun- 

 tary enlistment and the draft took the cream of cow- 

 boy material, leaving only the foremen and straw 

 bosses (second in command) to train the material 

 that ranchmen could find. Since then we have robbed 

 the cradle and old men's homes with an ever-shifting 

 outfit, built up round a few old-timers. Yet it has 

 been wonderful how ranchmen have got along. It is 

 explained by the fact that the really skilled old-timers 

 are beyond the age for new ventures, can still handle 

 the technical work, and have infinite patience with 

 raw material. 



After the war many of the cowpunchers came 

 back, but were restless ; then a matrimonial epidemic 

 swept most of them into wanting camp jobs, and 

 there were not enough to go round. A working out- 

 fit must, in the main, be unmarried; otherwise it is 

 "busted" half the time by normal and legitimate de- 

 mands to call the boys home. Do not let these com- 



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