Fair play., 1880-03-13
THE TEXAS COWBOY.
-I'rUfHatioa.


Sketch from Life in Kansas Cattle
Town.
From Henry Kings cover sunday in New
sharon n"-March scribnerl
Once arrived in New Sharon, the
herder, or "cow-boy" dominates the
town. He is no longer the eaSy-going.
mild-demeanored type of native Texan
languor and the anomalous Self-repres-
sion of the trail; he "turus loose" as
he calls it, and appears TO change his
disposition in the act of shifting his
garments, SO rapidly does he challenge
every restraint of society, and sound
every depth of vice and shame. Per-
haps the sight of civilization, after SO
much of the desert and its high haunting
sky, stuns and daZes his moral nature !:
or possibly it is but the assertion, under
tempting conditions, of that latent and
ineradicable savagery which abideS
more or less in the best of US. BE the
solution what it may. the fact is glarins
that he no sooner reaches the town than
he is straightway seized by some occult
and masterfulinfluencewh which transforms
him like Il new creation. He becomes Il
spendthrift, drunkard, gambler, Il
hhertine, and too often, alas, Il murder
er! For him are the frequent saloons,
the faro-banks and roulette tables, the
concert-halls, the dance-houses, and all
the other various appliances of iniquity
which meet the eye at every turn in such
a place rs New Sharon II is a wonder
that, in the wild excuses that he prac-
ticeS, and the manifold allurcmentS that
Co.. IA
much of manhood as he does: for it is
undeniable that he is generous, truthful,
sympathetic, honest In trade. brave to
deSperatiOn-never a niggard, never
thief, and never coward. He even has
a strange, IaradaNicai code of personal
honor. in vindication of which he will
obtrude his life as though it We're but :.
toy. Nor is he without the small in
firmities of vanity that betray the com
mon kinship of all humankind: he likes
to display his small hands and feet;
smile from a woman faitcrs him:
he has passion for jewelry-
extravagant scarlet bosom-pinS are
his specialty-and he dyes his mustache
legs somewhat parenthesized by usage
to the saddle; and his face. many times
remarkable for IFS well-chi>eled outline,
is always thin and pale, and always
grim-as if he wore a mask to conceal
his inward loathing of the life he pre-
tends to enjoy. And it is 4 life of short
duration. A few whirling months, at
most. of incessant carouSal suffice 10
empty his purse, or exhaust his health:
and then, if he be not Yet quite lost 10
thought, he "braces up" rs best he
can, and slips away, and what finally
becomes of him no one can tell-Or he
fingers still little longer, and sinks
still little lower, until the brief candle
is burnt TO the socket, and goes out at
last in some drunken orgy, at the muz-
zle of a revolver, or the point of a quick
and awful knife.
We saw it all, Eastman and |, that
unforget.able Saturday night in New
Sharon. The dullness which had SO
weighed upon us through the long, un-
even,ful afternoon was but lull, we
soon learned, and not stagnation.
With the first approach of darkness, the
lethargic town rubbed its eyes, so TO
speak. and leaped to its feet-and in
twinkling, it seemed Qike an incanta-
ton, Eastman said), Grand Avenue was
= carnival of light, and motion, and
music. The broad board sidewalks
were crowded with promenaders; smil-
ing groups passed in and out of the
drinking saloons and gambling places;
in every quarter glasses clinked and dice
ratified lis there another sound in the
world like that of shaken dice0: vio-
lins, flutes and cornetS sent ont eager.
inviting strains of waltz and polka from
a score or .oore establishments. and
brass band was playing patriotic airs in
front of the theater, where. oddly enough.
the crude morally of Ten Nights in
Bar-room was about 10 be present.
ed, with the full strength Of
the company in the cast Every
where the cowboys made themselves
manifest, clad now in the >oi!ed and
dingy jeans Of the trail. then in silt of
many buttoned corduroy, and again in
aiiiuencc Of broadcloth, silk hat. gloves.
cane, and sometimes a clerical white
neck-:ie. And everywhere, also, stared
and shone the Lone Star of Texas-for
the cowboy, wherever he may wander.
and however he may change, never for
gets TO be Texan, and never spends
his money or lends his presence to a
concern that does not in some way
recognize the emblem of his native
State; so yon will see in towns ike New