The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-11-09
The Bedoufns Of the Plains.

LIE beaouins Of the Plains.
AS you mingle with these COWBOYS.
YOU md in them strange mixture Of
good natnse and redkle ssn ess.s You ara
as safe with tllean alone On the plains as
| with any class of men, so long as YOU do
not impose on them. They will even
deny themselves for your comfort, and
lmperh their lives for Your safety. But
impose upon them, or arouse their ire.
and your life is of no more value in their
esteem than that of coyote. Morally.
as class, they are fouf-nouthed, BIAS
phemous, drunken, lecherous, utterly
corrupt. Usually harmless on the plains
when sober, they are dreaded in the
towns, for then liquor has the, ascend
ancy over them. They are also as i'm
provldent as the veriest a.sJackn of
the sea. Employed as COWBOYS only
SIX months in the year-from Nav till
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS earnings are soon
squandered in, dissoluteness, and. then
they hunt, or get, odd jobs, to support
themselves until another cattle season
begins They are never numbered with
baggage. What. little they may have,
besides the clothes they wear, and their
revolver or, gun. is carried in bag,
which they call their '.war bap.n Sew
eral weeks since one of them slunp
his war bag into the wagon, with the
careless remark: "There, that holds all
I've earned for seven years. y IEThev are
utterly reckless of their own
lives. Mr.. Davis recently shot and
wounded huge bull :. buffalo-a
most ugly antagonist in fight.
Three cowboys Immediately lighted out
after him. One lariated him by the
horns, another by hind heel, and the
third dismounted and leaped upon the
enraged buffalo for al wild ride. Mis-
sou," another Of these, reckless chaps,
came upon four grizzly bears, two old
ones and two large cubs .Unobseryed
by them,s he dismounted and shot at one.
The wounded bear turned upon the
other as thoug gh its mate were the of-S
fender For a little while the fur flew.
and the very trees seemed to Shake with
the roar OF the fighting beasts. ..Missou''
says he lay in ambush and shook his
sides with laughter while watching the
combat. Then he shot agai1ls and laid,
out one OF the cubs. This shot arrested
the attention of the bears, and they made
tor him. dropping his gun, she hastily.
grabbed the pommel of his saddle, and
just succeeded in drawing himself upon 4
his frightened and running horse.
The name of this fellow, so called from
being Missoulian, suggests the fact that
each one is dubbed with. a. name, and
always one suited to some peculiar char
acteristic. For example, one upon this
ranch is called "GunsSack sPete,, an
other Windy Jim and a third, ..Felw
Clothes" suggested by the scantiness OF
bis wardrobe. These combined factswill
show the appropriateness of title given
these fellows in previous Ietter-the
Bedouins OF the plains. They never own
any interest in the stock they tend. This
dark picture of the COWBOYS aougl,t.I
to be zlightened, by the. statement
that there is occasionally white sheep
among the black. True and ade-a|
voted Christians are found in such COM
pany-men who will kneel down repu-
larly and offer their PRAYERS in the midstt
Of their bawdy and cursing. associates.
They are like Lot in Sodom. ~ ''-s'S
A word about the horses EMPLOYED in
this business. They are trained for the
work, and know just how to avoid the I
goring horns of the attacking steers and /
bulls. A fact: One unfamiliar with, the j
business was riding one of those horses. I
when wild steer left the herd and /
rushed for him, In his fright he thrust
his spurs into the sides of the horse and
tried to make him flee The horse. how- /
eyer.s stood as if paralyzed But Just
as the steer came up, and while the Y
alarmed rider was anticipating snaurht |
but death for himself and his horse, the
horse dexterously darted to one side, and, 7
as the steer passed. the horse awheeled !
and ran directly after him, or began to
drive him onward. Then a trained horse
viii throw the strongest steer or bull
His rider approaches with lariat one end
of which is firmly tied to the pommel Of
'he saddles The other end is fixed with
moose, and the expert cowboy throws
his over the head or about the heels Of
he creature, when his horse settles back
lpon his launches, and when the lariat
'traightens with asudden jerk, the fleeing
as suddenly tumbled over. OF
course, such an experiment with full
grown steer is never attempted on green
lorse. The horses are first trained to
he business by experiments on the
Tounger stock.-Wyonain,g cor. Pyort-
te'scef Herald.sss S9SE5} J sa gs58fta ai4 ra9
,'''.''' "a Society sN,stA Note. q 10 f1goo
A, GOODNESS has arisen between Kosius
% Murphy and Mrs. tHufnaoel, one of