The semi-weekly miner., 1883-06-20
TEXAN DARH-DHv1Ls.
Tho Genuine "Cow-Bey" Compar-
at1vely Free from Vice,
But the "Rustler'' ts q Terror, and
Capable Of Committing Al.
most Any Crime.

most any Urine.
wet Temple" in Cincinnati Enquirer.
The genuine Texas cowboy is q
character, and, after some acQaaint'
ance with him, L can say that he il
one that Is very little Understood by
the outside world. He is rough, un-
c0uth, hardy, generous and Drave.
He must stand tho hardships that lac
takes upon himself, and be splen-
did specimen If physical manhood.
He is generally from twenty to thirty
years Of age. There ale no old men
in their ranks. They can beat the
Mexican vaqueros (equestrians) at
their own peculiar feats of hOrsealan-
ship, such " picking pieces OF money
from the ground with their horses At
= dead run. A great sport with them
is called the chicken game. They
bury . fowl in light eartn So that no
thing but the head is shown. They
then ride their horses in a circle
upon keen gallOp, and snatch for
the head. The man who first secures
the chicken wins the prize, which is
usually small SUM of money. 1t il
y Mexican custom, but the Texan
can beat him vt it every time. The
genuine cowboy is comparatively
tree from vice III the true meaning Of
the term. His home Is in the saddle,
and he sits q horse a. though he
were = part of it. He frequently
rides seventy miles day, and ma
jority OF his nights are spent in the
open air. Indeed, for most of the
year he never sees q house, and has
no chance, il he should have the ill.,
clinatlon, to drink liquor.
Every cowboy labOis to be q dead
shot. When he gets to town, either
by accident or after the years hurry
il over, he is apt to be free with his
pistol if he gets drunk and finds a
quarrel, rs he often does. Of the
petty crimes he kno VS. nothing. He
never steals unless he is dead-brOke,
and then he captures horse. He !
never lies or cheats. The pilgrim or |
the tenderfo0t, rs they call An eastern
man, is alwsys welcome to share Of |
their rude fale. You can offer them
no greater insult than to protfer pay
for it. They have NJ idea of social
distractions, and Jack always rates
himself as good as his master" He
very frequently has an interest in the
herd he is tending, and often gradu-
ates from = cowboy to a proprietor
of q ranch. 1t is joke that many of
the rich men here began with only
two steers and q branding-iron.
Their highest idea Of property being
stock, they look upon homicide as an
insignificant crime compared with
horse-stealing. Their isolation from
society. their rude life and ruder
sports, make them rough but not a
set, in the sense in which
;aey are rated 1T the east. Such a
life naturally breeds some bad men,
out it is = fact that in the bands of
'rustlers" and cut-throats along the
oordsr there are more hard characters
rom the northern states than from
he Texas cowboys.
The "rustler" is . new creation of
rontier life. He may be horse
hief, murderer, . "busted" freight
r, q discharged soldier, or Texas
cowboy who has stolen horse and
an away from the ranch where he
vas employed. BY long oads the
argest per cent. Of them are hard
characters from the east, many of
whom have had liberal educations.
rhey come out here on the border
md join other lawless characters s
ither for gain, adventure, or both.
Russian Bill and Sandy King, from 8
New York, recently lynched near y,
he Texas line, are good types of this ,
lass. Russian Bill spoke four or
I've languages fuently, and had N" c
uperior as q mining engineer. These J
ustlers were q year ago a terror to
be whole frontier. They were 8
cattle-thieves, robbers, or '
vere capable of committing almost !
ny other crime. The curious fea- q
ure Of their existence is that they
perated for and sold their plunder v
. people who were considered re-
pectable. They terrorized the
hole border, until at last decent y
eople were obliged to unite for their {
Many good citizens
'sre put in peril in the effort to t.
reak up these lawless gangs. But Ii
ley haye been broken by harsh
and the border is now Il
free of them. 1t is V
ut fair to say that they were not a ii
roduct of the rude civilization of jt
exas.