Morris tribune., 1883-01-27
THE FESTIVE COWBOY.
How They go Two Hundred, Miles
to Dance and Freeze off Their

How They go Two Hundred, Miles
to Dance and Freeze off Their
Ears.
Special from Fort Worth, Texas.
Pointing to rather slouchy-loakine
individual, with broad brimmed hat
and general swagger, the hotel clerk
said
THAT'S cowboy"
"Ah!" l replied, sis he dangerous?'
At this moment, the gent with the
baggy breaches and broad-brimmedh hat,
staggered over in our direction, and ad-
dressing the clerk, requested the loan of
"chaW," which being granted, he DC
cepted with a slight nod and began Wig
orously squirting tobacco juice ON, the
stove. He was still YOUNG looking
man, strong and well-made, his beard
and hair jet black and his coarse jean
trousers stuffed in heavy boot tops.
Jeff" said the hotel clerk, this gen.
tleman is f. ON the east He would like
to hear something about the cow-bcys.n
They're d d---rough lot," said
jeff, with an oath, "a id rough lot.
They are all thieves and liars; not a
mothers son of them knows how to tell
the truth"
"Of COURSE" l gently remarked, "you
except yourself in this complimentary
allusion to the profession"
"No, sir-d--n it, no sir" broke out
the irrepressible jeff, laying his hand ]
thought, a little more heavily Oh my
shoulder than was absolutely necessary,
81 am as Id william as any Of them.
Here, Bill" he continued, appealing to
a little cowboy, who was standing ilear
by, chewing tobacco and.whittliug pine
stick, "tell this gentleman what you
know of me-"
'He's as Internal rogue as l know
Of" calmly replied Mr.. Bill, without
ceasing his whiting or stopping, his
chewing. After this WIS too polite to
offer any mere contradictions to the gen
tleman's assertion that he was liar and
a rogue.
"Did YOU ever kill a mani" I asked.
81 rather reckon have" was the Ia
comic reply. "Out In Leadville hVe
wears ago when we stormed the town,
thirteen men were killed dead In, thei,
tracks. had my hat shot through and
through and two horses were killed I'm:
der me. 1t was pretty close call but l
managed to pull through"
'What was it all about?" =
It all happened by mistake. Eve. OF
us were shooting the decanters of of a
saloon shelf just for little fun, and the
citizens thinking we were in for a row,
captured my partner and locked him up.
This riled me. There ware fifty or
sixty of us in the town at the time and |
went out and told the boys what had
been done. An hour later the whole
band of us were galloping down the main
street in solid squadron, firing right
and left and dropping every man We
hit. 1t took the place by storm. We
had complete run of the town and not a
face was TO be seen thirty minutes after
we began firing. Dro piping everybody
we saw, we then struck out south, max
ing for western Texas, where we were in
our element again and not interfered
with for such playful sports as shooting
lemons off saloon counters"
Get pretty used to the saddle?" !
suggested.
''Not at home anywhere alse," was
the reply. 81 have ridden five days and
nights in the saddle without single dis
mount, slept, ate, and drank on horse
back and felt all the better for it when
got to the Rio and took my bath in the
stream"
$50 you were going to MexicoW
eyes" the cowboy grinned, "and 60
ing there in a darned hurry too. Not
that they wanted me so much down
there, but because they wanted me up
here. l wanted to keep this sound,
and he stroked his neck suggestively.
"What is a cowboys principal busi-
ness" queried.
''To watch cattle, cuss and get drunk,
was the terse reply, eve have to herd
the cattle from place to place wherever
the best grazing is afforded, and in win
ter to keep them moving as protection
from freezing. You have no idea what
cold we fellows out here have to stand.
Once in Montana / started out with
friend of mine to dance in Blakeys
ranch, couple of hundred miles or so
away. 1t was pretty cold when we start
ed, but along about midnight, it began
to settle down into cool kind of 40 be-
low zero. sorter way. We didn't mind
it much, but kept riding all nightto keep
the blood in circulation. The night of
the second day we got there, as we
thought all right, but when we went in
by the fire, our ears began to crack of
and our feet to thaw out. They had
been frozen solid"
you didn't lance then?"
"You bet we did-thawed up and had
as good time as any ofthem. We don't
ride two hundred miles to dance, out
Il r Il