Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-01-18

The cowboys" of the Rocky Mountain
regions are race or a class peculiar to that
country. They have some resemblance TO
the corresponding class on the southern side
OF the Rio Grande, but are Of a mider and
more original type. In the great herding
Districts where the cattle are fattened ia
great part upon the public domain, and roam,
winter and summer, over vast areas without
fences, without roads, and with only scatter
ed and irregular places for water and shelter,
the herdsmen play an important industrial
r0Le 1t is their business to keep the cattle
as nearly together as possible, to guide them
to the springs and wooded hoows, to separ-
ate them when they get mixed up with those
OF other droves, to brand them at the proper
seasons, aud to drive them to the nearest
market at others. Often their regular ocou.
patton is attended with good deal of danger
In Montana and in some parts of Colorado
and Dakota the Indians, turned loose to hunt
buffalo near their reservations fall upon the
cattle and run them of, and against these
raids the Cow boys" go always armed, and
not unfrequently have to undertake exploits
which, were they United States cavalrymen,
would be reported to the war department as
battles" At other times the men in the
employ OF rival and jealous owners become
involved Ia quarrels which end ia more or
less free fight Again, when the season is
severe, and snow falls among the lower
slopes Of the mountains, the care of the
herds becomes hazardous task. Still again
the half.tamed cattle stampede" and it be-
comes a matter of no small amount of cour-
age, skill, and address to keep them or get
them together. On such occasions the "cow.
boys" are obliged to hang on the fanks of
the plunging herd, and keep them, as far as
they can, headed in the same direction, until
the cattle from sheer wearness relapse into
some sort Of quiet and orderlness The ten.
dency to break" is mystery even to the
most experienced herders 1t usually shows
itself toward night, and there are unmistaka-
BILE signs of its approach, but no general the.
ory of its origin has been reached.
The outfit of the cowboy is a horse, usu-
ally one of the ponies" of the region
swift, tough, ugly in look and temper, but
capable of good service when once trained
a Mexican or army saddle, such AZ are
shipped in great quantities from New York
a blanket, or, with the best herdsmen, "A pair,
one being OF rubber one or more pistols,
sometimes a rifle and with great uniformi-
ty, liberal flask of whiskey Among those
who seek this wild life on the very frontiers
of civilization, or beyond them, there are
naturally many untamed and lawless spirits,
and these have given to the name of COW
boy character hardly deserved by the class
full, and as sober as their fellowmen in the
same region. But constant exposure, a mo-
notonous life varied only by danger or exer-
ton of extraordinary character, and exclusion
from the usual social relations, inevitably
tend TO make the more dsorderly among
them reckless and cruel. Gambling and
drinking are about the only diversions access
ible, and both are INDUCED in with a zest
quite unknown to the quieter circles of civ
ga1 airNa Of h..
worst of Cow boys" thieving is rare, and
the outrages with which they are charged in
this line are usually committed by men who
resemble them only in being mounted and
armed There attaches to the name an un-
conscious association with the COW. boys of
the Revolution, whose only calling was to
steal cattle and everything else they could
run of from either side along the "debata-
BILE ground" between the British aud Cont
mental camps. The cowboys of the west
have, on the contrary, q regular business,
which the greater number of them follow
with quite as much fidelity as the average
farm hand or ''drover" of the east.
1t is not to be denied, however, that the
exceptions to this rule are sufficiently strik-
ing to attract the attention of the lovers of
the picturesque in current reading, newspa-
per or other. Occasionally a band of the
COW boys will take it into their heads, in an
interval of leisure, to ''clesn out" a neighbor-
ing town. For one of these excursions they
load up" with whiskey, gallop at night.fall
into the streets, and race down them firing
right and left at any one whose appearance in
dicstes degree of luxury which, in the in.
terests of their ideal of democracy, should
be suppressed Then they visit the liquor
saloons or gambling bells, which are only too
frequent, consume what they like and drive
out the occupants. few weeks ago a squad
Of FIVE rode into Ute Greek, Colorado, and
psrceiving q Mexican trader with the high
sounding name of Don Marcedo Arragon,
made some impudent demand of him He
refused it, snatched his shot gun, and retreat
ed down the road. When the COW. boys fol-
lowed and fred on him he returned the fire,
killed two of them and wounded third, and
then fell, shot in four places. He fingered
twelve hours and died, aud the murderers es-
capped. At Deadwood a band recently under.
took to ''clean out" Mexican gambling sa-
loon, but two of them were killed, and the
others fled. On lonely ranch in Colorado a
little company of thom quArrelled over their
cards. In the first moment the oil lamp was
thrown down, and q desperate fight with
knives and pistols went on in the darkness
until four men were left lifeless on the floor,
slippery with blood, and only one escaped,
badly gashed and shot, to tell the awful tale
Terrible as such occurrences are, they are
the incidents of a mode Of life which neces.
sarily draws many of the more wsyward and
violent of the frontier population, and though
they stand out in bolder relief, they are not
proofs of a greater brutality or a lower type
of manhood than the ARRAYS which frequent
ly take place on the excursion boats from our
own city. Indeed, bad as are the worst of
the cowboys, the class, as a whole, are bet
ter than the gangs" which infest portions of
the river wards of New York, the neighbor-
hood of the Thames embankment in London,
or the quarters erceRtTtques of Paris. And
what is more, the worst of the former are
sure to disappear, while the latter grow in
numbers and violence with the progress of
civilization. "-Hdrper's Weekly.