St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-07-07
AisrHllanu.
STORIES OF COWBOYS.

lHSH nave disappointed me equally.
If were to write play in which
there was a cowboy character, l
would dress him up in fringed leather
brooches and buckskin coat, a big
drab Spanish hat as stiff as board
and as big as the top ola washtub,
IN dainty boots, and beadworked
gloves; his pistol should be of moth
er-of-pearl, and none but the best
Cheyenne saddles should he sit on
for of such is the cowboy of the flash
literature which has imortalized
him; and If the true cowboy does
not know enough to live up to his
own china, | would ignore the fact.
And yet these first COWBOYS | saw in
Montana were a very ordinarv-look-
ing lot of young depot-loungers, pc
cullar only because they wore big
fat-brimmed hats, and because they
had long line of broncos fettered to
h1tchlng rail near by. l would
have been UNNECESSARILY disappoint-
ed and disguised had they not been
redeemed by story that was told
concerning them as soon as our train
pulled away from the station where
they were loahng
of piainsmen had long noticed a
course of behavior on the part of
Northern Pacific train conductor
which they determined not to toler-
ate. The conductor did the worst
thing, in a cowboys opinion that
any man can dO-he acted like a
dude, he put on style" He actually
went so far as to swing himself off
the cars before they stopped, and,
with one arm extended and head
Extensively erect, would shout:
"Dlnglevllle! All out for Dingleville!"
His whole manner was artificial.
affected and unbearable This being
notlced-and no one is quicker to
notice the hollow trickery of an
Eastern man than cowboys are-the
cowboys decided to take him
down" So one day they assembled
on the station platform in a semi
circular line into the curve of which
he must run as he leaped from the
moving cars. The conductor did as
he was expected to, the COWBOYS
surrounded him, and he was hidden
to dance.
"Dance,-you" they shouted
dance or we'll shoot the toes off
you"
At the words each cowboy pulled
his pistol, and began shooting down
into the platform planks, not exact
ly at the conductors feet, but so as
to narrowly miss them. They blazed
away and he danced, until, after he
was all exhausted and they had no
more shots to fire, they babe him 60
on n 1a
up" at Dingleville until he could be-
have like man.
heard other stories about cow
boys on that trip. One of the best
sof them was told by a globe-trot-
ting Englishman, whose habit it was
to amuse himself and while away life |
by going wheresoever there was
promise OF novelty, danger or ex-
c1tement. He had been to the Afri-
can diamond fields, to the Mahdi's |
realms, to our frontier mining camps, |
and was now on his way to Alaska. |
{ But one trip he made to see the |
cowboys, about whom he had read |
a great deal.
hey are a very rum sort of beg
|gars,' said he-'a very rum sort.
But they're not half bad as a lot,
d'you know. The first cowboy town
l got into was fortunately chosen,
TOR had no sooner got into bed in
the 'otel than band of the beggars
came dashing up the street, firing off
their revolvers like madmen. 1t hap
#pened that the 'otel was a very ram
|shackle frame building, almost as
thin as cardboard, and in five min
|utes the walls of my bedroom were
rlddled with bullet holes in the most
surprising manner. Fancy my salts
|factlon-for l had travelled five
thousand miles to witness that very
thing!
But to show you that they are
not as bad as they have been paint
ed-ln fact, that they are opposed to
anything like law-breaking and VIC
lence-let me relate an incident that
took place the next day. There was
poor clerk standing up over his
books at desk in shop on the
main street, and there was drunken
cowboy riding up and down the
street. Well the cowboy saw the
clerk and his sense of humor was
aroused by the idea of shooting at
him d'you know. These cowboys
have remarkable sense of humor
so the cowboy ups with his pistols,
dyou know, and he shoots the poor
clerk right through the head, killing
him instantly. Well now that sort
.of thing is distinctly frowned upon
zby cowboys, as a rule, and in this
ease the cowboys held meeting,
and decided that the fellow with the
lively but dangerous sense of humor
should be hanged at once. They put
rope around his neck, and there be-
ing no tree anywhere in sight, they
hung him to the side of Pullman
as the train came rolling in. I've
seen number of occurrences of that
sort. which makes me quite nositiYe