Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-08-22
THE PICTURESQUE COWBOY.
He IL Passing Away and win Soon BE
Only . "Reminiscences.

He Is Passing Away and WIN Soon BE
Only "Reminiscences.
The rapid decline of the range busi- |
ness of Wyoming began six years ago.
Before that it had been of character |
to tempt even the rich. At one time |
men paid Per cent. month for
money, and made 100 per cent profits
a year That was when cows came
up from Texas at a cost of 81 each,
sold in two years for 1922, and in three
years for $40 and more, when the
ranges were not overstocked, the
pasturage was good, and all the con-
ditions, including ''boom" prices at
the stockyards, were favorable. The
men who did the best pushed into
new territory as fast as the Indians
we're crowed off, and kept finding new
grass and plenty of it. But the risks
soon came, and multiplied. II one
man was careful not to overstock
range, he could not be sure that an
other COW outfit would not do so
precisely where he had put his cattle.
Prices fell. fences cut up the ranges
and shut off the water, winter losses
became heavier and heavier, and the
good old days" of this inhuman,
devil-may-care, primitive and clumsy
business came to an end. The cow
boys of picture and story existed in
the brilliant days, writes Julian
Ralph in Harper's Magazine. At first
they had come from Texas, but in the
zenith Of their romantic glory they
came from everywhere, and from
every class. They included young
Englishmen, college graduates from
the East, well-born Americans-all
sorts who did not "strike luck" at
anything else, and who were full Of
vim and love of adventure. They get
$40 month and good keep during
the greater part of each year. They
rode good horses, that had as much
Of the devil in them as the "boys"
themselves. They bought hand
stamped Cheyenne saddles and Cali
fornia bits that were as ornate as
jewelry, and stuck their feet in grand
tapaderos, or hooded stirrups, richly
ornamented, padded with lambs
wool, and each as big as a hre-hat.
Their spurs were fit for grandees,
their ''ropes "or lariats, were selected
with more care than a circus tight
rope, and their big broad felt SOM
breros cost more than the Prince of
! Wales ever paid for pot-hat.
And then, alas! the cow.men be.
gan to economic in men, God, wages
everything. The best of the old
kind OF cowboys, VINO had not become
owners or foremen. saloonkecperS, or
gamblers, or had not been shot, drifted
away. Some Of the smartest among
them became 'rustlers'' - those
cattle-thieves whose depredations re-
suited in what almost came to be a
war in Wyoming last year. They in
sisted that they had to do it to live.
From the cowboy standpoint it was
time for the business to languish.
Towns were springing up every here
and there, each with its ordinance
that cowboys must take of their side
arms before they entered the villages;
wages were low down; men had to
cart hay and dump it around for
winter food; settlers fenced in the
streams; and others stood guard over
them with guns; it was time such a
business languished. From the stand
point of nineteenth century civi!iza-
ton the same conclusion was reached
the range business was an obstruc-
ton 10 civilization, a bar to the de-
velopment OF the State, thing only
to be tolerated in new and wild
country. And now lam assured that
there is not an intelligent cowman
who does not know that the business
is doomed in Wyoming, and that the
last free-roying herds must move on.
There is not one who does not know
that small lunches of cattle, held in
connection with agriculture, must
take the places Of the range cattle,
because better grades of cattle can
be bred, better meat can be pro-
duced, all risks will nearly disappear,
and the expenses of the care of the
cattle will not be tithe OF those OF
the old plan.