Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-09-07
Cowboy Horse Jewelry.

All over North America, for many
years, Cheyenne saddles have been IA
nous, and every equestrian, outside Of
our cavalry and of the Northwest
mounted police Of Canada, has either
had his horse tricked out with Chey.
enue leather or has wished he had
The fancy work on saddles, holsters,
and stirrup hoods that once made
Mexican saddlery famous and expen.
sive, long ago was copied by the Chey,
enne makers, who kept up the fame
and beauty of American horse trap.
pings, but made them so cheap as to be
within the means of most horsemen.
In the old days when western cattle
ranged all over the plains and the cow
boy was in his glory, that queer citi-
zen would rather have Cheyenne sad
die than best girl, in fact, to be with
out Cheyenne saddle and q first-class
revolver was to be no better than the
sheepherders of the era.
When a reporter found himself in
Cheyenne the other day, the first places
he looked for were the saddle makers
shops. He was surprised to find only
one snowy, first-class store of the kind,
and, instead of there being q crowd in
front of it, of people from everywhere
between Hudson's Bay and Central
America, there was no sign of more
business than was going on at the drug
gist's near by, or the stationer's over the
way. In one way only did the reporter
find his hopes rewarded; the goods dis
PLAYED in the windows were beautiful
aud extraordinary. There were the
glorious heavy hand-stamped saddles;
there were the huge, cumbreus tapa-
deros; there were the lariats or "ropes,"
the magnificent bits that looked like
Moorish art outdone, and there were
the "mule SINNERS" and the fanciful
spurs, and, in short, the windows form
ed a museum of things that cowboy
would have pawned his soul to own.
The metal work was all such as a cav
alryman once declared it "the most ele-
CANT horse jewelry in creation"
In the store went the reporter and at
his work went he. He found that the
old trade that covered America was
dead and gone, or rather had languished
so long and so much that the period of
mourning for it had gone by. Eng
lishmen and Germans now buy the
fanciest and the best trappings to send
abroad to their homes. Handstamped
saddles cost from SS5 to slS, but $35
buys as good one as q modest man
who knows good thing will care to
use. Cowgirl saddles were on view
several of them-with rigging for side
seats and with stirrups made in slip
per shapes. 1t is not that there are
really half dozen cowgirls in the
world or halfa dozen women like the
Colorado Cattle Queen or the lady
horse breeder of Wyoming, but there
are western girls who have to ride a
great deal, and they have fond fathers
and brothers and still fonder lovers;
hence the manufacture of magnificent
side saddles, all decked with hand
stamped patterns and looking as pretty
as the richest Bedouin ever dreamed of
horse gear being made. There is still
a good trade in cowboy outfits that are
ordered from Montana, the Dakotas,
Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas, and
similar goods go to the horse ranches of
Nevada, Idaho and Oregon. Moreover,
as long as men ride horses there will
be trade in fancy outfits for them
N. Y. Sun.