The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-11-07
THE HosPITABLE COWBOY.
And His Labori GUS Life ON the Texan
Plains.
(Froln the Philadelphia Times. }

(From the Philadelphia Times.)
If anyone ia seeking true hospitality, he
will find 1t ever amid ths cowboys.
Nothing at a camp OF ranch will be
thought too good for him, aud every
kindness will be shown. Some of the
ranch houses are built of wood and some
of adobe, or large sun-driad brick, and
these may be found hundred miles or
more from railroad. Remaining there
for months at time the cowboys are
always glad to welcome visitors who
bring news from the outside world. or
from "the states.' az all the country
outside of Texas is called. If it be one
visitor or dozen, oil will be gladly well
coined, told to SECT down aud stake
your horses,' and then "You fellows
must just maze yourselves at home %
and they mean 1t. No man can visit
them thus without ever after retaining
for them very warm place in his heart
They are nearly all young men, and the
gymnasium in which they take their
athletic exercise is one that brings them
health and strength. The treeless, grass
wide, where they make their home, is
from $500 to 1000 feet throughout above
the level of the sea and the atmosphere Is
always bracing and cxhilarating.
The cowboys work is hard work. He
must be up early and is often kept up
late. Winter is, of course, the worst
season. When these plains are covered
with snow, as they are every year. and
the GOLD winds are sweeping from the
north over this treeless expanse it means
something to handle cattle. In bliz-
zard they drift away from their usual
pastures and to "hold" a herd under
such circumstances is very difficult. To
be reused from warm blankets at 2
O'Clock in the morning to 60 out in the
face of rain of sleet and snow and re-
lieve others " no have been laboring with
herd Of well-nigh unmanageable cat
tie, is something which has about il a
good deal more of the real thar of the
romantic. II they are not thus held they
drift to the southwark, before the biz
gard, and sometimes go hundreds Of
miles. In that case they must be fol-
low ed and brought back, as soon as the
weather will permit. "Kiding the
lines" was one of the hardest features of
the work in former days. Tt meant pa
trolling vast expnnses.of territory abso-
lutely without fences for hundreds of
miles. Now, however, that wire fencing
has been placed around tracts of country
embracing 80 or 40 miles. the work is
not regarded as SO difficult.
There are some expressions used about
the ranches and cow camps, without
some mention of which sketch would
hardly be complete. 10 the newcomer
they are at first somewhat puzzling, but
he soon becomes accustomed to their use.
Instead of herd being driven from one
pasture TO another they are "shoved
over into it," "Dogies'' are common
cattle from the country below the plains
"Chousting them about means driving
them around. "Twos," "threes" and
"fours" mean cattle of those ages. A
"suggin" means blanket. "Chuck
wagon" means provision wagon, and
"chuck box" has similar meaning.
" Lokoed" is a word derived from the
loko weed, which is found here. When
horse eats of it he becomes as though
orazed or drunk, and having eaten of
it once be forms the habit, as do human
inebriates, and will eat it at every on
portunity. From the weed Ia derived
the word mentioned, which means not
only horse SO affected, but also not be-
ing like ones self, like the slang express
sion "rattled. " Animals are "ropsd'.
when they are lassoed, the lariat being
known as a rope. Cow-men are those
who own large punches OF cattle and
control an outfit; ''nesters" arc those
who own comparatively few cattle and
have settled upon school lands, and cow
boys are those who handle cattle for the
cow-men. "Cow punchers" are men
who accompany herd when they are
shipped by rail, whose duty it ia To
make all cattle that lilo down in the
closely packed cars got up, by u.e of
sharp sticks. and to remove those which
are killed or wounded while in transit
These do not work on this ranch, but 90
back and forth with the cattle trains
The name is often applied. though