The evening times., 1898-05-25
NEDDED TO THEIR Guns
Rough Riders Protest Against a
Change Of Weapons.
LIKE THEIR WINCHEsTEks
Cowbey Cavalry men Buck Against
Shooting With Small-Caliber
Arms-The Army Rihcs and Re-
voivers DO Not Please the West
~rners.

There Il murmuring in the ranks Of the
Rough Riders, and the murmur Is fast
growing into distinct grumbie. 1t is all
over the matter Of equipment.
Cow punchers. as a class, are set In
their notions when it comes to equipment.
Generations of these men have faced the
perils of man. beast and Indian. with an
equipment that has stood the test Of time
and emergency. They don't want to
change 1t. The War Department does.
The War Department wants to take from
the cowboy his cherished 45-caliber single
action Colt revolver and replace 1t with
a double action 3S-caliber pistol. It also
wants to deprive him of his time-honored
his hands a rife of the latest model.
carrying a nickel-jacketed bullet not much
bigger than the end Of a slate pencil.
These things gall the sensitive cow
puncher. He knows all about the 45-cali-
Der Colt revolver. and he SCOTS at the
Army expert who tells him that his pistol
is too heavy and not sufficiently rapid In
fire. For the small-caliber Army rifle
he has the greatest contempt.
Then, too. the views Of the cowboy as
TO what he should wear. and how he
should wear 1t. differ radically from the
accepted rules Of the War Department.
The cowboy likes to wear his cartridge
belt loose; so that 1t says below his hin
on one side; the War Department wants
that belt worn tight. The pistol holster in
use by the Regular Army has a flap and
other fittings on it, requiring ten days
notice OF intention on the part the wearer
before he can draw his gun. The Rough
Riders call II "tenderfoot's holster
and want to keep the Western model The
cowboys favorite holster has no fiap to
1t. and its owner, as rule, cuts off the
bottom, SO that the barrel Of the pistol
protects, and trims away the top SO that
he can get his fingers on hammer and
trigger before he draws the gun. He
wears his revolver on his right hip. well
back. The War Department rule is to
wear Ii to the front
Then there is the matter of carbines and
spurs In appearance the cowboys spur
is fierce, but its looks belle It, 1t has. as
a rule immensely long rowels. but those
rowels are not sharp. Another peculiarity
of the Western spur is the possession of
hook Immediately above the hank. The
inventor of that hook knew his business.
for its intelligent use has saved the life
OF many an embryonic COW puncher
When cow pony bucks. his rider simply
jabs that blunt hook into the hair cinch
which holds the saddle in place. and he
can stay by that horse as long as ne
wants to. If the Rougn' Riders forget
themselves and try that trick with a cav
airy spur they will either disembowel the
horse or have first-ciass runaway on
their hands. The cavalry spur has a
sharp rowel on it. of the kind which a
woman uses for a tracing wheel
The fayorite rifle of the Westerner is n
Winchester. He knows nothing about
''straight-pull Lee-Metfords" and he
doesn't want to. The gun he is used TO
is the 'sawed-off'' carbine of the model
of 1873, which holds twelve 4i-caIiber car
tridges- He knows the range and
ability of that rifle perfectly. and he can
make 1t perform IN q way to shame a
machine gun.
Generations of cow-punchers have car
ried those Winchester carbines under
their left legs when on horseback, and
the Rough Riders protest bitterly against
the regulation which orders them to car
ry the rifles either slung from their shoul-
ders or in a bucket something like a pis-
tol holster. attached to the saddle
All in all. the Rough Riders have more
things to grumble at than they have to
praise. When they enlisted many of them
say they understood they were to go to
the front as cow-Dunchers, and not as
reconstructed cavalrymen. Few but those
who have lived in the West and among
cowmen know what a great antipathy
they have to anything which involves
change. Eastern men are inclined to
laugh at the accoutrements of a cowboy,
ana especially at the ciumsiness of his
saddle, but it Is probable that no one
thing constructed by man was ever bet
ter adapted for the uses to which it would
be put than the Western saddle. 1t will
not only stand the terrific jerk entailed
by the sudden stoppage of husky steed.
but IT will also stand all kinds of weather
and work. 1t is also the only kind of seat
in which a man can remain for twenty
four hours at stretch without discom-
fort either to himself or to his horse 1
What is true of the saddle is true of
every other article Of the cowboys equip
ment.