The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-03-07
EPIC OF THE COWBOY.
AWAITING PATIENTLY THE ADVENT
or A SYMPATHETIC GENIUS.

Rrdoient of ,he iar Western Ranges
Who Is there 70 write the story of
the cowboy? asks the New York Mail
and Express VIII this wandering
heart ana restless spirit never be
painted In wellballnced colors? viii
there never be o just. correlatiye
study of his virtues and his weak
nesses?
There have been owen Wister (per-
haps the BEST, Alfred Henry Lewis, \
Hough, and many others, chiefly mag
azine writer's But there has been /
something missing; the study mas /
not been comprehensive enough.
There is not much time, however, |
for with the gradual disappearance OF |
the range business. and the putting OF
beef stock in unromantic pastures, the
free lance cow-puncher Is slowly maxi
ing his adieux. His native spirit
he still keeps his nomad existence,
his lonely life still obtain Perhaps
II one were to tell him that he was
Interesting" that he was a sociology
cal entity, he would be strongly in
elined to lombard one with a yocab-
ulary in celebration and an energy
horn of the plains an1 the mountains.
He does not take himself seriously,
this voyageur and he does not quite
know what to make of it if you do.
That he should work with cattle he
sees nothing but hard, inevitable bust
ness; there is no romance in it for
him; if you were to tell him so. he
would not even become self-conscious,
but wonder politely what was ailing
you.
Instead of picturing this good fell
low as always in a flannel shirt, with
bizarre neckerchief, a pair of fringed
chaps" at the end of which are elo-
quently jingling extraordinary spurs,
on either hip an ubiquitous Colt, held
on by bristling cartridge belt, study,
rather the Woodworking man of the
corral sensibly rugged in oyeraIls
tucked into plain or slightly orna-
mented high boDts, and wearing a
shirt and battered sombrero.
The first costume is, Of course, Of
ten used. When, for instance, the
COW puncher is on the roundup and
the excitable steer win persist in go
ing into the rough brush, he must be
driven out, and here is where the
chaps" come into use as a protec-
ton Riding without them, the writer
has more than once had his trousers
torn from his thighs in the rush of
= the drive In cold and wet weather
l too, they keep the wearer warm. AS
for the six-shooter or carbine, they
e also are worn in case the cow-puncheT
} should Jump" a cottontail, or take
a grudge against an unusually imperti
s nent prairie dog. But the impression
1 of the bad man of the west gained
o from the comic papers is false one
t and unfair to a hard worker.
e Some persons have bad words t.
Il say regarding the morals of the COW
8 boy. It is to be wondered if any o
a these critics ever led his life. Dit
o they ever, for instance, follow the elu
o sive beef" in fall roundup of earl,
k SHOWS and rains? A wet mead unde
Tic DGdNGlSs q Ccll dL . " HAONh - VI
+ morning to stand guard over a her
+. OF nervous cattle, a hasty brealkfae
r of q cup of coffee, often not time TO
0r that-a crack of thunder, vivid spirs
ee of lightning, two or three thousan
ne maddended animals off in wild stan
n pede, the nervy puncher among then
p riding his pony with quirt and spu
st like a crazy man, lest he be trample
nd to death in the rush. the thought {
v a gopher-hole before him, all the tim
ng working to the head of the bunch
r. turn the cattle from gulch he know
is dead ahead, thinking less Of h
at life than his honest trade of-"only
d. cowboy"
mt He either stems the tide, or he do,
20 cot. If he does. he will swear stea
III ay for while, and presently thir
no more of it, sitting patient guard
his philosophical little cow-pony I'M
sun-up, when he will insist on hayil
come bacon and bareback. If he h
'eu stumbled in that gopher-hole, the cd
ol would be a hundred to one again
-nu any other man than the genus co
ler Boy-the toughest physical mortal
loH earth. In either event, he has earn
'ou hos dollar a day. This is one exa
up PIE of his nervous, strenuous ext
~, ence.
,an The average cowboy drinks ha
swears hard, has elastic, ethical ide
roc but he lives hard, and he is not
ia saint A normal standard of nor
ity canLot be applied to him.
must be taken as he is-an able