The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1902-03-22
iEPIC OF THE COWBOY.
AWAITING PATIENTLY THE ADVENT
OF A SYMPATHETIC GENIUS.

AWAITING PATIENTLY THE ADVENT
OF A SYMPATHETIC GENIUS.
The Man Who VIII Write 1t Must Has
somewhat Racy Character Peculiarly
Who is there to write the story OF
the cowboy? asks the New York Mail
and Express. Will this wandering
heart and restless spirit never be
painted in well-balanced colors? Will
there never be a just, correlative
study of his virtues and his weak
nesses?
There have been Owen Wister (per.
haps the besO, Alfred Henry Lewis,
Hough, and many others, chiefly mag
azine writer's. But there has been
something missing; the study has
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 max
ing his adieux. His native spirit
he still keeps; his nomad existence,
his lonely life, still obtain. Perhaps
If one were to tell him that he was
interesting" that he was sociologi-
cal entity, he would be strongly in
clined to lombard one with a vocab-
ulary in celebration and an energy
born of the plains and 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 1t for
him; II you we're 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 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 overalfs
tucked into plain or slightly orna-
mented high boots. and wearing a
shirt and battered sombrero.
The first costume Is, of course, Of
ten used. When, for instance, the
COW punchcr is on the roundup, and
the excitable steer will 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
too, they keep the wearer warm. AS
for the six-shooter, or a carbine, they
also are worn in case the cow-puncher
should Jump" cottontail, or take
grudge against an unusually imperti-
nent prairie dog. But the impression
Of the bad man of the west gained
from the comic papers is false one,
and unfair to a hard worker.
Some persons have bad words to
say regarding the morals of the COW
boy. 1t is to be wondered If any of
these critics ever led his life. Did
they ever, for instance, follow the elu-
sive "beef" in a fall roundup of early
SHOWS and rains? A wet aead under
the beavers, O call at 8 o'clock in the
morning to stand guard over herd
Of nervous cattle, hasty breakfast
of cup of coffee. often not time for
that-a crack of thunder. vivid spiral
of lightning, two or three thousand
naddended animals off in wild STAN
pede, the nervy puncher among them.
riding his pony with quirt and spur
like crazy man, lest he be trampled
to death in the rush, the thought of
a gopher-hole before him, all the time
working to the head of the bunch to
turn the cattle from gulch he knows
is dead ahead, thinking less of his
life than his honest trade of-"only
cowboy"
He either stems the tide, or he does
not. If he does, he will swear stead.
ay for a while, and presently think
no more of it. sitting patient guard on
his philosophical little cow-pony until
sun-up, when he will insist on having
some bacon and bareback. II he has.
stumbled in that gopher-hole, the odds
would be a hundred to one against
any other man than the genus cow
hoy-tho <ou0he St rhycfooI y,,0,-fo On
earth. In either event, he has earned
his dollar a day. This Is one exam
pie of his nervous, strenuous exist
ence.
The average cowboy drinks hard.
swears hard, has elastic, ethical ideas
but he lives hard, and he is not
saint. A normal standard of moral
ity canLor be applied to him. He
must be taken as he is-an able fell
low Of many sides, who can turn
hand at almost anything. who is some
times buffer, but usually crammed
with courage, and seldom liar. He
is a man of many loves, but this Is
part of his life; he knows no better.
The expression of his animal self is
to him part of nature. Withal, in
consistent as 1t seems, he has sense
OF chivalry. In no part Of the world
is q good woman as safe as she Is
alone with the rough cow-puncher.
She represents to him a thing apart,
and 1t lights up pathetic side of
him.
Independent, matterof-fact. and
sturdy as be is, his roaming from
one .cow-land to another opens up to
close observer an occasional rare
CLEAN of wistfulness. He is some
times a lonely fellow, and wants to
settle down. But he cannot. for he
loves the unshackeled life and the