Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1903-02-26
When the Tenderfoot
"Made Good"

| Q oMEBoDY in the party got off that
| y old threadbare aphorism about a
man being known By the company he
/ keeps, when the reserved man with
the gray hair about his temples spoke
! up:
That reminds me Of little expert
ence / had in the callow days of my
youth he said. Il say youth. al
though ! was in. my early manhood
and quite old enough 10 know better.
and that brings me TO that rather old
saying about the exorbitant rates
charged by Experience for tuition. NV
trouble was that | needed experience.
but didn't know it. You couldn't tell
me many things that ! didn't already
claim familiarity with when / set out
on this little western trip that | am
about TO tell Of. / was bound from
New York to San Francisco, and. in
order to dip little into the ways Of
the western border town, | had CON
cluded TO stop off for day or two in
Fl Paso, which, at the time speak Of.
had a considerable reputation in the
line Of social informality.
Il didn't expect to learn a great deal
about border civilization. mind Won
for ! had long ceased taking an inter
est in this sort Of thing az depicted
in the books and magazines. having
come to the conclusion that il had
been overdone. ! figured that after
the veneer of the story book had been
scraped from the average western bad
man., he would amount to about one
rough, uneducated, clustering man in
need Of a shave and CARRYING about a |
gun because the laws Of the far west
were still rather lax as TO the CARRYING
OF weapons
Il made my Little trip over the South |
ern Pacific, and the further west | got |
the more imminent became the explo- |
sion Of the frontier myth. talked the |
matter over with a young fellow who |
had got aboard the train at the little |
town Of Abilene, on the edge of the |
COW country and he said he had lived |
IN the bad lands since he was 20, and |
he was then 80, and he hadn't seen any |
deyilishness worth speaking of.
"Ee explained that he came from
St. Louis, and with a lot of money |
given TO him by his father. who was |
in the grocery business there. he had |
bought a bunch Of cattle and had set
tied down to roaming the Texas plains
as a sort Of boss cowboy.
Z" All this sort Of rot about the cow
boy being such a tough proposition
said he, with a peculiar sort Of accent |
imbibed from the plains, is just lot |
Of airy talk. ! ought 20 know, for I've
been kicking around here in the grass
for ten years. I've had little trouble, |
of course, but nothing worth speaking |
Of, and your talk about the bad men
of the west being played out is right
all right
Exactly, Ireplied, gratifed at this
Of my views by an expert.
exactly so. There are a lot Of long
winded galoots hanging around here |
vet. / suppose, who might give a ten
derfoot the impression that they were /
bad but ] dare say that they're sim
ply a lot Of imitators who want to
keep up the old traditions. and who
would dodge il a real loaded gun were
pulled on them
Exactly, said my new friend.
whose name, by the way, was Viii
liams.
ave seemed to agree on everything.
and became fast friends. ! acknowl-
edged that I was pretty Merry prop
osition in the east. and showed VIII
liams a superb Smith &. Wesson long
range which ! had bought on Broad
way especially for this trip. told
him that always carried one. and he
said that he did also as matter Of
precaution.
"Weu, he was going 70 Fl Paso. and
Of course two such kindred spirits ar
ranged to GO over the town together
a hit Williams said he would show
me the sights Of the place. which were
not much except for a lot Of faro
houses along the main street and
fandango over in Paso del Norte, across
the Rio Grande. in the evening.