Alaska sentinel., 1908-11-26
THE REAL COWBOY.
No Longer an Animated Battery,
 but a Broncho Buster Still.

1 No Longer an Animated Battery, hut n Broncho Buster Still.
 It is quite true that the cowboy of
 to-day is not a college man, nor one
 at all familiar with the manners and
 customs of polite society, says Out l West. Neither does he go about his daily task with a brace of six-shooters slung at his hips and a repeating rifle 1 held in the crook of his arm.
 Barbed wire fences, steam railroads,
 police courts and penitentiaries have rendered such appurtenances superhu- ous. And immediately after pay day he
 does not sweep down upon the nearest l town, shoot out the lights and take | part in gun fight or two.
 For the S30 or S40 a month which he
 receives a strict attention to the duties of his job Is expected, and in these days of strenuous competition job Is pre- cious thing The life of the modern cowboy is as full of hard and monoton- ous work as that of an eastern farm
 hand, and there Is very little difference in the intellectual and social standing
 of the two.
 Though thousands of cattle are graz
 ed on the plains of the Southwest, very few are shipped direct from the range to the market. The places of individ- ual cattle kings have been taken by great stock companies which own nu- merous tracts of range land in various | parts of the West.
 4 few years ago a dry season in southern Arizona meant the death or many cattle and very frequently the financial ruin of their owners. The old
 timers still tell stories of having walk
 ed for incredible distances on the car | casses of dead steers.
 But all that is past-they do things differently now. Let dry year come upon the southwestern ranges and the cattle are hustled on board train and transported to the cattle companies ranges ill Colorado or Montana or Da- kota, where the season is good and the feed abundant.
 No long drives of hundreds of miles in search of new range as ill the old days. Simply day or two of round ing up, then a few hours drive to the nearest shipping point on the railroad. Then perhaps q day in town for the cowboys and back again to the home ranch and the regular grind Though the cowboy is not college graduate he is by no means an lgno- ramus. Usually he is American born and fairly well read, taking the same active interest in current topics and politics that other American citizens do. As a general rule he has been raised in the section in which he is employed and is of youthful appearance. lie differs very little from the average
 American working youth, western dla- lect stories to the contrary notwith- standing.
 In all cowboy bunkhouses there Is pile of current magazines, the contents of which are deyoured with avidity.
 And one is not infrequently treated to
 the amusing spectacle of q youthfui cowboy becoming so enamored or the
 kind of punchers pictured ill modern fiction that he purchases pair Of ut terly useless six-shooters, commences to walk with a swagger and to initiate
 the dialect of Red Saunders.
 But If marksmanship is no longer qualification of the cowpuncher, horse manship is. The modern cattleman Is
 us proud of his ability to ride anything on four legs as was ever broncho buster of bygone days, and this is the first fact impressed upon tenderfoot.