Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-06-19
THE REAL COWBOY.
No Longer an Animated Battery-But a
Bronco Buster Still.

1t is quite true that the cowboy of to-
day is not a college man. nor one ut all
/ familiar With the manners and customs
or polite society. says Out West Nei-
ther does he 80 about his daily task with
brace of SIX shooters slung at his hins
and a repeating rifle held in the crook
of his arm.
Barbed wire fences. steam railroads.
police courts and penitentiaries have rem
dered such appurtenances superhuous.
And Immediately after pay day he does
not swoop down to the nearest town.
shoot out the lights and take part in a
gun fight or two.
For the $50 or $40 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 a
precious thing. The life of the modern
cowboy is as full of hard and monoton-
Gus 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 grazed
ON the. plains of the southwest, very few
are shipped direct from the range to the
market. The places of individual cattle
kings have been taken by great stock
companies which own numerous tracts of
range land in various parts of the vest.
A few years ago a dry season in south
eTn Arizona meant the death of many
cattle and very frequently the financial
ruin thei rowns. The old timers still
tell stories of having walked for incredi-
BILE distances on the carcasses of dead
steers.
But all that is past-they do things
differently now. Let a dry year come
upon the southwestern ranges and the
cattle are hustled on board train and
transported TO the cattle companies
ranges in Colorado or Montana or Dako-
ia, where the season is good and the feed
abundant.
No long drives of hundreds of miles
in search of new range as in the old
days. Simply day or two of rounding
up, then few hours drive to the near
est shipping point on the railroad Then
perhaps a day in town for the cowboys
and back again TO the home ranch and
the regular grind.
Though the cowboy is not a college
graduate he is by no means an ignoram-
us. Usually he is American born and
fairly we'll 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. He differs very
little from the average American work
ing youth, western dialect stories to the
contrary Notwithstanding.
In all cowboy bunkhouses there is a
pile of current magazines, the contents of
which are deyOured with avidty. And
one is not infrequently treated to the
amusing spectacle of youthful cowboy
becoming so enamored of the kind of
punchers pictured in modern fiction that
he purchases a pair of utterly useless
sixshooters commences to walk with a
swagger and to initiate the dialect of
Red Saunders.
But if craftsmanship is no longer a
qualification of the cowpuncher horse
manship is. The modern cattleman is as
proud of his ability to ride anything
on four legs as was ever the bronco bus
ter of bygone days and this is the first
fact impressed upon tenderfoot