The Point Pleasant register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, W. Va.) 1909-1939, 1909-10-06
VANISHING COWBOY
CONSTRUCTIVE PIONEER IN HIS cENER.
ALTON.

The story of that conquest is the
story of the West as it has been, the
wild, free West of yesterday. The
work is done; the cowboy IS a van
isned type. We boast ofhim in stor-
les and we draw his picture to re-
mind ourselves of splendid past. In
the halo of the picturesque his eco
nomic value has been lost sight of.
Like many other men who have
found LIES keenest pleasures close
to death, he was constructive SOL
der. Probably he was the finest
that the world had known.
He was a product of conditions in
the East, He was lured westward
by the hazards which the country of
fered him. 1t seems to be the case
always that when industry needs a
large body of men for some such spe-
cial duty as this, civilization has just
brought about conditions which sup
ply the recruits. The hard times in
the North, the rayaged farm lands
in the South, the tameness of the
Mississippi Valley whose elder gener-
alton of pioneers had transmitted
fighting spirit to their sons-these
things had brought restlessness.. Also
there was common then a certain
well-known spirit, hard to describe,
which makes boys rowdies when they
stay at home and men of action when
they go away. The West called and
the East stood ready with a few
thousand lean hard-boned young
men, endowed, above all other things
with that hne quality of moral cour-
age known as sand. : They strag-
gled to the cattle ranges, some with
shoulders damp from the tears of
fond good-bves, others hard-eyed
with memories of what had driven
them from home.
And then they got their tryings
out. Sometimes it was vicious
horse, sometimes pistoled bully
taking fine delight in the batting of
a tenderfoot, again circle of IN
shaven ruffians round a campfire,
keen-tongued, searching the home
sick souls last depths with caustic,
drawing wit. Always the West took
the East, examined him with care to
find his weakest, soreSt spot, then
tested his endurance to the utter
most by probing this. And when
the East gathered his bruised frame
from the SagebuSh to remount the
bucking animal or clenched his whit
ened jaw before the ugly revolver
muzzle or wanly smiled back at the
jeerinG faceS-when he did this for
the tenth time perhapS-he found
himself no longer East, but West,
accepted suddenly and among his
fellows. By such rude, thorough
processes they made cowboys from
the best and strongest of the men
whose restless spirit had led them to
the range. Those who were too
weak or vicious or small were win
moved out, rejected to drift away to
gambling hells, to cattle stealing or
to highway robbery. A few went
back home.
These cowboys soon became a race
apart, distinct in dress and speech
from all of those classes whence they
had sprung. Their garb-from high
heeled boots to Undermined sombre-
ros, adapted to their works peculiar
needs-has become symbolic of the
country where they rode. Ages yet
to come will know it as the draping
on coat of arms proclaiming the
New West. Their speech is nearly
obsolete. The soft drawl of the South
lurked in many of its voweIs and
slurred many of its cOnsonants. 1t