The Daily Missoulian., 1912-08-04

then. that the amusements OF the gen.
Grafton which preceded us In this
swiftly moving drama Of western life,
should have been crude and sponta-
neous. These were men engaged In a
naked. hand to- hand struggle with the
elementary forces of nature. They had
no point OF contact with the cultured
world beyond the barren plains. Their
work was battle with the soil. nat
nrally enough their play took color
from II.
Not much of a record has been left
w OF the games OF the really early
days, Perhaps, men were too busy In
those stirring times to spare time for
recreation. Life itself, moreover, was
something Of n game. Almost any
sport would have seemed tame to those
fighting nation builders whose daily
toll was spired with the romance Of
Indian fighting. outlaw hunting and
the search for hidden gold. At any
rate. these first-comers have left US
scant record OF their amusements.
But the men who followed on their
heels-and they followed fast, once the
golden lure of hidden treasure came.
brought amusements enough with
them. They did not wholly consist. as
we are fain to think, of gun fighting
and lynchings. Strangely enough. the
gun Fighter is rarely seen on the au-
thentic pages Of our history. He Is AZ
rare as the lynching, because OF the
fact. perhaps. that he was usually the
guest of honor at every manifestation
of border justice. Faro and poker and
other pursuits OF the tickle goddess
were not SO inconsiderable in their
proportions, The rough. virile outdoor
men were virlle In their play, and their
play. took, for the most part, the form
Of virile vice. There was nothing re-
fined or delicate about H. Raw
whiskey. crude dance halls and games
of chance where the stakes were high
these were the favorite failings Of
border. But these came and went
like flashes, merely incidents in the
ever changing drama of growth: and
like those we know today.
FUN IN WoRk-The sort OF labor
that formed the daily task of most OF
the men of the country gave form to
the earliest genuine sport. Drilling and
log rolling contests became popular as
soon as men began to become profi-
cient In these forms of work. Being
hardy fight-loving men IT IL not
strange that the western pioneers took
liking to boxing. Montana
was for years mecca for prize fight
ers. In Butte the older sporting gen.
try love to recall the days of Herrera.
OF Twin Sullivan and OF Stanley Ketch-
ell. the Butte boy who rose from OBJ
scurity as a. waiter and "bouncer' In
a saloon to prominence as one of the
gamiest fighters In the prize ring and
the champion of the middleweights OF
the world. Many and brilliant were
the fights pulled off In Butte and there
are plenty of people there still who
sigh for the return of what they style
"the good old days. AS more OF the
pioneer prospectors found that which
brought them affluence. horse acing
became general The men who gam
bled with fate for fortune buried In
the hills have always loved gambling
In any form. and horse racing at once
became and has always been extreme
ly popular. 1t will be long time be-
fore the splendid horses who bore the
copper and gold of Marcus DAILY will
be forgotten In Montana and they have
left behind them a full-fledged racing
game