East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1914-09-24

Watching the production OF stag
ing of q Roundup from behind the
scenes - a revelation TO one not IA
mlliar with the work 81 the impresa-
RIO who produces these grand operas
of the COW country The champion
ship bucling and potato or quick
change races. run the gamut Of the
range Of passions and emotions Of the
youne old west
II has SIS Carusos and Meibas. its \
Weber and Fields. and It's orchestra 4
IL the great symphony Of the sage 4
brush plains, bunch grass hills. noun .
tains and valleys Of the once prince /
~ domain of the cattle barons Its
liberetto IA made after the evening
song of the coyote. the plaintive lula
bys OF the murmuring pine and hem
lock and the laundering diapasons Of
the stampede. The night hawk in his
silent watches when he sang his plain
tive ballad 10 quiet the restless herd
in the DAYS when the west was young
and no more lonely than his entire
people are today who look with sink
ing heart upon the fields of waving
growing grain where once the jack.
rabbit wended its myriad ways and
the coyote sought consolation in
speaking with the great stiffness.
Round-ups represent and reproduce
the sports and pastimes, passions and
emotions of the last of this old west.
race, which. like the Indians. dissolves
itself into noihiugness with the ad-
vent OF civilization. There are
the children of this great separated
tribes. Tomorrow theIe will be none
left and round-ups as they are today
win be thing Of the past for they
win so with the passing OF the peo-
pie who make them. Today they
breath the spirit OF the old west, to-
morrow the imitation of this spirit
viii be commercialized, capitalized
and perfected into a beautiful theatri-
cal shadow Of what it once was.
People uRacquainted with the Pc
culiarities OF these children and
watching a roundup from the grand
stand or bleachers hastily jump at the
conclusion that the thing is automat-
ic and reproduces itself annually like
a blooming flower. Entire communi-
ties have become dazzled and blinded
By the beauty Of the finished Round
up and hastily dashed into the vortex
only 10 find themselves flung high and
dry on the rocks Of financial disas-
ter.
While in 1918 there were just fifty
two round-ups. rodeos. border days
and frontier days produced in the Pa
cific northwest and Canada there
were less than half a dozen financial
successes And the reason for this
is not that the shows are not good.
but that the management or produc-
ing management rather is poor. So
20 get at the secret OF the business one
must get behind the scenes at one of
the big successes like the Pendleton
Roundup or Cheyenne Frontier Days
Both are established. unqualified sue
cesses. But from a commercial basis
the Pendleton Roundup is perhaps
the most representative. il being own
ed by the municipality Of Pendleton,
staged anl produced by a volunteer as
ISOLATION without pay or any hope OF
reward other than the glory which at
lAlDtF Vi DCADk OAE 0A bAAC CAGNEA AC-
sponsible for the Roundup. Its sue
cess has been the most phenomenal
OF any festival Of It's kind ever given
and il is strictly a non-commercial
enterprise. From a beginning in 1916
with an attendance OF about eight
thousand people II had become SC
widely known in 1913 that more thar
seventy-five thousand people paid ad.
mission al its gates. and its total at.
tendance was twice that of any other
two round-ups given. Its slogan oi
Let 'er buck" is recognized wherever
the English language is spoken. The
success OF the Pendleton ROUNDUP
has been the incentive TO the fifty-twC
other cities, towns and communitiel
Of the northwest to try their luck a.
the buHiness- Its property holding
are valued at one hundred thousand
dollars and its string Of bucking hors
es alone is worth twenty five thou
sand.
Behind The Scene
And now TO get behind the scene
and discover this secret. While there
are a thousand and more petty LITTLE
details and things going 10 make VI
the success Of the Roundup this ar.
;icle, viii deal only with the few mos
important ones. First, then. you mus
have bucling horses. Not the ordi
nary bucking horses who will hop
skip-and- jump all over forty acr.
field. but the outlaw who will throw
his rider in less than thirty secondl
or not at all Horses Of this clas,
are very. very scarce and they easily
bring one thousand dollars in th'
roundup market There Is not
hucking horse In the entire northweE
with any sort OF good buck in hin
but has been seen and worked out b.
the livestock director Of the Pendletof
Roundup or one Of his wranglers
the same being termed scouts in IN,
baseball world In the livestock di
rcctors card index Is listed ever
horse IN the bucking business. th'
Kind of a buoker he IN. the number o.
rides, the number Of riders thrown
and the kind and class Of rider up
For instance. take the famous Angel
horse. He Is an outlaw pure ant
simple. He was caught up with
bunch IN the Izee country He threw