The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1922-05-26
CHARLIE ROBINSON
RODE EN- STRAIGHT UP
Butte Newspaper Man Tells Early Day
Story of Pioneer Cattle Man,
Now a Large Shipper.
The time, 1892.
The place, Old Fort Benton.

The place, Old Fort Benton.
The occasion, three COW outfits vita
their beef herds assembled for ship
ment to Chicago.
Dramatis P%ersonae. A motley array
of cattlemen, cowpunchers and live
stock commission men, including Char
lie Robinson-the hero Of the play,
then 20 odd years, later of the firm of
Clay-Robinson & Co.
Three big COW outfits, two from
south of the Missouri-the "Shankin'
and the "Basin" and n from the
north, the "Circle" had gathered their
herds, thousands of Montana's big
gest beef steers, at Fort Benton for
shipment to Chicago, the market be-
ing then boiling, as seer from the
Montana cowman's standpoint.
Train load after t~rainload had been
loaded and sent on it's way. The third
day there was a dearth Of cowboys.
The lure of the poker, faro and rou-
lette games, reinforced by John Bar
leycorn, had denuded the visible sup
ply of punchers.
Enters Bill Rouse, captain of the
Shonkin roundup and cowdog of parts.
Addressing the idling crowd in front
of the old Choteau house.
B. R.: as there anybody here who
IAN ride?"
From a recess in the building there
stepped a dapper young man From
the tip of his derby hat down through
his stiff white collar, his long, stiff
starched cuffs to the spats which en-
cased his patent leather shoes, he be-
spoke the dude, every inch of him.
Il car ride" said he.
The roar of laughter that went up
from the cowpunchers never faxed
him-not for a minute. A blaze-faced,
sorrel cayuse was led out and while
the boys rolled their Durhams and set
themselves for a circus, the lad with
the derby stepped off the board side
walk into the mud, grabbed the reins
and the headstall of the horse and
swung into the saddle.
Hardly had he lit behind the horn
than the broncho bolted into action.
With his nose between his front feet
and his back arched like an angry cat
he started up the main street of old
Fort Benton, which means between the
levee and the town.
Along the three blocks which then
constituted the burg, he bucked the
entire route. The lad with the derby
hat sat straight up, white-faced and
firm. AS he reached the old Grand
Union hotel, he deity neck-reined the
horse around and over the same mud
dy route the cayuse maintained his
rocky gait. AS the lad reached the
center of the throng, now cheering
and throwing hats in the air in wild
enthusiasm, he stopped and swung
out Of the saddle.
81 guess you can ride, kid" said
Rouse. whats your name?"
"My names Robinson" said Charlie.
81 am from Chicago now, but l was
raised on the 3-V ranch on the Little
Missouri in Montana and I'm ready to
go to work."
The gray-haired veteran, who ac-
knowledged the truth of the story,
as told by a Butte newspaper man,
then working on the Shonkin roundup
for the old S-V outfit, and who saw
yesterday sat in a front row in the
the stunt, is Charlie Robinson, who
Broadway theatre and said of his old
time partner, John Clay, with whom
he was the largest shipper Of live
stock in the world: The old man still
hits the ball. In all the years I have
known him. he never deviated from
the Geld facts and what he says about
the future of the livestock game in
Montana may be taken as the belief
of n who knows that game from
soda to hook and whose word has al
ways been as good as his bond"