Glacier County chief., 1939-03-03
Early-Day bad" Cowboys Were
Greatly i'm Minority i'm Montana
By mon TANA LOU GRILL

A cowboy, who boarded the
Northern Pacific railway passen-
ger train No. a, on Sunday, Oct.
p, 1887, shortly thereafter because
of some little excitement, found
himself little later in Jail. 1t was
rather a pleasant day in late Oc-
tober. Winter had not come down
with any degree of force. The pre-
viouS winter season had been
marked by one of the most severe
in the history of the range.
Looking forward into the coach this
cowboy, whose name is not given in
the account of the affair, noticed it
was practically empty. However, there
was one passenger, but he was slumped
IN his seat and was not Immediately
discernible. A quiet journey was in
prospect for this cowboy as he selected
seat. He "nudged" himself into a
comfortable position
The environment in which this range
/. rider found himself was quite in con-
traSt to an incident which occurred
that same Sunday evening in FORSYTH.
More than little excitement" oc-
CURED in this frontier village at the
time when a number of COWBOYS from
the Porcupine and upper reaches of
the Big Dry came in and made their
temporary headquarters at the saloon
OF Nels Gunderson.
There was no observation of cere-
monial greetings other than following
out the ritual which led the group
OF riders to the bar. Imbibing rather
freely as the treats made their
rounds" the cowboys soon began to
feel the exhiliration that follows when
sobriety takes its departure through
the front door.
This exhilaratien was translated into
game. At the proper stage it was
characterized by some target practice
which in this case was multiplied three
fold when walls, ceiling and floor were
soon bored full of holes. When the fun
was over the cowboys took their de-
parture. While their antics attracted
a large number of persons, none of
the offending" cowboys were arrested
by the Forsyth authorities.
Saloon Keeper Fired
However, after the cowboys were out
of sight and hearing, the constable
went into action, arrested the saloon
the court of Justice of the Peace Nc
Hugh where the accused man paid
fine of $50.
The boys who had enjoyed their
Sunday afternoons fun in a FORSYTH
saloon were not as bad as the cowboy
who was riding that evening in the
smoking car of a Northern Pacific
passenger train pretended to be.
'Howdy, pard,' said the other pas
senger by the name of James, as he
rose from his seat and approached
the one occupied by this range rider.
Kinda lonesome, isn't it?"
It's never lonesome for me when I
have this along"
Suiting the gesture to his words, the
cowboy whipped out big Colt revolver.
When I aim to take a ride on a
train this is the only kind of a friend
I want"
1t became quite apparent to James
that this particular cowboy did not
crave company to reduce the element
of lonesomeness. Tom Laughlin, the
conductor; came in at this juncture and
relieved the tension.
Tickets, pleased"
Il amt got none, and Furthermore,
don't need none" snapped back the
cowboy, displaying his weapon and in
dicating thereby that he had the back
ing" which would sustain him in his
refusal to show a ticket
The conductor bravely contradicted
the idea that the cowboy could ride
on his train without a ticket He gave
no indication that he harbored any
fear OF the gun which the passenger
fondled with lavish gestures that it
was his friend even when company was
present to dispel the sense of lone
SomeneSS.
AS the cowboy had boarded the train
at way station, it was now pulling
into Billings. Without further ado,
Conductor Laughlin took charge of the