and made partially to
disappear. In the good old days of the Jones and Plummer trail there
were no wire fences, and the sullen farmer had not yet arrived. Your
cowboy at that time was a person of thrill and consequence. He wore
a broad-brimmed Stetson hat, and all about it a rattlesnake skin by
way of band, retaining head and rattles. This was to be potent
against headaches--a malady, by the way, which swept down no cowboy
save in hours emergent of a spree. In such case the snake cure
didn't cure. The hat was retained in defiance of winds, by a
leathern cord caught about the back of the head, not under the chin.
This cord was beautiful with a garniture of three or four perforated
poker chips, red, yellow, and blue.

There are sundry angles of costume where the dandyism of a cowboy of
spirit and conceit may acquit itself; these are hatband, spurs,
saddle, and leggins. I've seen hatbands made of braided gold and
silver filigree; they were from Santa Fe, and always in the form of a
rattlesnake, with rubies or emeralds or diamonds for eyes. Such
gauds would cost from four hundred to two thousand dollars. Also,
I've encountered a saddle which depleted its proud owner a round
twenty-five hundred dollars. It was of finest Spanish leather,
stamped and spattered with gold bosses. There was gold-capping on
the saddle horn, and again on the circle of the cantle. It was a
dream of a saddle, made at Paso del Norte; and the owner had it
cinched upon a bronco dear at twenty dollars. One couldn't have sold
the pony for a stack of white chips in any faro game of that
neighbourhood (Las Vegas) and they were all crooked games at that.

Your cowboy dandy frequently wears wrought steel spurs, inlaid with
silver and gold; price, anything you please. If he flourish a true
Brummel of the plains his leggins will be fronted from instep to belt
with the thick pelt, hair outside, of a Newfoundland dog. These
"chapps," are meant to protect the cowboy from rain and cold, as well
as plum bushes, wire fences and other obstacles inimical, and against
which he may lunge while riding headlong in the dark. The hair of
the Newfoundland, thick and long and laid the right way, defies the
rains; and your cowboy loathes water.

Save in those four cardinals of vanity enumerated, your cowboy wears
nothing from weakness; the rest of his outfit is legitimate. The
long sharp heels of his boots are there to dig into the ground and
hold fast to