is appearance spring from the practical, but in the
wearing of them and the using of them he shows again that fine
disregard for the way other people do it or think it.

Now in civilization you and I entertain a double respect for firearms
and the law. Firearms are dangerous, and it is against the law to use
them promiscuously. If we shoot them off in unexpected places, we
first of all alarm unduly our families and neighbors, and in due course
attract the notice of the police. By the time we are grown up we look
on shooting a revolver as something to be accomplished after an
especial trip for the purpose.

But to the cowboy shooting a gun is merely what lighting a match would
be to us. We take reasonable care not to scratch that match on the
wall nor to throw it where it will do harm. Likewise the cowboy takes
reasonable care that his bullets do not land in some one's anatomy nor
in too expensive bric-a-brac. Otherwise any time or place will do.

The picture comes to me of a bunk-house on an Arizona range. The time
was evening. A half-dozen cowboys were sprawled out on the beds
smoking, and three more were playing poker with the Chinese cook. A
misguided rat darted out from under one of the beds and made for the
empty fireplace. He finished his journey in smoke. Then the four who
had shot slipped their guns back into their holsters and resumed their
cigarettes and drawling low-toned conversation.

On another occasion I stopped for noon at the Circle I ranch. While
waiting for dinner, I lay on my back in the bunk-room and counted three
hundred and sixty-two bullet-holes in the ceiling. They came to be
there because the festive cowboys used to while away the time while
lying as I was lying, waiting for supper, in shooting the flies that
crawled about the plaster.

This beautiful familiarity with the pistol as a parlor toy accounts in
great part for a cowboy's propensity to "shoot up the town" and his
indignation when arrested therefor.

The average cowboy is only a fair target-shot with the revolver. But
he is chain lightning at getting his gun off in a hurry. There are
exceptions to this, however, especially among the older men. Some can
handle the Colts 45 and its heavy recoil with almost uncanny accuracy.
I have seen individuals who could from their saddles nip lizards
darting across the road; and one who was able to perforate twice before
it hit the ground a tomato-can tossed into the air. The cow