pioneer viking of the West. Quick to resent
an insult real or fancied, inflamed by unaccustomed drink, the ready
pistol always at his side, the tricks of the professional gambler to
provoke his sense of fair play, and finally his own wild recklessness
to urge him on,--all these combined forces sometimes brought him into
tragic conflict with another spirit equally heedless and daring. Not
nearly so often, however, as one might suppose, did he die with his
boots on. Many of the most wealthy and respected citizens now living
in the border states served as cowboys before settling down to quiet
domesticity.

A cow-camp in the seventies generally contained several types of
men. It was not unusual to find a negro who, because of his ability to
handle wild horses or because of his skill with a lasso, had been
promoted from the chuck-wagon to a place in the ranks of the cowboys.
Another familiar figure was the adventurous younger son of some
British family, through whom perhaps became current the English
ballads found in the West. Furthermore, so considerable was the number
of men who had fled from the States because of grave imprudence or
crime, it was bad form to inquire too closely about a person's real
name or where he came from. Most cowboys, however, were bold young
spirits who emigrated to the West for the same reason that their
ancestors had come across the seas. They loved roving; they loved
freedom; they were pioneers by instinct; an impulse set their faces
from the East, put the tang for roaming in their veins, and sent them
ever, ever westward.

That the cowboy was brave has come to be axiomatic. If his life of
isolation made him taciturn, it at the same time created a spirit of
hospitality, primitive and hearty as that found in the mead-halls of
Beowulf. He faced the wind and the rain, the snow of winter, the
fearful dust-storms of alkali desert wastes, with the same uncomplaining
quiet. Not all his work was on the ranch and the trail. To the cowboy,
more than to the goldseekers, more than to Uncle Sam's soldiers, is
due the conquest of the West. Along his winding cattle trails the
Forty-Niners found their way to California. The cowboy has fought
back the Indians ever since ranching became a business and as long as
Indians remained to be fought. He played his part in winning the great
slice of territory that the United States took away from Mexico. He
has always been on the skirmish line of civilization. Restless,