Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1884 — ROUGH GALLANTRY. [ARTICLE]

ROUGH GALLANTRY.

The Miner and Cowboj’* Respect for the Gentler Bex. In the early days of California the men who gathered in the mining camps in the gulches or among the mountains seldom saw a woman’s face. They grew careless of their own appearance; left hair as well as beard to grow—hair which never saw brush nor comb —till they oame to look like wild men of the woods; yet beneath the unkempt locks, and tinder the shaggy breast and tattered garments, there lay in the heart of every man a memory of some farm-house far away, and of a mother or sister for whose dear sake he reverenced the very form of woman as sacred. Her approach commanded every token of respect. Said one who had lived much among the miners: “If they were driving a team on a dusty road, and met a woman, riding the other way, they would turn to the right or left to give her the side of the road where the dust would not blow upon her." And if perchance at long intervals there appeared in the camp the face of a woman, every mother's son of them stood one side on the mountain trail to let her pass, and pulled off his miner’s cap, and not seldom the tears stole into his eyes at thought of the old folks at home; of the mother who sat in the chimney-corner, and who, as the winds blew, and the rain fell, peered out into the darkness, and sighed as she asked, “Where is my wandering boy to-night ?” It would not have been safe for any one to whisper a disrespectful word as that face passed by. If some vulgar fellow ventured a coarse remark, the eyes of the others dashed, but they bit their lips and were silent till the woman was out of sight, and then,, said our informant, “that fellow had got to take a good licking!” It seemed as if every miner felt that his own mother or sister was insulted by a sneer at one of her sex, and they answered the insult with heavy blows till the coward was kicked and cuffed out of camp. When 1 hear such stories as this, mv heart relents towards a class of which I had judged hastily and unjustly. And for the same reason that I would stand up for the miners, I would say a good word for the cowboys. We need not be frightened by a name. They are not worse than other men. Why should they be ? They pursue an honorable occupation, one held in esteem among every rural and pastoral people since the time of Abraham. The sons of Jacob themselves, as well as the men who attended their father’s flocks and herds, were cowboys. In our new States and Territories the increasing influences 4>f civilization will work great changes in the character of the population. Time will soften their roughness, and give them more polished manners; but it is to be hoped that it will not abate their courage or their chivalry; for these are elements of a noble manhood, and may in the future contribute to form the mighty people that are to constitute and govern our Western and Southern commonwealths.—New York Mail and Express.