Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 170, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1919 — COWBOY NOT YET EXTINCT [ARTICLE]

COWBOY NOT YET EXTINCT

May Be Fewer Than Some Years Ago, tout Thia Traveler Tells of Meeting One. wa “You mean to say,* I began, “that there are still real cow —But as smiles were beginning to pass about the platform I desisted, realization beginning to dawn ivhy the barber said that the men we had seen driving cattle back in Kansas would be pleased to have boen called cowpunchers. The trip at once began to assume a new interest, and when the mine barber came back on the platform I eyed him with something of that reserve with which one contemplates a deceitful man. But nothing could penetrate his drawling sang-froid. At a tank station farther along there was opportunity to stretch our legs; opportunity, also, to observe at close range a bronzed, dark-haired cow-puncher who had paused on his mustang to observe the train. The barber approached him confidently. “Neighbor,” he said, "I bought a gun in K. C., Mizoo. What do you think of It?” ' The puncher took the wicked 44, balanced it in the palm of his hand, twirled it around on his forefinger, and then brought it to bear upon a tin can lying in the road about 20 feet away. Bang! The can leaped Into the air, Bang! It rolled five feet farther along. Bang! Again it flew into the air and rolled. Bang! It rolled again. Bang! The can disappeared in the dust. “It’s a good gun,” said the puncher, handing it back, “only it shoots a little high.” ■ - • — -4 > — —— A Ifttle high! Rather a nice critloism, I thought. The barber snapped out the cylinder, reloaded the weapon and passed silently into the background. My impression was that he was avoiding some questions on my part relative to Kansas City bad men; but I may have been wrong. We began to fly through the level ground, perspectives on all sides dotted with peaks upon which clouds rested. Suddenly along the trail appeared an altogether amazing, un-looked-for, aftnost unbelievable spectacle—two Indians jogging along onhorseback wearing moccasins, wide black trousers, red or pink shirts, their black hair secured by scarlet bands about their foreheads. —Scribner’s Magazine.