Jack the Young Cowboy: An Eastern Boy's Experiance on a Western Round-up

by George Bird Grinnell

  Produced by David Edwards, Haragos Pál and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced with scans from the Spectator Project,Rutgers University.)

  JACK THE YOUNG COWBOY

  _By the same Author_

  JACK THE YOUNG COWBOY JACK THE YOUNG TRAPPER JACK THE YOUNG CANOEMAN JACK THE YOUNG EXPLORER JACK IN THE ROCKIES JACK AMONG THE INDIANS JACK THE YOUNG RANCHMAN PAWNEE HERO STORIES AND FOLK TALES BLACKFOOT LODGE TALES THE STORY OF THE INDIAN THE INDIANS OF TO-DAY THE PUNISHMENT OF THE STINGY AMERICAN DUCK SHOOTING AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS

  COWBOY STARTING FOR THE ROUND-UP CAMP. _Photo by the Morris Art Studio, Chinook, Mont._]

  JACK THE YOUNG COWBOY

  _An Eastern Boy's Experience on a Western Round-up_

  BY GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL

  _WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_

 

  NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS

  _Copyright, 1913, by_ FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

  _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_

  Ninth Printing, August 12, 1935

  _Printed in the United States of America_

  INTRODUCTION

  Jack's cowboy life began just as a great change was sweeping over thecattle range. Cattle had first been brought into the country only a fewyears before--old-fashioned long-horns driven up over the trail fromTexas.

  In those days the people in the West were not many. Towns were small,farms almost unknown, wagon roads few. Except about the pastures of thelarger ranches, there were no fences. Over most of the land the cowboyroamed alone.

  His seemed a life of romance. Free as the birds, he wandered over thewide range, going when and where he pleased. But this romance was onlyapparent. No man worked harder than he, or for less reward. His toilfuldays and short broken nights; his small pay and his poor food wererecorded in the songs that he sang as he rode about the cattle. Thiswas in the early days of the cattle industry.

  A little later, on the plains came a change from pioneer conditions tothose approaching luxury.

  The earlier cattlemen in the North--those who ranged their stock on thePlatte and the various forks of the Loup River--made great profits. Yetas time went on they saw competition constantly growing sharper andranges being overstocked. As the news of their profits drifted eastwardmany young men, allured by the romance of the cowboy's life, andignorant of its actual conditions, came into the cattle country. Thesebelieved that success with cattle was to be attained by riding aboutand watching the cattle increase and grow, and shipping them to marketwhen they had grown. They were glad to be interested in a business atonce so agreeable and so profitable; and many a one exchanged his moneyfor a herd, a brand and some log buildings, and rode over the rangeawaiting the advent of his riches. Many of the early cattlemen soldtheir herds to the newcomers, who, somewhat later, discovered that withthe cattle they had bought also much experience.

  These changes were in operation when Jack entered on his cowboy life.