Home › Contents › Cow-Boy Post-Office
Cow-Boy Post-Office
(259) For this work they train their special miles at an easy, stretching gallop (termed "cutting" ponies to a high state of profi- loping) without perhaps a single stop. ciency, and it is wonderful how a good Like their riders, they are used to a free, cutting pony will follow through a herd rough life-and are rarely broken in to a of some hundred and even thousand head steady quiet state, like the ordinary horse of cattle, the particular beast wanted by of the city. All the breaking that an its rider, until it is driven to the outer average broncho gets is to be roped and edge of the herd, there to be lassoed, or saddled and ridden by main force, and "roped," for branding purposes. then, if he doesn't succeed in bucking his Thus a calf is roped by a dexterous rider out of the saddle, he is considered throw of the lasso, and dragged bawl- as broken. (Of course, this does not apply ing to the place where the portable fur- to the special cutting ponies, which, as nace and the "punchers," or branders, are before stated, are trained to a high state in readiness-usually an enclosure built of proficiency.) for the purpose, and termed a corral. As a rule, the "vaqueros," or Mexican Thrown on its side, the hot iron is pressed Cow-boys, are most expert with the rope. for a second against the quivering beast, and leaves the peculiar letter or mark of the owner stamped indelibly upon it.
Skill with the Rope.
There is a saying out West, that a child ought to be born with a lasso in its hand, to make a really first-class roper.
The Cow-boy lives a life far removed This over, the animal is released to from that of his ordinary civilized fellowjoin a now rapidly forming herd of newly- creatures-completely cut off from the branded animals. As is natural, the general rush of the nineteenth century, calves follow their mothers, and so are save for his flying holiday visits to the known to belong to whatever brand is on small outlying frontier towns. Singular Post-Office. the mother cow; but owing to hard weather and other causes, many cows die It will be seen from the engraving that during the winter, so that at every "round- his method of posting his letters is in up" a good many young, unbranded bovine itself somewhat primitive, his pillar-box orphans are found. These are counted up, often consisting of nothing but a bakingand, as a rule, portioned out to each ranch- powder or soap box fixed on a stake driven owner in proportion to the number of in the ground at the side of some stage cattle he has on hand. All this is no road. As the stage-coach passes, the child's play, but an occupation requiring expressman, or guard empties this roughnerve, self-reliance, and above all, good and-ready pillar-box, and carries its conhorsemanship and skill with the rope. tents on to "town," to deposit them in case of "pay at the other end."
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to state that such small trinkets as diamond rings, lace handkerchiefs, etc., are not entrusted to The ponies are of a thin wiry build- the post-office proper. As a rule, it is a typical horses of the Far West. In general appearance they are very unlike the fiery untamed steeds of the yellow-backed novelettes, being in fact rather ugly than otherwise; but they are, to use a Western this form of postage; partly, I fear, on phrase, "full up with grit," and stand account of the strong probability of such hard riding well. These thin wiry "bron- articles never reaching their destination chos" will carry a man twenty or thirty -as these boxes, to say the least, are