WRITTEN IN 1897  by E. Hough ~ Published in 1898 by D. Appleton and Company of New York

I saw a lot of Cowboy movies during the fifties, and many of the scenes I remembered seem to be based on this book.

I found the book in a used bookstore. It is a slice of history about the life of cowboys who worked on cattle drives in the American West between 1860 and 1895.

The 343-page book tells a story of those times.

Here is a quote from page 182:

“The monochrome of winter, the blue-grey of cold desolation, oppressed it all.”

I wondered who would work under those conditions to drive cattle to market.

Here is my guess.

I saw it as a story of young men breaking free from the rules of civilization who chose privation over comfort and embraced the rules of cattle drives.

Nobody would be calling daily meetings and telling them what to do. They knew what needed to be done and did it.

The job had one goal: to bring those Longhorns from Texas to Kansas.

Sitting straight as an arrow in the saddle, they were the boss over the cattle; nobody was a boss over them, except the Trail Boss.

Together as one. Rider and horse. 

Doing an important job. Bringing beef to people living in the East and helping them lead productive lives.

Under the BlueSky, nothing to see but dust and leather. Chowing down with workmates around a campfire, telling stories, and embellishing a few to make them more exciting.

The book can be read online at  “babel.hathitrust.org.”

Here is another quote from page 182:

“The sky is even in its colours, except that now and then there scuds across it a strange and ominous thing,”

The quote reminded me of the song written by Stan Jones in 1948, “Ghost Riders in the Sky” He said that he heard the story in 1926 from an old cowboy when he was 12.

I am certain that the old cowboy had lived during that time and lived it once more when he told Stan his story.

Hear Stan Jones sing his song on Youtube