The very nature of his work used to make the cowboy somewhat desperate
in his habits, and apt to be suspicious of newcomers. He was never such
a terrible individual as has been frequently stated in print. His work
confined him to a few frontier States and Territories, and hence he was
a very convenient person to ridicule and decry. The man who met the
average cowboy face to face, generally learned to respect him, and
speedily appreciated the fact that it paid to be at least civil. Writers
who never went within 500 miles of the nearest cattle ranch or cowboy's
home, treated him with less courtesy and described him in all sorts of
terms.

Dime literature, with its yellow covers and sensational pictures of
stage robberies and the like, has always libeled the American cowboy to
a most outrageous extent. As a result of the misapprehensions thus
created, what is known as cowboy or prairie fever is quite a common
disease among youths who are trying to raise a mustache for a first
time. The feats of recklessness, the absolute disregard of
conventionality and the general defiance attributed to the man who herds
cattle on the prairie, seem to create a longing on the part of
sensationally inclined youths, and many of these have cut their teeth
and learned their lesson in a very different manner from what was
expected.

Let us imagine for a moment the experiences of the young man from the
East, who has convinced himself, by careful reasoning and reading, that
nature intended him to shine in the West. It is probable that he came to
this most important conclusion many years before, and it is not unlikely
that his first cowboy enthusiasm was fed by attacks upon the cat, with
the nearest approach he could obtain to a rawhide whip. From this