connection with his surroundings and in relation to his work.
Then we shall see him not as a curiosity but as a product--not as
an eccentric driver of horned cattle but as a man suited to his
times.

Large tracts of that domain where once the cowboy reigned supreme
have been turned into farms by the irrigator's ditch or by the
dry-farmer's plan. The farmer in overalls is in many instances
his own stockman today. On the ranges of Arizona, Wyoming, and
Texas and parts of Nevada we may find the cowboy, it is true,
even today: but he is no longer the Homeric figure that once
dominated the plains. In what we say as to his trade, therefore,
or his fashion in the practice of it, we speak in terms of thirty
or forty years ago, when wire was unknown, when the round-up
still was necessary, and the cowboy's life was indeed that of the
open.

By the costume we may often know the man. The cowboy's costume
was harmonious with its surroundings. It was planned upon lines
of such stern utility as to leave no possible thing which we may
call dispensable. The typical cowboy costume could hardly be said
to contain a coat and waistcoat. The heavy woolen shirt, loose
and open at the neck, was the common wear at all seasons of the
year excepting winter, and one has often seen cowboys in the
winter-time engaged in work about the yard or corral of the ranch
wearing no other cover for the upper part of the body but one or
more of these heavy shirts. If the cowboy wore a coat he would
wear it open and loose as much as possible. If he wore a "vest"
he would wear it slouchily, hanging open or partly unbuttoned
most of the time. There was a reason for this slouchy habit. The