The Cattleman’s Pages of History T


HE CATTLEMAN MAGAZINE IS ENTERING OUR SECOND CENTURY. DUE TO THE INTEREST OUR READ- ers have expressed, we are continuing to look back at the covers and editorial coverage of the cattle business of the Southwest through the years.


Our historic cover this month comes from September 1946. The quoted


material is excerpted from the “Of Things That Concern Cattle Raisers” column in that issue.


“The occurrence portrayed on our cover this month was a common


one around the cow outfi ts of fi fty years ago. The artist, Charles M. Russell, whose paintings are considered among the most authentic in existence, caught one of these at its best. “The picture will serve to revive memories of cool early mornings,


sage brush smoke, alkali dust, hot coffee, sow belly, and ‘ranicky’ horses in the memories of hundreds of fellows who followed Texas cattle either by trail or rail into Montana and the Northwest and stayed for a time to work on the steer ranches where they were ini- tiated into the use of the centerfi re cinch and the sixty foot lariat rope with its dallys and turns. In trying to master the latter, not a few Texans left thumbs and fi ngers up there and came back home to the Southwest where cowboys ‘tied fast’ and the weather was ‘Chinook’ the year round. “In every remuda there are a few horses that have to be bro-


ken each time they are ridden, meaning that they are inclined to ‘pitch’ a little, rear up and fall back, or something equally foolish


The Cattleman September 1946


if they are cinched too tight and jumped off too quick without being led around a bit before the rider mounts. Evidently the boy in the picture had one of these mounts in his string and had fi nished his breakfast early in order to give his mount a workout on foot until he had gotten ‘the watermelon out from under his saddle,’ meaning the hump that an ornery horse carries there when fi rst saddled. Sometimes the boss or boys will yell out to a timid fellow who is leading his horse around, ‘You’re gonna’ walk that horse plumb down before you get on.’ It is equally possible that the horse fooled the old boy in the picture by straightening out the hump in his back and al- lowing him to recinch the saddle which emboldened him until he ‘cheeked him’ and climbed up into ‘his big middle’; whereupon the horse ‘broke in two’ and in his blind rage, oblivious to everything except the matter at hand, that of ‘slipping his pack,’ pitched square into the cook’s sacred realm of pots, pans, skillets, and potracks to the consternation of that individual and any of the hands squatted on their heels enjoy- ing a fi nal cup of coffee before the day’s work began. Had the picture been one of a series, the cook would next have been shown coming out of his Pillsbury’s Best apron fl ourishing his butcher knife. It is interesting to note that this horse has almost ac- complished his purpose — that of ‘slipping his pack.’”


Editor’s note: Every month on this page, we have reprinted the text as it appeared in that issue, without any additions or corrections.


130 The Cattleman September 2015 thecattlemanmagazine.com


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