The cowboy must not be confounded with the cattle baron.  Ten or twelve years ago, when a great deal of money was made out of raising cattle, there was an invasion of the prairie States by men who knew nothing whatever about cattle raising, but who had made up their minds to secure a fortune by raising steers.  They took with them as inconsistent ideas as did the youth in search of adventure.  Often they carried large sums of money, which they invested very lavishly in business, and they also took with them ridiculously fine clothes, patent leather boots, velveteen jackets, and other evidences of luxury, which made them very unpopular and very ridiculous in their new homes.  Nine-tenths of these called themselves “cattle barons,” and about the same proportion obtained a great deal of experience but very little money, while trying to revolutionize the cattle business.

It is not necessary to own cattle at all to be a cowboy, although many members of this interesting profession own a few beasts of their own and are allowed to have them graze with the other stock on the ranch.  Generally speaking, the term used to be applied to all those who were engaged in handling the cattle, and in getting them together on the occasion of the annual round-ups.  The old-time cowboy did not have a very high reputation, nor was he always looked upon quite as leniently as his surroundings demanded.  About twenty years ago, a well-known cattleman wrote the following description of the cowboy and the life he led: 

“If any one imagines that the life of a cowboy or ranchman is one of ease and luxury, or his diet a feast of fat things, a brief trial will dispel the illusion, as is mist by the sunshine.  True, his life is one of more or less excitement or adventures, and much of it is spent in the saddle, yet it is a hard life, and his daily fare will never give the gout.  Corn bread, mast-fed bacon, and coffee, constitute nine-tenths of their diet; occasionally they have fresh beef, and less often they have vegetables of any description.  They do their own cooking in the rudest and fewest possible vessels, often not having a single plate or knife and fork, other than their pocket knife, but gather around the camp-kettle in true Indian style, and with a piece of bread in one hand, proceed to fish up a piece of ‘sow belly,’ and dine sumptuously, not forgetting to stow away one or more quarts of the strongest coffee imaginable, without sugar or cream.  Indeed, you would hesitate, if judging it from appearance, whether to call it coffee or ink.  Of all the vegetables, onions and potatoes are the most desired and the oftenest used, when anything more than the ‘old regulation’ is had.  Instead of an oven, fireplace or cooking stove, a rude hole is dug in the ground and a fire made therein, and the coffee pot, the camp kettle and the skillet are his only culinary articles used.