"TV COWBOYS ARE PHONY

That's what this pioneer woman, who lived in Canada’: not—so-wild wesfr l"'5 9° SUY 950"‘ “'19

gIln-slinging hnmbres on the tiny screen. She reveals what they were really

like and for the first time explains why cowboy songs are traditionally so melancholy

 

Early couztzays worked hard tending oottle, someh

ACK in the early 30's when Tom Lynch. one or the best-known
early drovers oi the west, was trailing a iirst big herd oi cattle,

3,000 head, lrom south or the border to the Bar U ranch, so
miles to the southwest ol calgary, AlIa., he hired two extra cowboys
at Fort ncheod to help him. when they reached iourne ‘s end there
was no turuier need or tnue exua hands. so Fred timson, then
manager oi the Bar U. looked around In! some work which would
justily his keeping them.

“Go down to the brush and cut out some poles." he told one ol
the newcomers.

“What horse will l take?"

"Horse? You don't need a horse to cut poles." protested
Stimson.

“Well," declared the cowboy ilatly. “II it’; a job 1 can't do on
horseback 1 won‘! do it at all." And that was considered quite a
reasonable attitude to take in those days.

Just a lew years ago Bill Livingstone, a cowpuncher whose
tiietime had been spent working on ranches in southern Alberta.
surveyed modern ranching. He saw nothing of cheer lor the cowboy
iii the suture, and gloomiiy concluded, “It's got so now that all the
riding a person has to do, he can do better atoot." so, with this harsh
commentary, he caught up his horse and vanished lroni the range into
the mountains to soothe his outraged soul with prospecting.

These two incidents indimte the decline or the cowboy iron-i the
status or skiued speciahst, as I knew him, to that of general practitioner
today. Time was when he lived his hie literally in the saddle.

resorted to their fists but
didn't live by the gun. Here o gwup does some lmmdirig on Alberta much in me.

 

by HUGHENA McCORQUODALE

   

In a typical rv western, hero
out uzith villain Clark wiuoirns along o deserted srrr

television, are loath to relinquish that cherished picture or the v-ester
cowboy on his taitbtul paint pony, topping a ridge, silhouetted
solitary eminence against a western sky or dashing i~ooti'n'. hooL'.:'
down the ooulee. hut it is several deades since a picture had much
likenes m reality. r .

Today, it you are looking tor a cowboy at work. you will like
find him busy iencing. hauling hay, running a mower, tnclar-plow:
welding machinery, working summer-lallow—slmost anything It
riding. There are about two months during the spring mlving period
when he is pretty constanuy in the saddle. but tor the rest or the time.
aside troin such emergencies as blimrds. his riding duties a-e
intermittent and rarely extend beyond a lew days. it is unlikely in:
he even owns or aims in own a pony or his own, but he does usua
have a jalopy or mail truck to take him around—or he may eve.
own a car better than his employers,

Today’: experienced cowboy is undoubtedly more versatile this
his predecessor. He has to be a combination el rancher-larmer
mcchanic to meet modei-ii requirements. He would be classilied more
properly as a ranch hand.

Al the same time, the cowboys seen by children on telerrsio.-.
today bear little resemblance to those uf the old Canadian west. roe
two TV cowboy shows 1 like best are linuihide and Wagon Tram wh
are quite believable because they ,depict working cowhan
otherwise, what with lighting hostile lndians or incomin-
homesteadeis; shooting each other irombehind rocks or in gunplz) is
somesaleon,.w. eowboysseeirtto have no time atall to pursue Lhe:

  

  
  

 

 

disliiounttrig to eat and sleep or to give first-aid to some criuel:.ia_—~v~Hz.l«t13de—of»Iending cattle. — H

u-ouhle. Fouowers or western lore, nourished, of cnursfli by movies and

By contrast to all this violence, the much settlement 0! waster:

no siarsweeuy IEAGAZINE, mrril 2:. me]
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