SubscribeIt may be the atmosphere and it may be the beer or whisky, but even a short residence here has a wonderful moderating effect on the wildest and most exuberant spirits. A man from the plains drops into the city to-day attired in the most approved cowboy fashion, with the butts of two silver mounted revolvers appearing above the band of his trousers. Here it might be proper to state that few gentlemen west of the Mississippi carry a revolver in the hip pocket. The fashion is obsolete. Necessity renders it so. It is considered unwise to carry anything in the hip pocket in this section, for a motion in that direction is apt to be considered poor taste, and to result in the insertion in the person who makes it of a piece of lead. The lead will range in calibre from No. 32 to No. 45, generally No. 45, because people who carry "guns" have an apparent weakness for large bores. After a week's residence the cowboy will cut several inches off the rim of his slouch hat and in various other ways will demonstrate that he feels the influence of civilization. In a month's time he will pass in a crowd for a native, though if he be a celebrated character in his own country his reputation may stick to him and the stranger may be regaled with the choicest incidents in his earlier career. Men who have killed their man are not scarce here, but they cannot be distinguished at a glance. They are generally mild-mannered, when not in liquor, and their language, if tinged with a wild Western flavor, is free from profanity except on rare occasions; on these they dissipate any doubt that might be entertained of their ability in this direction to discount any man who has been reared in the effete East.
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posted by caddis at 1:04 PM on February 3, 2007