Language of a Cowboy
In January 1976, George Turner, a staff writer for the Amarillo Globe-News, published an article, "Cowboys of the Panhandle Used Colorful Language".
The article begins with a description of the grasslands of the High Plains, the gigantic bison herds, the Indians and sheep herders.
The grassland would become the domain of cattle, rather than sheep. It began when ex-Army scout, Col. Charles A. Goodnight moved his 1,800 Durham cattle into the Texas Panhandle from the Arkansas River country of Colorado in 1875. The cowboys who worked for Goodnight and the other ranchers who soon followed were a rare breed of men who thrived on hardship and lived for adventure.
The article begins with a description of the grasslands of the High Plains, the gigantic bison herds, the Indians and sheep herders.
The grassland would become the domain of cattle, rather than sheep. It began when ex-Army scout, Col. Charles A. Goodnight moved his 1,800 Durham cattle into the Texas Panhandle from the Arkansas River country of Colorado in 1875. The cowboys who worked for Goodnight and the other ranchers who soon followed were a rare breed of men who thrived on hardship and lived for adventure.
"These men had their work cut out for them. First, they had to herd away the remaining buffalo to make room for the domestic animals."
"There were problems with desperados, such as the infamous Sostenes Archveque, a gunfighter from New Mexico, and the sinister British crook, Goodfellow."
"There was no law to protect the cattlemen, so had to make and enforce their own laws. The nearest sheriff was at Henrietta, 200 miles away, and numerous outlaws were captured by the cowboys and delivered to the Henrietta jail. Goodnight's men hanged one outlaw at the Mulberry division of the JA, near present Claude."
"The picturesque language of movie cowboys is not that spoken by the Panhandle waddies. These men were immigrants from various parts of the country and many were foreigners. It was the Victorian age and the speech of these pioneers was not greatly different from that spoken in England at that time."
"The real slang of the old ranches was as eloquent as the showbiz-underworld lingo commonly heard today. Many cowhands were of Mexican origin and they introduced numerous Spanish expressions into wide use, although these words often became mis-pronounced or anglicized."
"A jail, for example, was a juzgado (jug), and this later became hoosegow. A man who became angry was said to be getting ringy, or to be having a wall-eyed fit. If he went looking for trouble, he was said to on the prod. When celebrating he would be having a high-heeled time, and if liquor was involved, he might tie one on."
"Should this fellow get into trouble, he might find it necessary to light a shuck out of town, pull his freight, high-tail it and run like a Nueces steer. The effort would leave him tuckered out and worn to a frazzle."
"A cowboy might express amazement by saying 'I'll be a suck-egg mule', or if vexed, might wail, 'Outhouse Annie!''
"An unusually small man was no bigger than the little end of nothing, whittled down to a point. A snooty person was independent as a hog on ice. A real con-man could argue a gopher out of a tree and talk a cow out of her calf. Some men were so low down as to have to look up to see a snake's belly. Some were so dumb their brains wouldn't grease a gimlet, uglier than a mud fence staked and ridered with tadpoles, brave enough to tote a bucket of gunpowder through hell, or tough as whang-leather or crazy as a loco calf."
"They were mostly a modest lot, too, with little or no idea that they were the central figures of the most celebrated era in American history."
"There were problems with desperados, such as the infamous Sostenes Archveque, a gunfighter from New Mexico, and the sinister British crook, Goodfellow."
"There was no law to protect the cattlemen, so had to make and enforce their own laws. The nearest sheriff was at Henrietta, 200 miles away, and numerous outlaws were captured by the cowboys and delivered to the Henrietta jail. Goodnight's men hanged one outlaw at the Mulberry division of the JA, near present Claude."
"The picturesque language of movie cowboys is not that spoken by the Panhandle waddies. These men were immigrants from various parts of the country and many were foreigners. It was the Victorian age and the speech of these pioneers was not greatly different from that spoken in England at that time."
"The real slang of the old ranches was as eloquent as the showbiz-underworld lingo commonly heard today. Many cowhands were of Mexican origin and they introduced numerous Spanish expressions into wide use, although these words often became mis-pronounced or anglicized."
"A jail, for example, was a juzgado (jug), and this later became hoosegow. A man who became angry was said to be getting ringy, or to be having a wall-eyed fit. If he went looking for trouble, he was said to on the prod. When celebrating he would be having a high-heeled time, and if liquor was involved, he might tie one on."
"Should this fellow get into trouble, he might find it necessary to light a shuck out of town, pull his freight, high-tail it and run like a Nueces steer. The effort would leave him tuckered out and worn to a frazzle."
"A cowboy might express amazement by saying 'I'll be a suck-egg mule', or if vexed, might wail, 'Outhouse Annie!''
"An unusually small man was no bigger than the little end of nothing, whittled down to a point. A snooty person was independent as a hog on ice. A real con-man could argue a gopher out of a tree and talk a cow out of her calf. Some men were so low down as to have to look up to see a snake's belly. Some were so dumb their brains wouldn't grease a gimlet, uglier than a mud fence staked and ridered with tadpoles, brave enough to tote a bucket of gunpowder through hell, or tough as whang-leather or crazy as a loco calf."
"They were mostly a modest lot, too, with little or no idea that they were the central figures of the most celebrated era in American history."