THE COWBOY’S WIFE.

Shannon News, 12 September 1924, Page 4

THE COWBOY’S WIFE.

“Tlie happiest couple on earth!” Such are the cowboy and his wife, according to “Strawberry Red,” who fives' one of the star turns in the great Rodeo displays which were given at Wembley. And here are the reasons he gave the “Weekly Dispatch” recently:— “The couple never quarrel. She is as much a pal as a wife. She is joint president of the outfit with her husband. She can do anything on the ranch that her man can do. She has more nerve than all the boys put together—and that’s saying something!”

First he sought to correct impressions derived from film pictures. “She does not tear about all day long with a revolver in each hand, yelling sind whooping,’ he said with a smile. But she is none the less picturesque. “She will often be called upon to assist in a round-up, and this means getting the breakfast at 4 a.m. for the boys, and then going with them 30 or 40 miles, and working hard in the saddle for nine or ten hours without a break.

“If she is not on a round-up she works at home on the ranch, combining ordinary domestic -work with training and breaking-in ponies, practising trick riding, and such work as makes her every inch as proficient as her boy. ! “She learns to box and shoot. It is part of her curriculum. She must be prepared to face hard work and privation without flinching. No one hears of the bruises and knocks she gets when she breaks in a pony. “And,” he continued, growing more enthusiastic, “while she can live the rough life she can be as gentle and as womanly as any wife of the West. Most cowgirls have been educated at boarding schools and colleges *in the towns and cities; they speak French and can get along in Indian; many paint, and most are at home with the piano or the violin. “And see her at a dance! No ‘cowgirl’ costume then; oh, no! She likes pretty clothes and fal-re-rals as all girls do, and she knows how to wear them, too. The ranch girl will get her frocks from Paris, and her shoes from the big city stores. She loves jewellery, and, let me tell you, her jewellery is good. "She is a good housewife, too. She handles the money carefully. When you are five hundred miles from a'big town the shopping business isn’t easy, but she knows her job. And, if need be, she gets on the long-distance telephone to a city store.”. Finally, the modern ranch is up-to-date.

“No shacks for us, thank you!” he said. "Telephones, electric light, running water, motor cars, and all the labour-saving devices we can get—we’ve sot them all on the agenda.” ,