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Since pencils were invented and used way out west and as early as the Civil War, why didn’t the cowboys write down the “code of the west?” Maybe they had the pencils but their paper got wet or they had to use the paper to start a campfire ‘cause it was time for a coffee break, or maybe they had to use the paper for something else. Anyway the code never was written down, just memorized.
I was always told the best way to start a campfire is to rub two sticks together but make sure one of the sticks is a match, but back to the topic at hand.
My good friend Curly brought to my attention something very important that I wasn’t aware of and I over-looked. Duh!
What did I think all those cowboys and vaqueros wrote all their cattle tallies with? I never thought of that! They had to write them with something!
Can you imagine what they would use if the pencil were not invented?
They could write’em on a shovel with a piece of charcoal like Abe Lincoln. That would work until someone got shot and they needed the shovel to dig a hole.
What about pen and ink? Can you imagine using a quill pen and bottled ink crossing the desert?
“Who drank all our ink?”
“Not me!” said Lefty, flashing a quick grin with his blue teeth.
Or, “Open another bottle of ink, this one’s dried up!”
Can you imagine using a crayon in the desert?
“Look! It's Blue Fingers McCoy comin’ in with his cattle!”
Would they use a cowboy abacus? The magic marker won’t come out until 1958 and Sharpies won’t come out until 1964!
Maybe they could use knots tied in a piece of rawhide. This requires further research. But…….
Did you know that after the Civil War, most cattlemen didn’t actually count the number of cattle carrying their brand in a roundup. Instead, they figured their herd size and their potential wealth by counting five head for every calf branded. The man selected to count the calves as they were being branded was called a “tally hand” or “tally man”. His selection was especially important when several ranchers would combine or pool their forces to hold a roundup on the open range. The “tally hand” was chosen because of his honesty and clerical ability. He was usually appointed by the elected roundup captain. And since the tally man was in the position to falsify the count, his selection was of considerable importance to the participating cattlemen.
That’s what David Dary said in his book entitled Cowboy Culture, A Saga of Five Centuries. He also mentioned that an average lariat throw for a Spanish vaquero was twenty-five feet and that it was possible to throw a lariat on target at sixty feet and that some vaquero reatas measured out to as much as one hundred and ten feet! That is one long rope! They call that "las reatas largas".
But the lariat is for another post and we’re talkin’ pencils here and I know that cowboys kept them in their saddle bags because Gus McCrea and Woodrow Call put a sign on an hombre they hung in the movie "Lonesome Dove" and they couldn’t have done it if they didn’t have a pencil with’em. And some paper. And some horse shoe nails.
See you next time,
Slow Mo Dern