An incident may serve to illustrate how suddenly Eastern people change their opinions of cowboys on close acquaintance. I was going west a few years since on the Northern Pacific Railroad, and stepping off the train at Dickinson, Dak., met Howard Eaton, an old-time friend and fellow hunter, a typical cowboy, who has charge of a ranch and a large herd of cattle in the "Bad Lands" on the Little Missouri river. He was dressed in the regulation costume of the craft--canvas pants and jacket, leather _chaparejos_, blue flannel shirt, and broad-brimmed white felt hat. His loins were girt about with a well-filled cartridge-belt, from which hung the six-shooter, which may almost be termed a badge of the order. Large Mexican spurs rattled at his heels as he walked. He had ridden thirty-five miles under the spur, arriving at the station just in time to catch the train, and having no time to change his apparel, even if he had wished to do so. He was going some distance on the same train, and I invited him into the sleeper. As he entered and walked down the aisle the passengers became suddenly alarmed at the apparition--imagining that the train had been corraled by a party of the terrible cowboys of whom they had heard such blood-curdling tales, and that this was a committee of one sent in to order them to throw up their hands. They looked anxiously and timidly from the windows for the rest of the gang and listened for the popping of revolvers, but when I conducted him to our section and introduced him to my wife they began to feel easier. He remarked casually that he was hungry. We had a well-filled lunch-basket with us, and, ordering a table placed in position, my wife hastily spread its contents before him. He ate as only a cowboy can eat, especially after having lately ridden thirty-five miles in three hours. Our fellow passengers became interested spectators, and after our friend had finished his repast we introduced him to several of them. They were agreeably surprised to discover in conversation his polished manners, his fluent and well-chosen language. His handsome though sunburned face, and his kind, genial nature revealed the fact that his rough garb encased the form of an educated and cultured gentleman; and before we had been an hour together they had learned to respect and admire the wild, picturesque character whom at first they had feared.