“In Cowboy Land,” by Theodore Roosevelt with pictures by Frederick Remington, is a piece of literature published in The Century Magazine. President Roosevelt starts out discussing how men hold the law in their own hands out on the frontier. He says even many desperados and bandits have moral sides and change depending on their surroundings. The frontier is open and unsettled and this is tough on men because it is hard to establish roots or a family. Therefore men of the west have a tolerance for misdeeds of youth and do not cast away a fellow frontiersman for his past. Mr. Roosevelt then goes on to tell stories and observations he has had while living at his ranch near the Badlands in the Dakotas’.

The stories from “In Cowboy Land” give great insight to the aspects of life on the frontier. The first story tells a tale of justice and how the justice of the peace can change quickly in a town and sometimes the gun is the law. The man in the story is looking for a stolen horse and he finds the thief’s house, but the man is not there. He decides to find the justice in town only to find he has been shot by the constable. The probate judge is still a live and in town but when he finds the man seeking justice is from out of town, he loses interest and says he can shoot the man if he wishes. The man ends up just taking his horse back and no more life is lost. In the next one Mr. Roosevelt talks about how a friend got a scar on his foot. This story shows the diversity of the characters in the West and how to take care of people when they get out of hand. The third story continues the theme of diversity by discussing the difference in people’s backgrounds geographically and how a “kind of a Dutchman” is different than a Dutchman. Then he writes about animals and the accidents on the frontier. Roosevelt recounts many accidents involving death or broken bones, even by experienced frontiersmen. People falling off horses or encountering storms and losing the trail is commonplace on the frontier. Mr. Roosevelt finishes with tales of encounters with Indians. The first one describes a battle with Indians and how a few white men survived a Sioux raid by limiting ammo and only shooting for definite kills. The last one describes how important West Point officers were to the frontier. Indians would often form battle groups and attack the whites. However, many Americans on the East coast got upset when the Whites attacked Indians and called it brutal killing. This put the officers into an attack only if attacked first position. In one story, a young brave fires on officers and the officers attack back and kill a prominent warrior. This causes the whole Indian Crow war party to disband and the Indians run away to a stream and wash their war paint off immediately.

The stories and observations of Theodore Roosevelt show relations between people, land and animals on the frontier. Women are non-existent in these tales and the gun is law. Although the stories contain many hardships, the admiration of Mr. Roosevelt for the frontier life can be seen.