Charles A. Siringo's dramatic and action-packed memoirs about life in the old American West are published here in full. As well as for his time as a lawman, Siringo was famous for epitomizing the spirit of adventure and free roaming that characterized North America during the 19th century. Born and raised on the Western frontier, it was through his years in the West that Siringo learned the rural life of a cowboy. By the time he published this autobiography in 1885 at the age of thirty, Siringo was an ambitious and confident fellow - ""money, and lots of it,"" he declares, is the prime reason he wrote his memoirs. The book begins with Charles Siringo's account of his early life, as the son of immigrants; his father an Italian and his mother Irish. We follow his early life in and around Dodge City, learning the ways of the cattle hand and witnessing a few remarkable sights along the way. Eventually, Siringo sets up shop as a merchant, where he found the time to author this memoir.

Charles A. Siringo's dramatic and action-packed memoirs about life in the old American West are published here in full. As well as for his time as a lawman, Siringo was famous for epitomizing the spirit of adventure and free roaming that characterized North America during the 19th century. Born and raised on the Western frontier, it was through his years in the West that Siringo learned the rural life of a cowboy. By the time he published this autobiography in 1885 at the age of thirty, Siringo was an ambitious and confident fellow - ""money, and lots of it,"" he declares, is the prime reason he wrote his memoirs. The book begins with Charles Siringo's account of his early life, as the son of immigrants; his father an Italian and his mother Irish. We follow his early life in and around Dodge City, learning the ways of the cattle hand and witnessing a few remarkable sights along the way. Eventually, Siringo sets up shop as a merchant, where he found the time to author this memoir.

This is a new release of the original 1931 edition.

A TEXAS COWBOY CONTENTS J M ., . INTRODUCTION by J. Frank Dobie V j x BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIRINGO S WRITINGS xxxvii AUTHOR S PREFACE 3 1. My Boyhood Days 7 2. My Introduction to the Late War 11 3. My First Lesson In Cow Punching 18 4. My Second Experience in St. Louis 26 5. A New Experience 32 6. Adopted and Sent to School 37 7. Back at Last to the Lone Star State 41 8. Learning To Rope Wild Steers 45 9. Owning My First Cattle 51 10. A Start up the Ghisholm Trail 58 1 1 . Buys a Boat and Becomes a Sailor 63 12. Back to My Favorite Occupation, That of a Wild and Woolly Cow Boy 69 13. Mother and I Meet at Last 74 14. On a Tare in Wichita, Kansas 80 15. A Lonely Trip down the Cimeron 88 16. My First Experience Roping a Buffalo 94 17. An Exciting Trip after Thieves 99 18. Seven Weeks among Indians 103 19. A Lonely Ride of Eleven Hundred Miles 111 20. Another Start up the Chisholm Trail 117 21. A Trip Which Terminated in the Capture of quot Billy the Kid quot 124 22. Billy the Kid s Capture 1 36 AUG 171950 Grande On a Mule 141 24. Wsty ftjul by Unknown Parties 146 25. LbftVoft the Staked Plains 151 26. A Trip down the Reo Pecos 160 27. A True Sketch of quot Billy the Kid s quot Life 168 28. Wrestling With a Dose of Small Pox on the Llano Esticado 178 29. In Love with a Mexican Girl 187 30. A Sudden Leap from Cow Boy to Merchant 193 ILLUSTRATION Frontispiece of First Edition facing page xii Second Frontispiece of First Edition xiii Title Page of First Edition xl Fly Sheet of First Edition Q INTRODUCTION CHARLIE SIRINGO, WRITER AND MAN By J. FRANK DOBIE c, HARLES A. SIRINGO was born in Matagorda County, Texas, February 7, 1855, and he died in Hollywood, California, October 19, 1928. AngeloSiringo, the census report of 1860 has the name he was known to thousands simply as Charlie Siringo. For the first eleven years of his life he was his quot folk s contrary son. quot For the next fifteen years or so he was a cowboy then, for two decades, a detective. Thereafter his life, lived mostly in New Mexico and California, was meager and splattered, some of it spent in writing, perhaps more of it spent in contesting a power that suppressed what he had written. Carrying them in a satchel, he peddled his own privately printed books. He wrote his first book when he was less than thirty years old but was considering himself quot an old stove-up cowpuncher. quot It is the story of his life on the range. During the last twenty years or so of his life he repeatedly rewrote the story, with the additions made by time but without those extensions in meaning that an expanding intellect gives to a subject on which it prolongs con sideration. His second book, however, is independent of the first, beginning with his employment as a private detective in Chicago in 1886. Two years before this a blind phrenologist who came to Caldwell, Kansas, had felt his quot mule head quot and assured him that he was quot cut out for a detective. quot His titles in order of pub lication are A Texas Cowboy 1885, A Cowboy Detective, Two Evil Isms Pinkertonism and Anarchism 1915, ix A Lone Star Cowboy 1919, Billy the Kid 1920, Riata and Spurs 1927. Siringo had five themes his experience on the range Billy the Kid, whom he chased as a cowboy Pinkerton s National Detective Agency, for which he worked for twenty-two years tough men and tough experiences that he met as a de tective and then more tough men. He had aninclination to write about women but suppressed it. Whatever he might have said on the subject would not have been news. His collection of cowboy songs is hardly to be rated as a book. The first book of any significance pertaining to the range, His toric Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest, by Joseph G. McCoy, appeared in 1874. In point of time, Siringo s A Texas Cowboy y or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony was the second range book of any significance to appear...

This book is a sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, but always thrilling autobiography of Charles A. Siringo, a real Texas Cowboy. He became a "Prince of the Plains" when he was just 15 years old and rode the range for fifteen years. This book is the first true look into the life of a cowboy, written by someone who actually lived the life. This edition was re-created from the original book published in 1885 with additional photos and addendums added by Badgley Publishing Company. It was a great read over a hundred and twenty years ago and is still a great read today.

A TEXAS COWBOY CONTENTS J M ., . INTRODUCTION by J. Frank Dobie V j x BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIRINGO S WRITINGS xxxvii AUTHOR S PREFACE 3 1. My Boyhood Days 7 2. My Introduction to the Late War 11 3. My First Lesson In Cow Punching 18 4. My Second Experience in St. Louis 26 5. A New Experience 32 6. Adopted and Sent to School 37 7. Back at Last to the Lone Star State 41 8. Learning To Rope Wild Steers 45 9. Owning My First Cattle 51 10. A Start up the Ghisholm Trail 58 1 1 . Buys a Boat and Becomes a Sailor 63 12. Back to My Favorite Occupation, That of a Wild and Woolly Cow Boy 69 13. Mother and I Meet at Last 74 14. On a Tare in Wichita, Kansas 80 15. A Lonely Trip down the Cimeron 88 16. My First Experience Roping a Buffalo 94 17. An Exciting Trip after Thieves 99 18. Seven Weeks among Indians 103 19. A Lonely Ride of Eleven Hundred Miles 111 20. Another Start up the Chisholm Trail 117 21. A Trip Which Terminated in the Capture of quot Billy the Kid quot 124 22. Billy the Kid s Capture 1 36 AUG 171950 Grande On a Mule 141 24. Wsty ftjul by Unknown Parties 146 25. LbftVoft the Staked Plains 151 26. A Trip down the Reo Pecos 160 27. A True Sketch of quot Billy the Kid s quot Life 168 28. Wrestling With a Dose of Small Pox on the Llano Esticado 178 29. In Love with a Mexican Girl 187 30. A Sudden Leap from Cow Boy to Merchant 193 ILLUSTRATION Frontispiece of First Edition facing page xii Second Frontispiece of First Edition xiii Title Page of First Edition xl Fly Sheet of First Edition Q INTRODUCTION CHARLIE SIRINGO, WRITER AND MAN By J. FRANK DOBIE c, HARLES A. SIRINGO was born in Matagorda County, Texas, February 7, 1855, and he died in Hollywood, California, October 19, 1928. AngeloSiringo, the census report of 1860 has the name he was known to thousands simply as Charlie Siringo. For the first eleven years of his life he was his quot folk s contrary son. quot For the next fifteen years or so he was a cowboy then, for two decades, a detective. Thereafter his life, lived mostly in New Mexico and California, was meager and splattered, some of it spent in writing, perhaps more of it spent in contesting a power that suppressed what he had written. Carrying them in a satchel, he peddled his own privately printed books. He wrote his first book when he was less than thirty years old but was considering himself quot an old stove-up cowpuncher. quot It is the story of his life on the range. During the last twenty years or so of his life he repeatedly rewrote the story, with the additions made by time but without those extensions in meaning that an expanding intellect gives to a subject on which it prolongs con sideration. His second book, however, is independent of the first, beginning with his employment as a private detective in Chicago in 1886. Two years before this a blind phrenologist who came to Caldwell, Kansas, had felt his quot mule head quot and assured him that he was quot cut out for a detective. quot His titles in order of pub lication are A Texas Cowboy 1885, A Cowboy Detective, Two Evil Isms Pinkertonism and Anarchism 1915, ix A Lone Star Cowboy 1919, Billy the Kid 1920, Riata and Spurs 1927. Siringo had five themes his experience on the range Billy the Kid, whom he chased as a cowboy Pinkerton s National Detective Agency, for which he worked for twenty-two years tough men and tough experiences that he met as a de tective and then more tough men. He had aninclination to write about women but suppressed it. Whatever he might have said on the subject would not have been news. His collection of cowboy songs is hardly to be rated as a book. The first book of any significance pertaining to the range, His toric Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest, by Joseph G. McCoy, appeared in 1874. In point of time, Siringo s A Texas Cowboy y or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony was the second range book of any significance to appear...

The true life of the most daring young outlaw of the age. He was the leading spirit in the bloody Lincoln County, New Mexico war. When a bullet from Sheriff Pat Garrett's pistol pierced his breast he was only twenty-one years of age and had killed twenty-one men, not counting Indians. His six years of daring outlawry has never been equaled in the annals of criminal history. The facts set down in this narrative were gotten from the lips of "Billy the Kid," himself, and from such men as Pat Garrett, John W. Poe, Kip McKinnie, Charlie Wall, the Coe brothers, Tom O'Folliard, Henry Brown, John Middleton, Martin Chavez, and Ash Upson. All these men took an active part, for or against, the "Kid." Ash Upson had known him from childhood, and was considered one of the family, for several years, in his mother's home. Other facts were gained from the lips of Mrs. Charlie Bowdre, who kept ''Billy the Kid" hid out at her home in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, after he had killed his two guards and escaped. This book is part of the Historical Collection of Badgley Publishing Company and has been transcribed from the original. The original contents have been edited and corrections have been made to original printing, spelling and grammatical errors when not in conflict with the author's intent to portray a particular event or interaction. Annotations have been made and additional contents have been added by Badgley Publishing Company in order to clarify certain historical events or interactions and to enhance the author's content. Photos and illustrations from the original have been touched up, enhanced and sometimes enlarged for better viewing. Additional illustrations and photos have been added by Badgley Publishing Company.