Sep 18, 2021
He rode easily, relaxed in the saddle, leaning his weight lazily into the stirrups. Yet even in this easiness was a suggestion of tension. It was the easiness of a coiled spring, of a trap set.
— Jack Schaefer, Shane
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He rode easily, relaxed in the saddle, leaning his weight lazily into the stirrups. Yet even in this easiness was a suggestion of tension. It was the easiness of a coiled spring, of a trap set.
— Jack Schaefer, Shane
The lighting, the composition and just the good natured look of it, I love this shot.
June 1939. Big Horn County, Montana. "Cowhands singing after day's work. Quarter Circle U Ranch roundup." Medium format acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.
"I let him ride me and gave him his chance. A man can keep his self-respect without having to cram it down another man's throat. Surely you can see that, Bob?"
— Jack Schaefer, Shane
A man owned a small ranch near Great Falls, Montana. The Montana Labor Department got a tip that he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an investigator out to interview him.
"I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them," demanded the investigator.
"Well," replied the rancher, "there's my ranch hand who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $1200 a week plus free room and board."
"The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $1000 per week plus free room and board."
"Then there's the half-wit. He works about 18 hours every day, with no days off, and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week and pays his own room and board."
"But, I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night, and he also sleeps with my wife occasionally."
"That's the guy I want to talk to... the half-wit," says the investigator.
"You're talking to him," replied the rancher.
The cowhands
6-year-old cowboy and his 8-year-old cowgirl sister learn how to rope cattle from their father, July 1954. Photo by Allan Grant.
Modern cowpokes, at the Bar B ranch in Oklahoma. Tintype photo by Robb Kendrick.
JA Corral/JA Ranch, Texas. Tintype by Robb Kendrick.