It was still the Wild West in those days, the Far West... It was a land of vast silent spaces, of lovely rivers, and of plains where the wild game stared at the passing horseman... We knew toil and hardship and hunger and thirst; and we saw men die violent deaths as they worked among the horses and cattle, or fought in evil feuds with one another; but we felt the beat of hardy life in our veins, and ours was the glory of work and the joy of living.