Juvenile Performers of the South
west Cattle Country Show Their
Elders How Riding, Roping and
Bulldogging Really Should Be Done
By Oren Arnold
rpHEY say It'i an age when youth la
In the aaddle, anyway, so maybe It's
Just as well for youngsters to begin
doing all the hard riding.
In any event, they're doing it out In
the Wild West this season. For the
first time In years, a brand-new wrinkle
ha crept Into that spectacular cowboy
carnival known as the rodeo. After one
or two experiments, Coolldge, Ariz., re
cently threw tradition to the coyotes
and staged a bang-up range festival In
which all the oldsters hung on the fence
and the participants were all under 18
yean.
They believe It Is the first official
Junior rodeo ever held, exclusively
"Junior," that Is. But it won't be the
last, for Other towns are planning them
already. The range kids took to the
Idea like ticks to a steer and many a
30-year-old erstwhile "star" performer
went away feeling that he was a de
crepit old man. Children are essen
tially Imitators but, brother, how they
can Imltatel
rpHE Coolldglans advertised their show
at exactly face value "Rlp-Roar-Ing
Rang Ruckus for Romping Rois
tering Riders." When Charlie Lamson,
who Is 34 and who aspires to be world's
champion cowboy, ' came to headquar
ters to enter the bulldogging event, the
officials almost kicked him out.
"Whatta you doln' here?" they de
manded. "Yore daughter might git In,
but not you, you old wom-out, wrln-kled-up
patriarch. This here rodeo Is
for kids; ain't you heard?" ,
Oharlte hadn't heard. But he slunk
away. Pretty soon, sure enough, up
rode Miss Letty Lamson and announced
that she expected to win the first prize
for running her horse, Jumping from
him on to a young steer's head and
throwing the same In a pell mell smash.
When the clerk of the arena asked,
"Age, please?" Letty said, "Fourteen."
It turned out that Letty didn't do so
extra good, though. The young steer
they gave her was pretty heavy, for all
his youth, and Letty Is slender and
graceful Ilka the desert ocotlllo, tor all
her country tea In the end, the steer
bulldogged Ltttty.
When the Judges Anally sailed "Time"
the steer was standing In ankle-deep,
powdery dust with his head holding
Letty almost burled. It took halt an
hour for Letty's mother to scrape the
dirt off her when they Anally got the
girl's arms untangled from the steer's
head.
On the other hand, a sassy Uttle gal
named Thelma aneed out as pie, by
George took such honors as the Junior
rodeo awarded.
Thelma rode In from the oow town
of Florence on a great big mountainous
horse named Nellie. Thelma regis
tered as age 14, too, but the parents on
the sidelines all agreed that aha looked
rearer 10. Anyhow, when she gets to be
18 or 30, Dad Sneed Is going to have
plenty of boys hanging around his front
porch she's that good looking.
Well, Thelma took Nellie down to
the beginning of the horse racetrack,
and when the starter shot his pistol
Nellie seemed to Jump out of a cannon.
Thelma scrooched down behind the
saddle horn to where you could hardly
see her and at the end of the course she
had to stop and wait for competitors
to como In. The crowd yelled and
howled for Thelma and Nellie.
They had several more races for vari
ous -llstances, all ending In front of the
crowd around the main arena. Some
were for males only, but a lot of them
admitted girls. A few were for boys
and girls both. It didn't seem to mat
ter to Thelma and Nellie.
It hadnt reined In Coolldge sine
Calvin Coolldge for whom the town la
named was President, so It seemed.
The wind was cantankerous that day,
too. Every time a horse race was under
way you would know It by a heavy
cloud of dust rolling down the track
toward you. Tint's all you could tee
t Arst, but as It neared the finish line
out of it would shoot a sudden streak
which turned out to be Thelma and
Nellie, mostly Nellie.
kTRLI.lK and Thelma lost one race
thnt dav and thereby hanea a
tale. Fact Is. It came near being a
tragedy.
It teems that the town of Florence,
which Is jk right snappy town what
with having the Slate Penitentiary and
nil fame to be very proud of Thelma
Sneed on Junior Rodeo Day. Some ol
the town boys around the track and
arena wore saUng so. after the manner
ot males. On the other hand, the
equally proud town of Casa Orande,
which is situated nearby, but which
wasn't winning in the rodeo contests,
doesn't admit that Coolldge amounts to
much.
Well, you know how It Is along
toward 4 P. M. the respective boosters
had about exhausted their vocabularies
and their good natures, too. It had
simmered down to a personal matter
between two young men, self-appointed
champions of their respective towns.
The Florence man up and offered to bet
A I jS y S' ' x " tf"i' Timnir iiiihiii i iiiiin mihw -in l"y.y
(WiiJ I -7 x 1
anybody $35 that Thelma Sneed, of
Florence, would win every event she en
tered, and he'd personally lick the tar
out of anybody who said she couldn't, or
words to that effect. Right away the
bet was covered.
Now Thelma never heard anything
about all that, probably hasn't heard
It even yet. If she had, no doubt the
would have pitched In and won every
event. She's loyal to her town.
But fate docs things to men who
argue and gamble, especially to men
who bet on pretty girls. The exact rea
son for Thelma's action Isn't clear It
seldom Is where a girl Is concerned but
It seems to be about like this:
Thelma and Nellie were entered In
the half-mile special. The starting gun
wat about to shoot, when whom did
Thelma spy on the sidelines nearby but
her Aunt Margaret from Phoenix?
Thelma hadn't seen Aunt Margaret
for several months, hadn't known she
was coming to the big rodeo. She rode
over to the fence, dropped off the
mountainous Nellie and kissed Aunt
Margaret hello Just as the gun said
Rty Griswold, Jr., ran pull a ait
thooter tt fast aa many of hit
eldera. Yea, and he also knows
how to use It, If neresnary, as he
drmonatraied before the rodeo
crowd
' bang I" The other racers went on down
their dusty way, while Thelma and Aunt
Margaret talked woman talk.
That wat the story whlcn was told
later, and It't all right, ol rourse. But
over back of the crowd on Die south
sideline, Uie two male booster made an
Issue ot tt. The Florence boy telt he
had been royally rooked and wouldn't
pay the 139. Words began to fly, fol
lowed quickly by Hits. Somebody
snatched out a pistol and shot It at
somebody else, and that brought the
deputy therm a-runnlng.
When the deputy get there, though,
all the boys from bolli towns -Including
the two combatants swore It Itad
been a car backfiring. He couldn't pin
anything on anyrxxly to nrri't. so thoy
all went on back to the nrcna In u roily
W I If, tl X;1,ilrm,m,nm., , "n -W.H. '.t . 3
Dallas Waddell shows rodeo fans how i V KM i st , ' '''
to "bust" a full-sited mustang pony ft "
, 1)1 'Ah
'ur""- i i it iv it,, id k t i if 1 1 x it mtrigj mmm
good fellowship, to see how the trick
roping contest was coming along.
Well, sir, there wasn't much contest
to the trick roping.
There Isn't likely to be much contest
In any rodeo hereafter If young Mister
Qlen Henry, also of Florence, happens
to be' entered. Many an adult rope
artist eyed Olen't performance at Cool
ldge with frank envy.
Glen didn't pay much attention to
such simple tilings as dropping a rope
around any running call's leg at will
any leg he wanted. That's elemental,
as 8herlock Holmes said to Watson;
even If Olen hasn't had to do any shav
ing to speak of yet In no time at all,
Glen had all his would-be competitors
froien out and he was In the arena
doing a solo act by way of exhibition.
AT THIS point the arena director broke
the rules and permitted an adult "In
structor" to come before the crowd and
give the youngsters a few pointers In
handling ropes. The Instructor reached
his peak when like Will Rosers used
to do he was twirling a big loop. Jump
ing In and out of It, running around It
and generally playing tag with It. never
letting It fall. The spectators cheered.
Then Olen stepped out to try It. In
thirty seconds he was doing all of that
-and for good measure was twirling a
second loop In hit free hand. Just
keeping two going at once, one Inside
the other or anywhere he pleased. The
'pectatora howled In glee.
But that sllll wasnt all. Glen Henry,
from Florence, stuck the end of one
rope In his mouth, kept the loop twirl
ing with that and then made two more
loops and kept them twirling with his
hands.
Three loops at once, by an entrant
ii a Junior nxlco The adult Instructor
11k1 away and hasn't been seen since.
Among the male entrants, Mister
Oilbert Nichols, going on 15 years,
fiom the town of Oilbert, Incidentally,
won most of the racing honors. Thelma
Sneed on Nellie could deal him some
misery, but he avoided her most of the
time, gallant like.
Mitcr Glen Henry prinrd hy far
had been callcj upon la in a
He came roaring In ahead of every
other boy In the big racing event half
a mile for all comers. He won the wild
cow riding event and that was plenty
of fun.
Have you ever ridden a wild cow?
Why, brother, you ought to visit OU-
-,- -v
a ..... ,,i 1
-rU r I Hi K 'w.'V 4
lo he the king pf luv nl'e rope "pinners. He ontelsed a professional wh
drmnnvlralinn. Hot e (,lin iih three ropes going at the same time
Thelma Sneed, right, on her horse
Nellie, won nearly every race In which
ah was entered. With her Is Annie
Nichols, mounted on Buck. She was
runner-up to The'ma in the horse
races
bert Nichols some day and have him
round up a wild-range bovine or two
for your elucidation. It's a simple mat
ter, really, and more exciting than a
dollar-per-polnt game ot contract bridge.
You Just tit a rope around th wild
cow's belly, Jump straddle of the ani
mal, holler "WHOOP-EEeeel" and let
'er go.
If that's still little tame for your
excltement-lovlng nature, Just omit the
rope. In either case, the game Is to see
bow long you can stay put. It won't be
long.
Well, anyhow, Oilbert Nichols could
stick ' ter than anybody else. He won
first U the roping contests, too, after
they dlsquallAed Olen Henry by mak
ing him an "exhibition artist." Bo Gil
bert and Thelma were high point win
ners for the day.
Th rodeo had much snappy calf
roping and racing, even some dust
bedraggled races for bicycle riders.
There were a lot of good performers
who couldn't win any prlzet. Dallas
Waddell, 13-year-old Phoenix lad, Is an
expert at busting pee wee broncs, for
Instance. But a Junior bronco that Is,
a Shetland pony Is plenty energetic
and don't you forget It.
NINE-YEAR-OLD Ray Orlswold is
likely to be nationally known as a
ptstolier some day, even If he Is too
"Junior" for competition yet. He handles
a pistol with more skill than most adults,
even now.
Doc Bryce, the starter and general
factotum of the rodeo, declared that "as
thore as the devil made rattlesnakes,
them kids could put it all over half the
grown cowboys in Arizona." He be
lieves the Junior rodeo Idea Is bound to
spread. Callnas, Call!., and Las Cruces,
N. M., already are planning to follow
the lead of Coolldge.
Parents are as enthusiastic as their y
sons and daughters. On good Arizon
mother, dressed In a buckskin coat with
Indian beadwork on It, plus blue overall
pants and boots with spurs, galloped up
to her young offspring Just before one
race. She spat, then spoke.
"This Is yore race, son I" she shrilled,
still dangling her cigarette from her
lips. "Git yore hoss In there and run
hell out of him, son, or I'll beat It out
of you when we git home I"
Emily Post might shudder at that.
But you gotta remember. Mrs. Post,
that this here Junior rodeo was away
out In the open Southwest, where there
aren't many cute tea parties, but where
boys and girls and mothers all love each
other and all can stand on their own
feet.
AGE TWO