"The Day The Cowboys Quit" - a Novel by Elmer Kelton

The Day the Cowboys Quit is a novel that was based on the events that took place at the old Tascosa in the Texas Panhandle in 1883. The Day the Cowboys Quit is a novel written by Elmer Kelton, in 1971. Kelton was born April 29th, 1926 in West Texas. Throughout the early years of his life, Kelton was raised on a ranch and went to college at the University of Texas to study journalism. In fifty years, Kenton was hard at work writing western novels, most of which are based in Texas. The novel The Day the Cowboys Quit received the Spur award in 1971 for the best western novel. This is only one of about forty novels written by Kelton who has received prestigious awards for many of his novels.

The book portraits in a very unique and interesting way the social, political, and economical changes that were taking place in the years before and after the Civil War in Texas. It showed how the cowboys, who for long had being men that in a way represented freedom itself, being able to go anywhere they wanted to, at any time, and could survive with little or no money with them. Even though they did seem all great, they were victims to the stereotype of being a bunch of drunks, and downgraded to a regular employee.

In the story, Hugh Hitchcock, who is the main character, and his friends Rascal and Law McGinty who also worked for another friend called Charlie that owned the W ranch. This was when being a rancher and cattle owner, was one of the very few ways to get rich and every cowboy knew how to become one if they really wanted to. It wasn’t until big corporations and bankers got involved in the beef market that cowboys like Hugh Hitchcock and his friends were not able to own cattle at first and were getting thing taken away from them that they had considered “birthrights”. For example, they were lowering their wages to a very low amount and were being taken advantage of because they were forced to work long hours, which pushed them far enough to a breaking point that made them come together and go on strike so that they could get all their things back.

The degradation is such that even cowboys who used to believe in each others word, now in the name of big corporations would doubt each others word and even get into arguments and fights if necessary over cattle ownership; all in the name of the ranch they worked for. The story begins with the dispute over an old cow and the involvement of the general manager showed up to discuss changes in the business shortly after with Charlie Waide. One of the main changes was the proposition that any man that was hired for money would not be allowed to own cattle; due to the fact that it would be too easy for a cowboy to brand an unbranded maverick with his own brand, instead of the ranchers brand that he worked for, a common practice in the old days that had produced many successful ranchers in past times, thus making the big corporations believe the cowboys could not be trusted; eventually with their political and economical power were able to pass strict laws that not only took away the right to own cattle, but also the right to have their horse on the ranchers property, making the cowboy an easy prey for horse thieves.

As a result of all these strict and ridiculous laws many cowboys organize and went on strike, refusing to work for the ranchers and big corporations that enforced these rules. The strike fails to save the old lifestyle of the cowboy, but does not leave the big bankers and investors a clear full victory. Some cowboys stayed and found jobs doing something else, but the corporations did not stop there, their greed and lust for power drove them to commit more vile acts against the remaining cowboys.

Their next step was to try and take away all the cattle that was still owned by the remaining cowboys like Hitchcock and his friends Rascal and Law. In a clear example of corruption and abuse of power the big ranchers make the decision of hanging Law McGinty under the accusation of stealing cattle, and carrying out the hanging without a proper trial. This was an outrage and the cowboys organized one more time and got Hitchcock to run for Sheriff. After being elected Sheriff Hitchcock yield the power to convict the big corporations for the murder of his friend Law McGinty and for stealing his cattle. By becoming Sheriff Hitchcock help to insure that the big corporations would no longer be able to run over good honest people by buying political influence anymore. The Day the Cowboys Quit takes us back to a time of change in our country’s history, and gives us a more in depth perception on what the life of a cowboy was like back then, the changes that were taking place at the time thanks to the advancement of industrialization in our country, and the often abuse of power that characterized many of the big corporations.

The way that Elmer Kelton wrote made this book kind of easy to read and understand. He used a simple way of writing and didn’t use big words and didn’t use any useless information that would distract the reader away from the main idea of the story. This also makes the reader not only be able to read, but also feel the story. It allows the reader to actually feel what Hitchcock and his friends were living like and going through as if the reader was actually there.The importance of these books is mainly to illustrate the changing factors that were taking place in our country, political, economical and social. It gives us a glance at what our country had to go through in order to become the great power we are today. It also shows the devastation that had to come with it.