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mals. Will could not stand to see a bull-
fight, particularly because of what
happens to the horses. Charlie, like Will,
loved horses and exulted in the nature
of buffalo, bears, wolve.s, even porcu-
Left. Charlie Russell's fine sculpture of Will pines and skunks.
Rogers. Below. Will shows his riding skill A thousand or more miles apart, they
on a movie lot in Hollywood. had night-herded, bedded down on the
prairie under the stars, gone hungry,
frozen, swelte.red and been broke. They
had worked in roundups and cattle drives,
wrangled horses and branded calves.
Although Will left the range in his
early twenties, he ke.pt buying and rid-
ing horses all his life. At one time he
had more than sixty. Charlie's horses,
those he rode and those he created in
sculpture, were as much a part of him
as the way he walked.
Both Charlie and Will were humble
about their talents.
"Talent, like birthmarks, are gifts
and no credit nor fault to those who
wear 'em," Charlie said. "To have talent
is no credit to its owner."
Will called his own success a fluke,
and always said that "one of these days
they'll ge,t onto me, and run me off."
The similarity extended even to the
way they talked. Both spoke the lingo
of the Old West and clung to it all their
lives. Neither paid much attention to
spelling, punctuation or grammar.
"Mr. Rogers," somebody once said to
Will, "the way you talk and write, you
sometimes show a broadminded disre-
gard for the laws of syntax."
"What's syntax?" asked Will. "Sounds
like more bad news from Hollywood. If
I'm a sin-tax-dodger, I didn't know it."
"What I mean is, you sometimes use
bad grammar."
"I didn't know grammar was what they
are buying now."
Charlie often spelled the same word
several ways in the same line, rarely
capitalized words, but put together
pungent sentences of unforgettable
power.
Santa Monica in a pouring rain. As he Charlie was slow to judge any man. He A BOUT THE TURN of the century,
approached the turnoff from Sunset said if he could be St. Peter, he'd let tales of the great cow country in
Boulevard into the Rogers ranch, he saw in all his friends, good and bad. And as the Argentine, and the opportunities
a flickering light ahead. A silhoutte of a for Will, no one knows, nor will ever, there, were reaching the cowboys on the
figure was swinging a lante.rn back and know, the extent of his charities and old Dog Iron, the Rogers ranch near
forth, a warning. A torrent was washing philanthropies. Oologah in Indian Territory. The. more
across the road. Will, Jr., drew up to a Will heard about it, the itchier his feet
stop, rolled down the window and stuck WILL AND CHARLIE were basically got. Early one morning he and Dick
out his head. the same kind of man, humble, Parris saddled up and headed southeast
"Looks like the road's washed out straightforward with an abiding regard across the prairie in the gene.ral direc-
here," the man with the lantern called. for life in all its expressions. They loved tion of New Orleans. They hoped to catch
It was Will Roge.rs, Sr., swinging the people, all people, good and bad. They a boat there for Buenos Aires, but they
lantern. Will, Jr., said that "the old understood the dignity, the worth and found that no ships went from there to
man" had been out there in the rain, the tragedy of Indians and to their last Buenos Aires. They had to go to New
warning motorists all night. day, both championed the, Indian. York, but found the same thing there-
Just then a car drove up and stopped Charlie lived with them, learned to see no ships to Buenos Aires. They had to
beside Will, Jr's. car. life as they saw it. go to Liverpool. There they got a boat
"Don't think you can get through "The red man is Nature's offspring to Africa and from there, to Buenos
there," Will, Sr., told the driver. "Looks and, like his Mother, tells few secrets Aires.
like the road's washed out under that to strangers," he said. "For every bad Will worked in the. Argentine for some
water." Indian, I can show you ten worse white months. Dick Parris went home, but
But the motorist, not recognizing Will, men." alone; Will caught a cattle boat to South
drove slowly into the water. He crept in- Will Rogers always referred to him- Africa and got a job breaking horses
to the torrent as Will and his son looked self as "this Indian." He was five- for the British in the Boer War. When
on. The water hit the side of the car sixteenths Cherokee. Both his parents the war ended. Texas Jack hired him
like a stream from a firehose against had Indian blood. as a wrangle.r for his Wild West Circus,
a wall. and sprayed high into the dark- "My forefathers did not come over and this is where Will started perform-
ness. But the car kept creeping ahead. on the Mayflower," he said. "They met ing. Texas Jack billed him as "The Chero-
and at last made the other side, and the. boat." kee Kid, Trick Rider and Fancy Roper."
disappeared into the dark. Aside from their talents, they both Will was in show business and was
Will stood there shaking his head. were true Westerners. Both had been to be in it the rest of his life. His cow-
It was characteristic of Will to with- cowboys. Both had grown up with punching days were over. Coincidentally.
draw into himself, but to think of othe.rs. horses, both .had been in spots where so were Charlie Russell's, thousands of
He passed up opportunities to socialize, their very life depended on them. miles away in Montana. At this point,
but he never passed up an opportunity to Charlie rode the range for ten ye.ars neither knew the othe.r existed, but their
be with Charlie Russell. or more. Will spent the first twenty meeting was nearing, and their paths
"I never met a man I didn't like." vears of his life on the range and worked would cross many times.
summed up Will's philosophy. Charlie's in Indian Territory, Texas, Kansas, Mis- · From South Africa, Will caught a
philosophy was virtually the same. souri and Ne.w Mexico. Both loved ani- boat to Australia where he performed in

8 Frontier Times