Bad men of the West and
cowboys alike wore six-shooters and spurs; they drank each
other's coffee; they had a fanatical passion for liberty--for
themselves. But the representative cowboy was a reliable hand,
hanging through drought, blizzard, and high water to his herd,
whereas the bona fide bad man lived on the dodge. Between the
killer and the cowboy standing up for his rights or merely
shooting out the lights for fun, there was as much difference
as between Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill. Of course, the
elements were mixed in the worst of the bad men, as they are
in the best of all good men. No matter what deductions
analysis may lead to, the fact remains that the western bad
men of open range days have become a part of the American
tradition. They represent six-shooter culture at its zenith--
the wild and woolly side of the West--a stage between receding
bowie knife individualism of the backwoods and blackguard,
machine-gun gangsterism of the city.
The songs about Sam Bass, Jesse James, and Billy the Kid
reflect popular attitude toward the hard-riding outlaws. Sam
Bass, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, the Daltons, Cole Younger,
Joaquin Murrieta, John Wesley Hardin, Al Jennings, Belle
Starr, and other "long riders" with their guns in their hands
have had their biographies written over and over.
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