Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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24 The Branksome Slogan The Calgary Stampede Every year, in July, cowboys from Canada and the United States compete at Calgary in a great stampede. At this time, the North American champion- ships are held in bucking-horse riding, in calf-roping and in many other types of cowboy skill. The Stampede lasts for a week, and it is a gala time for all concerned. Every morning at ten o ' clock, Montana Indians, in full war- feathers, parade on horse-back, before the chief hotel. They are fine-looking Indians, very unlike the run-down type which you find on some reserves. They are dark- skinned, with high cheek-bones and black hair, and resemble, in almost every respect, those which used to fill the West some year ago. One rather dis- appointing fact to discover is that they smoke cigarettes. Promptly at two o ' clock every afternoon, the stampede programme begins. The day we saw it, they held several bucking-horse riding contests which were very exciting. At the sound of a gong, a horse and rider burst into the arena. Then ensued a battle between horse and rider in which sometimes one and sometimes the other was victorious. The cowboy, his large hat in one hand, held the rein in the other, and since there was no saddle, it seemed really miraculous how he could stay on for so long a time. Next came the wild steer decorating; the idea was to place a ribbon on one of the horns of a wild bull. The steers, however, objected strongly to such feminine adornment, and it proved difficult to carry out the task. Some- times an animal, becoming very angry, would jab at its tormentor with its horns. Then the cowboy would rush from the scene at full speed, closely pursued by the snorting, fiery-eyed bull. An interesting feature of the evening performance was a cowboys ' chuck wagon race. In travelling on the ranges, the cowboy outfits use chuck wagons which are almost the same as the old covered wagons of frontier days. In these wagons they can eat, sleep and even cook. They are very compactly built and are equipped to the last detail. The race was run over a circular course and the wagons had to round it three times. In the middle of the race one wagon lost a wheel and upset. However, nothing was lost except the race. If you have never watched the Stampede, I should certainly advise you to try to do so, sometime, as it is a novelty worth seeing. GWENDOLYN PLANT, Form V. Miss C. (to pupil who has been away) : Well, if you haven ' t done this exercise, I expect you to take it down as we- take it up. What is the modern generation coming to? — the girls think of noth- ing but the boys, and the boys think of nothing but themselves!