This is not the memoir of just any old cowboy. This is Notre Dame-educated Frank Hastings, at one time known to nearly every cattleman in the United States. Hastings early 20th century book on the ranching and packing industries is all at once fascinating, well-written, and often humorous. Born during the American Civil War, he has a boy's memories of that period but the meat of this book, so to speak, is the cattle industry and early ranching. He relates wonderful stories not only of the cattle industry but of famous people he knew, cowboys, Civil War stories, the origins of famous breeds, and more.