A Texas Cow Boy / or, fifteen years on the hurricane deck of a Spanish pony, taken from real life

Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony.
AN OLD STOVE UP COW PUNCHER WHO HAS SPENT NEARLY A LIFE TIME ON THE GREAT WESTERN CATTLE RANGES.
GLOBE LITHOGRAPHING & PRINTING CO. CHICAGO
REPRESENTATION OF LIFE IN A COW CAMP.
THE AUTHOR, In Cow Boy Uniform.
AN OLD STOVE UP COW PUNCHER, WHO HAS SPENT NEARLY TWENTY YEARS ON THE GREAT WESTERN CATTLE RANGES.
M. UMBDENSTOCK & CO., Publishers, Chicago, Illinois. 1885.
THE AUTHOR after he became stove-up—financially, as well as otherwise.
Copyrighted by Chas. A. Siringo, Caldwell, Kans. All rights reserved.
My excuse for writing this book is money—and lots of it.
I suppose the above would suffice, but as time is not very precious I will continue and tell how the idea of writing a book first got into my head:
While ranching on the Indian Territory line, close to Caldwell, Kansas, in the winter of '82 and '83, we boys—there being nine of us—made an iron-clad rule that whoever was heard swearing or caught picking grey backs off and throwing them on the floor without first killing them, should pay a fine of ten cents for each and every offense. The proceeds to be used for buying choice literature—something that would have a tendency to raise us above the average cow-puncher. Just twenty-four hours after making this rule we had three dollars in the pot—or at least in my pocket, I having been appointed treasurer.