The Jimmyjohn Boss, and Other Stories

A collection of Western short stories by Owen Wister. 


THE JIMMYJOHN BOSS (excerpt)

One day at Nampa, which is in Idaho, a ruddy old

massive jovial man stood by the Silver City stage, patting his beard

with his left hand, and with his right the shoulder of a boy who

stood beside him. He had come with the boy on the branch train from

Boise, because he was a careful German and liked to say everything

twice—twice at least when it was a matter of business. This was a

matter of very particular business, and the German had repeated

himself for nineteen miles. Presently the east-bound on the main line

would arrive from Portland; then the Silver City stage would take the

boy south on his new mission, and the man would journey by the branch

train back to Boise. From Boise no one could say where he might not

go, west or east. He was a great and pervasive cattle man in Oregon,

California, and other places. Vogel and Lex—even to-day you may

hear the two ranch partners spoken of. So the veteran Vogel was now

once more going over his notions and commands to his youthful deputy

during the last precious minutes until the east-bound should arrive.

“Und if only you haf someding like dis,” said

the old man, as he tapped his beard and patted the boy, “it would

be five hoondert more dollars salary in your liddle pants.”

The boy winked up at his employer. He had a gray,

humorous eye; he was slim and alert, like a sparrow-hawk—the sort

of boy his father openly rejoices in and his mother is secretly in

prayer over. Only, this boy had neither father nor mother. Since the

age of twelve he had looked out for himself, never quite without

bread, sometimes attaining champagne, getting along in his American

way variously, on horse or afoot, across regions of wide plains and

mountains, through towns where not a soul knew his name. He closed

one of his gray eyes at his employer, and beyond this made no remark.

“Vat you mean by dat vink, anyhow?” demanded

the elder.

“Say,” said the boy, confidentially—“honest

now. How about you and me? Five hundred dollars if I had your beard.

You’ve got a record and I’ve got a future. And my bloom’s on me

rich, without a scratch. How many dollars you gif me for dat bloom?”

The sparrow-hawk sailed into a freakish imitation of his master...

Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer, historian and "father" of western fiction. He is best remembered for writing The Virginian and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant. 
He began his literary work in 1891. Wister had spent several summers out in the American West, making his first trip to Wyoming
in 1885. Like his friend Teddy Roosevelt, Wister was fascinated with

the culture, lore and terrain of the region. On an 1893 visit to Yellowstone, Wister met the western artist Frederic Remington;
who remained a lifelong friend. When he started writing, he naturally

inclined towards fiction set on the western frontier. Wister's most

famous work remains the 1902 novel The Virginian, the loosely constructed story of a cowboy who is a natural aristocrat, set against a highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War and taking the side of the large land owners. This is widely regarded as being the first cowboy novel and was reprinted fourteen times in eight months. The book was written in the library of The Philadelphia Club, where Wister was a member, and is dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1904 Wister collaborated with Kirke La Shelle on a successful stage adaptation of The Virginian that featured Dustin Farnum in the title role.Farnum reprised the role ten years later in Cecil B. DeMille's film adaptation of the play.

He was a member of several literary societies and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University.