Excerpt from Dodge City, the Cowboy Capital and the Great Southwest: In the Days of the Wild Indian, the Buffalo, the Cowboys, Dance Halls, Gambling Halls and Bad Men Whether a preface is explanatory or apologetic, is immaterial, in the use we make of this one. Local history is both personal and public; but the narratives of a border life or from conspicuous events, having an origin and a purpose similar to the discovery of a new country. Local history is the result of development and progress; and each city or state history is the example of the whole country. The history of Dodge City, however, includes a wider environment than the ordinary city or town, because it was the focus of a range of country two hundred miles, north, south, east, and west. Therefore, its center of gravitation was equal in extent to that of a state. Upon this axis revolved and oscillated the bull-whacker, the buffalo hunter, the cowboy, the humble citizen, and the desperado. The character and life of this mixed class of citizenship was greatly sharpened and enhanced by reason of the strenuous and characteristic impulses which governed the circumstances in pursuit and development. There was nothing passive in the life of the plainsman. The objective was the supreme motive; for he stood in face of danger, and his quickness of intuition and sense of warning kept him always alert. A character built up under such conditions must have been able to cope with the dangers and hardships incident to a country infested with warlike bands of Indians, and of outlaws which followed on the flanks of civilization. It is the author of this book, Honorable R. M. Wright, we wish to emphasize in this simple explanation. Mr. Wright came to the plains country a few years before the civil war. As a young man, active and vigorous, he became imbued with a spirit of chivalry and courage, followed by those traits of character inevitable to this kind of life; charity and benevolence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.