Remington knew these cowboys well. He had mingled with them, ridden after the herds, joined in their boisterous revels, and there came from his brush and pencil a picturesque lot of out-of-door characters, to the very life. Remington had camped in the open, had ridden hard and long, had been with the United States cavalry in its expeditions, was the intimate of the officers and men of the then little army of this nation, and he saw history made. In all this crowd there was no more picturesque figure, whether cowboy, Indian, or soldier, than Remington himself. He wrote as entertainingly as he painted, and before his death (he was stricken untimely) was to follow his beloved comrades in the army as war correspondent to Cuba, in the Spanish War. It is nowise to the disparagement of the men who followed Remington to say that they were all under an everlasting debt of gratitude to him for his initial insight into the breezy outlook on life in the Far West, and for his way of presenting his facts. Remington was an indefatigable worker, constantly filling his sketch-book with notes, and making mental memoranda of the happenings about him. And he showed steady progress in the technic of his art, each succeeding picture disclosing genuine advance. Nor was he content simply with painting and drawing. He sought artistic expression in sculpture too, modeling much during the later years of his life with great success. Personally, the man was a delight to a host of friends, with his inimitable stories, his genial manner, and his thorough naturalness. One of the best known of his sculptural works is “The Broncho Buster,” which has long been a public favorite, and been reproduced in bronze. RUSSELL, THE COWBOY ARTIST [Illustration: Copyright by C. M. Russell A DANGEROUS CRIPPLE By Charles M. Russell] There followed Remington an artist very distinctive of the soil, one who was of the land in that he had been a veritable cowboy, knew his West thoroughly, had lived with the Indians, spoke several of the tribal languages, and, still more useful accomplishment, was familiar with that picturesque, poetic, universal means of communication among savages of the Great West, the sign language. This was Charles M. Russell (1865). In Great Falls, Montana, where he lives and has a home and studio, he is one of the institutions. Few travelers in that part of this country fail to pay him a visit. They call him the “Cowboy Painter,” and with reason; for during several years he followed that profession. Also he lived long among the Indians, sharing their camps, their food, riding after game, winter and summer, dwelling with them as a brother. [Illustration: CHARLES M. RUSSELL The Cowboy Artist]