b'OFF TO SEE THE WORLDAND TO CONQUER IT BY LASSOWhile the Argentina adventure turned out to be a bust of missing ships and finding that the trained Gauchos knew more about riding herds than a young Indian-Cowboy American from Oklahoma who didn\'t speak their language did,Photo by C.C. CookRogers set sail once more, this time to South Africa, for a job herding cattle. Rogers\' arrival in Capetown was fortuitous, for while the Boer War had entered its final stages, the British Army needed horse trainers to break in the new horses from America and Australia that were replacing the worn-out horses of the British Cavalry. Rogers spent several months breaking in the cavalry horses until he learned that a Wild West show headed by a "Texas Jack" had arrived in South Africa.Rogers was puzzled. He knew of Wild West shows and had even been briefly involved in "Colonel" Zack Mulhall\'s exhibitions back home in the states but he had never heard of this "Texas Jack." What kind of show was this and was "Texas Jack" even an American? Rogers went to see him, and soon found out that the long-haired Texas Jack Omohundro was not only an American, but the adopted son of one of Buffalo Bill Cody\'s closest pards, the late "Texas Jack Omohundro. Texas Jack Jr. himself was an expert scout and sharpshooter, and he, like his late adopted father, had gotten the "bug" of doing Wild West shows. Seeing the American market already glutted by the type of shows his father, Wild Bill Hickok, and Buffalo Bill had begun, he chose to take his talents overseas, first to England, and then on to South Africa, where Will Rogers found him in the winter of 1902.If watching Vincente Oropeza going through scores of rope tricks had caused Rogers to pursue roping as an art and a source of employment, it was Texas Jack Jr. who would teach the Oklahoma Cowboy about showmanship - this would be a life-changing experience for Will.Rogers initially approached Texas Jack, asking for a job training horses and herding cattle, but when Texas Jack asked Rogers if he could rope - well, if anyone could it would be that young man from Oklahoma, and he was hired immediately as the trick roper for Texas Jack Omohundro\'s Wild West show touring throughout South Africa over places which had only recently seen heavy fighting between the British Army and the Boers. Texas Jack Jr. took an immediate liking to his fellow American, named him "The Cherokee Kid," and taught him much about show business that would prove quite useful to Rogers in the future. As he would write later:"Texas Jack was one of the smartest showmen I ever met. It was he who gave me the idea for my original stage act with my pony. I learned a lot about the show business from him. He could do a bum act with a rope that an ordinary man couldn\'t get away with, and make the audience think it was great, so I used to study him by the hour and from him, I learned the great secret of the show business - learned when to get off. It\'s the fellow that knows when to quit that the audience wants more of" (Rogers, Autobiography of Will Rogers, p. 23).Rogers stayed with the Texas Jack Wild West show riding and roping as "The Cherokee Kid" for a year, then, wanting to get home, he parted on good terms with Texas Jack, who wrote him a warm letter of recommendation for his future endeavors.(From 1999-to-2004 this writer was a librarian at the Claremont Public Library in Claremont, California. I happened to have worked alongside one of our Friends of the Library members, helped him sort books. His name was John Omohundro, and one day, having read about the original Texas Jack and his association with Bill Cody asked him he was related, to which he replied that he certainly was. We talked a bit, but to my regret, I never pursued the subject further. I am quite sure he is no longer with us for he was an elderly man but it was fascinating to be working alongside someone who was a relative of the original Texas Jack Omohundro and indirectly related to Texas Jack Jr.)After spending a year performing a Wild West act in a circus touring Australia and New Zealand, Will secured enough fare to return home, just in time to join up with another Oklahoma Cowboy by the name of Tom Mix, (Rogers and Mix hit it off immediately and they remained lifelong friends) and to participate in "Colonel" Zack Mulhall\'s Wild West exhibition at the 1904 St. Louis World\'s Fair. He renewed another acquaintance there, the girl he had written to numerous times during his adventures overseas. Her name was Betty Blake, and she was the then 17-year-old girl he met at the train depot and who had won his heart - but as Will was increasingly sought out for Wild West Shows and other Theatrical productions, the courtship had to last another four years before they finally married in 1908.963RealCountry.comNext month, Part 2.ArizonaRealCountry.com January 2021 47'