Gambling was widespread in frontier towns, and some of the most active participants were cowboys. Livestock owners struggled to prevent gambling in the camps or on the cattle trails, but there was little they could do when the cowpunchers headed into town with their pay. Although some people railed against gambling as an evil vice, most frontier townsfolk looked the other way because there was profit involved. Indeed, the professional gambler was often viewed as a positive economic force, especially by the owners of saloons. Not surprisingly, the gamblers usually won, and the hapless cowboys often continued to play until they had lost all their wages. This painting, a spirited depiction of a fracas between a group of cowboys and the inhabitants of a gambling saloon on the Montana frontier, attracted much attention when it was exhibited in Chicago and New York in 1911. The painting was originally created for the Ridgley Calendar Company, who exhibited it in their office window in Great Falls in February 1908 before shipping it out for reproduction. Russell’s abilities as a painter and storyteller are readily apparent in this work. The composition of interwoven men and horses sweeps the eye from right to left and back again as the action reaches its crescendo. Blue smoke from the gunfire lingers in the air between the protagonists; the frantic horses lurch in opposite directions, but also in perfect visual counterpoint. Here Russell manages to compress a great amount of detail into a seamless story line. On the right side of the painting, a string of playing cards lies strewn upon the ground, giving mute testimony to the wages of sin.