Question

How long did real cowboys live?

One answer may be found in the book The Last Cowboys by Connie Brooks (University of New Mexico Press). This delightful book presents a thoughtful sociological study of cowboys in West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico around the year 1890. A sample of 32 cowboys gave the following years of longevity:

58 52 68 86 72 66

97 89 84 91 91 92 66 68 87 86 73 61 70 75 72 73 85 84 90 57 77 76 84 93 58 47

(a) Make a stem-and-leaf display for these data. (Use the tens digit as the stem and the ones digit as the leaf.)

Longevity of Cowboys 

(b) Consider the following quote from Baron von Richthofen in his Cattle Raising on the Plains of North America: “Cowboys are to be found among the sons of the best families. The truth is probably that most were not a drunken, gambling lot, quick to draw and fire their pistols.” Does the data distribution of longevity lend credence to this quote?

Sort of, these cowboys lived somewhat long lives, as evidenced by the high frequency of leaves for stems 5 and 6 (i.e., 50- and 60-year-olds).

No, these cowboys did not live long lives, as evidenced by the high frequency of leaves for stems 4 and 5 (i.e., 40- and 50-year-olds).

Yes, these cowboys certainly lived long lives, as evidenced by the high frequency of leaves for stems 7, 8, and 9 (i.e., 70-, 80-, and 90-year-olds).

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