Photography was popular during this era, and there are many pictures of the Rangers of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The average Ranger of the late 1870s normally lived in his work clothes, which were also his dress clothes. He did not look like the movie cowboys; unlike the cowboy boots popular today, he wore boots almost knee high and cut square across the top with a high heel and somewhat pointed toes. Usually a Ranger's boots were the best item of clothing he owned. His spurs were heavy, with large rowels. A wide-brimmed hat was a necessity, and they were worn in almost every color and shape. The Ranger had long underwear, and his pants and shirt were generally of fairly heavy weight. he wore a vest, a handy place to keep a watch if he had one, coins, tobacco and any papers. In the colder portions of the state, or during winter, the Ranger wore a heavy coat manufactured of anything from thick cloth to buffalo hide.

Unlike the cowboys depicted on TV and in movie westerns, the Ranger carried his knife and pistol on a belt worn high on his waist; he needed his handgun ready at any time and could take no chances on a belt hung low on his hips. A number of contemporary photographs show Rangers wearing cross-draw holsters, a convenient way to draw a weapon when riding.

The grim, relentless manhunters were also practical jokers. Since Texas supplied the Rangers with little more than the opportunity to get shot, each recruit was eager to obtain anything free, and a favorite trick was telling new Rangers that the state furnished them with free socks. Naturally, the man issuing the free socks was the company commander, and the old hands would watch from cover as the new man approached the captain to ask for his socks. Captain Roberts of Company D always went along with the gag.

Some pranks were more physical in nature. During winter, when the Rangers lived in log cabins, a great favorite was blocking the chimney with rags. When the smoke forced the occupants to flee, other Rangers would rush up screaming Afire!@ then dash inside to throw outside all the possessions of the victims.

Jeff Milton, besides being a good man with a gun, was a champion jokester. One of his friends could never understand why his girl friend had dropped him and refused even to talk to him; he never knew Milton had confided to her in strictest confidence that her boyfriend was an escaped convict.

One day when alone in camp, Mrs. Roberts received some letters addressed to her husband, who was away on business. One letter was from Austin, and usually any message from the capitol was bad news; the Rangers asked her about the contents, certain it was news about cutting company strength. She finally told them they were right; the legislature was on another economy move and all men under five feet ten inches would be discharged. For some time the company was in turmoil as men measured each other trying to estimate heights to see if they had made the cutoff until Captain Roberts returned and told them it was all a joke. Mrs. Roberts said "the Rangers thought it was a good joke and did not hold it against me."

Not every Ranger spent his time in paying cards or thinking up practical jokes. When off duty, especially during the long winter evenings, some of them studied and eventually became lawyers, doctors, or other professionals. Probably about the same number of men, however, were unable to read or write, although some of these learned the rudiments during their enlistment. A number of the older men saved their money and purchased cattle and land; others not interested in being tied down to a ranch purchased a few head and had nearby farmers or ranchers keep their stock with the larger herds. . . A number of Rangers became large landholders when they left the service; Nevill, Gillett and [Pat] Dolan all had large ranches in the Trans Pecos, and [John B.] Armstrong became a major landholder in South Texas. Many Rangers went to work as ranch foremen or ranch managers. R. R. Russell saved his money, became a banker and one of the few Ranger millionaires. Perhaps the majority of Rangers, however, had a good time and spent their wages about as fast as they were paid.

The Rangers changed as Texas changed. Living conditions improved dramatically from 1874 to 1890, and to some degree the Rangers reflected these improvements. The men were still young and looking for adventure, but they were somewhat better educated and dressed better. In 1875 Gillett wrote about the necessity for gathering up all the good clothing in Company D to obtain a few complete and decent outfits for the local dances; a photograph of Company D in the mid-1880s shows every man in a coat and tie. The battalion picture of 1896 portrays each Ranger in a good "Sunday" suit, something almost unknown in the 1870s. Ranger [Alonso] Van Oden describes very matter of fact manner how he spent a month's pay for a new suit and a pair of boots, a commonplace expenditure by the 1890s.