The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-05-06
A "Tenderfoot's' Experience With .
COmanche Pony.

The one thing, however, in which
the tenderfoot is most likely to miss
connections and run away behind the
schedule is 1.-THE mounting wild steed
of the plains.' There is an immense
amount of uncertainty in this proceed
ure, though there is not the slightest
trace of uncertainty in the steed--all
Westerners know just exactly what the:
average animals will do. Last Monday
a very nice young fellow, who had ar
rived just the day before from Boston,.
set out to purchase a pony. He went
to one or two corrals without being
suited, but finally. in the third he found
just the animal he desired. The man
told him that it was Comanche pony,
and the quietcst little brute that ever
struck the plains, but despite all the ar
guments and recommendations of the
owner, the young man was determined
to try the animal before purchasing,
and so while he donned pair Of spurs,
four men and two good-sized boys sad
died the Comanche pony and held him
within the corral The young man
was a graduate of the swell Boston rid
iny-schOol, and his bosom swelled some
what with pride as he reflected on the
lessons in grace and skill he would now
give the border ruffians who were con-
gregated about. As he came out into
the corral, he noticed two men getting
behind the pump, and three more crawl
ing up on the roof of the shed in the
corner. He said nothing, but thought
it odd. Then he placed his left foot
sr CT: -,
gracefully into the saddle, while the
four men and two good-sized boys let
go the pony and turned and fed ut the
top of their speed.
Airily and gracefully the young man
vaulted into the saddle, and almost in
stantly he assembled airily and grace
fully into the blue ether above. There
was puzzled expression, as of surprise
and thought, flashed across his face,
and as he again struck the saddle and
for the second time wandered upwards.
him, as though he would like to ask
some questions, but couldn't. Into the
saddle again and then into the atmos-
phere with g whirr and a rush, that
made the two men behind the pump
shudder. Up, up, he went. He could
see the roof of the Grand Central and
could readily distinguish the new court
house in Golden. The view was grand
and extended, but he didn't seem thor
oughly satisfied, and he looked troubled,
and as though he wished he was absent.
Then he began to descend, and about
the time he was due in the saddle, he
struck the ground, and knocked his
boots about his neck, and drove his
spinal column four inches into his brain.
They shoveled him up, and took him to
his hotel, and the next day, Tuesday,
he was sewn up in a canvas sack, and
shipped back to his home in Massa-
clausetts. 1t was his first bucking, and
probably his last. He said, when he
first returned to consciousness, that he
had often heard of the surprising agility
of Western ponies, but he hadn't known
until now that they were fed on dyna-
mite and ro-glycerine and operated
by two hundred cell battery.
This is but one experience in many,
and the newcomer who invests in q
pony had better exercise considerable
caution, and, even at an increased ex-
pend ture, get an animal with sufficient
American blood in him TO deprive him
of his natural pure cussedness, and act
as sort of check on wild tendency
to buck.-Denver Tribune.