The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-12-23
Tramps Oh Wheels. --The Perpetual
Emigrants OF the Plains.

Tramps Oh Wheels. 1.-The Perpetual
Emigrants OF the Plains.
Any one who has lived for any length
Of time on the Pacific Coast has become
familiar with the appearance of emf
grants wagons plodding back and forth
along the roads. Indeed many of them
become familiar, net only as type but
Individually, being in reality little more
than mounted tramps, travelling regu-
larly back ward and forward with the
seasons, taking pains only to keep along
route where pasturage and water are
abundant; for this class of emigrants are
usually accompanied by their {. stock"
which generally consists of four or FIVE
bronco horses and colt or two, and
some times they also drive with them
one or two cows Two dogs under the
wagon are inevitable, and / have been
told that in many instances they have
hens also which become so accustomed
to this nomadic life that they involun-
tarily flop over on their backs and hold
their feet up to be tied as soon as active
preparations to start begin. For the
latter story, however, l am not prepared
1OEN9uCkl. 4ACSC dAtO IltfC u
lar camping spots all along the coast,
and as we.lhave often driven merrily
past them late in the evening, on our
way to a welf-seryed supper and cosy
fireside, my thoughts would go wander
ing back to the weird picture by the
'wayside and the grotesque group hud-
died around the camp fire or disposing
of their evening meal by its side.
There is often row of happy eyed
children with faces and little bare feet
and legs sun-burned and dirty; but the
mother. inevitably looks careworn and
weary and not ray of hope seems left
in the face that gazes istlessly out from
under the brown calico " clapboard''
n-bonnet. I have often wondered
what such life must be. Once on Arr
IONA soil We joined the grand army of
campers, If not of tramps, and when
,donped my dark calico camp dress and
the typical, brown sun-bonnet, " sensi-
BILE but not pretty" and climbed into
the genuine emigrant wagon that was
to take us to our destinations wagon
with white canvas cover puckered up
behind, leaving only small portfolio
70 I found a way to the overburdened emil
s,a grant heart, and many kind word
% has been spoken from under brown
81 sun bonnet that must otherwise have re-
manned unsaid; for to certain class
the average emigrant is as inaccessible
as the Emperor Of China.
"df The fwoman's face tells the whole
story. She has one day had a home;
4 poor it 80 may have been, =. but to
the woman's heart home still! ,e Hoping
~ to better their condition they have
moved about from place TO place, grow
ing naturally poorer and poorer until
they often suffer from lack of the merest
3 necessities of life. One of them pathet-
Neically said to me: ''We're mighty nigh
M ont. er grub and it seems like times
4 grows harder and harder all the while"
And no wonder; for when they had all
scrambled out of the wagon l counted
no fewer than thirteen, mouths to be
filed, not including the three cadaver-
Gus bulldogs under the wagon which
eyed the well-fed stranger in very sim
lister manner: The woman had twin
babies fourteen months old, and there
were little heads ranging snthe way in
height to the eldest, boy of fifteen.
They were as wild as flock of Young
" quails. and like them very much in
clined to scatter for the brush when a
stranger approaches; but have univer-
OF sally remarked that they are very kind
to each other and respectful and obedi-
entto their parents, and the young girls
especially have modest and rather pref
ty manners. ~ '''HH'.7 ~
81 These people are typical in their man
liner OF living of the wandering emf
!; grants as class. When night comes
!, they spread their blankets on the ground
to sleep wherever night happens to find
them and by daylight are up and prepar-
ing the morning meal, which usually con-
sists, in the absence of venison or other
game, of bacon and beans supplement-
ed by biscuit made of s.salt risin' y and
soda baked in a Dutch oven or a more
hurried breakfast of pancakes When
this meal is finished the "old man >,
shoulders his rifle and starts out hunt
ing and prospecting also, if in mining
locality, never doing a steady days
= work until compelled to .'.smake grub
ie stake and then working at whatever
comes to hand and for just as brief a
period as possible. Meanwhile the
!, - old woman ''"w washes the TIN plates
and puts another pot of beans over"
and then sits down in the one chair be-
longing to the "outfit," which ineyita-
i. bly, has seat of woven raw hide, to
J mend or make new garments out of the
Hour sacks which are emptied in suffi-
cient numbers to furnish the family
with clothes, supplemented now and
then by piece OF calico. When the
rainy season overtakes them, or winter
Z comes. which. in some of the higher al
tltudes OF Arizona and New Mexico is
quite severe, they provide themselves
with shelter wherever they happen to
be by making "wicky-up" For this
steep bank or side-hill is selected and
q level spot excavated until at the back
the wall is about six feet in depth. The
: sides and front are then built up in =
substantial manner either of stones or
logs. which ever prove most available
in the immediate neighborhood A.
doorway is left in front which affords