The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1883-08-22
A First Woman.

June 3Oth was day of jollifcation at
Carbonate, Colorado, being the advent of
the first wagon, the first woman, and the
first board from the mill.
It would have been interesting to the
reader to have witnessed the electriying
effect on the men in the camp when word
was passed along the line that a woman
was coming. Long before she was within
mile of the camp, knots of men were
gathered here and there watching, look
ing in the direction from whence the
wagon was to come. As she hove in sight
each one gathered around his or their
camp, as when an alarm had been sound
ed in prairie dog town. When within
a few yards of the outside habitation the
woman alighted and accompanied by her
husband proceeded towards the county
clerks office. Ut had been advertised
that the donation of town lot would be
given the first woman who came in.)
Curious eyes were watching her every
step as she approached the clerks quar-
ters. But the crowd which had gathered
around the Office for mail, receded re-
spectfully each side of the entrance. As
she passed in, Col. Ferguson serenely
loomed up, and, sailing out among the
boys, agitated a reception.
Seized by the inspiration of q hundred
hats were removed from heads of noble
structure and design, siluriated somewhat
perhaps, and a hundred horny palms
passed over the unkept locks to smooth
them down, vests were pulled down, and
hundred pair of eyes ran down the
respective owners digging clothes"
proudly inspecting the inevitable "ball
stitch" which rejoined the dismembered
seam or held in place the patch Of con-
spicious dimensions. By look of COM
mon consent, the colonel approached her,
and followed by the uncovered heads,
he inadvertently yanked a frog from his
thro oat and began:
THE SPEECH OF WELCOME.
Respected Madam "-and hundred
heads nodded assent. Appealing again
to his moustache for the needed inspira-
ton, the colonel resumed again: "Res-
pected Madam-the Illuminating spec
tire of this most fascinating occasion"
And hundred heads bobbed serenley
again in assent. Pluming again the
source of inspiration, the halting colonel
staggered on: "Foot prints of thine,
which have first fallen on our car
boniferous soil, we welcome thee. Mer-
curry in her erial flight trails through the
starry architraves of heaven, to trail over
the siulrian outcrops of Garfield country,
which has become sacred from toll, vic
iseitudes and privations. 1t is ours by
right of discovery. and you are welcome.
We are conversant with your sex and
some of us have been victimized. We
have learned to love and cherish in
memory the tiny fingers which were
rubbed over our biscuits in other days,
add we languish for the same. The deli.
cacy of sewing on buttons (thimbleless)
is ours, and our soil-stained robes bear
| the traces of the silurian quito rop. For
months we have been here surrounded
by the beautiful crystalline pearls Of
heaven, which have banked about and
around us, and our only solace has been
the chirp of the camp bird and the
weird wailings of the metamorphic
blasts. We have long anticipated the
daisy, struggling through the snowy
depths to comfort US. as the day drew
| drew near when we laid by our snow
shoes on the limestone lodges, but this
occasion is more sublime, undreamed Of
| and unprecedented in the history Of
our new country. Thou hast come upon
us like perfume freighted breath of the
gentle spring time, and thou art the
shrine of which we bow and bring trib.
ute, and in behalf of these, my partners
in the struggle, who stand before you
with uncovered heads, some of them
glistening like FURNISHED disc in the
silurian sunlight, heads which have been
robbed of capillary traces from newt
contact, I again say, welcome"
And she dropped.-Dencer Nesns.