The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-10-23
ROMANCE OF RLATA.
How a Boston Sophomore Became q Cow
boy and Won a Bride.

boy anu won hIANr'
From the San Francisco Alta.
The movements of a real cowboy on
Kearney street attracted attention
He stood nearly six feet in his boots,
and his regular features and dropping
blonde mustache gave his face an aspect
of beauty fully in keeping with his
handsome proportions. His attire
was that of the vaquero, consisting OF
buckskin trousers, a wollen shirt
fastened at thethroat with a carelessly
knotted silk handkerchief, q coarse
chinChilla sack coat and broad-brlm-
med felt hat OF the sombrero pattern.
An Alta reporter learned his name and
his history. His name was Edward
n. Willets and six years ago he was at
college, when he received p~eremptory
orders from his father, O wealthy Bos-
ton merchant, to enter the theo-
logical class and fit himself
for the ministry. The command came
like a thunderbolt to the happy-go-
lucky Young fellow. who had always
believed himself destined to follow his
father in business when the latter
should be ready to retire. A quarrel
with his pere was the result and the
Young fellow suddenly left for the west.
At Cheyenne he laid over for ashort
hunt on the plains. The wild life OF
the cowboys caught his fancy. Sal
ary proved little object, and he had
little difficulty in attaching himself to
a big ranch until he had mastered his
new vocation. Finally he drifted
through portions ofMontana, Nebras-
ka, Dakota, Idaho, Nevada, and final
ly into Oregon and California. The
opening OF the Summer found him en-
gagged with three or four comrades in
driving a small band of steers overthe
Santa Cruz Mountains. Cattle in the
mountains are not pleasant obiectsto
deal with. Every unruly steer that
broke from the band required an
hours chasing up and down steep
slopes, over rocks andfallen trees, and
through the spiteful brush.
Toward the end of the drive the
steep bluffs that line the road on
either hand kept the steers in fairly
good order, and only occasionally did
an unusually juicy bunch of grass
tempt some hungry one to bolt upthe
slope or into the canyon below. lit
was an occasion of this sort that sent
Willetts ~careering among the brakes
and ferns on theslope above. Achase
OF half q mile had seen the truant re-
turn to the road, and Willetts was
skirting the edge of the bank some dis
lance in advance of the drove IN
search Of a safe place to descend,
when in the middle ofthe narrowroad
he saw a lovely girl. The drove was
thunderingdown onher, and promising
to soon crush her young life beneath
their ponderous weight. Escape for
the girl seemed impossible. From the
road to where Willetts' horse stood
was a wall ofrock fully twenty feet in
height, and below to the bed of the
stream was a sheer descent of double
that distance. For only asecond was
the horseman inactive. Then with a
speed born OF long practice he lifted
his trusty rawhide riatafromtheh horn
of his saddle and threw it. put that
under your arms, miss" was Willetts'
hasty Injunction. 1t was obeyed, and
not a moment too soon the girl was
lifted above the heads and horns of
the oncoming cattle.
When they were well by, Willetts
slowly Stacked down untilhis catch
dropped safely to the earth. Five
minutes later, when he managed to
find a pathway down andreached the
subject of his daring bit of horseman-
ship, she Was lying in the dust i'll a
faint. When she recovered he learned
that she, too, was from Boston, and
with her father and mother was spend
ing the summer amid CALIFORNIA;
most favored spots. The old gentle
man, her father, was highly delighted
when he learned of Willetts' identity,
as he soon did. "His daughter fool
ishly placed a high value on my little
service explained Willetts, blushing,
"and when I saw how she had over
estimated it, | meanly demanded the
largest reward could think of. The
details were settled and came on by
the evening train to fit lAyself for her
society. She swears that / look like
an angel in nay WOODEN shirt and buck
skin trousers, but / will try and get
her used to me in civilized garb, for a
vaquero's dress is hardly the thing
for aesthetic Boston,
Are you going back?' :
Yes, in September. We shall tour
Yosemite as ma and wife and then
60 back home. My father-in-law says
that my father has long been anxious
to have me come home, andthath he will
set me cup if the old gentleman doesn't,
SO think / had better GO"