Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-12-28
oLp.TMERs or T
Contrast Betw zen the Lot of the Pioneers
and the TendsrfceG

Oohtfhst DEW "cu tine Lot OF the Pioneers
and the TenderfceG
The eld-timers OF Montana are now
q proud lot of men. They have just
reason to be proud, because il was they
who first blazed the trail and withstood
the trials and tribulations which the
wild and woody west had only to offer
the ones who first entered its domain,
says the Butte Miner. Coming, as
many of them did, from homes sur
rounded by all the Injuries and ~civiliz-
ing influences necessary to make life
worth living, it was no small task for
those men to tear themselves loose
from the world and enter o wilderness
where for months at a time nothing save
the blue canopy OF heaven shielded
them from the frosty breath Of old
boreas as he swooped down on them
from the ice-clad shores of Mantle ba.
Bacon, beans and fapjacks comprised
their bill Of fare, and the mar who at all
times was fortunate enough 10 have the
latter delicacy three times a day was
considered TO be adude. Flour in those
days was not the cheapest article Of diet
the market afforded, as it had TO he
packed or hauled hundreds of miles.
At the time when it was scarce
handreds Of dollars were paid
fos a single sack. Money was
plentiful, as 1t was them shat the placer
claims were yielding up their hidden
wealth. These men who slept, ate,
drank and worked together, are the
one, who now pause and glance back at
the rGsgcd pathway along which they
travelled. Some of these pioneers have
accumulated a handsome Competence,
while others have not been so fortunate
and are now merely the shadow Of their
former selves. For those who have
been fortunate nothing but praise can
be spoken, because in their efforts to
achieve that which every living man
hopesto possess-plenty OF money-thcy
had their ups and downs, more Of the
latter than Of the former. For those OF
the oid-timers who have neither be-
come wealthy nor achieved greatness
but have, nevertheless, plodded along
the rough road and withstood the
yicissi:udes TO natural 10 life in a new
country, nothing hut Pity car be ex-
pressed, because they tried and failed.
az HASb~tAos OhC All ALL arc a DIdNo
lot OF men, and it is to their courage
and energy that Montana is indebted
for the place il now occupies along the
galaxy of stars.
The newcomers are a different class
of people from the old, and although
some Of them are possessed of q get-up-
and-get spirit, they have not the proper
qualities 10 plung into a wilderness and
stay with it until it would become a
tenderfoot's mecca, as the old-timers in
Montana have done. Those who left
eastern home many years ago to invade
the unknown precincts of aborigines
did smething which required grit.
After they had crossed the pale of ciyili-
zation they did not know at what
moment they would fathom the great
unknown at the hands OF the red man.,
who at that time was monarch Of all he
surveyed. Many tales OF narrow escapes
pfrom Indians can be related by many OF
them, and yet there was something so
fascinating about the outdoor, rough
and-tumble way of existing hat they
even now breath a sigh OF regret when
they awaken TO the realization that
those days OF bacon n beans have for
ever vanished from view. Although
the new men commonly known as
i'tenderfees) are virtnfl lily in tle west,
they do Not know anything about west
eSn life. Some of them left their east..
'eTn homes with a goodly supply OF
,lnore, earned. perhaps, by their poor
old fathers, and lave never even suf-
fered the Inconvenience of riding ont
side OF a Pullman sleeper. They did
not pack their grub and blankets on
THEN backs and march hundreds OF
imiIss TO reach the greatest silver pro-
camp on earth, as did tbs pio-
,nsers, but quietly snoozed in their cosy
berths while the iron horse whirled
them westward over the trail blazed BY
tine hardy gold hunters 1t is safe to saw
that not enc cut of every 100 tender
fest' who have left the east for the west.
during the past two years but what be-
fors starting armed himself ITO tho
teeth" with q 22-caliber pistol, with
which 30 Kill buffalo and Indians from
the train windows, and supplied himself
with letters OF recommendation 70 the
'Initerate" people of Montana to the
effect that the bearer is SO and 80, and
knows more than anyone else in the
state, and would like a soft Job and a
large salary in consequence of his
smartness-" This Ia the caliber of the.
average person who now seeks to usurp
the place OF b man who for twenty or
thirty years has labored incessantiy 10
establish a commonwealth, that the
''tenderfoot" might not be subjected to,
the horrible" fate of having to sleep.
outside of a parlor or subsist on a, diet
not ht for n lord.