Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-21
FIRE ON THE RANCH.
Alice MacGowan's Lively Experience
in Southwest Texas.
TIE HORSE RUsTLER OF TIE PARTY
A Trained Pony and an Unframed Rider
After Contrary Calf.
INSPECTING THE LAND WITH A GUN
rCoRREsPoNDENcE OF THE DIsPATcH.1
BUENA VENTURA RANCH,
CROCKETT COUNTY, TEX, Dec. 1s. I

Sneep ranches are the rule. luis Deautllul
country, partly high, level plains and
partly rolling prairie, broken by low. fat
topped hills and ridges into hundreds
of draws, hollows or valleys. The land is
fertile, mostly; the varieties of mesquite
grass grow rich and plenteous; the climate
is mild and delightful, northers infrequent
and of modified ferocity, but the great de-
sideratum is water.
Running water of any sort there is none,
except during and Immediately after heavy
rains. The water courses are nine-tenths of
the time arroyos, dry beds or runs, and the
lagunas or lake beds scattered over the
plains to the northeast of this place are only
dips in the prairies, where the grass grows
fresher greater portion of the year. For
all these reasons this is an ideal sheep
range, especially desirable to winter sheep
on. They can fiud among the hollows and
draws shelter from wind from any direc-
tion or directions-pIenty of long, rich
mesquite grass, while the absence OF water
is no drawback, TOR sheep drink very little
or no water in winter, anyhow.
GOING OVER THE RANCH.
But this, as I said, is cattle ranch. The
family consists of the ranchman and his
mother; the other members of the household
being the ranchman's assistant and, just
now, myself. 1 have been ''out on the
range" with Mr.. Jackson every day since
got here. A ranchman goes out on the
range-or rides over the land where the body
of his cattle run-to see if they are all right.
if any are hurt, or sick, or molested by wild
animals, etc.
We each take a gun slung to the saddle
nod bau ttua
shat aint old enough to have any sense
yet" my host says, and are on the lookout
for deer, antelope, cat or panther. The dogs
60 to start and trail cats. foxes or panthers;
so far we have seen only deer, and the two
senseless pups always rush in yelping just
in time to drive the game away.
can never, somehow, receive the i'm
preston of the utter solitude of the coun-
try-miles upon miles, leagues beyond
leagues of plains as level as floor, or of
broad, winding valleys and draws, like great
ancient water courses. where prehistoric man
NAV have looked on noble streams taking
their way in stately majesty to the Rio
Grande, leaving greenness and life and
music behind them, but now thirsty and
silent and soundless, save for the occasional
whirr of partridges, the flight of a hawk,
the silent bounding away OF gray deer
like the frightened deity of the place, the
rare call of plover or curlew, or the clusters
of cattle feeding by twos and threes.
A PICTURE OF THE PLAINS.
Yet, such bond-slaves of habit are our
thoughts; such creatures of our long g-time
surroundings and experiences, can never
convince myself OF the genuineness and
completeness OF the solitude. ALI is so soft,
the slopes are so gentle, with the slant sun
light smiling over them, the occasional
mesquite is so like peach tree, the live oak
a spreading old apple tree, that see in
every heap OF rocks or irregular break in
the horizon line cluster of little houses;
leafess twigs are spires; O colony of tall
sotol stalks on a bank above a dry arroyo
looks little vineyard, or a garden, beside
a stream with thrifty bean sticks; along the
winding cattle trail (to ME little tame,
domestic, rural path) look and look to
see man or boy coming. with a gun, maybe.
| and rabbits, or scythc over his shoulder;
hear the whistle. a bark: I hear distant COW
| bells, mellow voices of reapers, or mowers,
| or plowmen, laughs and calls of hunters,
| tine little treble cry of children playing, "a
cackle, calls, cluckings, hammerings, all
| the suggestions and sounds, indistinct and
| softened by distance, of rustic liie-and our
nearest neighbor, sheep ranchman, ten
miles awayi
We 'lope on and on, we make detours,
circle around the foot of little hills and
skirt low bluffs. the favorite haunts OF cat
and panther; then creep cautiously over
divides, gallop boldly out across high
plains, the feeding grounds of deer and an
telope 1 look continually Tor fence OF
other bar to our progress, but there is none,
none, none in any direction. It is all space,
unlimited, unhindered, like an eternity OF
q universe; but still, ior me, just over the
next divide around the next turn, under the
brow of the next queer-looking hill, always
awaits the village or hamlet, or nestles the
| farmhouse.
A BoLTING LITTLE BEEF.
The solitude has in it nothing of desola-
ton. 1t is such fair, kind, inviting land,
So friendly, so humanized, so gracious and
| familiar, that can never really know or
feel our utter loneliness and isolation; can
never convince my fancy, my imagination
| of it, and it is still with me as with Tenny-
sons Princess Ida's lover, the dream is the
| real, and the real but a dream. We had
been out all morning, some days since, beef
| hunting-the ranchman, the cowboy and
my yself; we had found fat. curly-faced,
muley yearling and driven HIM home. He
| bolted, to my great delight. just at the cor
raj, and was allowed to help round him up
| again.
1t was perfectly astounding to me the
way my chunky little pony, that had Sc
| cretly thought lazy and sleepy all the morn
| ing, conducted himself. The moment the
| calf bolted Little Wilson-without so much
as "by your leave''-was off after him like a
shot. The cowboy was on the other side
| with his rope swinging around his head,
We headed him back again, and again, and
ever time he bolted. If the cowboy had
been on Little Wilson he could have roped
the calf readily, for Little Wilson ran in
close alongside over and over again, shook
his head and snorted with zeal, then sheared
| of, and when he found there was no rope TO
make taut, dashed up again. I felt sorry
| for him. 1t seemed humiliating for such q
business little fellow to have to carry a
clumsy tenderfoot-a female one, at that.
THE CALL TO THE FIRE.
But we got the calf iu the corral. steeled
myself to look while my host dropped him
in his tracks, with his nose right at his fore
feet; then we rode to the house to get some
dinner, Mr.. Jackson tying up our ponies
with the remark that we would go out and
look for cat or panther after dinner.
But while we were at the table a weary,
smoke-begrimed man rode up to tell us he
| had let out the fire from his camp over on a
side draw. He and his partner had been
| fighting it all morning alone, but had found
they were losing ground, and had come for
help.
''If it gets through here into johnson
your whole range is gone, said he.
We all got up very promptly; canteens
were filled with water, old coats and green
deer hides hunted up to fight the fire with,
L L