The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-07-06
Looks Like 10 Tramp.
%CT AN hour high the sun still beat
- iercely down on the ''long transit

fercely down on the "long transit
- of the Union Pacific railway, and
on the village of Long Transit, Neb. East
and west of this unpicturesque hamlet the
grade extends GO miles unbroken by n
Z single curve or divergence i'm the profile
of the road bed. For three days the sun
had sucked up the moisture int burned
into the grass roots of the wide table land
above the Platte river. AT high noon and
in the fierce posi-meridian heat waves
had danced and trent led i'm the garish
!. air. One mile out from Long Transit, be-
side the hot. sandy highway, a line of
parched and stunted willow made a par
tial shade along the road for perhaps a
hundred yards. This bit of foliage was a
sample Of the imitation forests of treeless
Nebraska-the result of an Arbor day
picnic.
On one side of the willows stretched
a piece of yellow wheat stubble. On
I the other lay the road, n thread OF
sand almost as yellow, not winding,
broken with hills, and curved like an
eastern country iane, hut straight and I'M
bending as though run with a surveyors
as. indeed. il had been. Under
the largest OF the willows, with n red bum
die for a pillow. a weeks gr ,wth of heavy,
black beard. a coarse and very moist blue
: uhlifltl SihEt, oBth ~ MS piceo, hahs
breast. lay a large man. His neglected
person and the accumulation Of dust, ac-
companied by his general ravel-stained
appearance made n guess at his age diiil-
cult. He might have been 40 years old
he might nave been Is years younger The
tall blue-joint grass aroun him into
which lie had ponderously crushed,
screened him from view. But its rank
luxuriance prevented the free circulation
in his vicinity of whatever air was stirring,
So well was he hidden, i'm fact, that a
covey of prairie chickens with open, gasp
ing beaks, stalked and browsed in the
stubble not % feet from the mans head.
From the direction of the town n light,
double-seated wagon, drawn by two
broncos, came down the road. Ii con-
tanned three persons. Upon the front
, seat were two girls. one of whom was
driving. She was Is years of age, IN I'M
~mistakable beauty with "A large mouth
there are such types-but with features
otherwise classical, dark eyes and hair.
Her seat companion, her sister. was Ia
years of age, at the gawky stage of
feminine development. On the rear seat
was a little old man, with impish face,
no teeth. a vacant smile and shaking
with the palsy. AT the rafting approach
OF the wagon the prairie chickens, full
20 i'm all, crouched low to the ground.
Undoubtedly the Wagon would have been
driven past without disturbing the birds,
But the man raised himself lazily with a
grass blade in his teeth for a closer in.
specIion of the outfit:
"Whirr! Whirr! Whirr. Up sprang
the startled birds, scattering in all direc.
tons. A bunch of them wildly drive be.
fore the face OF the FESTIVE broncos They
rear aud plunge. In an instant one OF
them has his foreleg over the tongue and
Is kicking viciously.
"For Gods sakes %alive.' piped the old
man. piteously, "Henrietty, kin We quiet
'em? Kin yer hol' 'em err minnit-jist CT
minnit till we all git out?
Now one of the broncos is down, the
other rearing madly. Bits OF harness are
swapping. The fallen pony lies trembling
with his red tongue far out OH the sane
and red cyeballs rolling in terror. The
other one is fiercely kicking the dash.
board into kindling wood. Now the man
in the blue grass springs forward like
an apparition. Henrietta, who has brave
ly clung TO the lines. knows that one oi
them has broken. AT the same moment
she realizes that a man. a roughly dressed
but powerful man. is at the heads of the
broncos. The old man has rolled out of
the wagon, aud the younger girl, taking
advantage OF a monetary lull in the
frantic energy OF the ponies, slips over
the wheel.
''Jump out too, you, man, says the
stranger.
Henrietta follows this advice. Deity
l~oosening various buckles. the stranger
soon has the broncos separated. With a
strong grip upon the brittle of the kicker
he prods the fallen pony. aud almost lifts
him bodily To his feet. The ponies stand
foam-lerked and trembling. Then, with
a snort. they start suddenly to break
away. Useless. Though they plunge
right and left the stranger is still in th.
center. holding them at arms length. and
is master of the situation. The animals
became ~quieter. Their small, vicious
eyes glance restlessly. but they are con
quered.
y darned use ter hitch 'em ~up,"again
wheezes the old man, list turn 'em loose
we kin huff IL hum. They'll git hum, too
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