The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-12-07

Z
I country. This Is a great tract, lnclu0iilts
Tom Green and several other counties, a
grazing horse sheep and cattle raDching
district, drained By the three COnchJ rivers.
1t is largely level or rolling prsiTles, with q
good proportion Of fertile draws" or va
lsys. 1t used to be thought that fermin :
/ could only be carried on with tie assistance
Of irrigation. because of thu long intervals
between the rainfalls; but IN tie las, three
I years astonishing results have been producer
from dry land farming. l saw at the
Concho Valley Fair, when Yves
in progress at San Angelo when
! arrived, pumpkins which would have
needed very little magic enlargement 70
furnish a Cinderella's coach, and sweet
potatoes so immense they would have
caused Sambos heart TO swell with emotion,
aud fairly wOoed a 'pOssum into dofhng ms
skin and lying down beside them TO be
baked In such good company.
a West Texas crowd is the best natuTed
crowd in the world. OUT here on these
| bOundless savannahs, where there is plenty
| Of air and sunshine and land for every body,
| where the east wind comes from the bay
/ Of Biscay. O. and the west wind seems 10
/ blow to US from over the Emperor OF Uslna's
palace, where there Is an unbOunded sense
/ of freedom and chance for everybody thst
| will half try, nobody seems 70 think 1t
| worth while 10 be mean, or small, or cap
| tious Their faults, like their stature and
1 their virtues. are on a good, big scale.
! There was larger proportion than IN the
! east Of great, long, tine-loOking, white
/ hated, sunburned mRsculinity. The
women, too, are different from their east
| ern sisters. They have had enough expert
| ence of ranching, or the vicissitudes of
| semi-frontier life, TO cure them Of being
/ fussy or carping over little Inconvenience
| delays and bitches in the programme. So
| in the long waits between heats, there IS no
/ grumbling. swearing Dor fretful com
| plants instead, the men chat each other
and guy everything that presents itself,
and the women laugh and talk Good hui
moredly.
The band was stationed on the grand
| stand, somewhat TO one side Of the crowd,
| and discoursed good, robust, able-bOdled
| music. Il was rather Close admit. but it
did not make me half 50 tired as the con-
tinued complaints of a rather dapper look
ing young man just behind our party.
Those fellows were deafeniug him, he said,
it was an outrage TO have such a clam r
| there among tie people. Finally he ex-
claimed angriy: Il wish every one of
| those galoous would burst his diaphragm"
"HOoh, said a six and a-half foot cow
boy. away back in a corner, in the tone aud
key he wonld employ TO a refractory cow,
they hain't got none on"
We all burst with perfect roar Of de-
light. in the midst Of which the dapper fel-
low withdrew, leaving the band blowing
Itself back in the face, and the cowboy,
who was not as green as he looked, winking
cOnfidentially to the crowd.
| attended a dance last week out at the
XII ranch. There were cowboyssgalore,
and a comfortable proportion of the fair
sex. We danced quadrilles, reels and
rounduDs, because only small percentage
OF the participants could ''rasSie" success
fully with the round dances.
The roundup is a big quadrille, with the
couples In one great set all around the room.
Each couple goes through every 'all rOundn
figure, so il takes about three-quarters of an
hour and thirteen miles Of fast travelling to
complete the dance, but the cowboy enthusi-
| asm Is infectious, and | went on and on
through endless figure Fights, "peavines."
and "all all hands round unconscious of
such a thing as fatigue. laughing and caper-
ing with the best of them.
There is a weed which grows in places on
the prairies which, when eaten by cattle or
horses, has the effect of making them crazy
| for a time. They run backward, and rush
| about in a frightful, but, at the same time,
| often ludicrous manner. The Mexican name
| Of the weed is ''loco,n and cattle or horses
that have eaten it are said to be ''locoed.n
| Well, there was little girl at this dance, a
| child Of II or 49, but with all the mature
composure of 30, who danced very we'll and
- y
up she mad for partner a great, awkward
boy Of about 10, who couldn't get through
| single figure He had heavy, high-heeled,
| cowboy boots outside his trousers, and he
| fell over the girls feet, his own, and every
body eise's, finally tripping them both up,
| when they retired from the fray, their in
glorious retreat gracefully covered by the
prOmpter with grand right and left.n
When presently sat down I found my
self beside the little girl Before l could
say word she turned to me with all the
self-possession and sangfrOid of a seasoned
society woman and remarked: "Huh |
thiuk my pardner's sorter locoed.n The tone
and the manner in which she put her head
on one side and stuck out her little elbows
were u apprOachable.
During one of the roundups which didn't
dance, the ranch manager, q very bright and
agreeable young man, told me this tragic
tale Of a cat hunt:
1T YVES awfully hot, and the mosquitoes
were very bad about the house, SO we were
aN-the seven boys of us-seepiug out on
top of that big havstack. There was no
woman at the ranchl
About o'clock one morning we were
awakened by shouting and laughing, and
when we peeped over tue edge of the stack,
there was the whole thirteen outfit ladies
and all, and two New York girls, regular
hummers, that were visiting there. They
ROU OH Unelr PONIES ana WnOOped and ham
mered around the house yelling to us to come
out. You've got to get up; we're going to
have our supper and dance here says Jim
Smith. where in thunder are youF
"'here, says |. up on the haystack' They
all came chatting around the haystacE.
What in the world are you doing up there
Why don't you come DOWN. says one of
them New York girls.
"'Well, our dressing rooms in the house.
ladies' says |, and we can't come down
very we'll on account of its being such bright
moonlight"
They went off mighty quick around the
house, we got in and dressed, and were inst
shaking hands all round when one of the
dogs started a chicken, or a rabbit, or a
kitten, and it lit right through the middle
of the crowd.
'One of those New York girls let off an
unearthly screech, | saw something white
bob up on top of the haystack, and down
: rolled Jake Long, that sleeps like the dead
and hadn't been missed in our rush for the
Z house.
on never seen such a stampede in your
life Those women yelled like catamounts.
and run in every direction. Jake made :
streak like jack-rabbit with a greyhound
after 1t, for the house, and we couldn't get
him to come out to supper nor to dance
. though he's our crack lady's man,
Ar NJ fl.oxr