Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-14


dusk of an October evening swung intc
First View. The town consisted of &
section house, where a supper of rancid
bacon, rare potatos, leaden bread founced
with sorghum, and coffee which looked ex
actly like some alkaline pools wot of and
tasted about as cheerful, encouraged my
lonely belt TO reassert itself There was nc
temptation TO sleep in the infested house,
and after supper found luxurious little
gully in the grassy plain, gathered little
resinweed for a pillow, spread my sleeping
bag on the soft sand and turned in.
Just as 1 was doing off tiny patter
reused me, and, opening my eyes, saw the
sharp, inquisitiye face of a coyote looking
down at me from the bank not five feet
above. slid my hand softly 10 nv A, but
he was of like a shot, carrying with him
TIE pretty pelt for which was so anxious.
First View of Pixies Peak.
Next morning before the sun had
climbed above the bare, brown divides of
Kansas, l rolled out of "bed, " danced about
a few moments in the cool morning air to
unlimber my joints, and then hastened to
introduce my chattering teeth to breakfast
which would have swamped any less
burglar-proof stomach. Its only merit was
that il was warming. As the day burst into
bloom the section people pointed out the
faint patch of white upon the far-off Western
sky from which First View takes its name
the noble head of Pixies Peak, which half
century ago was one of the saddest and most
romantic goals toward which man ever
struggled. 1t is nearly 150 miles from First
View.
Then, filling the long magazine of nv
Winchester and slowing a quart bottle of
water in one of the capacious pockets of my
coat, I struck out at a rapid gait northwest
wardly, desiring TO hunt well out into the
plains and still get back to Kit Carson, Is
miles ahead, before night. 1t is no easy
walking upon the plains at this season of
the year. The short, brown buffalo grass
soon polishes ones soles until they shine
like glass, and directly the feet slip, so that
1t is rather hard TO tell whether the step
carries one farther forward or the slide
farther back.
Sighting the Antelope. !
Ten slippery miles must have been trav-
ersed in this dubious and aggravating loco
motion before nv eyes, rested on the object
of their search. Three or four miles off. in
low divide, were four tiny gray dots. They
had no apparent shape, nor did they seem
to move; but the hunters eye-even when
1t has been abused by years IN chasing the
alphabet across a white page-is not easily
fooled. They were antelope-and the next
thing was to get them.
The theories of antelope hunting were
sufficiently familiar to me by reading, but
when put into practice they did not fully
bear out the books. A big red bandanna,
tied to the end of my bamboo staff, was soon
Tapping to the wind, and ! Law fully an
hour behind handy rosette of the Spanish
dagger, innocently expecting my game to
come straight up TO meas they should
have done according TO all precedent in the
stories. Their attention soon grasped my
signal, and they did sidle toward me by de-
gUees, demurely nibbling the dry grass as
they advanced But they had probably
seen auction flags before, and after perhaps
a mile of their herbivorous advance they
stopped, and even began grazing away from
me. 1t was plain that any further advances
toward an acquaintance must come from me.