The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-12-16

But the next time he got drunk he set ont
TO have his revenge. After It long ,carch he
found me alone in II nci-hhur'S cabin. lie had
IA knife and cOOlly declared that he had come
10 cut my head oil. ! asked him if ir was sure
his knife was sharp, bccnuse If lie did not cut
my head complctelyo of it would grow or again.
This idea puzzled him. ana | kept working
upon ii until | induced him to 90 into another
room for a milestone. When he passed through
the dot. / closed it and locked him in. then ran
off home.
Another affair occurred when | was seven
teen years old in II school district ten miles out
from Denver. The teacher man-had. beer.
wrestled down by the unruly boys and bound
and left in tba, condition over night. No one
would 90 to succeed him, and | volunteered.
The roughs were determined 10 drive me out
and watched every chance TO trip and throw
me. One day II big half breed clinched Inc
and tried To wrestle me down. but | was a
match for him and not only throw him, but
beat him until he had to be carried home. His
father was Il VIGOROUSLY hard tempered man.
Away ready with his shooter. lie sent word
that he vas coming to settle accounts with me
for beating his boy. Ianswcrcd that if he mo-
Tested me | would treat him in the same man
her, and the idea pleased him 80 that lac came
in q friendly spirit, praised me for II! grit and
sent his son back to school.
AS / have indicated already. circumstances
favored me in many Of these actions. Once
we were snowbOurI IUr six months. and ! was
SO small and light that ! could travel on snow
shoes ON top OF the drift- and go where men
could not. | carried food from our camp to
the men sn9wbound in the mines. At another
time, when / was very small, my fathers camp.
containing only ten men, was surrounded by
hostiles. There was an army post several
miles distant, but we had no means of sending
to them for relief.
mounted my pony and rode about the camp
for a time aimlessly, and the Indians knew me
and paid no attention to the fact. They had
seen me playing with Indian children and
treated me a. a noncombatant. But | had my
duty in mind. and watching a favorable oppor-
tunity struck out into the country at full
speed and reached the post, carrying the
alarm 10 the soldiers. Any one would perhaps
have done these things had they been in my
place, but / was fated to meet with emCrgen-
cies and to do the right thing.
1t should not he inferred from anything
in the foregoing recital that Miss West
over is II type of the cowboy in skirts. She
no only discluims all mannish propensi-
ties for adventure, but has made fight for
a career wholly at war with the drift of her
c%hildhood's circumstances. She educated
herself under great disadvantages, gradu-
ated at the university at Boulder, cult
waited musical and literary tastes, mastered
the polite languages and located in the
east as the more cOngenial atmosphere for
those abilities she prizes most.
She told me these stories between whites
of entertaining lady callers in her study,
surrounded by ''objects, art and imita-
Cions,'' possibly never dreamed of, certain
ly not hoped for, in the midst of the
rough environment Of her Colorado days.
But what was the quality beneath all these
thingsS Was it courage, daring, pluck,
presence of mind or the indefinable genius
for seeing the reeds of the flying moment
and acting promptly in IA way that the
world must applaudy There! In that last
sentence have incautiously stated n third
theory Of hcroiSm, the one toward which
incline as the correct one.
GEORGE l.. kILMER.