The Progress., 1893-03-25

But the next time he got drunk he set out
% have his revenge. After a long search he
'ound me alone in neighbur's cabin. He had
knife and coolly declared that he had come
so cut my head Off. | asked him if he was sure
his knife was sharp, because If he did not cut
my head completely Off it would grow on again.
This idea puzzled him, and | kept working
upon it until induced him 10 go into another
room for a milestone. When he passed through
the door closed it and locked him in, then rat
off home.
Another affair occurred when | was seven
teen years old in n school district ten miles out
from Denver The teacher-a man-had been
wrestlcd down by the unruly boys and bound
and loft in that condition over night. No one
vould 90 to succeed him, and | volunteered.
The roughs were determined to drive me out
and watched every chance to trip and throw
me. One day a big half breed clinched me
and tried to wrestle me down, but | was a
match for him and not only threw him, bat
beat him until he had To be carried home. Ills
father was a notoriOusly hard tempered man.
always ready with his shooter. He sent word
hat he was coming to settle accounts with mt
;or beating his boy. / answered that if he mo
lestcd me would treat him in the same man.
ner and the idea pleased him so that he CAME
IN a friendly spirit praised Inc for my grit ann
sent his son back to school.
As have indicated already, circumstance
favored
we were snowbound for six months, and was
so small and light that I could travel on snow
shoes on top of the drifts and go where men
could not | carried food from our camp to
the men snowbound in the mines. AT another
time. when was very small, my fathers CAMP.
containing o.. ly ten men, was surrounded by
hostilcs There was army post several
miles distant. Jut we had no means Of sending
to them for relief.
I oil nv nd lhOut the
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 favorable oppOH
tunty struck ont into the country at full
speed and reached the post, carrying the
alarm to the soldiers. Any one would perhaps
have done these things had they been in my
place, but was fated 20 meet with emergen.
cies and To do the right thing.
1t should not he inferred from anything
I'm the foregoing recital that Miss West
over is a type Of the cowboy in skirts. She
not only disclaims all manni IN propensi-
ties for adventure but has made fight foI
a career wholly at war with the drift Of hei
! childhood'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 fo'
those abilities she prizes most.
She told me these stories between while
of entertaining lady callers in her stud. .
surrounded by "obiects, art and imiti
tions," possibly never dreamed of, certain
ly not hoped for, in the midst of tn'
rough environment of her Colorado days
/ L az l., flag
thingsl Was it courage, daring, pluck
presence OF mind or the indeiinable i,eIdri
for seeing the needs Of the flying mOrlen
y and acting promptly in way that tn
world must applaud? There. II thss las
sentence have ineautiously stav'd thir'
theory Of heroism, the one towal', " nich
incline as the correct one.
GEORGE L. EI.SGER-