Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1895-12-12


arid, treeless, rolling plain; few tufts
of scattered cacti; no human being,
beast or bird in sight; perfect stiffness
and early afternoon under sun that
blazed where never cloud had flown
for weeks. Even insects had persisted
from drought in that desolation--so
anyone might have imagined had any
one been gazing about on that Califor-
mia scene from a point within hundred
yards of the apparently-deserted
wheels. '7s'' q sE'.aa@s- s5=.asel
Had a native stood there he would not
have supposed the wheels deserted, but
guessed that the riders were concealed
in some crack of the sun-baked earth.
Indeed, Del Hall and were almost
within springing distance of our bike s,
and much disinclined to remount them.
We had lun ched fully if not comfort
ably on the provisions and drink we
carried; the earth-crack in which we
lay was deep and narrow enough 10
shade us from the slightly westering
sun, and we shrank from more pedal
ing under it's glare. g- 49,
Del and /, college chums, had under
taken to wheel from San Francisco to
Los Angeles, nearly 400 miles as the
crow flies. Our guides were pocket
compass and the clay of the land" Our
Interpreters were the natives and our
selves-their much Mexican being
about as clear to us as our little Spanish
to them. But they were wonderfully
quick in understanding all demands
made in the name of the white almighty
dollar of Uncle Sam.
Without good letters of introduction
to various owners of ranches, who
passed us on with equally good letters
to others of their hospitable kind, we
could not have traversed the country.
Much of it lacks inns and stores, and
even places Of public resort. But for
hospitality we should have starved.
Andson this blazing day we were max
ing for the Rancho del Paso, an interest
ing old mission ranch established long
before gold-seekers rushed to Cali
fornia. 'At's 5.'= 800 ..s
We had not met a soul for ten miles
before lunching.
Are you sure we're on the way? Del
asked, as the time came near when we
must remount.
"Certainly; the track is plain enough -
said. 1.-The last man we met said we
couldn't miss it as long as we kept
about this far from the foothills"
But he said something else. wish
we had stopped longer to make out
what he did mean. It WAS something
about Plaza de Toros. I've been think
ing he was warming us against cattle y
"Pooh! Are you afraid Of cows ?
Come along; we must move. There's II
rise about half a mile ahead; perhaps
we shall see the rancho from there; it
can't be more than Is miles away; may
be not half so far" ts...l#t#.%
Again we sped over the vast plain,
cobwebbed with assures and cracks by
the long drought, which had made a
veritable desert of the tract within
sight.
Five miles nearer the coast the couE-
try smiled with grass and grain, vine
yards and olive groves, but here
we were running through waste
drearier than any we had traverse6.
But we hoped for a more pleasing pros
pect beyond the slow rise we were as
cending.
AS the assures and cracks mostly ran
ON southerly course. we seldom need
ed to dismount, though frequently
forced to short detours. So we soon
climbed the gradual rise, whose sum-
NIT extended OH a level broad enough
to hide the lower tract Immediately be-
yond. Yet the more distant ground was
in view, and there, as if it had suddenly
sprung from the earth, we saw the IT.
regular, broken line of the adobe walls
of Rancho del Paso, our resting place.
''Hurrah! 1t can't be more than four
miles away, Del!''I cried. "Come along;
let us drop into this dried-up arroyo and
get it's shade till it runs out in the next
lowland," for we knew that such an
arroyo, or water course, cuts somewhat
deeply through the slow rises and but
little into the hollows of these plains
While we dipped into the arroyo the
tufts of cacti on the upland seemed
moving in the shimmering sunlight.
B No more of the plain did we see until
we. reached the lower level, when our
heads were higher than the frayed
rides of the water course. Then Del and
cried out together in amazement, fo-
countless cattle were near us on tie
plain. Z s@aE
AS we ran up out of the water course
we saw groups scattered as far as the
eye could reach. They fanked us On
both sides; hundreds were behind us;
q compact array, almost numerous
enough to be called herd, stood ON our
path to the ranch.
Toward this mass all the others
seemed to be. converging, as the slop-
ing sides of a funnel trend toward its
hole, or rather as the horns of cow
!. often curve inward at the tips.
4 Our course to the rancho lay almost
evenly between the sides of this living
funnel. But its opening was blocked
Still, we believed we could pass round
that small, massed herd.
It was not at all necessary for us to
make the attempt, and we would not
have tried it had we imagined it to be
dangerous. Nothing but little shade
I and comfort could we gain by reach
ing the Rancho del Paso quickly. Time
was of no account just then, for we
meant to stay at the rancho until the
next morning. 4 And yet we went
s''scorching" along with never a thought
of prudence or delay. s'
None of the cattle that flanked MS on
/ either side were within 200 yards when
we began the run. They were slowly
moving in groups, and those which
formed, as it were, the tips of the horns
I were not within $50 yards of the herd
directly In our way. An opening lay
!, on each side of these, and we started for
the easterlys gap at moderate speed, not
imagining how the strange spectacle
OF bicyclers would hurry the cattle.
Scarcely had we started when the
commotion began. Thousands Of eyes