The Lamar register., 1895-01-26
MODERN CAVE JEWELLERS OF
WESTERN NEBRASKA.
How the Men Toll and tho Lonely Lives
of the women-it Takes End of
Pluck and Courage to Endure. But
They Are Generally Rewarded.

grain fields, perhaps a large timber
claim OF young box elders and cotton
woods, garden, a roomy stock yard.
and the sod roofs of many sheds for
poultry, stock and machinery; but ex-
cept for wreath OF smoke or the
chance reflection of window pane
the dwelling would be overlooked.
1t is often Of the half dug-out half
sod-house order of architecture, the
back part followed out OF the side of
a low hill, and the front of the squares
OF sod, merely placed together and
upheld by slight frame OF wood. with
a door and one or two window-casings
and perhaps few rafters overhead.
II is very small and low and serves
the single purpose of shelter. There
Is a possibility even OF its failure in
this, and the trap door aslant at one
side of the house proclaims the cy-
clone extraordinarily the receptacle
OF milk and butter.
Life in one OF these prairie dwell
lings is certainly getting close to ma
ture and the primitives. To realize
this one has only TO fancy a man and
a wife In sod house, fifteen miles
from the nearest village, in one of the
sparsely settled districts OF Western
Nebraska. For days, and in some sea-
sons. for weeks, they see no human
beings outside of their own household.
Even begging Indians and tramps are
almost unknown in this country.
Through the day. while the man is in
the fields. the herding usually falls to
the woman's lot. Probably each takes
noon luncheon in a paper. TO save
coming back to the house until night.
The woman attends to her necessary
household duties. throws gunny sack
over her broncho's back, jumps astride.
rounds up the cattle and drives them
down the canyons to Craze on the
steep sides. or in a low strip beside
a creek What the sod house woman
thinks about all day long in solitude
like that it is hard to tell-the mort
gage on the farm, diseases among the
stock. the prospects of the crops. the
time when they can put up their
frame dwelling. the hard, unadorned
facts in the treadmill of her life; she
makes new plans for the work, work.
work, which is her sole law of exist
ence.
withered and prematurely old. Hair
and skin take on the general tint OF
things about them. Their teeth drop
out without thought of replacing
them. And there comes certain
feverish look in their eyes-a look of
intensified expectation, straining
into the future.
1t is motley assortment OF human
ity that takes the claims and home
steads on the opening up of country
like this, writes a correspondent of
the Chicago Times. Ex-cowboys who
have come to admit the claims of a
single wife and family. confirmed
ploneers who move with the advance
OF the railroads, people of refinement
and reverses of fortune, many Russian
and German emigrants, and sprink-
ling of all the other nations of the
earth. After the first rush IA sitting pro-
cess sets in which soon separates them
into three classes: Those who stay
through everything and make the
prosperity of the country, the nom
progressive, who never get beyond
the original sod house, and the shift
ing transients who move at a sign of
trouble and come back in time of
prosperity
A woman's lot is the harder; she
misses more things in such a life than
aman does. II she is strong enough
mentally and physically. to endure 1t
until they come into better things.
she lives out her allotted time un-
l,1 ct hf,