Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-11-27
TWO WOMEN
TRAMP ON WAGER
THEY WALK FROM SPOKANE TO
NEW YORK.
Encounter Snow - They Pass
Through Floods and FrOsts and
Over Burning Sands, but They
Never StOpPed-A Prize OF $4,000
Awaits Them.

Over Burning Sands, but They
Never StoPPed-A Prize Of $4,000
Awaits Them.
Spokane Chronicle.
Mrs. Estby and her daughter who
left the Office of the Spokane Chronicle
at noon May 9Th last, on journey on
foot bound for the Office of the New
York World, which they are to reach
by Dec. Ii in order to win the prize
offered by a wealthy lady of New York
for any woman who would accomplish
the journey in that manner, arrived
in Chicago, Nov. 9th, having accom-
plished $500 miles of the trip. They
yet have 800 miles to walk before they
can reach their destination.
In their long tramp Mrs. Estby and
her daughter have undergone priva-
tions and hardships that would have
caused many husky man to give up
the undertaking long ago, but not so
these two determined women who have
stuck to their original intentions with
a tenacity worthy of better cause.
In the route they have selected they
have travelled much farther than it
was necessary in reaching Chicago,
but as the object of the trip was partly
to see the country the two women fol-
lowed no regular highway, but simply
their own bent. A Chicago paper of
recent date contains a two-column
article descriptive of their long tramp
together with the following interview
with Mrs. Estby:
"We left Spokane May 9th and
have been out all summer and as q
result we are as brown as berries. We
had a late spring in which to start on
our trip and encountered much cold
weather with snow and rain. We felt
so cold many night that it was inn
possible even for us to eat. Then we
had great deal of high water in
Idaho to contend with. In several
instances we found that bridges across
streams had been carried away and we
were obliged to ford across the best
we could. Then later the bad weather
set in and it sometimes became so hot
that we were able to bake chickens by
burying them in the sand.
ave have learned what it is to be
hungry since we started, for while go.
ing through Idaho we at one time
went three days and two nights with
out tasting food. 1t was in seeking g
place to ford stream some distance
south of Boise that we got off from
the main road. That night and tht
next we were obliged to sleep under
the blue canopy of heaven. 1t was a
the end of the third day before w
came across habitation and secure,
the first mouthful of food that we ha.
tasted for sixty hours.
1t was towards evening of the secon'
day of this part of our journey tina
we met with our most terrifying eS
perience in the form of mountain
lion that crossed our path. I was 8
hungry at the time that I felt n
great fear, but wished I had gu
that I might kill the wild beast fc
food. When night closed in on I
shortly afterwards we then began
S fear that the lion might take it int
his head to devour us, so we built
. fire and while one of us slept the otht
3 stood guard and replenished the fir
: We heard the beast in the vicinity fl
/; some time, but about midnight I que
it scampered away, as We heard notl
f; ing of it after that. You may be sur
however, that our fire was never a
lowed to get low.
Fl at was while journeying through
, portion of Colorado that we expe,
e enced considerable fear from the wi
3 cattle that we encountered in va
! herds on the prairies. To see anyol
afoot and especially wearing dresse
seemed to be the greatest source
wonder to them for the ferocious loo
e ing cattle would surround us upon q
), sides and gaze and gaze at us in Il
e greatest curiosity. Then some
1 them would start off in a wild star
e pede across the plains as if the We
Satan was at their heels. At tim
1 my daughter and l were in dead
n fear that we would be caught in Il
1 wild rushes and trampled to deaf
1t seemed, however, as if the catt
were about as afraid of us as we we
e of them, for we passed through tn
4 experience unharmed.
is "Another thing that we had
,f contend with in Colorado was rattl
S snakes. We ran across great MAJ
t, of them and you may be sure We ke
l. our eyes open wide to avoid the ug
n things. Once night overlook
i. about a mile from little town whe
y we expected to stop for the night.
t, l was walking rapidly along su
s. denly felt something strike my 70
k followed Immediately by sharp pal
,f / was positive l had been bitten by
'rattler. That next mile, until ,