Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-10-03

THE California known to the gold
l. seeker and tourist to-day is I'M
doubtedly a nice place, but she is only
a poor, mutilated thing compared
with n California old Fernando
knew before the gringo came. Cali
fornla, with her wastes of primeval
forests, boundless valleys stretching
away to the vanishing point, mighty
rivers. and sun-kissed mountains, be-
fore her fair proportions were torn
by hydraulic monitors or disfgured
by dirty cities; when San Francisco
was still a colony of happy sand-hills,
n the bay sparkled in its pristine
blueness unsullied by deposits of
"slickens"-this was the California old
Fernando knew. Then the rolling
plains of the Sacramento we're ami
mated only by Indians and antelope,
n all the broad valley was one mag
nifcent grazing range, with Fernando
monarch of all he surveyed. From the
New Helvetia grant of Gen. Suffer, on
the banks of h Feather river, to his
fastness in the Buttes. Fernando's
brand was seen. He was FOND of say
ing that the Creator had him in His
mind when He created those noun
tains, for there was not a corral in
all the world so fit as the Butte Pass.
There were other ranchmen who
recognized the merits of his range,
too, but it was not to their advantage
to encroach upon it, as they invaria-
bly, found after one season. These
buttes iut up in the heart of the
plains, and in their center lies a val
ley, Or pass, hemmed in on two sides
by high bluffs and at either end by a
narrow opening. Fernando's vaqueros
were skilled in their business, and
every pair of horns on the plains were
rounded into the pass and branded.
In this way his herd increased with
wonderful rapidity, for any brand
might be lost under Fernando's which
was of the ~"hog-pen' style.
Even Fernando's daughter was not
far behind his men in feats of daring
and skill, and she filed the only warm
spot in his thieving old heart. Vio-
letta was her name, and "Fernando's
Violetta' she was always called until
young Dixon, the gringo from the
States, rode down from the Sobrante
grant. "Violetta," he laughed, good
naturally, looking down into her
wide, fearless eyes, and at the name
of sunburncd hair hat framed her
freck1ed face; "Violetta-by all that's
incongruousi She's more like a tiger
lily than a violet" So 'Tiger lily"
and finally "Tige,'' she had become.
Day after day, as DiXon's eyes fol-
lowed her little flying figure mounted
on a half-broken cayuse, bounding
over the plains in the wake of the
herders after some recalcitrant beast,
or galloping into the camp shouting
and halIooing at the top of her voice
from pure exuberance of animal spir-
its, his brow cloudcd, and he shook
his head obviously, for although she
filed his heart and eye, he was bound
to admit she was not promising ma
serial for the domestic hearth. All
his preconceived ideas of a woman's
sphere, gathered from the lives of
his patient mother and prim maiden
aunts, eyerlastingly knitting and
drinking tea in their far-away New
England home, arose in his mind and
arrayed themselves over against this
touch-and-go young thing. wild and
free as the air she breathed. He
laughed in spite of himself at the
thought of Tige's strong. brown
hands, used to throwing the lariat and
welding the quirt, being brought
DOWN to anything so tame as knit
tinp-needles, or Tige's FESTIVE spirits
being curbed to brook the trials of the
Drudent housewife.
Once he had tried to demonstrate
9TH her. but such serious argument
was too tedious for her hot young
blood and. watching her chance of es-
she threw herself, bareback, on
his pony, Breaker. and was away at fuli
air over the prairies to ride off her
impatience. No, no; h was too reek-
less and willful to bend her head to
restraint. Dixon told himself. The
woman was lost in the vaquero.
And so matters endured until one
evening. coming home in the glow OF
~. carly summer sunset, knee-deep in
he waving wastes of golden peoples,
49, rode on together, for miles
a.,T,d no other soul. Tige, under
tbs smell of the dropping day. filled
With something of the tenderness OF
he great heart of nature that beat
90 close about them. lost her rech-
,sss shirt and forgot to be defiant,
- restless little cayuse being held
down to a quiet jog and made to let
Breaker walk very close
caeing her for the first time in this
- ba almost feared to put 1T to
test by hroaching a subject she
never listen to; but seeing the
-. mood deepen under the infu-
- - the evening, he began. tender
..-r;ye.. and. to his surprise, she
rssent his toxes-Tige, dc
Gu