The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-04
OHIO TENDERFOOT MADE GOOD
Cowpunchers Thought He Was Easy, But the
Youth Tackled the Bad Broncho.

There are certain advantages in be-
conscious of them till you have passed
the tenderfoot stage, but if you take
any sort of interest in life you can
hardly fail to appreciate in some de-
gree the solicitude you arouse in the
hearts of your entertainers. 1t is
fine thing to be held so dearly as to
be warned and cautioned cfrcumstan-
italy against the perils that beset you
in numbers you never even dreamed of
when you set out to see the West
The barn man at the ranch does not
look the least like a humorist. His
countenance is saturnine, his speech
level and phlegmatic, his manner fune-
real So, when he ostentatiously makes
wide circles away from the quiet heels
of the meek-looking horse he is sad
ding for you, and casually comments
upon the beasts vices and virtues
(about Is to 1Js you are impressed and
grateful.
A cowboy approaches, steps eau
tiously to the broncho's head, looks
long into his eyes, turns an anxious
face upon you and then questions the
barn man in a whisper.
mo, / don't think so,' says the barn
man, with vast implication of doubt
behind the assurance He was ridden
once last week an he didn't act up
very bad. He's been pretty decent
since he broke Bills leg,
Both men look carefully again into
the horses eyes, the cowboy goes alb
ruptly into the barn with a gesture in
dicating that he washes his hands of
the entire matter, and the horse is
turned over to the tenderfoot. While
he is mounting the whole barn and
corral force stand looking on with
somber. strained faces, and the young
man from the East, with the red and
the white chasing each other across
his cheeks, wonders why on earth he
ever grew tired of street cars.
If he only knew, the horse is the
safest animal in all the region round,
whom the ranchman's ten-year-old
daughter has been riding to the post
office every day two months past. But
every culver in the compact bundle OF
sinew under him and every inquiring
backward look from those big brown
eyes sets him in panic; and when
the broncho. mistaking a timid pressure
of the knees for a command to lope.
moves off at a gate which is the per-
lection of ease and exhilaration, the
tenderfoot gasps and gulps and shakes
and "whoas" in frightful certainty
that his time has come.
The first horse they gave to me was
an odd-looking little roam with an eye
like a cows for gentleness. 1t took
two men--at any rate two men work
ed half an hour-to saddle him. The
broncho appeared to object to the
cinches. Every time one of the men
tugged at the straps the roam flung
himself half across the corral, with
the other man hanging desperately to
the bride. In this way the two chas-
ed him and pulled at him and admon-
ished till every one concerned, partic-
ularly myself, was tired of the whole
business
But when I was on the brute he
turned his head, gave me one reproach-
full look and trotted up the road as
gently as an old family nag I had
suspicious then that there had been
something queer about the perfor-
nance at the barn; and these were
most outra geously confirmed a little
later when, finding the forward cinch
had become loosened, dismounted to
tighten it. Roam stood as still as an
angel horse while I, in my awkward
way tugged at the leather till the
strap was tight. The men had been
having fun with me at the roan's ex-
pense.
Pkg was my next mount. She was
I little bay, with legs as trim as a
race horses, and an arched neck as