The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1905-01-16
A WOMAN'S
PREFERENCE
tOriginal.

ObServant o. the queer doin'S of differ
ent kind o. animals. but I never see
nothin' so unsarten as wimnin. There
amt no Teller can tell jist WHIT a 40
mans goin' to do. Any machines
built up on certain principles and as
long as kept in repair will grind things
Out the same way. Wfmnien won't DO
it. They grind irregular.
One evenin' forty year ago when ]
was huntin' antelope in the Rockies |
was camped in a pass along which
wagon trains was comm On their way
10 Californy. l see a single wagon
%iuInberin up the road. and when it
come nigh | noticed a woman vas
.irivin'. There was three HE with
Ter. and il turned out that they was
IL workin' fer her. They cainped With
IS, and it wasn't long before we fotn1.
that the wsslnan was II Wilder WHO ia.
got Il lot y money from her husband
anG vas eoin' on some sort of u bus:
ness deal in San Francisco. She was
I good lookin' pusson, some'ers about
thirty, and it was easy to see that ali
the men was tryin to git into her ia
voi-that is. two on en- WAS. T'other
1ne. "a Teller named Sheath, was ii
:neasly sort o chap that didn't seem
20 care much about her. But | put
hat down 10 tie fac that he hadn't
;ot no cl;tlk,e. The Teller that / reck-
ned shed take. il she took any of
EN-. was N%ctticton. He was about
~.iiirty-t.Ve ANA Il thorough man. hanu-
SOME as ii p.cIur' and brave as u lion.
The third man. Jim4li Saunders. was
too young Tor l.er. bein' only about
twenty-five years old.
We all camped together that night
ana tie K mornin' weat oNer tue
Twice together. journeyin' in the same
croWd fer 81 matter Of tw0 eel
rEere WASH t nothin' to take me with
EN- except that the widder, w..o seem
I'd to have Il faculty fer rOpin' men in-
20 her affections. lassoed me. That
made three of Us all, elbowin' one an
other fer the same Oma Nettleton.
Saunders and me. LeaStaways S:iun-
iers and me was elbowin', fer Nettle-
ION was a proud sort of a mar and
wouldn't put in Il claim. Howsomever.
lie man | was most afeard of was this
same \ettleton. He was such a fine
sookin', manly chap. and, though he
wouldn't StoOp 10 palaver owe no wo-
man. lie was considerable polite to the
TidGer. and of all Ter hands was the
most Use. But sometimes | thought
saunders would light in ahead Of the
null lot of us. He was a lively little
chap. and tie only rule I've ever been
able to apply to wirnmen is that when
they git along in years they mostly
coaches down fer lnen below 'em.
Well. one eVenin' when we was at
upper \ettieton. who KEEP an eye out
fer safety. saw SomeDin black on the
horizon twiXt Inn and the settin' sun
and knew il was Injuns. You bet we
wasn't long in maxim u corral. with
the wagon fer one side. a log fer an
jther and THROWN up dirt fer the rest
Of it. We WAS rushin' roun' fer things.
not mindin' what each other WAS dom
and didn't notice till we'd got the stock
into the corral and was all ready fer
the redskins that Sheath was nlissin'.
The mis'nble coward. not relishin' q
siege. had left lis to hold tie Injuns
while he vamoosed. The worst of il
was that he took of the bosses,
You ougliter heered thai woman lash
him with her tongue. She was So mad
that she forgot the I%njuns.
The fight amt got nothin' to do with
the story. Nettleton tool command
and handled us so well thai we killed
most o. the Injuns and drove off the
rest. I see that Nettleton had got the
better of me with the wilder. and if |
didn't do somepin to balance up I'd b.
left clean out. So as soon as we'd got
rid o he trouble l mounted the best
boss in the team and lit out fer Sheath.
l caught min ten mile away and
brought him back.
When l rode inter camp with him l
was disappointed to obsarve that the
widder'S wrath was cooled. Instead
beratin' him. as / supposed she /
would. she didn't take no notice of
him. I axed her what punishment she
thought was best fer him. and she said
she didn't think he was worth
punishin'. Consequence is he didn't
git no punishment onless the fac that
one of us men would speak to him
was SIGH.
Now, the onsartainty o. wimmen that
tryin' to show up by this story is
this: As soon as we men showed the
cold shoulder to Sheath the widder be-
gun to treat him respectable. and If
wasn't long before it was plain the
was takin' his part agin US. We
put it down to a natural propensity O.
to ~sympathize and excuse any
body in trouble. maxim 'em on that ac-
cOunt entirely omitted fer jurymen.
so we didn't pertest or anything like
hat. jist shown our own contemp'
sheath and lettin' her have her own
way.
But the worse We sat down on Sheath
he more the wilder warmed to him,
at last we noticed that they was
| good deal together. whisperin,. and
begun to suspec' 6hat the wilder
vas goin' to try to help him out and
us to Ston sittin, down ON