The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-11-07
LONELINESS OF RANCH LIFE.
homan Tells How 1t Feels to Be
Eight Miles from q Nefghb0r.

Being a ranch woman on Montana
ranch isn't all beer and skittles, if the
experience of a New York newspaper
woman who kept house on one of them
for five days is a sample. Going out
to Custer county to visit friends, part
~ for her health and partly for good
time. she found herself at the expira-
ton of six weeks obliged to run the
shack and mother" her host and the
cowboy. while her hostess consulted
the nearest physician, who was five
days" away.
The hardest part about 1t all to the
newspaper woman was not the work,
though that was hard, nor yet the heat,
though it was very hot. but the horri-
BILE loneliness. Of course. it never &C.
Cured to those ranchmen. four or five
miles away on the prairie. that a NO.
man fresh from town of four mil
ranch eight miles from the nearest
neighbor.
But was" writes the amateur
ranch-woman in recent number Of
the Outlook.
tho sooner had the hayrack dis
appeared from sight than the loneli-
ness born down on me like weight
the miserable. intangible. silly ner-
vousness that won't stand analysis,
but paralyzes just the same.
''Oh. for something human. some
thing living: felt grateful to the
foolish cows for coming to water, and
for the horses for pressing around
the front door in their affectionate
quest of sugar.
Not Sister Anne herself peered
more eagerly out of her orioled case
ment for anybody coming than l out
of my kitchen window. Bald and bare.
the yellow-brown prairie rolled gently
away and away and away in grassy
knobs to here the Bad Lands broke
on the violet horizon like city of
dreams, all rose and burnt orange
and maroon and amethyst
mot a butterfly fitted by. not bird
trilled. Eight miles westward to the
nearest neighbor. Twelve miles north
ward. Forty miles. maybe so mishrdlu
ward. Forty miles, maybe so, to the
east. And to the south-whv. man
might travel three days on horseback
to the south and never see the blue
smoke curling from chimney. Some
times, fer minute, horse perched
high on a rampant of buttes would
silhouette itself against their utmost
purile rim,' and l knew that with him
there were others, for horses are gre
garious, and that he and his friends
were only few Of the creatures
horses and cows and sheep-that were
drifting about by thousands. week and
month and year, grazing where once
the lordly buffalo had roamed. Never
had nature seemed 80 grim, SO dra-
matte, or SO relentless"
But it is long lane that has no
turning. and eventually several Of the
neighbors called and relieved the
newspaper woman's loneliness. They
must have increased her labors, how
ever. for on the morning Of the third
day, as he watched her begin her ina
tutinal duel with the dirty Dishes" her
host asked: DO you find the work
very hard?"
no" l replied, truthfully enough,
but everything that Is done is done
in the hardest possible way. If ever
became a ranchwOman for better or
worse, should expect nv ranchman
to give me a sink and an Ice house for
wedding present. And he needn't
hope to lead me to the altar unless all
the doors and windows had fly screens
that fitted. And I should want a
stove that would bake without being
sworn at, and -"
'Oh. you want too much," laughed
my hest. "No ranchwoman would
stand such imposition"
Marriage BY Contract In New York.
Marriages by contract are becoming
popular in Gotham. Since the law pro-
viding for this kind of marriage be-
came operative three years ago, there
have been filed in the city clerks Office
almost 5000 such contracts. Marriage
by contract is a very simple legal pro-
cedure. Two persons desiring to be
married 20 to lawyer or any other
person qualified to draw up con-
tract or apply to the city or county
clerks Office for the regular blank
form, have the contract drawn up or
fill out the form, and then 60 before
notary public, justice OF the peace
commissioner of deeds or any other
officer with legal authority and there
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