New-York tribune., 1906-09-02
LONELINESS OF RANCH LIFE.
New York Woman Tells How II Feels To Be
Eight Miles from Neighbor.

Being a ranchwcrnan on Montana cattle ranch
isn't all beer and skttles. IL the experience OF
New York newspaper woman who kept house on
ore Of them for five days is sample. Going out
TO Custer County 20 visit friends, partly for her
health and partly for good time she found herself
ct the expiration OF six weeks Obliged 10 run the
shack and mother" her host and the cowboy
while her hostess consulted the nearest physician.
who was five days ewsy.
The hardest part about Il al 10 the newspaper
not the work though that hard.
nor yet the heat, though it very hot but the
horrible loneliness. OF course Il never occurred
10 those ranchmen, four hve miles away on the
prairie. that woman fresh from e town OF
four millions could be lonely afraid a ranch
eight miles from the nearest neighbor.
But was" writes the amateur ranchwornan
IN a number OF THE Outlook"
NO sooner had the hayrack disappeared from
sight than the loneliness bore down on me ike a
Weigh1-the miserable. intangible. silly nervousness
that won't stand analysis. but paraIyzes just the
s1Sae
Toh, for something human something liv,ngl 1
FELT grateful 70 the foolish cove for coming 70
water. and 10 the horses for pressing around the
front door IN their afecronste quest for sugar
mot Sister Anne herself peered eagerly ou,
OF her orioleo easement for anybody coming than
out OF my kitchen window. But the sun, mount
ing high In a peerless sky. kept on drenchinr the
Montana landscape with light Bald ano bare the
sellOw-brown prairie rolled gently away and away
ano away m grassy knobs 70 where the Bad LANDS
hroke the violet horizon Ike a city OF dreams
al rose and burnt grange and maroon and ams-
rhyst. ~
''Not butterfly fitted by. not a bird triled
tiSnt miles westward 10 the nearest neighbor
Twelve miles northRard. Forty miles, aybe dftv
10 the east And To the sOufh-why, q man mig nj
travel three days or horseback the south and
never see the blue smoke curling from q chiunnev
Sometimes ror minute. horse perched hieh on
rampant OF buttts would silhouette Itself Against
their utmost purple rim and ] knew that with
him there were others for horses are gregarious
sno that he and his friends only few OF Tie
drifting bout by thousands. week and month and
year grazing where once the lordiy buffalo had
roameo. Never had nature seemed so GRIM SO
dramatic. relentless"
But T. Is long lane that has no turning. and
eventually scVf rl OF The .gAOrs called and re-
leVcd Inc newspaper woman's loneliness. They
nust have incrca: ed hsr iabors, however on the
rnora.ng u1 the thirc .ag. he watched her begin
her natuliI FL duel with the dry dishes" her host
asked, ID you iiud the work very hard?"
40. / replied. trutnfuly enough. but every
thing that is done IL done in the hardest possible
way. AZ ever became q ranchwonan Tor better or
worse. I should expect ny ranclmau give me a
sink and ice house Tor wedding present and
ne need hope 20 lead the altar unless All
Tire doors and windows had hy screens-that nttea
being swDrn a.. and"-
IN, o. aant 900 m.ch." laughed my host, No
rancE,nan Would siaad such impos,io-.'