Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-07-20

ders and returned to their siestas.
Nok. Bahia Blanca was beyond
Buenos Ayres two days and two nights
along an ancient Argentine railroad.
remotely related to the ,lingiest back
woods railroad in the United States.
There were no parlor cars on this
system and even the ordinary seats
looked cheerless save to a guacho or
a peon or an Indian from the neigh
borhood of the pampas, and the SEIZED
ule was nonchalant and the engine a
wheezy. puffy affair, always groaning
and grunting like man with an ov
ergrown waist line.
Stops in the Desert.
Sometimes it became completely
GREATNESS and stopped 400 miles from
nowhere in a world in which there
was nothing but sand and heat. At
such times it was a diversion TO clam
Der painfully out of the alleged seat
and wade through the squat, gutteral-
speaking Argentinos, who looked part
ly like Moors and partly like Indians
pacency in the divinity of their or
igin and in the value of their place
in the plan of the world.
So this trip southwark was unend-
ing. First the railroad bent inward
like hoop until it touched at Gen
eral Acha-which is named after one
Of the successful revolutionary heroes
of South America-and from General
Acha curved eastward, back to the
region of fresh air and vegetation.
until it reached Bahia Blanca. There
these two Americans learned that
Bahia Blanca was one of the cities
of the world; yet in the absence of
corroboratinS buildings, industries and
even residences, they became skep
tical and wondered how soon they
could proceed to Neu Quen, 600 miles
westward. Besides, the inhospitable
people of Bahia Blanca did not seem
TO care for Americans.
1t was now January and time to be
off on the hunt for cattle lands. Al
last. however. the little putting, west
bound train bumped into the squat
station at Bahia Blanca, leaving be-
bind it a long trail of black smoke
and rumbling presentiments of an i'm
mediate general explosion of its inter
ior Two hours later the travellers
from Montana looked out of car
window and with one glance saw Ba-
lila Blanca from end to end. and then
they lit their pipes and reclined in
dolently, specializing on the POSSIBLE
tiles of a tiresome trip.
Only Village.
| They saw Neu Quen after two days
and TWO nights of alternate heat and
cold. Neu Quen was a village of a
few houses. resembling a small set
1 Element of Yaquis in Mexico. SO the
\ strangers decided to remain there
/ briefly and went in search of bronchos
/ sturdy enough for 4OO-mile trip
southwest. AT Z o'clock one cool ev-
ening they started. Men told them
they would find water eiehty-five miles
! beyond
"Al right" cheerfully replied these
cattemen from Montana
i They cantered off leading lightly
/ Tfi oh tod
minutes Neu Quen was ancient history
and they were scattering the stony
sand of the pampa. The moon came
out and lit up the great waste for
endless miles, showing here and there
a few squads OF vegetation crouched
| like small animals. 1t was all like
a poor stretch of prairie land of Ari-
zona
The men rode all night and in the
morning paused beside a group of cac-
tus plants, dropped off their horses
and slept for two hours. Then the
sun burst forth in all the radiance
Off equatorial glory and flooded the
world with heat. They arose sleepily,
climbed on their dropping South Amer
lean bronchos and cantered off to the
southwark where rumOr had located
"brichies"-a store. The air was
like the breath of an Arizona desert,
the winds blew off the sand, carrying
million particles and spraying the
riders from head to foot, irritating
their faces until they were compelled
to cover their exposed skins with
handkerchiefs, and thus they rode
across the pampas wondering if the
South American world belonged to a
limitless inferno.
Once in a while they passed other
riders, who looked at them with cur
ious eyes and addressed them in a.
jarson of crude Spanish which they
didn't know. When they resorted to
signs the stray wayfarers of the des.
ert passed on. Meanwhile the two
Americans sought for water. Inter-
mittently they removed their hand
kerchiefs and searched the horizon
Valnly. Their lips cracked and their
throats filled with dust and small
stones and their horses choked con-
stantly, but they rode twenty-five |
miles that first p,or,pino hoforo tho,,