The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1910-01-28
Memories Of Old
Man McNeal
Copyright. by ]. b. Lippincott Coz
BY Caroline Lockhart

6tnlS 10 lcIIlDlt lHuOCcHl OD-
served Old Man McNeal apropos of
tenderfeet in general as he fried the
bacon.
Now there was a perfesser from a
college back east wrote TO Joe Kipp
that he wanted him to pack him up
on the top of some mountain there in
Teton county, Montana, where he could
take observations. Joe wrote him to
git off at Blackfoot
THE day he was coming Joe got on
the train piece up the road to meet
him. There the perfesser was sittin'
in his skull cap and slippers, and he'd
plumb forgot about gittin off. They
had to hold the train in Blackfoot
while he got his traps picked up. Joe
says you never see such an outfit as
he'd got together to take up on the
mountain. The mountain was so steep
twas hard climbin fer a goat, and
he'd brought a No. 8 Charter Oak
cook stove. He had a tent that you
could run a two-ring circus in, and
hadn't brought enough beddin' TO wad
a shotgun. He had somethin' that
looked like a coffin that he were so
particular about the boys was bettin
it were his wife's corp.
But it seems he was one of them
there astronomers, and he wanted to
git up on the mountain TO take a look
around with telescope. Joa says he
never tackled such job as gittin' that
telescope up to the summit. He didn't
take the tent or the cook stove,
though. You bet the old man had to
sleep 'longside a camp fire while he
was stargazin' in the Rockies.
Then there was a most amaZin' fe-
male from Chicago hit the Swift Cur
rent country once. Her husband
come out on a little huntin trip and |
was guidin' fer em. Now / amt what
you might call bashful, and | don't
make no such claims, but when that
lady from Chicago stepped out of her
tent the morning after we got up in
the mountains | reckon / blushed fer
the first time in fifty years. What she
was wearin wasn't none of these di-
vided skirts or boomers. | never
seen anything like 'em before. They
was plaid and, | should jedge, some
tighter than her skin. They laced
down around the ankles and they was
layin' in Fuckers up around her waist.
l reckon ! come as near runnin' that
day as / ever did in my life. My cay
use, Molly" that SHES at nuthin',
nearly bust her picket rope tryin' to
git away. Yes, ma am, she was a most
uncommon curious looking tenderfoot.
once there was a tenderfoot from
North Car0liny got off at Blackfoot.
The snow was somewhere near a foot
on the level, and he wore a linen dust
er. He got horse from Joe Kipp and
rode to Browning. | happened to be
stopping at the Chink's hotel. He was
a plumb interestin figure when he
rode through the snow into town in
that duster.
Some entertainin' tenderfeet used
to come over from England to the
ranch when | punched cattle down in
the Musselshell country. The ranch
was owned by an Engiishman, and one
time a lord came over. He made a
break right away by orderin' one of
the cow-punchers to saddle his horse.
DO it YOURSELF says the cow
puncher, and the lord didn't know
what what to make of it, We made
his life miserable after that We'd git
him out on the roundup and plague
the life out of him about bein' lord.
We got him so he was ashamed of it,
and If anybody came he tried to keep
'em from KNOWN it. But he got to be
first-rate fellow; could bust bronchos
and cut out a steer with the rest of
'em.
The meanest cuss | ever seen came
out there to visit him. This cuss had
a box of cigars, and he used to pack
'em around with him on horseback for
fear the boys would take EN-. He
never offered anybody one. The boys
stole everything from him they could
get their hands on. They stole his
shirts and his neckties till all he had
left was what he had on his back. He
mad half-a-doZen silk handkerchiefs
that he'd got in India, and he was
mighty choice of EN-. Made a kick
every time he missed one. He hid
'em and did everything he could to
keep EN-, but finally the boys got him
down to the one he wore around his
neck. They schemed for a long time
to get this one, and at last one day
they caught him asleep and they took
it off his neck. He was sure mad when
he missed it. Pretty soon after this he
went back to England cussin' the
country.
Montana amt no place fer a tight
chested gent. If he amt willin to
whack up he'd better git out" con-
cluded Old Man McNeal as he laid the
bacon tenderly on a chip and passed
II around.