Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-08-23

encouragement they become tame ana
familiar
The paraquets were too noisy but other
wise were most attractive little birds, as
they flew to and fro and scrambled about in
the top of the palm behind the house. There
was one shown kind of kingbird or tyrant
fycatcher, lustrous black with white head.
One afternoon several score cattle were
driven into big square corral near the
house, in order to brand the calves and
number of unbranded yearlings and two
year-olds. A special element of excitement
was. added by the presence of dozen big
bulls which were to be turned into draught
oxen.
The agility nerve and proves of the
ranch workmen, the herders or gauchos,
were noteworthy. The dark-skinned men
were obviously mainly of Indian and negro
descent although some of them also showed
strong strain of white blood They wore
the usual shirt, trousers and fringed leather
aprons, with Jimcrow hats. Their bare feet
must have been literally as tough as horn;
for when one of them roped big bull he
would brace himself, bending back until he
was almost sitting down and digging his
heels into the ground, and the galloping
beast would be stopped short and whirled
completely round when the rope tautened
The maddened bulls and an occasional
~.~vl or COW, charged again and again with
furious wrath; but two or three ropes would
settle on the doomed beast, and down it
would CO. and when it was released and
rose and charged once more, with greater
fury than ever, the men, shouting with
laughter, would leap up the sides of the
heavy stockade.
A Tropical Christmas.
We stayed at the ranch until couple OF
days before Christmas. Hitherto the
weather had been lovely. The night before
we left there was a torrential tropic down
pour 1t was not unexpected, for we had
been told that the rainy season was over
due.
The following afternoon the baggage
started, i'll a couple of two-wheeled ox-carts,
for the landing where the steamboat await
ed us. Each cart was drawn by eight oxen.
The huge wheels were nearly eight feet
high Early in the afternoon we followed
on horseback, and overlook the carts as
darkness fell, just before we reached the
landing on the rivers bank. The last few
,miles, after the final reaches of higher, tree
clad ground had been passed, were across
a level plain of tall ground on which the
water stood sometimes only up to the
ankles of man on foot, sometimes as high
as his waist.
Directly i'll front of us, many leagues dis
tant, rose the bold mountains that lie west
of Corumba. Behind them the sun was set
ting and kndled the overcast heavens with
lurid splendor Then the last rose-tints fad
ed from the sky, the horses plodded YEARLY
through the water; on every side stretched
the marsh vast, lonely, desolate in the gray
of the half-light. We overlook the ox-carts.
The cattle strained in the yokes the drivers
wading alongside cracked their Whips and
uttered strange cries; the carts rocked and
swayed as the huge wheels churned through
the mud and water
AS the light faded we reached the small
patches of dry land at the landing, where
the fat-bottomed, side-wheel steamboat
was moored to the bank The tired horses
and oxen were turned loose to Craze. Water
stood in the corrals, but the open shed was
on dry ground. Under it the half-clad, wild
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