South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1921-05-01
"Tia Juana, Who Am II"

There want much of a load-just
some wOOlSacks and blankets and
nails and canned peaches and few
things we was out Of. / look for
Ranse to roll in today sure. He's
an early starter and a bell-to-split
driver, and he ought to be here not
far from shutdown"
What plugs is he drivin ?" asked
Mustang Taylor, with a smack Of
hope in his tones.
The blackboard greys." said Sam.
"Tll wait a spell, then" said the
wrangieri Them plugs eat UP a
trail like a road-runner swallowin' a
whip snake. And you may bust me
open a can of green gage plums.
Sam, while I'm waitin' for somethin'
better"
open me some yellow clings. "
ordered Poky Rodgers. "Ill wait. too
The tObaccOless puchers arranged
themselves comfortably on the steps
of the store. Inside Sam chopped
open with a Ratchet the tops of the
cans of fruit.
The store. a big. white wooden
building like a barn. stood so yards
from the ranch-hOuse. Beyond il
were the horse corrals: and still far
Their the wool sheds and the brush
topped shearing pens-for the
Rancho CibOlO raised both cattle and
sheep. Behind the store. at a little
distance. we're the grass-thatched
jacals OF the Mexicans who bestowed
. 81
The ranch house was composed of
four large rooms with plastered
adobe walls, and a two-room wooden
ell. A 24-feet-wide gallery" cir
cumvented the structure. II was set
in n grove of immense live-Oaks and
water-elms near n lake-a long. not
very wide. and tremendously deep
/ lake I'm which at nightfall. great gare
! leaped to the surface and plunged
with the noise of APPROPRIATENESS
1 frolicking at their bath. From the
trees hung garlands and massive
pendants of the melancholy grey
moss of the south. Indeed. the CT
bolo ranch house seemed more of the
south than of the west. IL looked as
/ if old "Kiowa" Truesdell might have
brought il with him from the low
! lands of Mississippi when he came
to Texas with his rifle in the hol-
4 low of his arm in '55.
But. though he did not bring the
family mansion. Truesden did bring
/ something in the way of family i'm
heritance that was more lasting than
brick or stone. He brought one end
I Of the TruesdeI- Curtiss family feud
/ And when a Curtis bought the
Rancho de los Olmos. Is miles from
| Cibolo. there were lively times on the
pear flats and in the chaparral
thickets Of the southwest In those
days Truesdell cleaned the brush of
many a wolf and tiger cat and Mex
/ lean lion; and one or two Curtises
/ fell heirs L. notches on his rifle
stock Also he buried a brother with
/ a Curtis bullet in him ON the bank
OF the lake at Cibolo. And then the
\ Kiowa Indians made their last raid
upon the ranches between the Frio
and the Rio Grande. and Truesdell
at the head of his rangers rid the
earth OF them to the last brave, earn
ing his sobriquet. Then came pros
perity in the form Of waxing herds
and broadening lands. And then old
age and bitterness. when he sat. with
/ his great name Of hOir as white as
the Spanish-dagger blossoms and his
fierce. pale-blue eyes, on the shaded
gallery at Cibolo. growing like the
puuas that he had slain. He snapped
his fingers az old age; the bitter taste
10 life did not come from that. The
/ cup that stuck at his lips was that
] his only son Ransom wanted 10
marry a Curtis. the last youthful
survivor OF the other end OF the
feud-