The Coolidge examiner., 1931-08-21

Sabra, they vanished into this ut
tie pine shack or that. Immediate
ly afterward there was great agi-
tation among the prim coarse win
dow curtains in those dwellings
bOasting such elegance.
"But the others-the other kind
of women" Sabra faltered.
Yancey misunderstood. plenty
of the other kind in town like
this, but they aren't stirring this
time of day"
Don't be coarse, Yancey. |
mean ladies like myself-that !
can talk tO-WhOll come calling
that is"
He waved a hand this way and
that. why, you just saw some
women folks. didn't you?"
"ThOSe ~
"Well. now, honey, you can't eX-
pect those ladies TO be wearing
their best bib and tucker mornings
to do the hOusewOrk in. Besides
most of the men come without
their women folk. They'll send for
them, and then you'll have plenty
OF company. 1t isn't every woman
who'd have the courage you
showed. roughing ii out here
You're the stuff that Rachel was
made of, and the mother of the
Gracchi"
Rachel was, she knew, out of the
Bible; she was little hazy about
the Gracchi. but basked serene in
the knowledge that a compliment
was intended.
There was the absurdly wide
street-surely fifty feet wide-in
this little One-street town. Here
and there a struggling house or so
branched off it. But the life of
Usage seemed to be concentrated
Just here. There were tents still
to be seen serving as dwellings.
Houses and stores were built of
unpainted wood. They looked as
If they had been run up overnight.
as indeed they had Tied to the
crude hitching posts driven well
into the ground were all sorts of
vehicles: buckboards, crazy carts,
dilapidated wagons. mule drawn !;
here and there a top buggy covered
with the dust of the prairie; and
everywhere, lording It, those four
footed kings without which life in
this remote place could not have
been observation-disclosures of every
size and type and color and degree.
Direct descendants. these. of the
equine patricians who, almost four
hundred years before. had been
brought across the ocean by Cor
onado or Moscosco to the land of
the Seven Cities of Gold.
! Crude and ugly though the scene
was that now spread itself before
Sabra and Yancey, it still was NOT
squalid. 1t had vitality. You
sensed that behind those bare
boards people were planning and
stirring nightly. There was life
in the feel of it. The very names
tackled up over the store fronts had
bite and sting. Sam Pack. Mott
Bixler, Strap Buckner, Ike Hawes.
Clint Hopper, Jim Click.
Though they had come to town
but the night before. it seemed to
her that a surprising number of
people knew Yancey and greeted
him as they passed down the street.
"H'are you. Yancey HOwdy,
ma'am." Loungers in doorways
stared at them curiously.
Ii struck Sabra suddenly with q
| little shock of discovery that the
men really were doing nothing. She
was to learn that many of them
were not builders but scavengers.
! The indomitable old '49ers were no
/ kin of these. They were. frequent
ly, soft, cruel, furtive, and avari-
cious. They had gathered here to
pick up what they could and move
on. Some we're cOwmen, full of re-
sentiment against government that
had taken the free range away from
them and given it over TO the
homesteaders Deprived of their
only occupation, many of these be
came outlaws. Equipped with six
shooters. deadly aim. and horse
manship that amounted to the
miraculous they took to the GyI
hills or the Usage, swooping dOwr
from their hidden haunts TO terror
iZe a town, shoot up bank. hole
up a train. and dash out again
leaving blood behind them. They
risked their lives for few hundred
dollars. Here was a vast domain
without written laws, without prec
edent, without the customs Of
civilization; part of a great coun
try, yet no part of its government
Here a horse was more valuable
than a human lie. A horse thief
caught, was summarily hanged Il
the nearest tree; the killer OF
man often went free.
Down the street these two
stepped in their tinery, the maj
staggering little as man ShOulC
in a white sombrero and with ;
pretty woman on his arm; thu
woman looking about her interest
edly, terrified at what she saw ant
can be said to make a procession
then Yancey and Sabra Crava
formed quite parade as the.
walked down Pawhuska avenue il
the blaze of the morning sun
Certainly they seemed to be caus
ing stir. Lean rangers in buck
boards turLed to stare. LOunger
in dOorways nudged each other