Twenty Miles From A Match: Homesteading In Western Nevada

Chapter Fifteen

.~[ Fifteen I~· Mrs. Skaggs, the "Merry Widow," was our first encounter with a dude. After her, many more followed. They were impressed with our cowboys, thinking them very romantic. They were a different type of man from what the eastern women had been used to. Many of them married the cowboys-the dude, usually quite well off, furnished the wherewithal to live on, and the cowboy furnished the romance. Very few of these marriages were ever a success, for the new wife would try immediately to change her husband into an eastern gentleman, even going so far as to make him wear tails for dinner. I could never understand why a woman would marry one type of man, and then try to make him into something completely different. Goshie's predictions about Hi were right. Hi did make "plenty money" in his riding stable. Then the inevitable happened. A wealthy divorcee fell in love with him, and they were soon married. She bought him one of the PF company's ranches on the eastern side of Tule Mountain, overlooking Pyramid Lake. They built a thirteen room ranch house with three bathrooms, and of course, Hi dressed in tails for dinner. They lived a drunken and hilarious life for a few short years. Then one morning they found dear old Hi dead in his chair. 132 TWENTY MILES FROM A MATCH Sometime before, he had made known his wishes to be cremated and have his ashes scattered around the monument on Tule Mountain overlooking his old homestead. In Hi's brief access to wealth, he had never forgotten his cowboy friends, so now his widow, May, wanted to continue in their good esteem . She made quite a fete out of the funeral ceremony of scattering the ashes. Every cowboy in the country around was there on horseback, as that was their only means of transportation . It was six miles up a steep tortuous trail from the ranch to the top of the mountain. We must have made a queer looking procession going up that trail. The ashes had arrived by mail from Sacramento where the body had been shipped for cremation. First in the funeral procession was an old-timer of a cowboy named Johnny, a very good friend of Hi's. He carried the ashes and led Hi's saddled, bridled, and riderless horse with Hi's beautifully tooled leather boots hanging backwards on either side of the saddle. Then came the tipsy widow, and while it was yet only ten A.M., she had already imbibed too freely. Then came the rest of the mourners and the near relations followed by a motley crowd of cowboys, sportsmen from Reno, neighbors, and friends. As we passed through the ranch gate, one of the cowboys, who was a little tipsy, took it into his head to give Hi a farewell salute, and fired his gun several times into the air. This frightened Hi's riderless horse, which began to buck and tear around. While he was bucking, he managed to get the lead rope under the tail of Johnny's horse, which also began to buck, nearly unseating old Johnny, who was trying to calm his horse, keep a tight hold on the ashes and the CHAPTER FIFTEEN 133 lead rope, and at the same time trying to stay in his saddle. With the two horses carrying on, the empty boots on Hi's saddle flapping in the air, the antics poor Johnny was going through, and the cowboys kiyiing in the background, yelling, "Stay with him, Johnny! Stay with him!" it was a hilarious scene for several minutes. Eventually they were able to calm the horses, and we wound our way slowly up the mountain. Arriving at the monument, May and Johnny dismounted and walked slowly round and round the big rock pile. Everyone began to sing "When It's Round Up Time In Texas," only we changed the words a little: When it's round up time on Tule And the bloom is on the sage. We all intoned it mournfully. As a strange coincidence , the yellow sagebrush that blooms in the fall was in full flower. Round and round we rode, following May and Johnny, singing cowboy songs all the while. As we marched, May was trying valiantly to scatter the ashes, but she seemed to be having difficulty. Evidently the crematorium had not done a...