A Ladys Life in the Rocky Mountains | Page 6

I asked hopefully for a hot supper, with tea, I
was told that no supper could be got at that hour; but in half an hour the
same man returned with a small cup of cold, weak tea, and a small slice
of bread, which looked as if it had been much handled.
I asked the Negro factotum about the hire of horses, and presently a
man came in from the bar who, he said, could supply my needs. This
man, the very type of a Western pioneer, bowed, threw himself into a
rocking-chair, drew a spittoon beside him, cut a fresh quid of tobacco,
began to chew energetically, and put his feet, cased in miry high boots,
into which his trousers were tucked, on the top of the stove. He said he
had horses which would both "lope" and trot, that some ladies preferred
the Mexican saddle, that I could ride alone in perfect safety; and after a
route had been devised, I hired a horse for two days. This man wore a
pioneer's badge as one of the earliest settlers of California, but he had
moved on as one place after another had become too civilized for him,
"but nothing," he added, "was likely to change much in Truckee." I was
afterwards told that the usual regular hours of sleep are not observed
there. The accommodation is too limited for the population of 2,000,[2]
which is masculine mainly, and is liable to frequent temporary
additions, and beds are occupied continuously, though by different
occupants, throughout the greater part of the twenty-four hours.
Consequently I found the bed and room allotted to me quite tumbled

looking. Men's coats and sticks were hanging up, miry boots were
littered about, and a rifle was in one corner. There was no window to
the outer air, but I slept soundly, being only once awoke by an increase
of the same din in which I had fallen asleep, varied by three pistol shots
fired in rapid succession. [2] Nelson's Guide to the Central Pacific
Railroad.
This morning Truckee wore a totally different aspect. The crowds of
the night before had disappeared. There were heaps of ashes where the
fires had been. A sleepy German waiter seemed the only person about
the premises, the open drinking saloons were nearly empty, and only a
few sleepy-looking loafers hung about in what is called the street. It
might have been Sunday; but they say that it brings a great accession of
throng and jollity. Public worship has died out at present; work is
discontinued on Sunday, but the day is given up to pleasure. Putting a
minimum of indispensables into a bag, and slipping on my Hawaiian
riding dress[3] over a silk skirt, and a dust cloak over all, I stealthily
crossed the plaza to the livery stable, the largest building in Truckee,
where twelve fine horses were stabled in stalls on each side of a broad
drive. My friend of the evening before showed me his "rig," three
velvet-covered side-saddles almost without horns. Some ladies, he said,
used the horn of the Mexican saddle, but none "in the part" rode
cavalier fashion. I felt abashed. I could not ride any distance in the
conventional mode, and was just going to give up this splendid
"ravage," when the man said, "Ride your own fashion; here, at Truckee,
if anywhere in the world, people can do as they like." Blissful Truckee!
In no time a large grey horse was "rigged out" in a handsome
silver-bossed Mexican saddle, with ornamental leather tassels hanging
from the stirrup guards, and a housing of black bear's-skin. I strapped
my silk skirt on the saddle, deposited my cloak in the corn-bin, and was
safely on the horse's back before his owner had time to devise any way
of mounting me. Neither he nor any of the loafers who had assembled
showed the slightest sign of astonishment, but all were as respectful as
possible.
[3] For the benefit of other lady travelers, I wish to explain that my
"Hawaiian riding dress" is the "American Lady's Mountain Dress," a

half-fitting jacket, a skirt reaching to the ankles, and full Turkish
trousers gathered into frills falling over the boots,--a thoroughly
serviceable and feminine costume for mountaineering and other rough
traveling, as in the Alps or any other part of the world. I. L. B.
(Author's note to the second edition, November 27, 1879.)
Once on horseback my embarrassment disappeared, and I rode through
Truckee, whose irregular, steep-roofed houses and shanties, set down in
a clearing and surrounded closely by mountain and forest, looked like a
temporary encampment; passed under the Pacific Railroad; and then for
twelve miles followed the windings of the Truckee River, a clear,
rushing, mountain stream, in which immense pine logs had gone
aground