//OW WJVES WERE OBTAINED, 



117 



done, a signal was given, in a moment after, all lights 

 were extinguished^ and each cabaliero seized the 

 darling of his choice with one hand and drew his 

 revolver with the other, and pushed and fought her 

 way till the horses were reached, when the watch- 

 word doubtlessly was " devil take the hindmost." I 

 never heard that the ladies objected to this summary 

 mode of obtaining husbands, but then it would be 

 "against human natur " if they did, when by their 

 abduction they got a stalwart Missourian instead of a 

 dirty, lazy " Greaser." The reader will see from the 

 above that the good citizens of the Western United 

 States were not, in pluck and prowess, far behin I 

 some of our own border ruffians that flourished little 

 over a hundred years ago. In fact, I doubt not that 

 they learned this game from the example that the old 

 country had set them. But for the ducks — the web- 

 footed ones I mean now — without further delay I 

 will at once attend to their case. 



I had been several days killing time at a farm- 

 house in Nebraska — no difficult task, I can assure 

 you — before the break up of autumn came. The 

 locality was known to be one of the very best in 

 all America for catching the migratory hordes on 

 their way south, and I was resolved to be in time, 

 so took that enemy by the forelock. Thus I got 

 to the scene of operations before I was actually 

 wanted. 



The Indian summer had been late, and when it 

 did come it lingered long, as if loth to part with 

 our company. In the evening I sat out on the 

 verandah, and my host and self enjoyed our glasses 

 of good aged Kentucky, reputed to be at least 

 thirty years old. I knew the brew well, for it came 

 from the Louisville Hotel cellars when hospitable 

 Philip Judge was partner in that establishment. It 

 was just such stuff as is repor'ed not to have a 

 headache in a gallon of it, but this I did not put 



