Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 181: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

> al A} ¥ ARS - ‘better class trade. The Camp-Fire information, but naturally could not give any ee advice about an expedition. Z * Our plan is this. To take a Ford down through Mexico from El Paso or Laredo through Mon- terey, Saltillo, Vera Cruz, Jalapa, the City, and on South, into Guatemala and Salvador if it proves practicable, although I understand the roads are mighty punk in the latter two countries. _ It would be necessary for us to earn our way, and in addition a small amount of money over our expenses wouldn’t be sneezed at. Our idea is some- thing like this. To take along a couple of one-a- minute cameras, one making a picture on a pin and the other on a post-card, to sell to the peon trade, as well as a real camera and enlarging outfit for the And, of course, a small photog- rapher’s tent. IN ADDITION, we have been considering a port- able motion-picture projector and a few films retitled in Spanish. Only we can’t decide what is most likely to appeal to the Mexican mind. I have considered one or two old-time bloody melodramas, _ but, as my total experience in Mexico lasted only three months, I am no authority. In this connec- tion, we planned on finding houses large enough to accommodate a moderate sized crowd in each town. The owner of the premises would of course be ad- mitted free. It would scarcely be practicable to take - along a canvas big top. Or then again we thought it .might-be possible to obtain a fixed amount of money by general collection or something of the sort and hold an out-of-doors show against the side of some house. And perhaps some one of the Camp-Fire could _ tell us if there is any demand for travelog pictures of Mexico. If we succeed in getting into Guate- mala it is our intention to visit the ruins of the old Indian cities there, which I don’t recall ever seeing on the screen. If there is a market, a motion- picture camera woujdn’t take up much more room. ; LASTLY, we conceiyed the idea of a line of cheap . and am I right in thinking masculine jewctsy would be best? I never knew a peon to buy wife any luxuries, although I am no authority on things Mexican. Also, perhaps, a line of some sort of patent medicine. Certainly it would be as effica- cious as the prayers of the priests! Now please don’t get the idea that we roam this fair United States selling rattlesnake oil or Cleo- patra’s liniment or something of the sort. This trip is a lark, pure and simple, but as I said money is ost an object. one should happen to have had experience a rite above lines, they could write me either direct, at the address below, or in Camp-Fire so _ that all could get some value from it. In the meantime, good-night, and thanks for listening to me for so long. Mizpah!—Rosr. B. CHESTER, 821 Twelfth St. Se Es his first story in our magazine— his first in any magazine, for that matter—William Wells follows our Camp- Fire custom and introduces himself. As an old-timer of the West, we extend to him a special greeting. ~ ; What he says about the Pony Express | was called forth by one of our little articles | that appeared some time ago. San Francisco, California. To my New Comrades: Following your pleasant and wholesome custom when a new teller of tales ; joins your circle, I step forward into the light. {tT IS not my first camp-fire, I have sat by very, very many, scattered along tens of thousands of miles of trail. But it may be my last, for my sixtieth birthday is close, and when one has come that far he knows that ahead, it may bea few steps or perhaps a long journey, is the spot where the trail turns Westward and crosses the Divide. But I hope to sit many years yet by your Camp- Fire and if, when from time to time my turn comes to furnish entertainment, I have something new to tell you and can tell it in a way that will give you pleasure, I shall be"very glad. MY STORIES will be largely of the old West - which I knew very well. As a boy I saw the plains when there were still buffalo and wild horses, when Indians war-parties still raided, when the end- less strings of long-horned cattle came up out of the south and the wild cattle-towns were in their glory. Then the mountains with the big game and the mining camps, the building of the railroads, the savage and bloody range-wars, and the days of the outlaw bands. I have seen and taken part in many happenings, some amusing, some interesting and exciting, some dark and termnble. And I have heard of many others from the lips of the actors therein, some of them men who had ridden with Frémont and Carson, with Bonneville and Ashley, and who had known men who had . traveled with Lewis and Clark and with the Astor party. For, as time is counted, our West is very young. a qt MAY jbe that in the future some of my stories will deal with the sea, for I am here in San Francisco, which is still the Golden City of Ro- mance, and those who travel its byways and sit in it meeting-places hear tales well worth the telling. And what little special knowledge I may have is freely at the service of you all, through the pages of Adventure. Oakland, California. Although the story in this issue is pure fiction, the Broken Bow never was a white man’s brand, and the Boot and the Square: and Compass were — Colorado brands of the old days, it might interest you to know that the sheepmen of the Red Desert = = in Wyoming whipped the cattle men of the upper Green River—the scene of the sto by getting hold of the railroad lands in the manner described. Only they didn’t fence them; they ran a furrow a hundred miles long and posted the railroad grant as private property. running at large on the open range but not against a trail herd, and the courts had ruled that stock — moved from one range to another, or across a county — line were trail herds. And there you were. It hit — the cowmen an awful jolt. Uncle Sam has been good enough to name the — 179 ‘a ¥ Pads \ is laid there— _ : Under the | Wyoming law a land owner must fence against stock _ ee? « Ss dav’ 6.5 eS