OCR Text |
Show TROOPERS MAKE SOME HARD RIDES Cavalrymen Proud of Their Horses Mounts Fit for Charge at Any Moment. CLIMB LIKE GOATS Cowboy Scout Is Wonder Rides Thinly Clad and Barehanded Bare-handed in High Altitudes. At tho Front in Moxico, General Pershing's Camp, April 3, by Aeroplane Aero-plane and Motor Courier to Calumbus, N. M., April 6. A cavalry officer, coming com-ing on from an eighty mile rldo last Viight said: "I never saw a country where men could ride as hard without sleep and still keep well, as in these mountains." This officer has ridden on a scout with the 250 picked cavalrymen. "It is said to be tho air at the altitude alti-tude of 7500 to 10,000 feet that keeps the men up," he added. Troopers Make Hard Rides. The troopers in the course of their 80 mile ride in two days, made a 55 mile rldo, literally up and down the tops of a ridgo of mountains. The 55 miles waa made in 36 hours, through canyons, through heavy snow at 10,000 feet high and up and down mountain sides. There is neither roads nor trail. After taking their mounts safely through this ride, tho cavalrymen made a 25 mile dash across country to head off the possibility of a Vllllsta rally at a place which has been under suspicion for several days. In the mountain work the cavalrymen led their horses over the worst places The horses have shown that they can climb almost any mountain that a man can ascend. Cavalrymen Proud of Horses. Pride in their horses has become a passion with tho cavalrymen In their mountain riding. "Our horses," one officer asserted, 'are Just as good today to-day as when they crossed the border. They are fit for a charge right now. Just lot US sret on Villa's trail and wo will get him sure " An officers here tells how he retreated re-treated from a house where he believed be-lieved he was about to discover a Villista bandit It was during the search of a mountain district where there was a suspicion that Villa might be concealed until his wounds healed. Many houses were under search when this officer saw what he took to bo a wounded man lying in bed in a room. He swung open the door, pistol pis-tol In hand and hurried across the room. The man in bed in the vory poor light looked more than ever like a wounded bandit The officer started to turn down the blanket covering the Mexican but after one look he fled. He had discovered a case of smallpox. Cowboy Wonder With Troops. The wonder of cavalrymen " now searching tho mountains Is an American Ameri-can cowboy scout, who rides with the troopers in these cold altitudes clad in what the soldiers say Is only a thin cotton shirt "You can read a newspaper through it." is the soldiers' description of the shirt. The cowboy, who rides barehanded, bare-handed, never appeared to mind the cold. |