A Few Women Riders

The privilege of horseback riding was one not generally accorded to women until within our grandmother's time, and it is not until our own day that the canons of propriety díctate the liberty of a woman riding without an escort. Thus custom has made it impossible, speaking frenerally, for women to have become accomplished in the art of riding, although there hare been a few like the famous maid of Bregenz, Joan of Are and the nautch heroine, Frieda, who have saved nations by their daring horsewomanship. Much has been said about woman - that she is fickle, wavering and sentimental- but her worst enemy gives her the powers of endurance, instinct and courage. These are just the qualities which go to make a perfect rider. French women as a rule do not take to riding; they prefer driving and less fatiguing sports. But the Germán, Russian, English and American women seem as though born to the saddle when once they are initiated into its properties and pleasures. The empress of Germany sits a saddle like an amazon and rides a horse but few men dare mount. She appears on gala occasions by her husband's side and looks ever inch - what she Is - the wife of aruler and the daughterof a queen. In London the Prince of Wales' daughters are fair rider and have covered much ground, while Princess Mary of Teek is far famed for her skill as a horsewoman. In America, or to be more local, in New York, there lives one woman who has eclipsed all her nineteenth century sisters in horseback riding, for to her it was a necessity, not a luxuxy. She is Mrs. Elizabeth Custer, the wife of the late celebrated general who gained so many victories on the frontier, and who died valiantly fighting for his country. Mrs. Custer leads a very quiet, uneventful, peaceful life in her home upon Lexington avenue, with only a few months' lecturing tour and an occasional trip abroad to break the monotony. After her stirring life upon the frontier one wonders that everyday dornestic life suffices her. She has eaten breakfast, dinner and tea to the tattoo of a drum and the warwhoop of Indians. She has lived in the saddle for months at a time. She has traveled over all the broad western states in their crudest and most primitive condition, and proven the statement that women can stand hardship as well as men. Mrs. Custer is of the opinión that women, when the occasion calis for it, manage borses with more judgment than men. She thinks that some of the sensitiveness of the rider permeates the animal's intelligence, and he realizes that he has a precious burden in his care. Then, she says, a woman is so much lighter on a horse, and so very lithe, swaying and moving in harmony with the animal, whereas a man weighs down heavily upon the back, and from his very eairiage necessitates a tremendous load. "The Indian women," remarked Mrs. Custer, "ride like beings of supernatural lineage, throbbing with life, spirit and muscular elasticity." A famous ride of Mrs. Custer was made through the snowdrifts of North Dakota, where she was the life of the party and prepared the scant amount of food in a delicate, appetizing way, as only a woman could. Any one who knows aught of a Dakota snowstorm is aware of the peril the Custer party were in - miles and miles from a station and with no means of making known their distress. The snow, ice and sleet piled round them like uprooted monuments anxious to bury them beneath their huge bases and leave only the howling winds to teil the story. Hours and days passed without a sign of the storm 's abatement. The skies took on the deathly color of sorrowful gray and the low cries of animáis in pain rent the air. Yet through all this uncanny, terrible time the brave woman lay wrapped in her blankets telling simple, interesting tales in a charming way and keeping the anxious minds from thoughts of hunger and of death from the bitter cold. Mrs. E. S. Beach, teacher of riding at the New York riding school, is one of the most graceful and robust of the New York equestriennes. She flrst became acquainted with a horse when a girl of 5. She has made that noble beast her best friend ever since. She spends 10 hours a day in the saddle and declares that she does not know the meaning of the words ache and pain. "My longest ride was through the big tree district in California," replied Mrs. Beach to a question put to her in regard to long rides. "I was in the saddle for several weeks steadily and rode over much rough country." Elizabeth Jordán, the talented writer, spent over a month on horseback in the mountains of Virginia and Tennessee. She started out with a long riding habit and all sorts of fashionable parapherualia, but gradually disposed of these accessories and came down to a short gown and a gripsaek. "The greatest trouble I found about riding in the southern mountsins," she said, "was that the distances between towns was too great, and the darkness came over the paths too quickly. I enjoyed e very hour of my trip and studied the charactoristics of the people with interest and curiosity." Miss Alice MacGowau, the daughter of a well known southern editor, has won quite a reputation in her native state, Tennessee, and in Texas for her wonderful riding powers. She rode a thousand miles at a stretch two years ago over the Tennessee mountains and through North Carolina, carrying only such baggage as could be at-tached to the saddle, and stopping for brief stays at humble mountain cabins. She has spent months in the Texas cattle and sheep country on lonely and remote ranches in typical cattle towns and frontier settlements, riding the range, attending roundupsand roping contests, visiting sheep camps and living as completely as possible the wild, untrammeled life of a frontier woman. Miss MacGowan, who taught school in Texus, was obliKed to ride 20 miles a dav to and