A Lady's Experience in the Wild West in 1883

Rose Pender was an English aristocrat who accompanied her husband and his business partner on a trip to the US in 1883 to inspect their large cattle holdings in the West. Landing in New York in March, the party embarked on a four-month "grand tour" of the country that would take them across to San Francisco and back again. This book, published five years after their return to England, is her account of the trip, and it's a beauty. Her observations are fresh and very personal, filtered through the lens of her aristocratic associations. She refuses to shield her prejudices, which are directed mainly against the Mexicans and Irish, though she is sympathetic toward the Indians. She is appalled by the dirt and "wretched quarters" she often finds in the "bar infested" towns they travel through. (Their "tour" covered a lot of ground within a relatively short period, and many of her observations are mere first impressions and thus rather negative, especially of some of the larger towns visited such as Carson City and Salt Lake City). Yet she can be humorous about some of the shortcomings she experiences, even self-deprecating, as for example the night spent in Cook's Hotel in Yosemite Valley, where "the walls are merely lath and paper, and we overheard a funny conversation between a Pennsylvanian bride and bridegroom that was certainly not intended to be public property ... about the 'darned stuck-up Britishers' ... it was very amusing." They also had their fair share of adventures, including climbing Pikes Peak in deep snow and participating on a round-up in eastern Montana. The last leg of the trip from Miles City back to New York is rapidly dealt with in only a few pages, as if she had seen all she intended to see and now it was time to be off for home again. Ms. Pender impresses one as being something of a whirlwind, which is what makes her breezy and spirited account so entertaining. There have been many books written by travelers to the "Wild West," and this short little narrative is among the liveliest and engaging of them all.