DUDE RANCH

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 March 1932, Page 9

DUDE RANCH

CITY COMFORTS. In England discreet advertisements call attention to people willing to receive in their well-appointed country houses a certain number' of guests able to appreciate, etc. In America these places are called “dood ranches,” or shortly “doods.” They differ radically from the British country house. Every American man loves “a feather to stick in his hat,” and so a great deal of “dressing-up” goes on at doods, cowboy outfits are the only wear, and the women, whether they are riders or not, affect riding kit, or at the least, “hiking costoom.” A typical dood is situated within comfortable motoring distance of a town where city comforts may be obtained, and where the stock ticker may be watched; but a high-class dood is self-supporting, with long-distance communications, a post office in the grounds, a doctor, a couple of nurses, a movie in the living room, and the best kind of motor repair shop. The dood I know best is on the Californian desert, within easy reach of wonderful desert scenery; canyons, hidden springs, painted rocks, hieroglyphics still untranslated, coral reef markings, amazing rock formations, a sea below sea-level, and fascinating flora and fauna. There is the usual tendency to make this dood like the finest and most romantic Wild West movie. Cowboys are the heroes ,of the place, and have been specially trained to be dood cowboys; that is to say, they are often college men, they can tell stories, wear their kit with an air, ride any kicker or bucker, know the country in and out. can organise expeditions, are excellent out-of-door cooks, are handy with a banjo on their knees, and, of course, are chosen partly for their good looks.

GOOD QUALITY FOOD. The dood kitchens are always under the care of a highly-skilled dietitian, with a college background, the food is of thg best quality and one dood makes a specialty 1 of “meals without high seasoning,” Some tired business men prefer to lead as wild a life as possible, and go for late suppers and early breakfasts in the house, where the versatile cowboys cook bacon and eggs, flapjacks, and beefsteaks, with the addition of strong coffee. But though the cowboys appear to be the chefs, it is felt that the skilled dietitians do the mixing of the flapjacks, and the important part of the coffee making. But at a moonlight beef-steak fry the cowboys had no helpers, and produce from hot stones on top of wood fires, steaks that really cut like butter. All this standardised simplicity has to be paid for; nothing is cheap; they do not want anything to be cheap, the patrons of these doods. They go to them for rest and relaxation, certainly, but everything must be “just so.” The beds have the best springs, the bath water always boils, the low-sea-soned food is perfect, and the climate is beyond the dreams of avarice unpurchasable? One expensive 1 dood is up about 10,000 ft. high. Everything is taken up a highly graded road; there are fresh vegetables and fruit at every meal, nothing lacks that a Ritz could produce. The people who go there have much money to burn. A cottage for two, with three meals, daily in the main dining room, cost some £5O a week last summer. Yet English people would not have been satisfied; early morning and 4 o’clock tea were never even thought of. At an average dood a cottage for two people, with central heating, a double bedroom or two single ones, a pleasant living loom, and a little verandah, can be rented for round about £8 a week, and meals come to an additional five guineas a head. The cottages are usually set round a central house, which has a big dining room with separate tables, a library, a lounge, a children’s playroom, and a roof sun verandah. A cottage for four to six people costs from twenty to twenty-five guineas a week, but it is the acme of comfort. The hire of horses varies curiously. A horse may be had for four guineas a week, and for a long half-day costs under three guineas; iix that case it is described as “non-exclusive hich means that all the family can get their ride. Many of the ranches have special arrangements for children there are kindergartens where the project and the drill method hold sway. Cowboys play a part in the kindergartens too. teaching riding on well-broken ponies; a highly fenced rodeo corral makes an excellent ring. The Head Wranglers (who have nothing to do with Cambridge, England), organise gymkhanas, packing trips of two or three days or of a fortnight, and “hunting” trips. The mildest bit of rough shooting suffices for a hunting trip. It is a great life, and the wealthy patrons enjoy it enormously. They feel they have been racy of the soil, are back to Nature, living in God’s own world, dealing with elemental things and people. Especially they have enjoyed their contacts with those fine fellows, the cowboys. Tips are not allowed at doods; presents are. Every movie cowboy accepts present. Every dood cowboy gets them; usually in the form of nice big cheques.—London ‘Times.’