BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 $ 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
The Life and Adventures 
 
 OF 
 
 NAT LOVE 
 
 -. 
 
 BETTER KNOWN IN THE CATTLE COUNTRY AS 
 
 "DEADWOOD DICK" 
 
 -BY HIMSELF _ 
 
 A TRUE HISTORY OF SLAVERY DAYS, LIFE ON THE 
 
 GREAT CATTLE RANGES AND ON THE PLAINS 
 
 OF THE "WILD AND WOOLLY " WEST, 
 
 BASED ON FACTS, AND PER- 
 
 SONAL EXPERIENCES 
 
 OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1907 
 NAT LOVE, AUTHOR 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
Nat Love, Better Known as Deadwood Dick, and His Family 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Having passed the half century mark in life's journey, and 
 yielding to persistent requests of many old and valued friends 
 of the past and present, I have decided to write the record of 
 slave, cow-boy and pullman porter will prove of interest to the 
 reading public generally and particularly to those who prefer 
 facts to fiction, (and in this case again facts will prove stranger 
 than fiction). I assure my readers that every event chronicled 
 in this history is based on facts, and my personal experiences, 
 of more than fifty years of an unusually adventurous life. 
 
 While many things contained in this record happened 
 many years ago, they are as fresh in my memory as if they 
 happened but yesterday. I have tried to record events simply 
 as they are, without attempting to varnish over the bad 
 spots or draw on my imagination to fill out a chapter at the 
 cost of the truth. It has been my aim to record things just 
 as they happened, believing they will prove of greater interest 
 thereby; and if I am able to add to the interest and enjoyment 
 of a single reader I will consider myself well repaid for the 
 time and labor of preparing this history. 
 
 To my playmates of my boyhood, who may chance to 
 read this I send greetings and wish them well. To the few 
 friends, who assisted myself and widowed mother in our 
 early sti ggles, I tender my sincerest thanks, and hope they 
 have prospered as they deserve. For those who proved our 
 enemies, I have no word of censure. They have reaped their 
 reward. 
 
 To that noble but ever decreasing band of men under 
 whose blue and buckskin shirts there lives a soul as great 
 and beats a heart as true as ever human breast contained 
 to the cow-boys, rangers, scouts, hunters and trappers and 
 cattle-men of the "GREAT WESTERN PLAINS," I extend 
 the hand of greeting acknowledging the FATHER-HOOD of 
 GOD and the BROTHERHOOD of men ; and to my mother's 
 Sainted name- this book is reverently dedicated. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Slavery Days; the Old Plantation; My Early Foraging; the Stolen 
 Demijohn; My First Drunk 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The War; the Rebels and the Yankees; I Raise a Regiment; Diffi- 
 culty in Finding an Enemy; Ash Cake; Freedom 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Raising Tobacco; Our First Year of Freedom; More Privations; 
 Father Dies; "It Never Rains but It Pours;" I Become the 
 Head of the Family; I Start to Work at One Dollar and Fifty 
 Cents a Month 19 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Boyhood Sports; More Devilment; the Rock Battles; I Hunt 
 Rabbits in My Shirt Tail; My First Experience in Rough Rid- 
 ing; a Question of Breaking the Horse or Breaking My Neck. . 29 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Home Life; Picking Berries; the Pigs Commit Larceny; Nutting; 
 We Go to Market; My First Desire to See the World; I win a 
 Horse in a Raffle; the Last of Home 36 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The World is Before Me; I Join the Texas Cowboys; Red River 
 Dick; My First Outfit; My First Indian Fight; I Learn to 
 Use My Gun 40 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 I Learn to Speak Spanish; I Am Made Chief Brand Reader; the 
 Big Round-up; the 7XL Steer; Long Rides; Hunting Strays... 46 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 On the Trail; a Texas Storm; Battle with the Elements; After 
 Business Comes Pleasure 52 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Enroute to Wyoming; the Indians Demand Toll; the Fight; a 
 Buffalo Stampele; Tragic Death of Cal Surcey; An Eventful 
 Trip 58 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 We Make a Trip to Nebraska; the "Hole in the Wall Country;" 
 a Little Shooting Scrape; Cattle on the Trail and the Way to 
 Handle Them; a Bit of M'oralization 66 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A Buffalo Hunt; I Lose My Lariat and Saddle; I Order a Drink for 
 Myself and My Horse; a Close Place in Old Mexico 72 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A Big Mustang Hunt; We Tire Them Out; the Indians Capture 
 Mess Wagon and Cook; Our Bill of Fare Buffalo Meat with- 
 out Salt . 82 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 On the Trail with Three Thousand Head of Texas Steers; Rumors 
 of Trouble with the Indians; at Deadwood, S. D.; the Roping 
 Contest; I Win the Name of "Deadwood Dick;" the Shooting 
 Match; the Custer Massacre; We View the Battlefield; Gov- 
 ernment Scouts ; at Home Again 88 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Riding the Range; the Fight with Yellow Dog's Tribe; I am Cap- 
 tured by the Indians and Adopted into the Tribe; My Escape; 
 I ride a Hundred Miles in Twelve Hours without a Saddle; 
 My Indian Pony; "Yellow Dog Chief;" the Boys Present Me 
 with a New Outfit; in the Saddle and on the Trail Again 98 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 On a Trip to Dodge City, Kan.; I Rope One of Uncle Sam's 
 Cannon; Captured by the Soldiers; Bat Masterson to My 
 Rescue; Lost on the Prairie; the Buffalo Hunter Cater; My 
 Horse Gets Away and Leaves Me Alone on the Prairie; the 
 Blizzard; Frozen Stiff 106 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Old Haze and Elsworth Trail; Our Trip to Cheyenne; 
 Ex-Sheriff Pat F. Garret; the Death of Billy the "Kid;" the 
 Lincoln County Cattle War 1 16 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Another Trip to Old Mexico; I Rope an Engine; I Fall in Love; 
 My Courtship; Death of M'y Sweetheart; My Promised Wife; 
 I Must Bear a Charmed Life; the Advent of Progress; the 
 Last of the Range 123 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Pullman Service; Life on the Rail; My First Trip; a Slump 
 in Tips; I Become Disgusted and Quit; a Period of Husking; 
 My Next Trip on the Pullman; Tips and the People Who 
 Give Them 131 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Pullman Palace Sleeping Car; Long Trips on the Rail; the 
 Wreck; One Touch of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin; 
 a Few of the Railroads Over Which I Have Traveled; the 
 Invalids and the Care We Give Them 137 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Tourist Sleeping Car; the Chair Car; the Safeguards of 
 Modern Railroading; See America, Then Let Your Chest 
 Swell with Pride that You are an American 142 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A Few of the Railroad Men Under Whom I Have Served; George 
 M. Pullman; the Town of Pullman, 111.; American Railroads 
 Lead the World ; a Few Figures 148 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A Few Reminiscences of the Range: Some Men I Have Met; 
 Buffalo Bill; the James Brothers; Yellowstone Kelly; the 
 MWder of Buck Cannon by Bill Woods; the Suicide of Jack 
 Zimick 155 
 
This book is dedicated to my wife, 
 MRS. ALICE LOVE 
 
CHAPTER L 
 
 SLAVERY DAYS. THE OLD PLANTATION. MY 
 EARLY FORAGING. THE STOLEN DEMIJOHN. 
 MY FIRST DRINK. THE CURSE OF SLAVERY. 
 
 In an old log cabin, on my Master's plantation in Davidson 
 County in Tennessee in June, 1854, I first saw the light of day. 
 The exact date of my birth I never knew, because in those 
 days no count was kept of such trival matters as the birth 
 of a slave baby. They were born and died and the account was 
 balanced in the gains and losses of the Master's chattels, and 
 one more or less did not matter much one way or another. 
 My father and mother were owned by Robert Love, an ex- 
 tensive planter and the owner of many slaves. He was in 
 his way and in comparison with many other slave owners of 
 those days a kind and indulgent Master. 
 
 My father was a sort of foreman of the slaves on the plan- 
 tation, and my mother presided over the kitchen at the big 
 house and my Master's table, and among her other duties 
 were to milk the cows and run the loom, weaving clothing for 
 the other slaves. This left her scant time to look after me, 
 so I early acquired the habit of looking out for myself. The 
 other members of father's family were my sister Sally, about 
 eight years old, and my brother Jordan, about five. My sister 
 Sally was supposed to look after me when my mother was 
 otherwise occupied ; but between my sister's duties of helping 
 mother and chasing the flies from Master's table, I received 
 very little looking after from any of the family, therefore 
 necessity compelled me at an early age to look after myself 
 and rustle my own grub. My earliest recollections are of 
 pushing a chair in front of me and toddling from one to the 
 other of my Master's family to get a mouthful to eat like a 
 pet dog, and later on as I became older, making raids on the 
 garden to satisfy my hunger, much to the damage of the 
 young onions, watermelons, turnips, sweet potatoes, and other 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 9 
 
 things I could find to eat. We had to use much caution during 
 these raids on the garden, because we well knew what we 
 would catch if someone caught us, but much practice made 
 us experts in escaping undetected. 
 
 One day when Master and the family went to 
 town mother decided to make some wine of which she was 
 very fond, accordingly she gathered some grapes and after 
 pressing them she made some fairly good wine. This she 
 placed in a demijohn, and this for better security she hid in 
 the garden, as she thought unknown to anyone, but my brother, 
 sister and myself had been watching the process with consid- 
 erable curiosity, which finally reached such a pitch that there 
 was nothing to it; we must sample a liquid that looked so 
 good. So Jordan went to the hay loft from where a good view 
 could be obtained all around, while myself and Sally busied 
 ourselves in the vineyard. Presently Mother thinking all secure 
 left the house with the demijohn and proceeded to hide it. 
 Jordan, from the hay loft, noted that mother never left the 
 garden until she returned to the house, empty handed, but he 
 was unable to see the exact hiding place. 
 
 It was several days later while passing through the 
 garden that we ran across the lost demijohn. It did not take 
 us long to discover that its contents suited our tastes. Sally 
 and Jordan dragged it into a sweet corn patch, where we were 
 safe from observation. An oyster can was secured to serve 
 as a glass and the way we attacked that wine was a caution 
 to the Temperance Workers. And I can assure you we en- 
 joyed ourselves for a while, but for how long I am unable 
 to tell exactly. Mother soon missed us but being very busy 
 she could not look for us until evening, when she started out 
 to look us up, after searching and calling in vain. She decided 
 to take the dogs to help find us. With their aid we were soon 
 located, lying in the sweet corn, "dead drunk," while the 
 demijohn quite empty, bottom side up, stared at mother 
 with a reproachful stare, and the oyster can which had served 
 up and took me to the house, and let Sally and Jordan lie in 
 near by, bearing mute witness against us. Mother picked me 
 up and took me to the house, and let Sally and Jordan lie in 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 11 
 
 the sweet corn all night, to dwell on the events. Immediately 
 preceding our return to consciousness is a painful subject 
 to me as it was exceedingly painful then. I was most feverish 
 the next day with a head on my shoulders several sizes larger 
 than the one I was used to wearing. Sally and Jordan were 
 enjoying about the same health as myself, but the state of 
 our health did not exempt us from mother's wrath. We all 
 received a good sound old-fashioned thrashing. A fitting 
 prelude to my first "drunk." 
 
 I suppose I acquired the taste for strong drink on this oc- 
 casion; be that as it may, the fact remains that I could out- 
 drink any man I ever met in the cattle country. I could drink 
 large quantities of the fiery stuff they called whiskey on the 
 range without it affecting me in any way, but I have never 
 been downright drunk since that time in the sweet, corn patch. 
 Our plantation was situated in the heart of the black belt 
 of the south, and on the plantations all around us were thou- 
 sands of slaves, all engaged in garnering the dollars that kept 
 up the so-called aristocracy of the south, and many of the 
 proud old families owe their standing and wealth to the toil 
 and sweat of the black man's brow, where if they had to 
 pay the regular rate of wages to hire laborers to cultivate 
 their large estates, their wealth would not have amounted 
 to a third of what it was. Wealth was created, commerce 
 carried on, cities built, and the new world well started on the 
 career that has led to its present greatness and standing in 
 the world of nations. All this was accomplished by the sweat 
 of the black man's brow. By black man I do not mean to say 
 only the black men, but the black woman and black child all 
 helped to make the proud south what it was, the boast of 
 every white man and woman, with a drop of southern blood 
 in their veins, and what did the black man get in return? His 
 keep and care you say? Ye gods and little fishes! Is there 
 a man living today who would be willing to do the work per- 
 formed by the slaves of that time for the same returns, his 
 care and keep? No, my friends, we did it because we were 
 forced to do it by the dominant race. We had as task masters, 
 in many instances, perfect devils in human form, men who 
 
12 
 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 13 
 
 delighted in torturing the black human beings, over whom 
 chance and the accident of birth had placed them. I have seen 
 men beaten to the ground with the butts of the long whips 
 carried by these brutal overseers, and for no other reason 
 than that they could not raise to their shoulders a load suf- 
 ficient for four men to carry. I have seen the long, cruel 
 lash curl around the shoulders of women who refused to com- 
 ply with the licentious wishes of the men who owned them, 
 body and soul did I say soul? No, they did not own their 
 soul ; that belonged to God alone, and many are the souls that 
 have returned to him who gave them, rather than submit 
 to the desires of their masters, desires to which submission was 
 worse than death. I have seen the snake-like lash draw blood 
 from the tender limbs of mere babies, hardly more than able 
 to toddle, their only offense being that their skin was black. 
 And young as I was my blood often boiled as I witnessed 
 these cruel sights, knowing that they were allowed by the 
 laws of the land in which I was born. I used to think it was 
 not the country's fault, but the fault of the men who made the 
 laws. Of all the curses of this fair land, the greatest curse 
 of all was the slave auction block of the south, where human 
 flesh was bought and sold. Husbands were torn from their 
 wives, the baby from its mother's breast, and the most sacred 
 commands of God were violated under the guise of modern 
 law, or the law of the land, which for more than two hundred 
 years has boasted of its freedom, and the freedom of its people. 
 
 Some of the slaves, like us, had kind and indulgent mas- 
 ters. These were lucky indeed, as their lot was somewhat im- 
 proved over their less fortunate brothers, but even their lot was 
 the same as that of the horse or cow of the present day. They 
 were never allowed to get anything in the nature of education, 
 as smart negroes were not in much demand at that time, and 
 the reason was too apparent, education meant the death of 
 the institution of slavery in this country, and so the slave 
 owners took good care that their slaves got none of it. 
 
 Go and see the play of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and you will 
 see the black man's life as I saw it when a child. And Harriett 
 Beecher Stowe, the black man's Saviour, well deserves the 
 sacred shrine she holds, along with the great Lincoln, in the 
 black man's heart. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 WAR. 'THE REBELS AND YANKEES." I RAISE A 
 REGIMENT TO FIGHT. DIFFICULTY IN FINDING 
 AN ENEMY. ASH SAKE. FREEDOM. 
 
 When I was ten years old the war broke out between the 
 ''North and the South." And there was little else talked about, 
 among the slaves as well as the slave owners of the neighbor- 
 hood. And naturally the many different stories we heard 
 worked us children to a high state of excitement. So much 
 so that we wanted to go to war, and fight for the Union, be- 
 cause among us slave children there was no difference of 
 opinion, as to which side was right. 
 
 The Union was "IT," and we were all "Yankees." Not 
 being able to go to war as our masters did, we concluded to 
 play war, accordingly I gathered all the boys of the neighbor- 
 hood together, into a regiment, which it was my intention to 
 divide into two parties of Rebels and Yankees, but in this I met 
 an insurmountable obstacle. Not one of the boys wanted to be 
 a rebel, consequently we had to look elsewhere for an enemy 
 to give us battle, and serve as a vent for our growing enthu- 
 siasm. The next Sunday preceding the organization of our 
 regiment, we started out over the surrounding country in quest 
 of trouble, which we were not long in finding, as we soon ran 
 across a nest of yellow jackets. These we proceeded to ex- 
 terminate, in which we were successful after a short but de- 
 structive battle. We suffered considerably in wounded but 
 lost none of our soldiers. This engagement we called the 
 capture of fort "Hell." For some time thereafter we made 
 regular raids into the surrounding country in quest of an 
 enemy. We were eventually successful in our quest, as in 
 quick order we ran across and captured a company of bumble 
 bees. This we called the "Battle of the Wilderness." Vic- 
 tory over a nest of hornets we called the capture of "Fort 
 Sumter." A large nest of wasps gave us perhaps the hardest 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 15 
 
 fight of our campaigning. This we ran across in the fields not 
 far from home. There was an unusually large number of 
 them, and as is usually the case with these insects, they proved 
 very ferocious. Nothing loth, however, we attacked with 
 cheers, only to be driven back time and again and finally we 
 were compelled to make a very undignified retreat, at full 
 speed in the direction of home. Not to be beaten, however, we 
 secured reinforcements and more ammunition, in the shape of 
 old rags, brooms and so forth, and returned to the charge, and 
 although we were driven back several times we stayed until we 
 won out, and the last insect lay a quivering mass on the ground. 
 There was not one among us, not wounded in some manner, 
 as for myself I had enough of it. My nose looked like a 
 dutch slipper, and it was several days before my eyes were 
 able to perform the duties for which they were made. How- 
 ever, the Union forces were victorious and we were happy. 
 Our masters told us if the soldiers caught us, they would hang 
 us all, which had the effect of keeping most of us close around 
 home. Master had gone to join Lee's forces, taking with him 
 father, who was engaged in building forts, which work kept 
 him with the Confederate army until General Grant arrived 
 in the country, when he was allowed to come home. From 
 then on Union soldiers passed the neighborhood most every 
 day on their way south, to join the fighting regiments. 
 
 We soon found out they would not hurt us and they were 
 the wonderment and pride of our youthful minds. They would 
 take everything they could find to eat for themselves and 
 horses, leaving the plantation stripped clean of provisions and 
 food, which entailed considerable misery and hardships on 
 those left at home, especially the colored people' who were not 
 used to such a state of affairs, and were not accustomed to 
 providing for their own wants. Finally Lee surrendered and 
 master returned home. But in common with other masters 
 of those days he did not tell us we were free. And instead 
 of letting us go he made us work for him the same as before, 
 but in all other respects he was kind. He moved our log cabin 
 on a piece of ground on a hill owned by him, and in most re- 
 spects things went on the same as before the war. It wa? 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 17 
 
 quite a while after this that we found out we were free and 
 good news, like bad news, sometimes travels fast. It was not 
 long before all the slaves in the surrounding country were 
 celebrating their freedom. And "Massa Lincoln" was the 
 hero of us all. 
 
 While a great many slaves rejoiced at the altered state 
 of affairs; still many were content to remain as before, and 
 work for their old masters in return for their keep. My father, 
 however, decided to start out for himself, to that end he rent- 
 ed twenty acres of land, including that on which our cabin 
 stood, from our late master. 
 
 We were at this time in a most destitute condition, and 
 father had a very hard time to get a start, without food or 
 money and almost naked, we existed for a time on the only 
 food procurable, bran and cracklins. The limited supply of 
 provisions made the culinary duties most simple, much to 
 the disgust of mother, who was one of the best cooks in the 
 country, but beggars cannot be choosers, and she very cheer- 
 fully proceeded to make the best of what we had. She would 
 make a great fire in the large fire place in the cabin. The fire 
 when hot enough, was raked from the hearth and a small 
 place cleaned away, in the center of this clean space, mother 
 would lay a cabbage leaf, on which she would pour some batter 
 made from bran and water or buttermilk and a little salt. Then 
 on top another cabbage leaf was laid and hot coals raked over 
 the whole, and in a short time it would be baked nicely. This 
 we called ash cake. 
 
 This, with occasional cracklins made up our entire bill 
 of fare for many months. Father would make brooms and 
 mats from straw and chair bottoms from cane and reeds, in 
 which my brother and I would help him, after he had taught 
 us how. During the week a large load was made and Friday 
 night father would take the load on his shoulders and walk 
 to town, a dozen miles, where he would sell them and bring 
 seed and food home. When the weather would permit we 
 worked in the field, preparing for our first crop. 
 
 The twenty acres, being mostly uncultivated, had to be 
 
i8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 cleared, plowed and thoroughly harrowed. Our first crop con- 
 sisted of corn, tobacco and a few vegetables. 
 
 Father would lay off the corn rows. Jordan and I would 
 drop the corn while father came behind and covered the rows. 
 
 In this manner we soon had in a considerable crop of 
 corn and some vegetables for our own use. During the winter 
 which was sometimes severe, during which time nothing, of 
 course, could be done in the farming line, and when not other- 
 wise engaged, we started to try and learn ourselves something 
 in the educational line. Father could read a little, and he 
 helped us all with our A B Cs, but it is hard work learning 
 to read and write without a teacher, and there was no school 
 a black child could attend at that time. However, we managed 
 to make some headway, then spring came and with it the 
 routine of farm work. Father was a man of strong determina- 
 tion, not easily discouraged, and always pushing forward and 
 upward, quick to, learn things and slow to forget them, a 
 keen observer and a loving husband and father. Had he lived 
 this history would not have been written. 
 
CHAPTER IIL 
 
 RAISING TOBACCO, OUR FIRST YEAR OF FREEDOM. 
 MORE PRIVATIONS. FATHER DIES. IT NEVER 
 RAINS BUT IT POURS. I BECOME THE HEAD OF 
 THE FAMILY AND START TO WORK AT $1.50 PER 
 MONTH. 
 
 As soon as the corn crop was in the ground we com- 
 menced to plant tobacco. Before the seed was sown, it was 
 necessary to gather large piles of brush and wood and burn 
 it to ashes on the ground to destroy the seeds of the weeds. 
 The ground was then spaded and raked thoroughly, and the 
 seed sown. After it had come up and got a fair start, it was 
 transplanted in rows about three feet apart. When the plants 
 become large enough it is necessary to pull the suckers off, 
 also the worms off the leaves. This task fell upon Jordan and 
 myself. 
 
 In picking the worms off the plants it is necessary to 
 use the greatest care that the plants are not damaged, but 
 Jordan and I were afraid to touch the worms with our fingers, 
 so we took sticks and knocked them off, also a few leaves 
 with each worm. This fact called forth some rather strong 
 language from father, who said we were doing more harm 
 than good. But our aversion to the worms was so strong 
 that we took several thrashings before we could bring our- 
 selves to use our fingers instead of a stick. When the tobacco 
 was ripe there would be yellow spots on the leaves. It was 
 then cut, let lie for one day, then hung on a scaffold to be 
 sun cured. It was allowed to remain on the scaffold for perhaps 
 a week, then it was hung up in the barn to be smoked, after 
 which it was made into a big bulk and a weight placed on it 
 to press it out, then it was stripped, and put into hands and 
 then it was ready for the market. Our crop the first year was 
 not large and the most of it went to pay the rent and the fol- 
 lowing winter proved a hard one, and entailed considerable 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 21 
 
 privation and suffering among the many ex-slaves, who had 
 so recently been thrown on their own resources, without 
 money or clothing or food, and only those who have had the 
 experience can appreciate the condition of things or rather 
 lack of things, at the close of the war, and these conditions 
 did not only affect the ex-slaves and colored people, but cov- 
 ered the entire south, and many former well-to-do slave own- 
 ers now found themselves without a penny they could call 
 their own, having been stripped of everything and compelled 
 to start all over again. Surely "war is hell" 'but slavery is 
 worse. Early in the spring father went to work for a neigh- 
 boring planter a couple of weeks in order to get his plows and 
 horses again to plow his land. A somewhat larger crop was 
 put in this year, but unfortunately for us when everything 
 was planted father took sick and died shortly after. This 
 was a stunning loss to us just at a time when we most needed 
 a father and husband's help, counsel and protection. But we 
 did not lose courage for long. 
 
 The crop must be looked after and the coming winter pro- 
 vided against. My sister Sally had been married about three 
 years at this time and was with her husband and two little 
 girls on a small farm some distance away, which my brother- 
 in-law rented. That left, mother, Jordan and I to look after 
 things. Although I was the youngest, I was the most cour- 
 ageous, always leading in mischief, play and work. So I now 
 took the leadership, and became the head of the family. Things 
 were beginning to take on a more hopeful look, when my 
 brother-in-law died, leaving my sister sick with two small 
 children and in about the same circumstances as ourselves. 
 Everything, indeed, looked hopeless now, as our late master 
 and his brother had left the old place and gone north. So 
 remembering I was the only man on the place now, though 
 only fifteen years old, I said to mother and sister who were 
 weeping bitterly, "brace up, and don't lose your heads. 1 
 will look after you all." I said this with a bravado I was far 
 from feeling, but I could not see the use of weeping now there 
 was work to be done, if we were to keep from starving the com- 
 ing winter. We all turned in to help one another and in this 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 23 
 
 manner. The crop was gathered and we were in fairly good 
 condition for the coming winter, but the work was too much 
 for Sally who lingered through the winter and early in the 
 spring we laid her beside her father and husband, and her two 
 little orphans were left to us. It now became very apparent 
 to me that something must be done, because the crop raised 
 the year before was barely enough to last us through the 
 winter and we would soon be in actual need again. We needed 
 clothing, especially the little girls of my sister, and we had 
 no money to buy seed for this season's crop or food to last us 
 out. So I concluded to go to work for some one if I could find 
 anything to do. With that resolve, I put on my best rags 
 and to mother's inquiry as to where I was going I told her 
 I did not know myself. It fairly made my heart ache to see 
 my little nieces going around almost naked, bare footed, and 
 have them always asking for things I was powerless to give 
 them. I determined to go from place to place until I secured 
 employment of some kind that would in a measure, permit me 
 to feed, and as far as I was able, clothe mother and the chil- 
 dren, now dependent on me. 
 
 The fact that I was now free, gave me new born courage 
 to face the world and what the future might hold in store for 
 me. After tramping around the country for two days, I finally 
 secured work with a Mr. Brooks, about six miles from home 
 at one dollar and fifty cents a month. Notwithstanding the 
 smallness of my prospective wages, I was happy and returned 
 home in a jubilant frame of mind, to impart the news to moth- 
 er. I was to commence the next morning. Mother said it 
 was not much, but better than nothing. I told mother that I 
 thought I could bring some food and clothing home for the 
 children before the month was out. The little ones hearing this, 
 were overjoyed and looked on me as a rich man indeed. Jor- 
 dan was to remain at home and attend to what little there was 
 to do, and the next day I started work for Mr. Brooks. In 
 less than a week I made my first visit home, taking with me 
 some potatoes, bacon, cornmeal, and some molasses, which 
 I had rustled in various ways. I also had a bundle of old 
 
24 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 clothing given to me by the neighbors, which mother could 
 make over for the children, and to say the children were happy 
 is but a mild expression. 
 
 For the second month I received a raise of fifty cents, and 
 the third month of my employment, so good did I work, that 
 I received three dollars. With so many at home to provide for, 
 my wages did not last long, but out of my three dollars I 
 bought each of the children a book. The rest went for pro- 
 visions and clothing. One day while passing the store of 
 Mr. Graves, near our home I saw a checked sunbonnet and a 
 red calico dress which struck my fancy as just what I wanted 
 for mother. On asking the price Mr. Graves told me I could 
 have the sunbonnet for twenty-five cents and the dress for 
 four bits. That seemed to be within my means, and quite 
 reasonable. I asked him to keep them for me until I got my 
 wages at the end of the month. This Mr. Graves promised 
 to do if I would pay him something down. I only had fifteen 
 cents of which I paid five cents on the bonnet and ten cents 
 on the dress and went on my way, filled with happy thoughts 
 as the result of my bargain. I resolved to be very saving this 
 month and I became very impatient for my month to end and 
 was continually asking Mr. Brooks if my month was not soon 
 over. He would laugh and say "y es > soon." But it seemed 
 to me that was the longest month I ever knew. When at last 
 the month was over he gave me fifty cents, claiming I had 
 drawn my wages during the month. I knew that was not 
 so. I also knew I had a balance coming to me and told him 
 so. But he denied it and the result was that we had a fight. 
 I hit him in the head with a rock and nearly killed him after 
 which I felt better. Then going to Mr. Graves the store- 
 keeper, I told him the whole trouble. He expressed sympathy 
 for me and said to give him the fifty cents and take the bonnet 
 and dress, and we will call it square. And you can imagine 
 my feelings as I took the things home to mother, and she was 
 more pleased with them than any queen with her silks and 
 satins. There being plenty of work to do at home, I did not 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 25 
 
 again look for other work. The only thing that worried me 
 was that the little ones were still without shoes, but on my 
 promise to soon get them some they were satisfied. It was here 
 I got my first lessons in self-dependence and life's struggles. I 
 learned true usefulness and acquired the habit of helping 
 others which I carried with me all through my after life and 
 that trait perhaps more than any other endeared me to my 
 companions on the range and all with whom I have had deal- 
 ings. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BOYHOOD SPORTS. MORE DEVILMENT. THE 
 ROCK BATTLES. I HUNT RABBITS IN MY SHIRT 
 TAIL. MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN ROUGH RID- 
 ING. A QUESTION OF BREAKING THE HORSE OR 
 BREAKING MY NECK. 
 
 In those days it was more the custom, than now, to work 
 six days and rest on the seventh, accordingly us boys always 
 had our Sundays free. And we never lost an opportunity to 
 put in motion some devilment to make the time pass in what 
 we thought was the most pleasant way. Anything to have a 
 great time. Our chief means of having fun for a while was 
 the rock battles. We boys of the entire neighborhood would 
 get together, then divide in equal numbers on a side, then 
 after gathering all the available rocks from the landscape, 
 we would proceed to have a pitched battle, throwing the rocks 
 at each other as hard as we could, and with a grim intent to 
 commit battery. As a rational consequence the bravest would 
 force the weaker side to retreat. It then became a question 
 of running or being rocked to death. After these battles 
 we were all usually in very bad condition, having received 
 very hard knocks on sundry and various parts of our anatomy, 
 but for all that we have never bore malice toward each other. 
 We were careful to keep these escapades from the knowledge 
 of our elders. In this way we were quite successful until one 
 time we had a boy nearly killed, then we thought the old 
 folks would whip us all to death. This incident ended the 
 rock battles. But we soon had something else doing to furnish 
 ourselves fun and excitement. 
 
 About this time we planned a rabbit hunt, after the small 
 cotton tail rabbits, which were plentiful in the surrounding 
 country. Getting all the boys together and securing the track 
 hounds of the neighborhood we were off. It was not long 
 before the dogs caught track of something and away they went 
 
28 LIFE AND AD-VENTURES OF 
 
 with all the boys behind. Now at that time it was not cus- 
 tomary for us boys of the plantation to wear shoes and pants, 
 the principal reason being that we did not have either shoes 
 or pants to wear. So you can perhaps imagine the sight present- 
 ed by a score or more of boys of all ages chasing behind the 
 hounds, with our shirt tails flying through bushes, thorns 
 and brambles, up hill and down hill, many of us bleeding like 
 stabbed pigs, but we were too much interested to pay any at- 
 tention to a little blood. We wanted the rabbits, and every- 
 thing else was of secondary importance, even the calls of the 
 younger boys who got tired and fell behind. Onward we went 
 over rocks, through fields, over fences, until we could hear 
 the dogs no more, then tired out we had to stop. I told the 
 boys to sit down, that I thought the dogs would come this 
 -way again. It was not long before I thought I heard some- 
 thing and told the boys to hush and have their rocks ready to 
 kill the rabbit. It never occurred to me that it would be any- 
 thing but a rabbit. The bay of the dogs came nearer, then 
 over the fence jumped a big red fox right in front of me. He 
 stopped and we looked in each others eyes. It was hard to tell 
 which of us was the most surprised, however, I was the first 
 to run away, and run I did. I ran like a black tailed deer. 
 Many times I thought I felt him nibble at my shirt tails, and 
 his eyes grew in my imagination as large as wagon wheels and 
 Mr. Fox, himself, seemed to grow as big as an elephant. When 
 at last I dropped from sheer exhaustion and could summon 
 courage to look behind me, I could see nothing. It was then I 
 realized I was not. so game as I thought I was and the know- 
 ledge was not pleasant by any means. Not far from our house 
 there was a horse ranch, owned by a Mr. Williams. He had 
 two sons about my own age and I would often go and see 
 them on Sundays. As I was very fond of riding horses most 
 of the horses on the ranch were very wild. So one day the 
 oldest boy and I made a plan to break the young colts. The 
 only chance we had of doing so was on Sunday, when the 
 family went to church, as we did not think Mr. Williams 
 would approve of our plan. Mr. Williams' boy said he would 
 give me ten cents for every colt I broke. That was perfectly 
 
 i i 
 
03 
 
30 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 satisfactory to me. The money was made of shin plaster 
 those days (paper). The next Sunday I started to break hors- 
 es. We did not dare to put the bridle on them as we were 
 afraid the boss might surprise us and we would not be quick 
 enough to get it off. Our mode of procedure was to drive 
 one at a time in the barn, get it in a stall, then after much diffi- 
 culty I would manage to get on its back. Then the door was 
 opened and the pole removed and the horse liberated with me 
 on its back, then the fun would commence. The colt would 
 run, jump, kick and pitch around the barn yard in his efforts to 
 throw me off. But he might as well tried to jump out of 
 his skin because I held on to his mane and stuck to him like 
 a leech. The colt would usually keep up his bucking until he 
 could buck no more, and then I would get my ten cents. Ten 
 cents is a small amount of money these days, but in those days 
 that amount was worth more to me than ten dollars now. 
 
 Well, we went on Sunday after Sunday and I broke about 
 a dozen colts in this way, and also managed to do it without 
 the boss discovering the favor I was undoubtedly doing 
 him, in breaking all his wild horses. Only his boys were aware 
 of the doings and they paid me. So I had no scruples about 
 what I was doing, especially as it afforded me great fun. Final- 
 ly the boys wanted me to break a big handsome black horse 
 called Black Highwayman. Knowing the horse's uncertain 
 temper and wild disposition and taking into consideration its 
 size, I refused to break him for ten cents, as the fact was I 
 was rather scared of him. After considerable bargaining, in 
 which I held out for fifty cents, we finally compromised on 
 twenty-five cents. But I can assure you it was more for the 
 money than the fun of the thing, that I finally consented to 
 ride him. With great difficulty we managed to get him in a 
 stall as we did the others, but I no sooner landed on his back 
 than he jumped in the manger with me hanging to his mane. 
 Finally the door was opened and the pole removed and out 
 of the barn we shot like a black cloud, around the yard we 
 flew, then over the garden fence. At this juncture the track 
 hounds became interested and promptly followed us. Over the 
 fields we went, the horse clearing the highest fences and 
 
ffl 
 
32 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 other obstacles in his way with the greatest ease. My seat 
 on his back was not the most comfortable place in the world, 
 but as the horse did not evince any disposition to stop and 
 let me get off, I concluded to remain where I was. All the dogs 
 of the neighborhood were fast joining in the race and I had 
 quite a respectable following. After running about two miles 
 we cleared a fence into a pasture where there was a large 
 number of other horses and young colts, who promptly stam- 
 peded as we joined them, Highwayman taking the lead with 
 me on his back, looking very much like a toad. And all the 
 dogs in the country strung out in the rear. Naturally we 
 formed a spectacle that could not fail to attract the attention 
 of the neighbors, who soon as possible mounted horses and 
 started in pursuit and vainly tried to catch my black mount 
 but could get nowhere near him, while I without bridle or 
 anything to control him could do nothing but let him run 
 as all the other horses bunched around us and the dogs kept 
 up a continual din. I simply held on and let him go. It 
 was a question of breaking the horse or breaking my neck. 
 We went over everything, through everything, until finally 
 the killing pace told and Black Highwayman fell, a thoroughly 
 exhausted and completely conquered and well broken horse. 
 As for myself, I was none the worse for my exciting ride. 
 But on looking for my twenty-five cents, I found it gone. The 
 boys had paid me in advance, as I insisted, and I had tied the 
 money up in a corner of my shirt, tail and during my wild 
 iide it had come untied and worked out. This was a great 
 misfortune to me and for a while I was inconsolable. I asked 
 the boys if they would make it right, but no, they had paid 
 me once and they refused to give me another quarter. This 
 riled me considerable and I told them all right, to come again 
 when they wanted a horse broken. That settled us and the 
 horse breaking. The experiences I gained in riding during 
 these times, often stood me in good stead in after years dur- 
 ing my wild life on the western plains. Mr. Williams of 
 course, heard of my last wild ride, but. instead of being angry, 
 he seemed to see the funny side of it, which I could not. 
 
 The spectators wondered how in the world I ever escaped 
 a broken neck and I have often wondered how I escaped in 
 after years from situations that seemed to be sure death. But 
 escape I did and am now hale and hearty, without pain, with 
 muscles like iron and able at any time to run a hundred yards 
 in eleven seconds or jump a six foot fence. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 HOME LIFE. PICKING BERRIES. THE PIGS COM- 
 MIT LARCENY. NUTTING. WE GO TO MARKET. 
 MY FIRST DESIRE TO SEE THE WORLD. I WIN A 
 HORSE IN A RAFFLE. THE LAST OF HOME. 
 
 I now settled down to the work around the farm and the 
 problem of making a living for those dependent on me. The 
 crop was all in and after attending to such work around home 
 as had to be done, we found a source of revenue in gather- 
 ing berries for market. Large quantities of black berries and 
 others grew wild in the woods near by. And they always 
 found a ready market. With small pails and a big basket 
 mother and I would start out after the work at home was 
 done. Reaching the woods we would sit under the bushes 
 and fill the pails, then empty them into the big basket until 
 that was full which usually comprised our day's work. 
 
 One day, wishing to secure a large quantity of berries for 
 market, we went early in the morning and on reaching the 
 woods we placed the big basket in what we thought a safe 
 place, and after some hours of industrious work, the big bas- 
 ket was full of nice ripe blackberries. We then proceeded to 
 fill our pails again which would be sufficient for the day. This 
 accomplished, we prepared to start for home. But when 
 mother went to take the big basket it was empty. 
 
 The stray pigs had found them and committed larceny. 
 Mother felt so bad she cried. We had put in a hard day's 
 work for nothing. It had been our intention to take them 
 to town on the morrow and buy something for Sunday, but 
 now the fruit of our labor was gone and the disappointment 
 was great. I looked at mother, then at the empty basket and 
 did not know for which to feel most sorry. So I said, "Well, 
 there is no use grieving over spilt milk. If we had not had 
 them we could not have lost them, and there are plenty more 
 of the same kind for the pithing." Mother turned toward me, 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 35 
 
 and said, with a look I will always remember, "My boy, what- 
 ever happens, you never get discouraged." I did not see the use 
 of losing courage and I think the only time I weakened was 
 when father died, as he could not be replaced. 
 
 We went on talking and picking berries, and before we 
 knew it the basket was full again and the pails. It was now 
 night so mother took the bushel basket on her head and I took 
 the pails and we were soon home. That night mother took 
 my clothing, as was customary, and washed and pressed it 
 so I would look nice and clean to go to market the next day. 
 As I only had one outfit of clothes I had necessarily to go 
 without them during the washing process, however, mother 
 always kept me clean, at considerable labor on her part. The 
 next morning, early, mother and I started for town, five miles 
 distant, walking along the hot, dusty road, each of us with a 
 basket of berries on our heads and bunches of cucumbers in 
 our hands, mother having much the larger load, but she 
 was a very strong woman. As it chanced we had a lucky day 
 and sold our stock of berries and cucumbers in a short time. 
 We then bought what we needed and had a little money left 
 but for all that, I was not quite satisfied. I wanted mother 
 to buy something that was not necessary, but she said, "My 
 son, if we don't save a few cents now what will it be later on ? 
 We will have to go to the poorhouse." I said, "Dear mother if 
 there is a house poorer than ours I don't want to see it." I 
 will always remember the sight of mother's face as she turned 
 to me, the tears running down her cheeks as she answered, 
 ''Yes, my son, you are right there are few houses poorer than 
 ours now." The same year when fall came mother and I 
 thought we had the bull by the horns. There were several 
 fine groves of walnut, hickory nut, chestnut and shirly bark 
 nut trees in the woods and I made a sleigh on which I nailed 
 a big box. I tied a rope for a tongue and with a stick on the 
 end, mother and I working as a sort of double feam would 
 draw through the woods among the trees gathering the differ- 
 ent kinds of nuts and as the box was big, large quantities 
 could be gathered in this manner. During the nut season we 
 worked every day from morning to night, gathering large 
 
fl 
 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 37 
 
 quantities of nuts for which we always found a ready market. 
 As we worked we talked of what we would buy with the money 
 and making plans for the future. The nuts we sold usually 
 brought us : chestnuts one dollar a bushel ; walnuts fifty cents, 
 and hickory nuts fifty cents a bushel. This money added Lo 
 the proceeds of the crop netted us quite a nice sum and made 
 our condition much better, but I assure you, dear readers, it 
 took hard work from morning to night to make both ends meet 
 but with the help of God we made them meet, and during 
 this time we were always healthy and the knowledge that we 
 were free and working for ourselves gave us courage to con- 
 tinue the struggle. It was about this time that I commenced 
 thinking about going west. 
 
 I wanted to see more of the world and as I began to realize 
 there was so much more of the world than what I had seen, 
 the desire to go grew on me from day to day. It was hard to 
 think of leaving mother and the children, but freedom is sweet 
 and I wanted to make more of the opportunity and my life 
 than I could see possible around home. Besides I suppose, 
 I was a little selfish as mortals are prone to be. Finally the 
 desire to go out in the world grew so strong that I mentioned 
 it to mother, but she did not give me much encouragement, 
 and I don't think she thought I had the courage to go, and be- 
 sides I had neither clothing or money and to tell the truth, the 
 outlook was discouraging even to me, but I continued to look 
 for an opportunity which happened in a very unexpected man- 
 ner shortly after. One day a man by the name of Johnson an- 
 nounced that he would raffle a fine beautiful horse at fifty cents 
 a chance. I heard of it at once, but had no money with which 
 to get a chance. However, when there's a will there's a way, 
 so I went to the barn and caught two chickens which I sold 
 for fifty cents and at once got a chance. My chance won the 
 horse. Mr. Johnson said he would give me fifty dollars for 
 the horse and as I needed the money more than the horse I 
 sold the horse back. Mr. Johnson at once raffled him off again 
 and again I won the horse, which I again sold for fifty dollars. 
 With nearly a hundred dollars I went home and told mother 
 of what I had done and gave her half of the money, telling 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 39 
 
 her I would take the other half and go out in the world and 
 try and better my condition. I then went to town and bought 
 some underwear and other needful articles, intending to leave 
 at once, but mother pleaded with me so hard to stay home, 
 that I finally consented to remain one more month, but at the 
 end of that time she pleaded for one more and I could not re- 
 fuse her. During this time my uncle came to live with us and 
 I asked him to take my place at home. This he consented 
 to do gladly. Things were going on fairly well at home now. 
 The farm was yielding a fair living and the children having 
 grown much larger they were a source of help instead of an 
 hindrance and now that my uncle and my brother Jordan 
 were home to look after mother, I felt I could better leave them 
 now, because I was not really needed at home. After gather- 
 ing what few things I wanted to take with me and providing 
 myself with some needed clothes, I bade mother and the old 
 home farewell, and started out for the first time alone in a 
 world I knew very little about. 
 
CHAPTER VL 
 
 THE WORLD IS BEFORE ME. I JOIN THE TEXAS 
 COWBOYS. RED RIVER DICK. MY FIRST OUT- 
 FIT. MY FIRST INDIAN FIGHT. I LEARN TO USE 
 MY GUN. 
 
 It was on the tenth day of February, 1869, KaT^ left the 
 old home, near Nashville, Tennessee. I was at that time about 
 fifteen years old, and though while young in years the hard 
 work and farm life had made me strong and hearty, much 
 beyond my years, and I had full confidence in myself as being 
 able to take care of myself and making my way. 
 
 I at once struck out for Kansas of which I had heard 
 something. And believing it was a good place in which 
 to seek employment. It was in the west, and it was the 
 great west I wanted to see, and so by walking and occasional 
 lifts from farmers going my way and taking advantage of every 
 thing that promised to assist me on my way, I eventually 
 brought up at Dodge City, Kansas, which at that time was 
 a typical frontier city, with a great many saloons, dance halls, 
 and gambling houses, and very little of anything else. When 
 I arrived the town was full of cow boys from the surrounding 
 ranches, and from Texas and other parts of the west. As 
 Kansas was a great cattle center and market, the wild cow 
 boy, prancing horses of which I was very fond, and the wild 
 life generally, all had their attractions for me, and I decided 
 to try for a place with them. Although it seemed to me I 
 had met with a bad outfit, at least some of them, going 
 around among them I watched my chances to get to speak with 
 them, as I wanted to find some one whom I thought would give 
 me a civil answer to the questions I wanted to ask, but they all 
 seemed too wild around town, so the next day I went out 
 where they were in camp. 
 
 Approaching a party who were eating their breakfast, I 
 got to speak with them. They asked me to have some break- 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 41 
 
 fast with them, which invitation I gladly accepted. During 
 the meal I got a chance to ask them many questions. They 
 proved to be a Texas outfit, who had just come up with a herd 
 of cattle and having delivered them they were preparing to 
 return. There were several colored cow boys among them, 
 and good ones too. After breakfast I asked the camp boss 
 for a job as cow boy. He asked me if I could ride a wild horse. 
 I said "yes sir." He said if you can I will give you a job. So 
 he spoke to one of the colored cow boys called Bronko Jim, 
 and told him to go out and rope old Good Eye, saddle him 
 and put me on his back. Bronko Jim gave me a few pointers 
 and told me to look out for the horse was especially bad on 
 pitching. I told Jim I was a good rider and not afraid of him 
 I thought I had rode pitching horses before, but from the 
 time I mounted old Good Eye I knew I had not learned what 
 pitching was. This proved the worst horse to ride I had ever 
 mounted in my life, but I stayed with him and the cow boys 
 were the most surprised outfit you ever saw, as they had 
 taken me for a tenderfoot, pure and simple. After the horse 
 got tired and I dismounted the boss said he would give me a 
 job and pay me $30.00 per month and more later on. He asked 
 what my name was and I answered Nat Love, he said to the 
 boys we will call him Red River Dick. I went by this name 
 for a long time. 
 
 The boss took me to the city and got my outfit, which 
 consisted of a new saddle, bridle and spurs, chaps, a pair of 
 blankets and a fine 45 Colt revolver. Now that the business 
 which brought them to Dodge City was concluded, prepara- 
 tions were made to start out for the Pan Handle country in 
 Texas to the home ranch. The outfit of which I was now a 
 member was called the Duval outfit, and their brand was 
 known as the Pig Pen brand. I worked with this outfit for 
 over three years. On this trip there were only about fifteen of 
 us riders, all excepting myself were hardy, experienced men, 
 always ready for anything that might turn up, but they were 
 as jolly a set of fellows as on could find in a long journey. 
 There now being nothing to keep us longer in Dodge City, we 
 prepared for the return journey, and left the next day over the 
 
42 LIFE AN'D ADVENTURES OF 
 
 old Dodge and Sun City lonesome trail, on a journey which 
 was to prove the most eventful of my life up to now. 
 
 A few miles out we encountered some of the hardest hail 
 storms I ever saw, causing discomfort to man and beast, but 
 I had no notion of getting discouraged but I resolved to be al- 
 ways ready for any call that might be made on me, of what- 
 ever nature it might be, and those with whom I have lived 
 and worked will tell you I have kept that resolve. Not far 
 from Dodge City on our way home we encountered a band of 
 the old Victoria tribe of Indians and had a sharp fight. 
 
 These Indians were nearly always harrassing travelers 
 and traders and the stock men of that part of the country, and 
 were very troublesome. In this band we encountered there 
 were about a hundred painted bucks all well mounted. When 
 we saw the Indians they were coming after us yelling like 
 demons. As we were not expecting Indians at this particular 
 time, we were taken somewhat by surprise. 
 
 We only had fifteen men in our outfit, but nothing daunted 
 we stood our ground and fought the Indians to a stand. One 
 of the boys was shot off his horse and killed near me. The 
 Indians got his horse, bridle and saddle. During this fight we 
 lost all but six of our horses, our entire packing outfit and our 
 extra saddle horses, which the Indians stampeded, then round- 
 ed them up after the fight and drove them off. And as we 
 only had six horses left us, we were unable to follow them, 
 although we had the satisfaction of knowing we had made 
 several good Indians out of bad ones. 
 
 This was my first Indian fight and likewise the first In- 
 dians I had ever seen. When I saw them coming after us and 
 heard their blood curdling yell, I lost all courage and thought 
 my time had come to die. I was too badly scared to run, some 
 of the boys told me to use my gun and shoot for all I was 
 worth. Now I had just got my outfit and had never shot off 
 a gun in my life, but their words brought me back to earth 
 and seeing they were all using their guns in a way that showed 
 they were used to it, I unlimbered my artillery and after the 
 first shot I lost all fear and fought like a veteran. 
 
 We soon routed the Indians and they left, taking with 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 43 
 
 them nearly all we had, and we were powerless to pursue them. 
 We were compelled to finish our journey home almost on foot, 
 as there were only six horses left to fourteen of us. 
 Our friend and companion who was shot in the fight, we buried 
 on the plains, wrapped in his blanket with stones piled over 
 his grave. After this engagement with the Indians I seemed 
 to lose all sense as to what fear was and thereafter during 
 my whole life on the range I never experienced the least feeling 
 of fear, no matter how trying the ordeal or how desperate 
 my position. 
 
 The home ranch was located on the Palo Duro river in 
 the western part of the Pan Handle, Texas, which we reached 
 in the latter part of May, it taking us considerably over a 
 month to make the return journey home from Dodge City. 
 I remained in the employ of the Duval outfit for three years, 
 making regular trips to Dodge City every season and to many 
 other places in the surrounding states with herds of horses 
 and cattle for market and to be delivered to other ranch own- 
 ers all over Texas, Wyoming and the Dakotas. By strict atten- 
 tion to business, born of a genuine love of the free and wild 
 life of the range, and absolute fearlessness, I became known 
 throughout the country as a good all around cow boy and a 
 splendid hand in a stampede. 
 
 After returning from one of our trips north with a bunch 
 of cattle in the fall of 1872, I received and accepted a better 
 position with the Pete Gallinger company, whose immense 
 range was located on the Gila River in southern Arizona. So 
 after drawing the balance of my pay from the Duval company 
 and bidding good bye to the true and tried companions of the 
 past three years, who had learned me the business and been 
 with me in many a trying situation, it was with genuine regret 
 that I left them for my new position, one that meant more 
 to me in pay and experience. I stayed with Pete Gallinger 
 company for several years and soon became one of their most 
 trusted men, taking an important part in all the big round-ups 
 and cuttings throughout western Texas, Arizona and other 
 states where the company had interests to be looked after, 
 sometimes riding eighty miles a day for days at a time over the 
 
14 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 trails of Texas and the surrounding country and naturally I 
 soon became well known among the cowboys rangers, scouts 
 and guides it was my pleasure to meet in my wanderings over 
 the country, in the wake of immense herds of the long horned 
 Texas cattle and large bands of range horses. Many of these 
 men who were my companions on the trail and in camp, have 
 since become famous in story and history, and a braver, truer 
 set of men never lived than these wild sons of the plains whose 
 home was in the saddle and their couch, mother earth, with 
 the sky for a covering. They were always ready to share their 
 blanket and their last ration with a less fortunate fellow com- 
 panion and always assisted each other in the many trying 
 situations that were continually coming up in a cowboy's 
 life. 
 
 When we were not on the trail taking large herds of 
 cattle or horses to market or to be delivered to other ranches 
 we were engaged in range riding, moving large numbers of 
 cattle from one grazing range to another, keeping them to- 
 gether, and hunting up strays which, despite the most earnest 
 efforts of the range riders would get away from the main herd 
 and wander for miles over the plains before they could be 
 found, overtaken and returned to the main herd. 
 
 Then the Indians and the white outlaws who infested the 
 country gave us no end of trouble, as they lost no opportunity 
 to cut out and run off the choicest part of a herd of long 
 horns, or the best of a band of horses, causing the cowboys a 
 ride of many a long mile over the dusty plains in pursuit, and 
 many are the fierce engagements we had, when after a long 
 chase of perhaps hundreds of miles over the ranges we over- 
 took the thieves. It then became a case of ''to the victor be- 
 longs the spoils," as there was no law respected in this wild 
 country, except the law of might and the persuasive qualities 
 of the 45 Colt pistol. 
 
 Accordingly it became absolutely necessary for a cow- 
 boy to understand his gun and know how to place its contents 
 where it would do the most good, therefore I in common with 
 my other companions never lost an opportunity to practice 
 with my 45 Colts and the opportunities were not lacking by any 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 45 
 
 means and so in time I became fairly proficient and able in 
 most cases to hit a barn door providing the door was not too 
 far away, and was steadily improving in this as I was in ex- 
 perience and knowledge of the other branches of the business 
 which I had chosen as my life's work and which I had begun 
 to like so well, because while the life was hard and in some 
 ways exacting, yet it was free and wild and contained the ele- 
 ments of danger which my nature craved and which began to 
 manifest itself when I was a pugnacious youngster on the 
 old plantation in our rock battles and the breaking of the wild 
 horses. I gloried in the danger, and the wild and free life of 
 the plains, the new country I was continually traversing, and 
 the many new scenes and incidents continually arising in the 
 life of a rough rider. 
 
CHAPTER VIL 
 
 I LEARN TO SPEAK SPANISH AND AM MADE CHIEF 
 BRAND READER. THE BIG ROUND-UPS. RIDING 
 THE 7-Y-L STEER. LONG RIDES. HUNTING 
 STRAYS. 
 
 Having now fairly begun my life as a cowboy, I was 
 fast learning the many ins and outs of the business, while 
 my many roamings over the range country gave me a know- 
 ledge of it not possessed by many at that time. Being of a 
 naturally observant disposition, I noticed many things to which 
 others attached no 'significance. This quality of observance 
 proved of incalculable benefit to me in many ways during my 
 life as a range rider in the western country. My employment 
 with the Pete Gallinger company took me all over the Pan 
 Handle country, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico with herds 
 of horses and cattle for market and to be delivered to other 
 ranch owners and large cattle breeders. Naturally I became 
 very well acquainted with all the many different trails and 
 grazing ranges located in the stretch of country between the 
 north of Montana and the Gulf of Mexico, and between the 
 Missouri state line and the Pacific ocean. This whole terri- 
 tory I have covered many times in the saddle, sometimes 
 at the rate of eighty or one hundred miles a day. These long 
 rides and much traveling over the country were of great benefit 
 to me, as it enabled me to meet so many different people con- 
 nected with the cattle business and also to learn the different 
 trails and the lay of the country generally. 
 
 Among the other things that I picked up on my wander- 
 ings, was a knowledge of the Spanish language, which I 
 learned to speak like a native. I also became very well ac- 
 quainted with the many different brands scattered over this 
 stretch of country, consequently it was not long before the 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 47 
 
 cattle men began to recognize my worth and the Gallinger 
 company made me their chief brand reader, which duties I 
 performed for several years with honor to myself and satis- 
 faction to my employers. In the cattle country, all the large 
 cattle raisers had their squad of brand readers whose duty it 
 was to attend all the big round-ups and cuttings throughout 
 the country, and to pick out their own brands and to see that 
 the different brands were not altered or counterfeited. They 
 also had to look to the branding of the young stock. 
 
 During the big round-ups it was our duty to pick out our 
 brand, and then send them home under the charge of our 
 cowboys, likewise the newly branded stock. After each 
 brand was cut out and started homeward, we had to stay with 
 the round up to see that strays from the different herds from 
 the surrounding country did not again get mixed up, until 
 the different home ranges were reached. This work employed 
 a large number of cowboys, who lived, ate and often slept 
 in the saddle, as they covered many hundreds of miles in a 
 very short space of time. This was made possible as every 
 large cattleman had relays of horses sent out over the country 
 where we might be expected to touch, and so we could always 
 count on finding a fresh horse awaiting us at the end of a 
 twenty-five or a fifty mile ride. But for us brand readers 
 there was no rest, we merely changed our saddles and outfit 
 to a fresh horse and were again on the go. After the general 
 round up was over, cowboy sports and a good time generally 
 was in order for those engaged in it. The interest of nearly 
 all of us centered in the riding of what was known as the 
 7 Y-L steer. A big long horn wild steer, generally the worst, 
 in the herd, was cut out and turned loose on the open prairie. 
 The cow boy who could rope and ride him would get the steer 
 as his reward, and let me assure you dear reader, that it was 
 not so easy as it sounds, as the steer separated from its 
 fellows would become extremely ferocious and wild, and the 
 man who attempted to rope and ride him would be in mo- 
 mentary danger of losing his life, if he relaxed in the least, his 
 vigilance and caution, because a wild steer is naturally fero- 
 cious. Even in cutting them out of the round up I have known 
 
*! 
 
 I 
 
 bJD 
 
 3 
 
 V^- 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 49 
 
 them to get mad and attack the cowboys who only saved 
 themselves by the quickness of their horses, or the friendly 
 intervention of a comrade who happened to be near to rope 
 the maddened long horn, and thus divert his attention to 
 other things. But in the case of the 7 Y-L steer such inter- 
 vention is against the rules, and the cowboy who attempts 
 to rope and ride the steer must at all times look out for him- 
 self. I have seen two horses and their riders gored to death 
 in this sport, and I have had to shoot more than one steer 
 to save myself and horse after my horse had fallen with me 
 and placed himself as well as me at the maddened beast's 
 mercy. At such times it takes a cool head and a steady 
 hand as no random shot will stop a wild steer. The bullet 
 must be placed in a certain spot, the center of the forehead, 
 to accomplish its mission. The last time I had a horse fall 
 with me in roping the 7 Y-L steer, he fell as the steer was 
 but a few feet away, falling in such a way that my leg caught 
 under the saddle, holding me fast. Quick as I could I gave 
 the steer a bullet in the head and he stumbled and fell dead 
 on top of my horse and me, so that the boys had to interfere 
 to the extent of dragging the steer and horse off of my leg. 
 
 The cowboy who is successful in roping the steer must 
 then mount and ride him. If he does that successfully the 
 steer becomes his personal property to do with as he will, 
 only a slight reward for the risking of his life and the trouble 
 of accomplishing the feat. But it is done more for sport's 
 sake than anything else, and the love of showing off, a 
 weakness of all cow boys more or less. But really it takes a 
 high class of horsemanship to ride a long horn, to get on 
 his back and stay there as he runs, jumps, pitches side ways, 
 backwards, forward, up and down, then over the prairie like 
 a streak of lightning. I have had the experience and I can 
 assure you it is no child's play. More than one 7 Y-L steer 
 has fallen to my lot, but I had to work for it, and work hard. 
 After all it was only part of the general routine of the cow 
 boy's life, in which danger plays so important a part. It is 
 seldom thought of being merely a matter of course, and none 
 of us would have foregone the sport, had we known that sure 
 
5 o LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 death awaited us as the result, because above all things, the 
 test of a cow boy's worth is his gameness and his nerve. 
 He is not supposed to know what fear means, and I assure 
 you there are very few who know the meaning of that word. 
 Mfost of my readers no doubt have heard of the great 
 round ups and cuttings, connected with the cattle raiser's life. 
 But not one in a hundred has any idea as to how an immens< 
 herd of wild cattle are handled in a big round up. My many 
 years of experience has given me unusual knowledge on the 
 subject, and you may bring any cattleman or boss to me, am 
 I will guarantee to answer any question he can ask me about 
 the cattle business. The first general round up occurs aboul 
 the first of April. This round up is to run in all the neai 
 cattle belonging to each man, and head them toward oui 
 respective ranges. If we find any other brand mixed up with 
 ours we head them toward their own range, and keep our 
 own together. Every cow boy does the same and in this way 
 every cattleman is enable to get his own brand together on 
 his own range, so that when the next general round up occurs 
 he will have most of his near cattle together on the home 
 range. In order to get the cattle together in the first general 
 round up, we would have to ride for hundreds of miles over 
 the country in search of the long horn steers and old cows 
 that had drifted from the home range during the winter and 
 were now scattered to the four winds of heaven. As soon as 
 they were found they were started off under the care of cow 
 boys for the place agreed upon for the general round up. 
 whether they belonged to us or not, while the rest of us 
 continued the search. All the cow boys from the many 
 different outfits working this way enabled us to soon get all 
 the strays rounded up in one great herd in which the cattle 
 of a dozen different owners were mixed up together. It then 
 became our duty to cut out our different herds and start them 
 homewards. Then we had to brand the young stock that .had 
 escaped that ordeal at the hands of the range riders. On 
 finding the strays and starting them homewards, we had to 
 keep up the search, because notwithstanding the fact that we 
 had done range /iding or line riding all winter, a large number 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 51 
 
 
 
 of cattle would manage to evade the vigilance of the cow 
 boys and get away. These must all be accounted for at the 
 great round up, as they stood for dollars and cents, profit and 
 loss to the great cattle kings of the west. In going after these 
 strayed and perhaps -stolen cattle we boys always provided 
 ourselves with everything we needed, including plenty of 
 grub, as sometimes we would be gone for nearly two months 
 and sometimes much longer. It was not an uncommon oc- 
 currence for us to have shooting trouble over our different 
 brands. In such disputes the boys would kill each other if 
 others did not interfere in time to prevent it, because in those 
 days on the great cattle ranges there was no law but the law 
 of might, and all disputes were settled with a forty-five Colt 
 pistol. In such cases the man who was quickest on the draw 
 and whose eye was the best, pretty generally got the decision. 
 Therefore it was of the greatest importance that the cow 
 boy should understand his gun, its capabilities and its shooting 
 qualities. A cow boy would never carry anything but the 
 very best gun obtainable, as his life depended on it often. 
 After securing a good gun the cow boy had to learn how to 
 use it, if he did not already know how. In doing so no trouble 
 or expense was spared, and I know there were very few poor 
 shots on the ranges over which we rode and they used the 
 accomplishment to protect themselves and their employer's 
 cattle from the Indian thiefs and the white desperadoes who 
 infested the cattle country, and who lost no opportunity to 
 stampede the herds and run off large numbers of them. When- 
 ever this happened it generally resulted in a long chase and 
 a fierce fight in which someone was sure to get hurt, and hurt 
 badly. But that fact did not bother us in the least. It was 
 all simply our duty and our business for which we were paid 
 and paid good, and so we accepted things as they came, always 
 ready for it whatever it might be, and always taking pride in 
 our work in which we always tried to excel. 
 
 Christmas, Dec. 25, 1872, is a day in my memory which 
 time cannot blot out. I and a number of friends were in a 
 place called Holbrook, Ariz. A dispute started over a saddle 
 horse with the following result. Arizona Bob drew his forty- 
 five Colt revolver, but before he had time to fire he was in- 
 stantly killed by A. Jack. Then a general fight ensued in 
 wh'ich five horses and three men were killed. 
 
 It was a sad thing for me to see my friends dead in a 
 corral on a Christmas morning, but I helped bury the dead 
 and took care of the wounded. TJhe names were A. Jack, Wild 
 Horse Pete and Arizona Bill. 
 
CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 ON THE TRAIL. A TEXAS STORM. A CATTLE STAM- 
 PEDE. BATTLE WITH THE ELEMENTS. AFTER 
 BUSINESS COMES PLEASURE. 
 
 After the round ups and on returning from our long rides 
 after strayed cattle we would have to prepare to take the trail 
 with herds of cattle and horses for market and to be delivered 
 to other large ranch owners. The party of cow boys to make 
 these trips were all selected men. We would spend several 
 days at the home ranch resting up and preparing our outfit, in 
 which our guns, saddles, blankets and horses were given a 
 thorough overhauling and placed in first class condition, as 
 they would be called on to do good hard service on these trips 
 on the trail. The nature of our journey would depend very 
 much on the kind of cattle we were called upon to handle. 
 Sometimes it would be all classes together; on other occasions 
 the herd would consist of a certain kind, such as long yearlings, 
 short yearlings, tail end and scabs. The larger demand how- 
 ever, seemed to be for straight three and four year old steers. 
 These latter kind were the easiest to handle on the trail. It is 
 no doubt necessary that I explain the difference between the 
 different kinds I mention here. Short yearlings were those 
 over one year old and short of two years, long yearlings those 
 two years and short of three years, tail end and scabs mean 
 nearly the same thing, and comprise all the very young stock 
 of all classes not yet reached the dignity of yearlings. These 
 latter were in demand from the cattle men, who took them to 
 feed until they got their growth or to raise from, as stock 
 cattle three or four years old were generally the market or 
 beef cattle. These latter were by all odds the easiest to handle 
 on the trail. Sometimes we would have an order for five 
 or six hundred head of all classes of cattle, then again we 
 would have to start out with fifteen hundred head of shipping 
 steers, or several hundred head of horses. 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 53 
 
 Shortly after I entered the employ of the Pete Gallinger 
 company, and after the round-ups of the early season, we re- 
 ceived an order for two thousand five hundred head of three 
 year old steers to be delivered at Dodge City, Kansas. This 
 <vas the largest herd I had up to the present time followed 
 good rest at the home ranch, we strung the large herd out 
 with two months provisions, and the camp wagon. After a 
 and one hundred extra saddle horses and several pack horses, 
 on the trail. Our outfit consisted of forty picked cow boys, 
 along the old Chillers trail en route for Kansas, and we 
 started on what proved to be an eventful journey. The herd 
 behaved splendidly and gave us very little trouble until we 
 crossed the Red river and struck the Old Dog and Sun City 
 trail, here they became restless, and stampeded nearly every 
 night, and whenever they got half a chance. This made it 
 very hard on us cowboys, as it is no easy matter to ride the 
 lines of such a large herd, let alone having to chase them 
 back in line from many miles over the prairie where they 
 had stampeded in their wild career. After crossing the Kan- 
 sas line at a place known as the South Forks, while making for 
 the head of the Cimarron river on the twenty-seventh of 
 June, we experienced one of the hardest rain and hail storms 
 I had ever seen, in the western country, the rain came down 
 in torrents only to cease and give place to hail stones the 
 size of walnuts. While the thunder and lightning was in- 
 cessant. It was shortly after dark when the storm commenced. 
 The twenty-five hundred head of cattle strung out along the 
 trail became panic stricken and stampeded, and despite our 
 utmost efforts, we were unable to keep them in line. 
 
 Imagine, my dear reader, riding your horse at the top 
 of his speed through torrents of rain and hail, and darkness 
 60 black that we could not see our horses heads, chasing an 
 immense herd of maddened cattle which we could hear but 
 could not see, except during the vivid flashes of lightning 
 which furnished our only light. It was the worst night's ride 
 I ever experienced. Late the next morning we had the herd 
 rounded up thirty miles from where they started from 
 the night before. On going back over the country to our 
 
54 
 
 LIFE AN'D ADVENTURES OF 
 
 camp of the night before, we saw the great danger we had 
 been in during our mad ride. There were holes, cliffs, gulleys 
 and big rocks scattered all around, some of the cliffs going 
 down a sheer fifty feet or more, where if we had fallen over 
 we would have been dashed to pieces on the rocks below, but 
 we never thought of our personal danger that night, and we 
 did not think particularly of it when we saw it further than to 
 make a few joking remarks about what would have happened 
 if some one of us had gone over. One of the boys offered to 
 bet that a horse and rider going over one of those cliffs would 
 bring up in China, while others thought he would bring up in 
 Utah. It was our duty to save the cattle, and every thing 
 else was of secondary importance. We never lost a single 
 steer during this wild night something we were justly proud 
 of. This proved the last trouble we were to have with the herd, 
 and we soon reached the five mile divide, five miles from Dodge 
 City without further incident, and with our herd intact. Here 
 we were to hold them until turned over to their new owners. 
 This accomplished, our work was done and done well for this 
 trip. Then we all headed for Dodge City to have a good time, 
 and I assure you we had it. It was our intention and ambition 
 to paint the town a deep red color and drink up all the bad 
 whiskey in the city. Our nearly two months journey over 
 the dusty plains and ranges had made us all inordinately 
 thirsty and wild, and here is where we had our turn, according- 
 ly we started out to 'So the town in true western style, in which 
 we were perfectly successful until the town had done us, 
 and we were dead broke. This fact slowed us up, because being 
 broke we could not get up any more steam and we had to cool 
 down right there. We then started out to find our boss, but 
 that gentleman being wise in his time and generation, and 
 knowing we would soon all be broke, and would be wanting 
 more money, and that he would let us have it if we asked 
 him for it only to be thrown away, he made himself scarce, and 
 he kept out of our sight until we cooled off. For my part I 
 would not spend all my money. I would draw about fifty dol- 
 lars, then I would get what things I wanted and then would 
 let the other go free, but while our money lasted we would 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 55 
 
 certainly enjoy ourselves, in dancing, drinking and shooting 
 up the town. It was our delight to give exhibitions of rough 
 riding roping and everything else we could think of to 
 make things go fast enough to suit our ideas of speed. After 
 several days spent in this manner we would begin to make 
 ready to start on the return journey home to Texas. We left 
 Dodge City on the first of July and on the fifteenth of August 
 we were back on the old home ranch, where we rested up a 
 few days before again starting out to ride the range after the 
 long horns again. As I was a brand reader I had little time 
 to rest as my services were in demand from many of the large 
 cattle kings of Texas and Arizona, and when ever a dispute 
 arose over brands, I was generally sent for to straighten mat- 
 ters out. This with the numerous round ups which I had to 
 attend and the many transfers of cattle throughout the pan 
 handle country kept me continually on the go. When my ser- 
 vices were not needed as a brand reader I rode the range along 
 with the other cow boys. This kept us almost continually in the 
 saddle, and away from the home ranch for days at a time ; when 
 this was the case our food consisted of biscuit and cakes which 
 we made ourselves from meal which we carried with us, and 
 such meat and game as we could knock over with our gpns. 
 We camped wherever it suited and where there was feed for 
 our horses. A cow boy's first care is always after his gun an:i 
 his horse, that animal often meaning life and liberty to the 
 cow boy in a tight place and the cow boy without a horse is 
 like a chicken without its head, completely lost. My faithful 
 horse has times without number carried me out of danger 
 and preserved my life. We were not destined to have much 
 rest this season as shortly after we returned from the trip 
 to Dodge City, the boss bought a large herd of cattle down 
 on the Rio Grande, just over the line in Mexico, which we haJ 
 orders for, so we had to start out and round them up. This 
 was no easy matter as they were scattered over a large range 
 of territory and many strays had to be rounded up and got 
 with the main herd. This we finally accomplished, after a great 
 deal of hard riding over the rough Rio Grande country, and 
 both men and horses were completely tired out, so we went 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 57 
 
 into camp, only holding the herd together and getting rested 
 up. This opportunity we improved by getting acquainted and 
 fraternizing with the cow boys of one of the oldest cattle coun- 
 tries this side of the herring pond Old Mexico. These men 
 were for the most part typical greasers, but they proved to 
 us that they knew a thing or two about the cattle business, 
 and all things considered they were a jolly companionable 
 sort of an outfit. From them we learned a few pointers and 
 also gave them a few very much to our mutual benefit. We 
 remained here a few days before starting northward with our 
 herd, but these few days proved very pleasant ones to us boys 
 who, on account of the monotony of the life we led always 
 welcomed new experiences or events that would give us some- 
 thing to think and talk about while on our long rides behind 
 the slow moving herd of long-horn steers, or around our camp 
 fires when in camp on the plains, and it gave us especial pleas- 
 ure to meet men of the same calling from other states over 
 the west. It not only gave us pleasure, but it added to our 
 cow knowledge, and of the country over which we might 
 at any time be called on to drive cattle, and in such cases 
 a knowledge of the country was most valuable to us. Then 
 a cow boy's life contains many things in which he is con- 
 tinually trying to improve and excel, such as roping, shoot- 
 ing, riding and branding and many other things connected 
 with the cattle business. We, in common with other trades, 
 did not know it all, and we were always ready to learn any- 
 thing new when we met any one who was capable of teaching 
 us. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EN ROUTE TO WYOMING. THE INDIANS DEMAND 
 TOLL. THE FIGHT. A BUFFALO STAMPEDE. 
 TRAGIC DEATH OF CAL. SURCEY. AN EVENT- 
 FUL TRIP. 
 
 After getting the cattle together down on the Rio Grande 
 and both man and beast had got somewhat rested up, we 
 started the herd north. They were to be delivered to a man 
 by the name of Mitchell, whose ranch was located along the 
 Powder river, up in northern Wyoming. It was a long 
 distance to drive cattle from Old Mexico to northern Wyom- 
 ing, but to us it was nothing extraordinary as we were often 
 called on to make even greater distances, as the railroads were 
 not so common then as now, and transportation by rail was 
 very little resorted to and except when beef cattle were sent to 
 the far east, they were always transported on the hoof over- 
 land. Our route lay through southern Texas, Indian Territory, 
 Kansas and Nebraska, to the Shoshone mountains in northern 
 Wyoming. We had on this trip five hundred head of mostly 
 four year old long horn steers. We did not have much trouble 
 with them until we struck Indian Territory. On nearing the first 
 Indian reservation, we were stopped by a large body of Indian 
 bucks who said we could not pass through their country un- 
 less we gave them a steer for the privilege. Now as we were 
 following the regular government trail which was a free public 
 highway, it did not strike us as justifiable to pay our way, 
 accordingly our boss flatly refused to give the Indians a steer, 
 remarking that we needed all the cattle we had and proposed 
 to keep them, but he would not mind giving them something 
 much warmer if they interfered with us. This ultimatum of 
 our boss had the effect of starting trouble right there. We 
 went into camp at the edge of the Indian country. All around 
 us was the tall blue grass of that region which in places was 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 59 
 
 higher than a horse, affording an ideal hiding place for the 
 Indians. As we expected an attack from the Indians, the 
 boss arranged strong watches to keep a keen lookout. We 
 had no sooner finished making camp when the Indians showed 
 up, and charged us with a yell or rather a series of yells, I 
 for one had got well used to the blood curdling yells of the 
 Indians and they did not scare us in the least. We were 
 all ready for them and after a short but sharp fight the Indians 
 withdrew and every thing became quiet, but us cow boys were 
 not such guys as to be fooled by the seeming quietness. We 
 knew it was only the calm before the storm, and we prepared 
 ourselves accordingly, but we were all dead tired and it was 
 necessary that we secure as much rest as possible, so the low 
 watch turned in to rest until midnight, when they were to re- 
 lieve the upper watch, in whose hands the safety of the camp 
 was placed till that time. Every man slept with his boots 
 on and his gun near his hand. We had been sleeping several 
 hours, but it seemed to me only a few minutes when the 
 danger signal was given. Immediately every man was on his 
 feet, gun in hand and ready for business. The Indians had se- 
 cured reinforcements and after dividing in two bands, one 
 band hid in the tall grass in order to pick us off and shoot us 
 as we attempted to hold our cattle, while the other band 
 proceeded to stampede the herd, but fortunately there were 
 enough of us to prevent the herd from stringing out on us, 
 as we gave our first attention to the cattle we got them to 
 merling. Back and forward, through the tall grass, the large 
 herd charged, the Indians being kept too busy keeping out 
 of their way to have much time to bother with us. This kept 
 up until daylight, but long before that time we came to the 
 conclusion that this was the worst herd of cattle to stampede 
 we ever struck, they seemed perfectly crazy even after the 
 last Indian had disappeared. We were unable to account for 
 the strange actions of the cattle until daylight, when the mys- 
 tery was a mystery no longer. The Indians in large numbers 
 had hid in the tall grass for the purpose of shooting us from 
 ambush and being on foot they were unable to get out of 
 the way of the herd as it stampeded through the grass, the 
 
/^?^fe^l wj ^ 
 
 >^pwli 
 
 v_,ylr^ J3 1 A 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 61 
 
 result was that scores of the painted savages were trampled 
 under the hoofs of the maddened cattle, and in the early gray 
 dawn of the approaching day we witnessed a horrible sight, 
 the Indians were all cut to pieces, their heads, limbs, trunk 
 and blankets all being ground up in an inseparable mass, as 
 if they had been through a sausage machine. The sight was 
 all the more horrible as we did not know the Indians were 
 hidden in the grass during the night, but their presence there 
 accounted for the strange actions of the herd during the night. 
 We suffered no loss or damage except the loss of our rest, 
 which we sorely needed as we were all pretty well played out. 
 However, we thought it advisable to move our herd on to a 
 more desirable and safe camping place, not that we greatly 
 feared any more trouble from the Indians, not soon at any 
 rate, but only to be better prepared and in better shape to put 
 up a fight if attacked. The second night we camped on the 
 open plain where the grass was not so high and where the 
 camp could be better guarded. After eating our supper and 
 placing the usual watch the men again turned in, expecting 
 this time to get a good night's rest. It was my turn to take 
 the first watch and with the other boys, who were to watch 
 with me, we took up advantageous positions on the lookout. 
 Everything soon became still, the night was dark and sultry. 
 It was getting along toward midnight when all at once we be- 
 came aware of a roaring noise in the north like thunder, slowly 
 growing louder as it approached, and I said to the boys that 
 it must be a buffalo stampede. We immediately gave the 
 alarm and started for our herd to get them out of the way of 
 the buffalo, but we soon found that despite our utmost efforts 
 we would be unable to get them out of the way, so we came 
 to the conclusion to meet them with our guns and try and 
 turn the buffalo from our direction if possible, and prevent 
 them from going through our herd. Accordingly all hands 
 rode to meet the oncoming stampede, pouring volley after 
 volley into the almost solid mass of rushing beasts, but they 
 paid no more attention to us than they would have paid to a lot 
 of boys with pea shooters. On they came, a maddened, plung- 
 ing, snorting, bellowing mass of horns and hoofs. One of 
 
r i. 
 
 \ 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 63 
 
 our companions, a young fellow by the name of Cal Surcey, 
 who was riding a young horse, here began to have trouble 
 in controlling his mount and before any of us could reach 
 him his horse bolted right in front of the herd of buffalo and 
 in a trice the horse and rider went down and the whole herd 
 passed over them. After the herd had passed we could only 
 find a few scraps of poor Cal's clothing, and the horse he had 
 been riding was reduced to the size of a jack rabbit. The buf- 
 falo went through our herd killing five head and crippling 
 many others, and scattering them all over the plain. This was 
 the year that the great buffalo slaughter commenced and such 
 stampedes were common then. It seemed to me that as soon 
 as we got out of one trouble we got into another on this trip. 
 But we did not get discouraged, but only wondered what 
 would happen next. We did not care much for ourselves, as 
 we were always ready and in most cases anxious for a brush 
 with the Indians, or for the other dangers of the trail, as they 
 only went to relieve the dull monotony of life behind the herd. 
 But these cattle were entrusted to our care and every one 
 represented money, good hard cash. So we did not relish in 
 the least having them stampeded by the Indians or run over 
 by the buffaloes. If casualties kept up at this rate, there 
 would not be very "many cattle to deliver in Wyoming by the 
 time we got there. After the buffalo stampede we rounded 
 up our scattered herd and went into camp for a couple of days' 
 rest before proceeding on our journey north. The tragic death 
 of Cal Surcey had a very depressing effect on all of us as he 
 was a boy well liked by us all, and it was hard to think that we 
 could not even give him a Christian burial. We left his re- 
 mains trampled into the dust of the prairie and his fate 
 caused even the most hardened of us to shudder as we con- 
 templated it. After getting fairly rested we proceeded on our 
 journey north and were soon out of the Indian Territory, 
 though we often met small bands of roving bucks, but aside 
 from exchanging a few shots at each other they caused us no 
 trouble. We crossed Kansas and Nebraska and reached the 
 end of our long journey without further incident worthy of 
 note, and we delivered our herd only five head short which was 
 
64 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 not bad considering the distance we had travelled and the 
 events that had happened. It was a wonder that we had been 
 able to get through with half of our herd or men. Conse- 
 quently it was with genuine relief that we turned the cattle 
 over to their new owners and received our receipt therefor. 
 We remained at the Mitchell ranch in Wyoming several days, 
 fraternizing with our northern brothers, swapping yarns and 
 having a good time generally. On the return journey to 
 Arizona we were of course, able to make better time and we 
 returned more direct by way of Colorado and Utah, taking 
 note of the cattle trails and the country over which we passed. 
 In that way we secured valuable information of the trails and 
 the country that stood us in good stead in future trips north. 
 Arriving home at the Pete Gallinger ranch, in Arizona, we 
 became the heroes of the range, and we received unstinted 
 praise from our boss, but the loss of Cal Surcey was universal- 
 ly regretted. 
 
 We were relieved of all duty until we got thoroughly 
 rested up, while our horses had the best the ranch afforded. 
 But at a large cattle ranch there is always something doing 
 and it was not long before we were again in the saddle and 
 preparing for another trip on the trail. To the cow boy ac- 
 customed to riding long distances, life in the saddle ceases 
 to be tiresome. It is only the dull monotony of following a 
 large herd of cattle on the trail day after day that tires the 
 rider and makes him long for something to turn up in the way 
 of excitement. It does not matter what it is just so it is ex- 
 citement of some kind. This the cow boy finds in dare-devil 
 riding, shooting, roping and such sports when he is not en- 
 gaged in fighting Indians or protecting his herds from the or- 
 ganized bands of white cattle thieves that infested the cattle 
 country in those days. It was about this time that I hired 
 to Bill Montgomery for a time to assist in taking a band of 
 nine hundred head of horses to Dodge City. The journey 
 out was without incident, on arriving at Dodge City we sold 
 the horses for a good price returning to the old ranch in Ari- 
 zona by the way of the old lone and lonesome Dodge City trail. 
 While en route home on this trail we had a sharp fight with 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 65 
 
 the Indians. When I saw them coming I shouted to my com- 
 panions, "We will battle them to hell !" Soon we heard their 
 yells as they charged us at full speed. We met them with a 
 hot fire from our Winchesters, but as they were in such large 
 numbers we saw that we could not stop them that way and it 
 soon developed into a hand to hand fight. My saddle horse 
 was shot from under me ; at about the same time my partner 
 James Holley was killed, shot through the. heart. I caught 
 Holley's horse and continued the fight until it became evident 
 that the Indians were too much for us, then it became a 
 question of running or being scalped. We thought it 
 best to run as we did not think we could very 
 well spare any hair at that particular time, any way we mostly 
 preferred to have our hair cut in the regular way by a com- 
 petent barber, not that the Indians would charge us too much, 
 they would have probably done the jpb for nothing, but we 
 didn't want to trouble them, and we did not grudge the price 
 of a hair cut any way, so we put spurs to our horses and they 
 soon carried us out of danger. Nearly every one of us were 
 wounded in this fight but Holley was the only man killed on 
 our side though a few of the Indians were made better as the 
 result of it. W T e heard afterwards that Holley was scalped and 
 his body filled with arrows by the red devils. This was 
 only one of the many similar fights we were constantly having 
 with the Indians and the cattle thieves of that part of the 
 country. They were so common that it was not considered 
 worth mentioning except when we lost a man, as on this oc- 
 casion. This was the only trouble we had on this trip of any 
 importance and we soon arrived at the Montgomery ranch 
 in Texas where after a few days rest with the boys, resting up, 
 I made tracks in the direction of my own crib in Arizona. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 WE MAKE A TRIP TO NEBRASKA. THE HOLE IN 
 THE WALL COUNTRY. A LITTLE SHOOTING 
 SCRAPE. CATTLE ON THE TRAIL AND THE WAY 
 TO HANDLE THEM. A BIT OF MORALIZATION. 
 
 The ranch boss's voice rang out sharply, but kindly as he 
 entered our quarters where we were engaged in all sorts of 
 occupations, some of the boys playing cards, others smoking 
 and swapping stories, while those more industrious were dili- 
 gently engaged in cleaning their forty-fives. I glanced up 
 from my long barreled rifle I was just putting the finishing 
 touches to, wondering what was up now. The boss informed 
 us that we were to take another herd of cattle north, away up 
 in the northwestern part of Nebraska, and that all of us who 
 were on the last trip had been selected for the duty again 
 this trip. This announcement was met with exclamations of 
 approval from the boys who had now got thoroughly rested 
 up and were anxious for regular duty again. Since our return 
 from Wyoming we had not been doing much, but taking it 
 easy with occasional range riding and were becoming rusty 
 in consequence. We were to start on our second journey 
 north this season as soon as possible, so we lost no time in 
 getting ready. We were to take the same size herd as before. 
 It did not take us long to round the herd up and the second 
 day from the time we received the order we were off.. Our 
 route was different this time, starting from the home ranch 
 in Arizona we went by way of New Mexico, Colorado and into 
 Nebraska, by way of the Platte river, which we crossed near 
 where the forks of the North and South Platte unite. It was 
 now late in the season and we had to hurry in order to get 
 through in good weather, therefore we put the cattle to the 
 limit of their traveling powers. Beef cattle, that is, four year 
 old long horns differ greatly from other cattle in their travel. 
 The first day after being put out on the trail they will travel 
 
DEAD'WOOD DICK 67 
 
 twenty-five miles without any trouble then as the pace begins 
 to tell on them they fall back to fifteen or twenty miles a day, 
 and there also seems to be an understanding among the cattle 
 themselves that each must take a turn at leading the herd, 
 those that start in the lead in the morning will be away back 
 in the center of the herd at noon, and those that started 
 in the center are now leading. This they keep up until all 
 have had their turn at leading and as a rule if they are not 
 scared by something they will stay pretty well bunched. We 
 allowed the herd to graze and rest during the night, only 
 traveling during the day, as a herd of cattle should never be 
 moved off their grazing ground until the dew is off the grass 
 because their feet are made soft by the wet grass and if they 
 are moved onto the hard trail while in that condition sore 
 heels are sure to result, and a steer with sore heels cannot 
 
 travel and will have to be left behind on the trail or the herd 
 
 
 
 held until those affected have recovered. Our saddle horses 
 travel several times the distance that a herd of cattle does 
 on the trail, as it is necessary to ride from one end of the herd 
 to the other to keep them in line and headed in the right direc- 
 tion. This work is hard on the horses but that is always 
 provided for by having a small herd of horses along under 
 the charge of a horse rustler as we called him and any of the 
 boys could change his tired horse for a fresh one at any time 
 he chose, but he would have no one to help him make the 
 change. He would have to rope, throw, saddle and bridle the 
 horse himself without any assistance whatever from his com- 
 panions, and this was no easy matter as most of the horses 
 were wild Texas mustangs and had never had the saddle on 
 more than once or twice and so as often happened the cow 
 boy would be led a hard life before he finally made the change 
 of mounts. On such occasions he always received the un- 
 welcome and unasked advice of the other boys, but as most 
 of the boys were expert at that business there was slight chance 
 for railing and chaff. But if for any reason he should get the 
 laugh from his companions he always took it in the same spirit 
 in which it was given, only waiting his chance to get even, 
 and such a chance was not long in coming. This particular 
 herd acted very well and gave us no trouble to speak of. Our 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 69 
 
 route lay over the old Hays' and Elsworth trail, one of the best 
 known cattle trails in the west, then by way of Olga, Nebraska, 
 at that time a very small and also a very tough place. It was a 
 rendezvous of the tough element and the bad men of the cow 
 country. There were a large number of cow boys there from 
 the surrounding ranges and the place looked very enticing to 
 our tired and thirsty crowd, but we had our herd to look after 
 and deliver so we could not stop, but pushed on north crossing 
 the Platte river, then up the trail that led by the hole in the 
 wall country, near which place we went into camp. Then as 
 now this hole in the wall country was the refuge of the train 
 robbers, cattle thieves and bandits of the western country, and 
 when we arrived the place was unusually full of them, and 
 it was not long before trouble was brewing between our 
 men and the natives which culminated in one of our men 
 shooting and killing one of the bad men of the hole. Fearing 
 more trouble and not being in the best possible shape to meet 
 it, burdened as we were with five hundred head of cattle we 
 broke camp at once and proceeded on our journey north. 
 We arrived at the ranch where our herd were to be delivered 
 without further incident and with all our cattle intact and after 
 turning the herd over to their new owners and spending 
 several days in getting acquainted with our northern neigh- 
 bors, the Nebraska cowboys whom we found hot numbers 
 and a jolly all round crowd of cattle men, we left for Arizona 
 on the return journey by way of Wyoming, Colorado and New 
 Mexico, arriving home in good shape late in the fall without 
 further incident, and were soon engaged in range riding over 
 our own ranges again, and getting everything in shape for 
 the winter, but we had to be out on the range off and on all 
 winter. Then in the spring came the usual round ups, cut- 
 tings and brandings, during which time all our men were 
 needed at the home ranch. I had long since developed into 
 a first class cow boy and besides being chief brand reader 
 in Arizona and the pan handle country. My expertness in 
 riding, roping and in the general routine of the cow boy's 
 life, including my wide knowledge of the surrounding coun- 
 try, gained in many long trips with herds of cattle and horse?. 
 
70 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 made my services in great demand and my wages in- 
 creased accordingly. To see me now you would not recognize 
 the bronze hardened dare devil cow boy, the slave boy who a 
 few years ago hunted rabbits in his shirt tail on the old 
 plantation in Tennessee, or the tenderfoot who shrank shaking 
 all over at the sight of a band of painted Indians. I had long 
 since felt the hot sting of the leaden bullet as it plowed its 
 way through some portion of my anatomy. Likewise I had 
 lost all sense of fear, and while I was not the wild blood thirsty 
 savage and all around bad man many writers have pictured 
 me in their romances, yet I was wild, reckless and free, afraid 
 of nothing, that is nothing that I ever saw, with a wide know- 
 ledge of the cattle country and the cattle business and of my 
 guns with which I was getting better acquainted with every 
 day, and not above taking my whiskey straight or returning 
 bullet for bullet in a scrimmage. I always had been reck- 
 less, as evidenced by my riding of Black Highwayman on the 
 old home plantation and I never lost courage or my nerve un- 
 der the most trying circumstances, always cool, observant and 
 ready for what might turn up, made me liked and respected by 
 my employers and those of the cattle kings of the western 
 country it was my good fortune to meet and know. On our own 
 ranch, among my own companions my position was as high as 
 a king, enjoying the trust and confidence of my employers 
 and the homage of the men many of whom were indebted to 
 me on occasions when my long rope or ever ready forty-five 
 colt pistol had saved them from serious injury or death. But I 
 thought nothing of those things then, my only ambition was to 
 learn the business and excel in all things connected with the 
 cow boy's life that I was leading and for which I had genuine 
 liking. Mounted on my favorite horse, my long horsehide lariat 
 near my hand, and my trusty guns in my belt and the broad 
 plains stretching away for miles and miles, every foot of 
 which I was familiar with, I felt I could defy the world. What 
 man with the fire of life and youth and health in his veins 
 could not rejoice in such a life? The fall and winter of 1874 
 passed on the Arizona ranch without any unusual occurrence, 
 the cattle wintered well and prospects were bright for the com- 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 71 
 
 ing year. In the early spring we again began preparing for the 
 big round up, the brandings and the cuttings. There had 
 been hundreds of calves and colts added to the vast herds, 
 these all had -to be cut out and branded, while all the cattle 
 that had strayed during the winter had to be rounded up and 
 accounted for. This work kept us in the saddle the greater 
 part of the time. Sometimes we would be absent for days and 
 weeks at a time on the trail of a bunch of strayed cattle. On 
 these trips we often encountered big herds of buffalo and 
 these supplied us with meat, and such meat ! A buffalo steak 
 fresh from a still quivering buffalo broiled over coals is a dish 
 fit for the Gods. Coming back from one of these trips after 
 strays early in 1875 we were notified to get ready to take a. 
 herd of five hundred head of horses up in South Dakota, the 
 trip was a long one but horses can travel much faster than 
 cattle and on the whole are much easier to handle. On the 
 trails we were all happy at the prospect of the trip and were 
 not long in getting ready and getting the horses started out on 
 the trail, we took them by way of New Mexico, Colorado and 
 Nebraska. They gave us very little trouble on the way up, 
 and we reached our destination and delivered them without in- 
 cident worthy of note, returning by way of Wyoming, Colo- 
 rado and New Mexico. On starting out on the return journey 
 we came down Fold creek and stopped at the old log saloon to 
 get a drink, that being the first place where we could get any 
 whiskey. Here in moving around among the large number 
 of cow boys and tough characters, generally, another fuss 
 was started between our men and some cattle rustlers result- 
 ing in some shooting, but fortunately without serious conse- 
 quences. As we were not looking for trouble, and not wishing 
 to kill any one we left at once for home. It was our policy to 
 always avoid trouble if possible while on these trips, but to 
 always defend ourselves and our rights against all comers, 
 be they white men or Indians and then it would look bad 
 for us to have to report the loss of a man or so in a saloon fight 
 when we were sent out to attend to business, for that reason 
 we did not stop to give an exhibition of our fighting qualities, 
 although we were very anxious to have matters out with them. 
 We arrived home safely with all well and in time to assist in 
 the round ups and the other ranch work in which we were 
 needed. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 A BUFFALO HUNT. I LOSE MY LARIAT AND SAD- 
 DLE. I ORDER A DRINK FOR MYSELF AND 
 MY HORSE. A CLOSE PLACE IN O'LD MEXICO. 
 
 When there was not much doing around the ranch, we 
 boys would get up a buffalo hunt. Buffaloes were plentiful in 
 those days and one did not have to ride far before striking a 
 herd. Going out on the open plain we were not long in sighting 
 a herd, peacefully grazing on the luxuriant grass, and it would 
 have been an easy task to shoot them but that was not our 
 idea of sport. In the first place it was too easy. Then to shoot 
 them would rob the hunt of all element of danger and ex- 
 citement, for that reason we prepared to rope them and then 
 dispatch them with the knife or revolver. As soon as the 
 herd caught sight of us they promptly proceeded to stampede 
 and were off like the wind. We all had pretty good mounts 
 and we started in pursuit. It is a grand sight to see a large 
 herd of several thousand buffalo on a stampede, all running 
 with their heads down and their tongues hanging out like a 
 yard of red flannel, snorting and bellowing they crowd along, 
 shaking the ground for yards around. We soon reached the 
 rear of the herd and began operations. I had roped and dis- 
 patched several, when my attention was attracted by a mag- 
 nificent bull buffalo, which I made up my mind to get, 
 running free behind the herd. My buffalo soon came within 
 range and my rope settled squarely over his horns and my 
 horse braced himself for the strain but the bull proved too 
 much for us. My horse was knocked down, the saddle 
 snatched from under me and off my horse's back and my neck 
 nearly broken as I struck the hardest spot in that part of Texas 
 After I got through counting the stars not to mention the 
 moons that I could see quite plainly, I jumped to my feet and 
 after assuring myself that I was all there I looked for my horse, 
 he was close by just getting up while in the distance and fast 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 73 
 
 growing more distant each moment was my favorite saddle 
 flying in the breeze, hanging to the head of '-the infuriated buf- 
 falo. 
 
 Now I did not think I could very well lose that saddle 
 so I sprang on my horse's bare back and started in pursuit. 
 My horse could run like a deer and his hard fall did not seem 
 to affect him much, so it did not take us long to overtake 
 the plunging herd. Running my horse close up by the side of 
 the thief who stole my saddle, I placed the muzzle of my forty- 
 five close against his side and right there I took charge of Mr. 
 Buffalo and my outfit. 
 
 It was no trouble to get all the buffalo meat we wanted 
 in those days, all that was necessary was to ride out on the 
 prairie and knock them over with a bullet, a feat that any cow 
 boy can accomplish without useless waste of ammunition, 
 and a running buffalo furnishes perhaps the best kind of a 
 moving target for practice shooting. And the man that can 
 drop his buffalo at two hundred yards the first shot can hit 
 pretty much anything he shoots at. 
 
 I never missed anything I shot at within this distance 
 and many a time when I thought the distance of an object 
 was too great, the boys have encouraged me by saying, 
 shoot, you never miss, and as much to my surprise as theirs, 
 my old stand by placed the bullet where I aimed. 
 
 I early in my career recognized the fact that a cow boy 
 must know how to use his guns, and therefore I never lost an 
 opportunity to improve my shooting abilities, until I was able 
 to hit anything within range of my forty-five or my Winchester. 
 This ability has times without number proved of incalculable 
 value to me, when in tight places. It has often saved the life 
 of myself and companions and so by constant practice I soon 
 became known as the best shot in the Arizona and pan handle 
 country. 
 
 After the buffalo hunt we were sent down in Old Mexico 
 to get a herd of horses, that our boss had bought from the 
 Mexicans in the southwestern par 1 , of Old Mexico. We made 
 the journey out all right without special incident, but after 
 we had got the horses out on the trail, headed north I was pos- 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 75 
 
 sessed with a desire to show off and I thought surprise the 
 staid old greasers on whom we of the northern cattle country 
 looked with contempt. So accordingly I left the boys to con- 
 tinue with the herd, while I made for the nearest saloon, which 
 happened to be located in one of the low mud houses of that 
 country, with a wide door and clay floor. As the door was 
 standing open, and looked so inviting I did not want to go 
 to the trouble of dismounting so urging my horse forward, I 
 rode in the saloon, first however, scattering with a few random 
 shots the respectable sized crowd of dirty Mexicans hanging 
 around as I was in no humor to pay for the drinks for such 
 a motley gathering. Riding up to the bar, I ordered keller 
 for myself and a generous measure of pulky for my horse, 
 both popular Mexican drinks. 
 
 The fat wobbling greaser who was behind the bar looked 
 scared, but he proceeded to serve us with as much grace as 
 he could command. My forty-five colt which I proceeded to 
 reload, acting as a persuader. Hearing a commotion outside 
 I realized that I was surrounded. The crowd of Mexican bums 
 had not appreciated my kindly greeting as I rode up and it 
 seems did not take kindly to being scattered by bullets. And 
 not realizing that I could have killed them all, just as easy 
 as I scattered them, and seeing there was but two of us I 
 and my horse they had summoned sufficient courage to come 
 back and seek revenge. There was a good sized crowd of them, 
 every one with some kind of shooting iron, and I saw at once 
 that they meant business. I hated to have to hurt some of 
 them but I could see I would have to or be taken myself, and 
 perhaps strung up to ornament a telegraph pole. This pleas- 
 ant experience I had no especial wish to try, so putting spurs 
 to my horse I dashed out of the saloon, then knocking a man 
 over with every bullet from my Colts I cut for the open coun- 
 try, followed by several volleys from the angry Mexicans' pop 
 guns. 
 
 The only harm their bullets did, however, was to wound 
 my horse in the hip, not seriously, however, and he carried me 
 quickly out of range. I expected to be pursued, however, as 
 I had no doubt I had done for some of those whom I knocked 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 77 
 
 over, so made straight for the Rio Grande river riding day and 
 night until I sighted that welcome stream and on the other side 
 I knew I was safe. Crossing the Rio Grande and entering Texas 
 at the Eagle pass, I rode straight to the' old home ranch where 
 I stayed resting up until the boys got the horses out of Mexico 
 into Texas, then I joined them and assisted in driving the 
 horses into the ranch. I congratulated myself that I escaped 
 so easily and with such little damage. It was certainly a close 
 place but I have been in even closer places numbers of times 
 and always managed to escape. Either through -trick, the 
 fleetness of my horse or my shooting and sometimes through 
 all combined. At this time I was known all over the cattle 
 country as "Red River Dick," the name given to me by the 
 boss of the Duval outfit, when I first joined the cow boys at 
 Dodge City, Kansas. 
 
 And many of the cattle kings of the west as well as the 
 Indians and scores of bad men all over the western country 
 have at some time or other had good reason to remember the 
 name of "Red River Dick." 
 
 This was in 1875. I* was not till the next year that I won 
 the name of "Deadwood Dick," a name I made even better 
 known than "Red River Dick." And a name I was proud to 
 carry and defend, if necessary, with my life. This season we 
 made several trips North. The horses we brought up from 
 Texas now had to be driven to old man Keith's in Nebraska, 
 on the North Platte river. On this trip we had no trouble 
 to speak of. Several bands of Indians showed up at different 
 times but a shot or so from one of the boys would send them 
 scurrying off at full speed, without stopping to sample further 
 our fighting abilities. 
 
 This was in some ways disappointing to us as we were 
 spoiling for a fight or excitement of some kind. However, 
 nothing turned up, so after delivering the horses to their new 
 owners, we made tracks for home again. It was the same 
 round of duties, season after season, but all our trips on the 
 trail were not by any means alike, we were continually visit- 
 ing new country and new scenes, traveling over trails new 
 to us, but old in history. Many of these old trails are now 
 famous in history. 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 79 
 
 Each trip gave us new experiences, and traveling so much 
 as we were, there were few oufits in the cattle country that 
 knew the trails and the country as we did. And we were 
 continually adding to this knowledge and experience. After 
 returning from old man Keith's in Nebraska we had to take the 
 trail again with a herd of cattle for the Spencer brothers, 
 whose ranch was located just north of the Red Light about 
 sixty-five miles north of the bad lands in South Dakota. This 
 was one of the largest cattle ranches in the West. 
 
 Their brand was known as the R Box Circle Brand. 
 There we remained for some time, adding to our knowledge 
 of the cattle business such things as can only be learned at 
 a large cattle ranch. On our way home we passed through 
 Laramie, Wyoming. As fate would have it, we arrived at 
 Laramie City on July 4, 1875, J ust - as tne notorious Jack 
 Watkins escaped from the Albany county jail, and the excite- 
 ment in the town was at fever heat. Jack Watkins, who 
 was probably the most desperate criminal that was ever 
 placed behind prison bars, had been arrested and placed in 
 close confinement, as the officers of the western states had 
 long tried to effect his capture. And they did not want to 
 take any chances of losing him, now they had him, but for 
 all their caution he had escaped, shooting Deputy Sheriff 
 Lawrence in the leg, crippling him for life. 
 
 Ex-Conductor Brophy was at that time sheriff. The 
 officers noting our arrival at such time, at once ordered us 
 out of the city, as they suspected we knew something about 
 the outbreak. We protested our innocence of any knowledge 
 of the trouble. But appearances were against us, so we had 
 to leave, going direct to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Here we dis- 
 posed of a small band of horses our boss had along, and 
 which we did not wish to take back home with us. They 
 were sold to the Swarn Brothers at a good price. 
 
 We remained in Cheyenne until the i8th of July, when 
 we left for Texas, arriving at the old Pali Dora range ranch 
 on the loth of August. We had no more than got rested 
 up before we were again called out on active duty. The many 
 large cattle owners of the panhandle country had got to- 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 81 
 
 gether and come to the conclusion that the wild mustang 
 horses, large bands of which were running wild over the 
 Arizona and Texas plains, would make good cattle horses, 
 and to that end a plan of campaign was arranged, whereby 
 they could be captured, and broken in and put to some use, 
 instead of causing damage to the range, as at present. 
 
CHAPTER XTL 
 
 THE BIG WILD MUSTANG HUNT WE TIRE THEM 
 OUT THE INDIANS CAPTURE OUR MESS WA- 
 GON AND COOK. OUR BILL OF FARE BUFFALO 
 MEAT WITHOUT SALT. 
 
 It was a bright clear morning in September as we were 
 all gathered at the old home ranch, prepared to start on the 
 great mustang hunt. There was one of the best men from 
 each of the big cattle ranges in the panhandle and Arizona 
 country, making twenty of the best range riders ever assem- 
 bled together for a single purpose, while we were mounted on 
 the best and fastest horses the Texas and Arizona cattle 
 country could produce, while a horse rustler had left four days 
 before with twenty more equally as good horses, giving each 
 of us two horses apiece. We carried with us four days' ra- 
 tions, consisting of dried beef, crackers, potatoes, coffee we 
 had no sugar. The mess wagon well stocked with provisions 
 for a two months' trip had also left four days before for a place 
 in the wild horse district, where we knew the mustangs were 
 to be found. 
 
 Many of the cattle men of Texas and Arizona were pres- 
 ent to see us off, and the boss gave us a little talk on what 
 was expected of us, and said, among other things, we were 
 twenty of the best and gamest cow boys who ever roamed 
 the western plains, and that he knew we would make good 
 on hearing these words we one and all resolved to do our 
 best. 
 
 And swinging into the saddle we emptied our guns as a 
 parting salutation and started on a dead run across the 
 plains towards the scene of our duty. After a hard ride of 
 ten days we sighted a band of about seventy-five mustangs. 
 We at once proceeded to run them down. It was decided 
 that twenty of us should surround the herd in a large circle, 
 ten or fifteen miles across, which would leave a space of sev- 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 83 
 
 eral miles between each rider, but not of a greater distance 
 than he could easily cover when he saw the band coming 
 his way or heard our signals. 
 
 The horse rustler was to keep the extra horses at a place 
 where they would be safe and at the same time handy to the 
 riders. Our plans completed, each rider made preparations 
 to start for his station. But. here another difficulty arose. 
 We had not yet seen anything of our cook and mess wagon. 
 It had not arrived at the place agreed upon, although it had 
 had ample time to do so. Our provisions which we carried 
 were quite low, so after waiting as long as we could, and 
 the mess wagon failing to show up, we decided to start the 
 hunt and take our chances on grub from what we could knock 
 over with our guns. 
 
 Accordingly the boys all started out for their several 
 stations. After waiting a reasonable length of time to give 
 them an opportunity to reach their positions, we made 
 for the herd, which as near as we could judge contained 
 about seventy-five of the prettiest horses it was ever my 
 pleasure to see. The magnificent stallion who happened to 
 be on guard had no sooner seen us than he gave the danger 
 signal to the herd, who were off like the wind, led by a beau- 
 tiful snow white stallion. To get them going was our only 
 duty at present, and we well knew the importance of saving 
 our saddle horses for the more serious work before us. There- 
 fore we only walked our horses, or went on a dog trot, 
 keeping a sharp lookout for the herd's return. 
 
 The band of wild horses would run ten or fifteen miles 
 across the prairie, where they would catch sight of the other 
 boys, then off they would go in another direction, only to 
 repeat the performance, as they struck the other side of the 
 circle. In this way they would make from fifty to sixty miles 
 to our ten, and we were slowly working them down. We kept 
 them going this way day and night, not giving them a mo- 
 ment's rest or time to eat. After keeping them on the go this 
 way for ten days we were able to get within a mile of them 
 and could see some of the stallions taking turns at leading the 
 herd, while other stallions would be in the rear fighting them 
 
.s 
 
 I 
 
 bfl 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 85 
 
 on. In a few days more we were near enough to begin shoot- 
 ing the stallions out of the herd. Then we could handle them 
 a great deal better. At this time our want of grub began to 
 tell on us. Our cook and mess wagon had not showed up, so 
 we had long since given them up as lost. We believed they 
 had been captured by the Indians and future events proved 
 we were right. 
 
 Our only food consisted of buffalo meat of which we 
 were able to secure plenty, but buffalo meat for breakfast, 
 dinner and supper every day without bread or salt is not the 
 most palatable bill of fare, especially when it is all we had day 
 after day, without any prospect of a change until we got 
 home. But we were game and resolved to stay with our work 
 until it was finished, especially as we only had twenty men 
 and everyone was badly needed in the work ahead of us, so we 
 did not think we could spare a man to return home after 
 grub. So we swallowed our buffalo meat day after day and 
 kept the horses moving. 
 
 They were now pretty well worked down, and we pro- 
 ceeded to work them toward a place where we could begin to 
 rope them. There were now only a few stallions left in the 
 herd as we had shot nearly all of them, and the others were 
 too tired to cause us any trouble. We had now been out of 
 grub over three weeks except buffalo meat and such other 
 game as we could bring down with our guns. Our fears that 
 the cook and mess wagon had been captured by the Indians 
 proved well founded, as we about this time met an outfit 
 who had seen the place where the cook was killed. They 
 said the surroundings indicated that quite a large band had 
 surprised the cook and driver, but that they had put up a 
 brave fight as evidenced by the large number of empty rifle 
 and revolver shells scattered around. Our first impulse after 
 hearing this was to start in pursuit of the red skins and get 
 revenge, but calmer judgment showed that such a course 
 would be useless, because the Indians had a couple of weeks' 
 start of us and we did not know what tribe had committed 
 the offense as there wer so many Indians in that part of 
 the country and in the Indian territory, and besides our horses 
 
86 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 were in no shape to chase Indians, so much to our regret our 
 comrades had to go unrevenged at least for the present, but we 
 all swore to make the Indians pay dearly, especially the guilty 
 ones, if it were possible to discover who they were. We 
 continued to work the mustangs back and forth, and in thirty 
 days from the time we started out we had about sixty head 
 hemmed up in Yellow Fox Canyon and were roping and rid- 
 ing them. They were not hard to handle as they were so poor 
 some of them could hardly walk. This was not to be won- 
 dered at, as we had kept them on the go for the past thirty 
 days, never once giving them a moment's rest day or night, 
 and in that time they had very little to eat and no sleep. After 
 roping and riding them all we got them together and headed 
 for home. 
 
 Arriving at the ranch the mustangs were allowed to eat 
 all they wanted and were roped and ridden until they were 
 fairly well broken, when they were turned out with the other 
 ranch horses. They proved good saddle horses, but as soon 
 as they were turned out with the ranch horses they would 
 start for their old feeding grounds, leading the other horses 
 with them. We found it impossible to thoroughly domesti- 
 cate them, so for that reason we gave them up as a bad 
 proposition, and did not attempt to capture any more, "though 
 at that time thousands of wild mustangs were on the plains 
 of Texas, Arizona, Wyoming and in fact all over the West. 
 They were large, fine and as pretty a lot of horses as one 
 could wish to see. They were seldom molested, though once 
 in a while the Indians would make a campaign against them 
 and capture a few, but not often, as they were so hard to cap- 
 ture. It was not worth the trouble, as it was almost impossible 
 to approach them nearer than two miles, and there was always 
 some stallions on the lookout while the others grazed over 
 the plains, so it was out of the question to surprise them. 
 At the first sign of danger the stallion sentinel would give his 
 shrill neigh of warning and the herd were off like the wind. 
 
 We received unstinted praise from our employers for 
 bringing to a successful conclusion the errand on which we 
 were sent under such trying circumstances. But now that we 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 87 
 
 were where grub was plentiful we looked on our experience 
 as nothing to make a fuss over. 
 
 But we deeply regretted the loss of our cook and mess 
 wagon, and we resolved that if we ever found the guilty 
 parties to make it rather warm for them. This we never 
 did, .neither did we ever hear more of the fate of the cook. 
 Our work, so far as trips on the trail were concerned, was 
 over for this season, and we could count on a long rest until 
 spring, as aside from range riding and feeding there was 
 nothing doing around the home ranch. But sometimes the 
 range riding kept us on the go pretty lively, especially dur- 
 ing and after a big storm, which sometimes scattered the 
 cattle all over the surrounding country, and it would take 
 some lively riding to get them all together again. Then the 
 Indians and the white cattle thieves would make raids on 
 our herds, running them off in great numbers and stampeding 
 the balance of the herd. 
 
 This generally resulted in us chasing them sometimes for 
 miles over the prairies, and we generally were successful in 
 recovering our cattle and punishing the cattle thieves in a 
 manner that they did not soon forget. But then again some- 
 times they would stampede the herd in the night, and under 
 the cover of darkness and the excitement would manage to 
 make off with some of the best horses or the choicest cattle, 
 and by the time we missed them the thieves would have 
 such a start that it was impossible to overtake them, but if 
 they were overtaken, vengeance was swift and sure. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ON THE TRAIL WITH THREE THOUSAND HEAD OF 
 TEXAS STEERS. RUMORS OF TROUBLE WITH 
 THE INDIANS AT DEADWOOD. THE ROPING 
 CONTEST. I WIN THE NAME OF DEADWOOD 
 DICK. THE SHOOTING MATCH. THE CUSTER 
 MASSACRE. THE VIEW OF THE BATTLE FIELD. 
 GOVERNMENT SCOUTS. AT HOME AGAIN. 
 
 In the spring of 1876 orders were received at the home 
 ranch for three thousand head of three-year-old steers to be 
 delivered near Deadwood, South Dakota. This being one 
 of the largest orders we had ever received at one time, every 
 man around the ranch was placed on his mettle to execute 
 the order in record time. 
 
 Cow boys mounted on swift horses were dispatched to 
 the farthest limits of the ranch with orders to round up and 
 run in all the three-year-olds on the place, and it was not 
 long before the ranch corrals began to fill up with the long 
 horns as they were driven by the several parties of cow 
 boys; as fast as they c?.me in we would cut out, under the 
 bosses' orders such cattle as were to make up our herd. 
 
 In the course of three days we had our herd ready for 
 the trail and we made our preparations to start on our long 
 journey north. Our route lay through New Mexico, Colorado 
 and Wyoming, and as we had heard rumors that the Indians 
 were on the war path and were kicking up something of 
 a rumpus in Wyoming, Indian Territory and Kansas, we 
 expected trouble before we again had the pleasure of sitting 
 around our fire at the home ranch. Quite a large party 
 was selected for this trip owing to the size of the herd 
 and the possibility of trouble on the trail from the Indians. 
 We, as usual, were all well armed and had as mounts the 
 best horses our ranch produced, and in taking the trail we 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 9I 
 
 were perfectly confident that we could take care of our herd 
 and ourselves through anything we were liable to meet. We 
 had not been on the trail long before we met other outfits, 
 who told us that General Custer was out after the Indians 
 and that a big fight was expected when the Seventh U. S. 
 Cavalry, General Ouster's command, met the Crow tribe and 
 other Indians under the leadership of Sitting Bull, Rain-in- 
 the-Face, Old Chief Joseph, and other chiefs of lesser promi- 
 nence, who had for a long time been terrorizing the settlers 
 of that section and defying the Government. 
 
 As we proceeded on our journey it became evident to 
 us that we were only a short distance behind the soldiers. 
 When finally the Indians and soldiers met in the memorable 
 battle or rather massacre in the Little Big Horn Basin on 
 the Little Big Horn River in northern Wyoming, we were 
 only two days behind them, or within 60 miles, but we did 
 not know that at the time or we would have gone 
 to Custer's assistance. We did not know of the fight or the 
 outcome until several days after it was over. It was freely 
 claimed at the time by cattle men who were in a position to 
 know and with whom I talked that if Reno had gone to Cus- 
 ter's aid as he promised to do, Custer would not have lost his 
 entire command and his life. 
 
 It was claimed Reno did not obey his orders, however 
 that may be, it was one of the most bloody massacres in the 
 history of this country. We went on our way to Deadwood 
 with our herd, where we arrived on the 3rd of July, 1876, 
 eight days after the Custer massacre took place 
 
 The Custer Battle was June 25, '76, the battle commenced 
 on Sunday afternoon and lasted about two hours. That was 
 the last of General Custer and his Seventh Cavalry. How I 
 know this so well is because we had orders from one of the 
 Government scouts to go in camp, that if we went any farther 
 North we were liable to be captured by the Indians. 
 
 We arrived in Deadwood in good condition without hav- 
 ing had any trouble with the Indians on the way up. We 
 turned our cattle over to their new owners at once, then 
 proceeded to take in the town. The next morning, July 4th, 
 the gamblers and mining men made up a purse of $200 for a 
 roping contest between the cow boys that were then in town, 
 and as it was a holiday nearly all the cow boys for miles 
 around were assembled there that day. It did not take long 
 to arrange the details for the contest and contestants, six of 
 
il 
 
 * 
 
 c 
 .2 
 
 "8 
 
 S 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 93 
 
 them being colored cow boys, including myself. Our trail boss 
 was chosen to pick out the mustangs from a herd of wild 
 horses just off the range, and he picked out twelve of the most 
 wild and vicious horses that he could find. 
 
 The conditions of the contest were that each of us who 
 were mounted was to rope, throw, tie, bridle and saddle and 
 mount the particular horse picked for us in the shortest time 
 possible. The man accomplishing the feat in the quickest 
 time to be declared the winner. 
 
 It seems to me that the horse chosen for me was the 
 most vicious of the lot. Everything being in readiness, the 
 "45" cracked and we all sprang forward together, each of us 
 making for our particular mustang. 
 
 I roped, threw, tied, bridled, saddled and mounted my 
 mustang in exactly nine minutes from the crack of the gun 
 The time of the next nearest competitor was twelve minutes 
 and thirty seconds. This gave me the record and champion- 
 ship of the West, which I held up to the time I quit the busi- 
 ness in 1890, and my record has never been beaten. It is worth} 
 of passing remark that I never had a horse pitch with me so 
 much as that mustang, but I never stopped sticking my spurs 
 in him and using my quirt on his flanks until I proved his 
 master. Right there the assembled crowd named me Dead- 
 wood Dick and proclaimed me champion roper of the western 
 cattle country. 
 
 The roping contest over, a dispute arose over the shooting 
 question with the result that a contest was arranged for the 
 afternoon, as there happened to be some of the best shots 
 with rifle and revolver in the West present that day. Among 
 them were Stormy Jim, who claimed the championship; Pow- 
 der Horn Bill, who had the reputation of never missing what 
 he shot at; also White Head, a half breed, who generally hit 
 what he shot at, and many other men who knew how to handle 
 a rifle or 45-colt. 
 
 The range was measured off 100 and 250 yards for the rifle 
 and 150 for the Colt 45. At this distance a bulls eye about the 
 size of an apple was put up. Each man was to have 14 shots 
 at each range with the rifle and 12 shots with the Colts 45. 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 95 
 
 I placed every one of my 14 shots with the rifle in the 
 bulls eye with ease, all shots being made from the hip; 
 but with the 45 Colts I missed it twice, only placing 10 
 shots in the small circle, Stormy Jim being my nearest 
 competitor, only placing 8 bullets in the bulls eye clear, 
 the rest being quite close, while with the 45 he placed 
 5 bullets in the charmed circle. This gave me the champion- 
 ship of rifle and revolver shooting as well as the roping con- 
 test, and for that day I was the hero of Deadwood, and the 
 purse of $200 which I had won on the roping contest went 
 toward keeping things moving, and they did move as 
 only a large crowd of cattle men can move things. This 
 lasted for several days when most of the cattle men had to 
 return to their respective ranches, as it was the busy season, 
 accordingly our outfit began to make preparations to return 
 to Arizona. 
 
 In the meantime news had reached us of the Custer 
 massacre, and the indignation and sorrow was universal, as 
 General Custer was personally known to a large number of 
 the cattle men of the West. But we could do nothing now, 
 as the Indians were out in such strong force. There was 
 nothing to do but let Uncle Sam revenge the loss of the 
 General and his brave command, but it is safe to say not one 
 of us would have hesitated a moment in taking the trail in 
 pursuit of the blood thirsty red skins had the opportunity 
 offered. 
 
 Everything now being in readiness with us we took the 
 trail homeward bound, and left Deadwood in a blaze of 
 glory. On our way home we visited the Custer battle field 
 in the Little Big Horn Basin. 
 
 There was ample evidence of the desperate and bloody 
 fight that had taken place a few days before. We arrived 
 home in Arizona in a short time without further incident, 
 except that on the way back we met and talked with many 
 of the famous Government scouts of that region, among 
 them Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), Yellow Stone Kelley, 
 and many others of that day, some of whom are now living, 
 while others lost their lives in the line of duty, and a finer 
 
The Roping Contest at Deadwood, S. D. 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 97 
 
 or braver body of men never lived than these scouts of the 
 West. It was my pleasure to meet Buffalo Bill often in the 
 early 705, and he was as fine a man as one could wish to 
 meet, kind, generous, true and brave. 
 
 Buffalo Bill got his name from the fact that in the early 
 days he was engaged in hunting buffalo for their hides and 
 furnishing U. P. Railroad graders with meat, hence the name 
 Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill, Yellowstone Kelley, with many 
 others were at this time serving under Gen. C. C. Miles. 
 
 The name of Deadwood Dick was given to me by the peo- 
 ple of Deadwood, South Dakota, July 4, 1876, after I had 
 proven myself worthy to carry it, and after I had defeated all 
 comers in riding, roping, and shooting, and I have always 
 carried the name with honor since that time. 
 
 We arrived at the home ranch again on our return from 
 the trip to Deadwood about the middle of September, it 
 taking us a little over two months to make the return journey, 
 as we stopped in Cheyenne for several days and at other places, 
 where we always found a hearty welcome, especially so on this 
 trip, as the news had preceded us, and I received enough at- 
 tention to have given me the big head, but my head h.ad 
 constantly refused to get enlarged again ever since the time 
 I sampled the demijohn in the sweet, corn patch at home. 
 
 Arriving at home, we received a send off from our boss 
 and our comrades of the home ranch, every man of whom on 
 hearing the news turned loose his voice and his artillery 
 in a grand demonstration in my honor. 
 
 But they said it was no surprise to them, as they had 
 long known of my ability with the rope, rifle and 45 Colt, 
 but just the same it was gratifying to know I had defeated the 
 best men of the West, and brought the record home to the 
 home ranch in Arizona. After a good rest we proceeded 
 to ride the range again, getting our herds in good condition 
 for the winter now at hand. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 RIDING THE RANGE. THE FIGHT WITH YELLOW 
 DOG'S TRIBE. I AM CAPTURED AND ADOPTED 
 BY THE INDIANS. MY ESCAPE. I RIDE A HUN- 
 DRED MILES IN TWELVE HOURS WITHOUT 
 A SADDLE. MY INDIAN PONY. "YELLOW 
 DOG CHIEF." THE BOYS PRESENT ME WITH A 
 NEW OUTFIT. IN THE SADDLE AND ON THE 
 TRAIL AGAIN. 
 
 It was a bright, clear fall day, October 4, 1876, that quite 
 a large number of us boys started out over the range hunting 
 strays which had been lost for some time. We had scattered 
 over the range and I was riding along alone when all at once 
 I heard the well known Indian war whoop and noticed not 
 far away a large party of Indians making straight for me. 
 They were all well mounted and they were in full war paint, 
 which showed me that they were on the war path, and as I 
 was alone and had no wish to be scalped by them I decided to 
 run for it. So I headed for Yellow Horse Canyon and gave 
 my horse the rein, but as I had considerable objection to 
 being chased by a lot of painted savages without some re- 
 monstrance, I turned in my saddle every once in a while and 
 gave them a shot by way of greeting, and I had the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing a painted brave tumble from his horse and go 
 rolling in the dust every time my rifle spoke, and the Indians 
 were by no means idle all this time, as their bullets were 
 singing around me rather lively, one of them passing through 
 my thigh, but it did not amount to much. Reaching Yellow 
 Horse Canyon, I had about decided to stop and make a stand 
 when one of their bullets caught me in the leg, passing clear 
 through it and then through my horse, killing him. Quickly 
 falling behind him I used his dead body for a breast work 
 and stood the Indians off for a long time, as my aim. was 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 99 
 
 so deadly and they had lost so many that they were careful 
 to keep out of range. 
 
 But finally my ammunition gave out, and the Indians 
 were quick to find this out, and they at once closed in on 
 me, but I was by no means subdued, wounded as I was and 
 almost out of my head, and I fought with my empty gun 
 until finally overpowered. When I came to my senses I was 
 in the Indians' camp. 
 
 My wounds had been dressed with some kind of herbs, 
 the wound in my breast just over the heart was covered 
 thickly with herbs and bound up. My nose had been nearly 
 cut off, also one of my fingers had been nearly cut off. These 
 wounds I received when I was fighting my captors with 
 my empty gun. What caused them to spare my life I cannot 
 tell, but it was I think partly because I had proved myself a 
 brave man, and all savages admire a brave man and when they 
 captured a man whose fighting powers were out of the ordi- 
 nary they generally kept him if possible as he was needed 
 in the tribe. 
 
 Then again Yellow Dog's tribe was composed largely 
 of half breeds, and there was a large percentage of colored 
 blood in the tribe, and as I was a colored man they wanted 
 to keep me, as they thought I was too good a man to die. Be 
 that as it may, they dressed my wounds and gave me plenty to 
 eat, but the only grufo they had was buffalo meat which they 
 cooked over a fire of buffalo chips, but of this I had all I 
 wanted to eat. For the first two days after my capture 
 they kept me tied hand and foot. At the end of that time 
 they untied my feet, but kept my hands tied for a couple of 
 days longer, when I was given my freedom, but was always 
 closely watched by members of the tribe. Three days after 
 my capture my ears were pierced and I was adopted into 
 the tribe. The operation of piercing my ears was quite pain- 
 ful, in the method used, as they had a small bone secured 
 from a deer's leg, a small thin bone, rounded at the end and as 
 sharp as a needle. This they used to make the holes, then 
 strings made from the tendons of a deer were inserted in 
 place of thread, of which the Indians had none. Then horn 
 
==- "^ ,-V^\ 'Of 
 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 101 
 
 ear rings were placed in my ears and the same kind of salve 
 made from herbs which they placed on my wounds was 
 placed on my ears and they soon healed. 
 
 The bullet holes in my leg and breast also healed in a 
 surprisingly short time. That was good salve all right. 
 As soon as I was well enough I took part in the Indian 
 dances. One kind or another was in progress all the time. 
 The war dance and the medicine dance seemed the most 
 popular. When in the war dance the savages danced around 
 me in a circle, making gestures, chanting, with every now 
 and then a blood curdling yell, always keeping time to a 
 sort of music provided by stretching buffalo skins tightly 
 over a hoop. 
 
 When I was well enough I joined the dances, and I think 
 I soon made a good dancer. The medicine dance varies from 
 the war dance only that in the medicine dance the Indians 
 danced around a boiling pot, the pot being filled with 
 roots and water and they dance around it while it boils. The 
 medicine dance occurs about daylight. 
 
 I very soon learned their ways and to understand them, 
 though our conversation was mostly carried on by means 
 of signs. They soon gave me to understand that I was to 
 marry the chiefs daughter, promising me 100 ponies to do 
 so, and she was literally thrown in my arms-; as for the lady 
 she seemed perfectly willing if not anxious to become my 
 bride. She was a beautiful woman, or rather girl; in fact all 
 the squaws of this tribe were good looking, out of the ordi- 
 nary, but I had other notions just then and did not want to 
 get married under such circumstances, but for prudence 
 sake I seemed to enter into their plans, but at the same time 
 keeping a sharp lookout for a chance to escape. I noted 
 where the Indians kept their horses at night, even picking 
 out the handsome and fleet Indian pony which I meant to 
 use should opportunity occur, and I seemed to fall in with 
 the Indians' plans and seemed to them so contented that they 
 gave me more and more freedom and relaxed the strict watch 
 they had kept on me, and finally in about thirty days from 
 the time of my capture my opportunity arrived. 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 103 
 
 My wounds were now nearly well, and gave me no 
 trouble. It was a dark, cloudy night, and the Indians, grown 
 careless in their fancied security, had relaxed their watchful- 
 ness. After they had all thrown themselves on the ground 
 and the quiet of the camp proclaimed them all asleep I got up 
 and crawling on my hands and knees, using the greatest 
 caution for fear of making a noise, I crawled about 250 
 yards to where the horses were picketed, and going to the 
 Indian pony I had already picked out I slipped the skin 
 thong in his mouth which the Indians use for a bridle, one 
 which I had secured and carried in my shirt for some time 
 for this particular purpose, then springing to his back I made 
 for the open prairie in the direction of the home ranch in 
 Texas, one hundred miles away. All that night I rode as Cast 
 as my horse could carry me and the next morning, twelve 
 hours after I left the Indians camp I was safe on the home 
 ranch again. And my joy was without bounds, and such a re- 
 ception as I received from the boys. They said they were just 
 one day late, and if it hadn't been for a fight they had with 
 some of the same tribe, they would have been to my relief. As 
 it was they did not expect to ever see me again alive. But 
 that they know that if the Indians did not kill me, and gave 
 me only half a chance I would get away from them, but now 
 that I was safe home again, nothing mattered much and noth- 
 ing was too good for me. 
 
 It was a mystery to them how I managed to escape death 
 with such wounds as I had received, the marks of which I 
 will carry to my grave and it is as much a mystery to me as 
 the bullet that struck me in the breast just over the heart 
 passed clear through, coming out my back just below the 
 shoulder. Likewise the bullet in my leg passed clear through, 
 then through my horse, killing him. 
 
 Those Indians are certainly wonderful doctors, and then 
 I am naturally tough as I carry the marks of fourteen bullet 
 wounds on different part of my body, most any one of which 
 would be sufficient to kill an ordinary man, but I am not even 
 crippled. It seems to me that if ever a man bore a charm I 
 am the man, as I have had five horses shot from under me and 
 
io 4 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 killed, have fought Indians and Mexicans in all sorts of situa- 
 tions, and have been in more tight places than I can number. 
 Yet I have always managed to escape with only the mark of a 
 bullet or knife as a reminder. The fight with the Yellow 
 Dog's tribe is probably the closest call I ever had, and as close 
 a call as I ever want. 
 
 The fleet Indian pony which carried me to safety on that 
 memorable hundred mile ride, I kept for about five years. I 
 named him "The Yellow Dog Chief." And he lived on the 
 best the ranch afforded, until his death which occurred in 
 1881, never having anything to dp except an occasional race, 
 as he could run like a deer. I thought too much of him to use 
 him on the trail and he was the especial pet of every one on 
 the home ranch, and for miles around. 
 
 I heard afterwards that the Indians persued me that night 
 for quite a distance, but I had too much the start and besides 
 I had the fastest horse the Indians owned. I have never since 
 met any of my captors of that time. As they knew better 
 than to venture in our neighborhood again. My wound healed 
 nicely, thanks to the good attention the Indians gave me. My 
 captors took everything of value I had on me when captured. 
 My rifle which I especially prized for old associations sake; 
 also my forty fives, saddle and bridle, in fact my whole outfit 
 leaving me only the few clothes I had on at the time. 
 
 .My comrades did not propose to let this bother me long, 
 however, because they all chipped in and bought me a 
 new outfit, including the best rifle and revolvers that could 
 be secured, and I had my pick of the ranch horses for another 
 mount. During my short stay with the Indians I learned a 
 great deal about them, their ways of living, sports, dances, 
 and mode of warfare which proved of great benefit to me in 
 after years. The oblong shields they carried were made from 
 tanned buffalo skins and so tough were they made that an 
 arrow would not pierce them although I have seen tl.<M: sh-jot 
 an arrow clean through a buffalo. Neither will a bullet pierce 
 them unless the ball hits the shield square on, otherwise it 
 glances off. 
 
 All of them were exceedingly expert with the bow and ar- 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 105 
 
 row, and they are proud of their skill and are always practic- 
 ing in an effort to excel each other. This rivalry extends 
 even to the children who are seldom without their bows an-' 
 arrows. 
 
 They named me Buffalo Papoose, and we managed to make 
 our wants known by means of signs. As I was not with them 
 a sufficient length of time to learn their language, I learned 
 from them that I had killed five of their number and wounded 
 three while they were chasing me and in the subsequent fight 
 with my empty gun. The wounded men were hit in many 
 places, but they were brought around all right, the same as I 
 v/as. After my escape and after I arrived home it was some 
 time before I was again called to active duty, as the boys 
 would not hear of me doing anything resembling work, until 
 I was thoroughly well and rested up. But I soon began to 
 long for my saddle and the range. 
 
 And when orders were received at. the ranch for 2000 head 
 of cattle, to be delivered at Dodge City, Kansas, I insisted 
 on taking the trail again. It was not with any sense of pride 
 or in bravado that I recount here the fate of the men who have 
 fallen at my hand. 
 
 It is a terrible thing to kill a man no matter what the cause. 
 But as I am writing a true history of my life, I cannot leave 
 these facts out. But every man who died at my hands was 
 either seeking my life or died in open warfare, when it was a 
 case of killing of being killed. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ON A TRIP TO DODGE CITY, KAN. I ROPE ONE OF 
 UNCLE SAM'S CANNON. CAPTURED BY THE SOL- 
 DIERS. BAT MASTERSON TO MY RESCUE. LOST 
 ON THE PRAIRIE. THE BUFFALO HUNTER 
 CATER. MY HORSE GETS AWAY AND LEAVES 
 ME ALONE ON THE PRAIRIE. THE BLIZZARD. 
 FROZEN STIFF. 
 
 In the spring of 1877, now fully recovered from the effects 
 of the very serious wounds I had received at the hands of the 
 Indians and feeling my old self again, I joined the boys in 
 their first trip of the season, with a herd of cattle for Dodge 
 City. The trip was uneventful until we reached our destina- 
 tion. This was the first time I had been in Dodge City since I 
 had won the name of "DEADWOOD DICK", and many of 
 the boys, who knew me when I first joined the cow boys 
 there in 1869, were there to greet me now. After our herd had 
 been delivered to their new owners, we started out to properly 
 celebrate the event, and for a space of several days we kept 
 the old town on the jump. 
 
 And so when we finally started for home all of us had 
 more or less of the bad whiskey of Dodge City under our belts 
 and were feeling rather spirited and ready for anything. 
 
 I probably had more of the bad whiskey of Dodge City 
 than any one and was in consequence feeling very reckless, 
 but we had about exhausted our resources of amusement in 
 the town, and so were looking for trouble on the trail home. 
 
 On our way back to Texas, our way led past old Fort 
 Dodge. Seeing the soldiers and the cannon in the fort, a bright 
 idea struck me, but a fool one just the same. It was no less 
 than a desire to rope one of the cannons. It seemed to me that 
 il would be a good thing to rope a cannon and take it back 
 to Texas with us to fight Indians with. 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 107 
 
 The bad whiskey whidh I carried under my belt was re- 
 sponsible for the fool idea, and gave me the nerve to attempt 
 to execute the idea. Getting my lariat rope ready I rode to a 
 position just opposite the gate of the fort, which was standing 
 open. Before the gate paced a sentry with his gun on his 
 shoulder and his white gloves showing up clean and white 
 against the dusty grey surroundings. I waited until the sentry 
 had passed the gate, then putting spurs to my horse I dashed 
 straight for and through the gate into the yard. The sur- 
 prised sentry called halt, but I paid no attention to him. Mak- 
 ing for the cannon at full speed my rope left my hand and set- 
 tled square over the cannon, then turning and putting spurs 
 to my horse I tried to drag the cannon after me, but strain as 
 he might my horse was unable to budge it an inch. In the 
 meantime the surprised sentry at the gate had given the alarm 
 and now I heard the bugle sound, boots and saddles, and 
 glancing around I saw the soldiers mounting to come after me, 
 and finding I could not move the cannon, I rode close up to it 
 and got my lariat off then made for the gate again at full 
 speed. The guard jumped in front of me with his gun up, 
 calling halt, but I went by him like a shot, expecting to hear 
 the crack of his musket, but for some reason he failed to fire 
 on me, and I made for the open prairie with the cavalry in hot 
 pursuit. 
 
 My horse could run like a wild deer, but he was no match 
 for the big, strong, fresh horses of the soldiers and they soon 
 had me. Relieving me of my arms they placed me in the guard 
 house where the commanding officer came to see me. He 
 asked me who I was and what I was after at the fort. I told 
 him and then he asked me if I knew anyone in the city. I toid 
 him I knew Bat Masterson. He ordered two guards to take 
 me to the city to see Masterson. As goon as Masterson saw 
 me he asked me what the trouble was, and before I could an- 
 swer, the guards told him I rode into the fort and roped one of 
 the cannons and tried to pull it out. Bat asked me what I 
 wanted with a cannon and what I intended doing with it. I 
 told him I wanted to take it back to Texas with me to fight 
 the Indians with ; then they all laughed. Then Bat told them 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 109 
 
 that I was all right, the only trouble being that I had too much 
 bad whiskey under my shirt. They said I .would have to set 
 the drinks for the house. They came to $15.00, and when I 
 started to pay for them, Bat said for me to keep my money 
 that he would pay for them himself, which he did. Bat said 
 that I was the only cowboy that he liked, and that his brother 
 Jim also thought very much of me. I was then let go and I 
 joined the boys and we continued on our way home, where 
 we arrived safely on the 1st of June, 1877. 
 
 We at once began preparing for the coming big round up. 
 As usual this kept us very busy .during the months of July and 
 August, and as we received no more orders for cattle this sea- 
 son, we did not have to take the trail again, but after the round 
 up was over, we were kept busy in range riding, and the gen- 
 eral all around work of the ,big ca'ttle ranch. We had at this 
 time on the ranch upwards of 30,000 head of cattle, our own 
 cattle, not to mention the cattle belonging to the many other 
 interests without the Pan Handle country, and as all these im- 
 mense herds used the range of the .country, in common as 
 there was no fences to divide the ranches, consequently the 
 cattle belonging to the different herds often got mixed up and 
 large numbers of them strayed. 
 
 At the round ups it was our duty to cut out and brand 
 the young calves, take a census of our stock, and then after the 
 round up was over we would start out to look for possible 
 strays. Over the range we would ride through canyons anrj 
 gorges, and every place where it was possible for cattle to 
 stray, as it was important to get them with the main herd be- 
 fore winter set in, as if left out in small bunches there was 
 danger of them perishing in the frequent hard storms of the 
 winter. While range riding or hunting for strays, we always 
 carried with us on our saddle the branding irons of our respec- 
 tive ranches, and whenever we ran across a calf that had not 
 been branded we had to rope the calf, tie it, then a fire was 
 ^made of buffalo chips, the only fuel besides grass to be found 
 on the prairie. 
 
 The irons were heated and the calf was branded with the 
 brand of the finder, no matter who it personally belonged to. 
 
DEADWOOD DICK in 
 
 It now became the property of the finder. The lost cattle were 
 then driven to the main herd. After they were once gotten to- 
 gether it was our duty to keep them together during the win- 
 ter and early spring. It was while out hunting strays that I, 
 got lost, the first and only time I was ever lost in my life, and 
 for four days I had an experience that few men ever went 
 through and lived, as it was a close pull for me. 
 
 I had been out for several days looking for lost cattle and 
 becoming separated from the other boys and being in a part of 
 the country unfamiliar to me. It was stormy when I started 
 out from the home ranch and when I had ridden about a hun- 
 dred miles from home it began to storm in earnest, rain, hail, 
 sleet, and the clouds seemed to touch the earth and gather in 
 their inpenterable embrace every thing thereon. For a long 
 time I rode on in the direction of home, but as I could not see 
 fifty yards ahead it was a case of going it blind. After riding 
 for many weary hours through the storm I came across a little 
 log cabin on the Palidore river. I rode up to within one hun- 
 dred yards of it where I was motioned to stop by an old long 
 haired man who stepped out of the cabin door with a long 
 buffalo gun on his arm. It was with this he had motioned me 
 to stop. 
 
 I promptly pulled up and raised my hat, which, according 
 to the custom of the cowboy country, gave him to understand 
 I was a cowboy from the western cow ranges. He then mo- 
 tioned me to come on. Riding up to the cabin he asked me to 
 dismount and we shook hands. 
 
 He said, when I saw you coming I said to myself that 
 must be a lost cowboy from some of the western cow ranges. 
 1 told him I was lost all right, and I told him Who I was and 
 where from. Again we shook hands, he saying as we did so, 
 that we were friends until we met again, and he hoped for- 
 ever. He then told me to picket out my horse and come in 
 and have some supper, which very welcome invitation I ac- 
 cepted. 
 
 His cabin was constructed of rough hewn logs, somewhat 
 after the fashion of a Spanish block house. One part of it was 
 constructed under ground, a sort of dug out, while the upper 
 
ii2 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 portion^ of the cabin proper was provided with many loop 
 holes, commanding every direction. 
 
 He later told me these loop holes had stood him in handy 
 many a time when he had been .attacked by Indians, in their 
 efforts to capture him. On entering his cabin I was amazed 
 to see the walls covered with all kinds of skins, horns, and 
 antlers. Buffalo .skins in great numbers covered the floor and 
 bed, .while the walls were completely hidden behind the skins 
 of every animal of that region, including large number of rat- 
 tle snakes skins and many of their rattles. 
 
 His bed, which was in one corner of the dug out, was of 
 skins, and to me, weary from my long ride through the storm, 
 seemed to be the most comfortable place on the globe just 
 then. He soon set before me a bountious supper, consisting 
 of buffalo meat and corn dodgers, and seldom before have 1 
 enjoyed a meal as I did that one. During supper he told me 
 many of his experiences in the western country. His name 
 was Cater, and he was one of the oldest buffalo hunters in that 
 part of Texas, having hunted and trapped over the wild coun- 
 try ever since the early thirties, and during that time he had 
 many a thrilling adventure with Indians and wild animals. 
 
 I stayed with him that night and slept soundly on a com- 
 fortable bed he made for me. The next morning he gave me 
 a good breakfast and I prepared to take my departure as the 
 storm had somewhat moderated, and I was anxious to get 
 home, as the boys knowing I was out would be looking for me 
 if I did not show up in a reasonable time. 
 
 My kind host told me to go directly northwest and I 
 would strike the Calones flats, a place with which I was per- 
 fectly familiar. He said it was about 75 miles from his place. 
 Once there I would have no difficulty in finding my way home. 
 Cater put me up a <good lunch to last me on my way, and with 
 many expressions of gratitude to him, I left him with his skins 
 and comfortable, though solitary life. All that day and part 
 of the night I rode in the direction he told me, until about n 
 o'clock when I became so tired I decided to go into camp and 
 give my tired horse a rest and a chance to eat. Accordingly I 
 dismounted and removed the saddle and bridle from my horse 
 
In My Fighting Clothes 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 113 
 
 I hobbled him and turned him loose to graze on the luxuriant 
 grass, while I, tired out, laid down with my head on my saddle 
 fully dressed as I was, not even removing my belt containing 
 my 45 pistol from my waist, laying my Winchester close by. 
 The rain had ceased to fall, but it was still cloudy and threat- 
 ening. It was my intention to rest a few hours then continue 
 on my way ; and as I could not see the stars on account of the 
 clouds and as it was important that I keep my direction north- 
 west in order to strike the Flats, I had carefully taken my di- 
 lection before sundown, and now on moving my saddle I 
 placed it on the ground pointing in the direction I was going 
 when I stopped so that it would enable me to keep my direc- 
 tion when I again started out. I had been laying there for 
 some time and my horse was quietly grazing about 20 yards 
 off, when I suddenly heard something squeal. . It sounded like 
 a woman's voice. It frightened my horse and he ran for me. 
 I jumped to my feet with my Winchester in my hand. This 
 caused my horse to rear and wheel and I heard his hobbles 
 break with a sharp snap. Then I heard the sound of his gal- 
 loping feet going across the Pan Handle plains until the sound 
 was lost in the distance. Then I slowly began to realize that I 
 was left alone on the plains on foot, how many miles from 
 home I did not know. Remembering I had my guns all right, 
 il was my impulse to go in pursuit of my horse as I thought I 
 could eventually catch him after he had got over his scare, but 
 when I thought of my 40 pound saddle, and I did not want to 
 leave that, so saying to myself that is the second saddle I ever 
 owned, the other having been taken by the Indians when I was 
 captured, and this saddle was part of the outfit presented to 
 me by the boys, and so tired and as hungry as a hawk, I 
 shouldered my saddle and started out in the direction I was 
 going when I went into camp, saying to myself as I did so, if 
 my horse could pack me and my outfit day and night I can at 
 least pack my outfit. Keeping my direction as well as I could 
 I started out over the prairie through the dark, walking all 
 that night and all the next day without anything to eat or 
 drink until just about sundown and when I had begun to think 
 1 would have to spend another nigh't on the prairie without 
 
ii 4 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 food or drink, when I emerged from a little draw on to a raise 
 on the prairie, then looking over on to a small flat I saw a 
 large herd of buffalo. These were the first I had seen since I 
 became lost and the sight of them put renewed life and hope 
 in me as I was then nearly famished, and when I saw them I 
 knew I had something to eat. 
 
 Off to one side about 20 yards from the main herd and 
 about 150 yards from me was a young calf. Placing my Win- 
 chester to my shoulder I glanced along the shining barrel, but 
 my hands shook so much I lowered it. again, not that I was 
 afraid of missing it as I knew I was a dead shot at that dis- 
 tance, but my weakness caused by my long enforced fast and 
 rny great thirst made my eyes dim and my hands shake in a 
 way they had never done before, so waiting a few moments I 
 again placed the gun to my shoulder and this time it spoke and 
 the calf dropped where i't had stood. Picking up my outfit I 
 went down to where my supper was laying. I took out my 
 jack knife and commenced on one of his hind quarters. I be- 
 gan to skin and eat to my hearts content, but I was so very 
 thirsty. I had heard of people drinking blood to quench their 
 thirst and that gave me an idea, so cutting the calf's throat, 
 with my knife I eagerly drank the fresh warm blood. 
 
 It tasted very much like warm sweet milk. It quenched 
 my thirst and made me feel strong, when I had eaten all I 
 could, I cut off two large chunks of the meat and tied them to 
 my saddle, then again shouldering the whole thing I started 
 en my w : ay feeling almost as satisfied as if I had my horse with 
 me. I was lost two days, and two nights, after my horse left 
 me and all that time J kept walking packing my 40 pounds 
 saddle and my Winchester and two cattle pistols. 
 
 On the second night about daylight the weather became 
 more threatening and I saw in the distance a long column 
 which looked like smoke. It seemed to be coming towards me 
 at .the rate of a mile a minute. It did not take it long to reach 
 me, and when it did I struggled on for a few yards but it was 
 no use, tired as I was from packing my heavy outfit for more 
 than 48 hours and my long tramp, I had not the strength to 
 nght against the storm so I had to come alone. When I again 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 115 
 
 came to myself I was covered up head and foot in the snow, in 
 the camp of -some of my comrades from the ranch. 
 
 It seemed from What I was told afterwards that the boys 
 knowing I was out in the s'torm and failing to show up, they 
 had started out to look for me, they had gone in camp during 
 the storm and when the blizzard had passed they noticed an 
 object out on the prairie in the snow, with one hand frozen, 
 clenched around my Winchester and the other around the 
 horn of my saddle, and they had hard work to get my hands 
 loose, they picked me up and placed me on one of the horses 
 and took me to camp where they stripped me of my clothes 
 and wrapped me up in the snow, all the skin came off my nose 
 and mouth and my hands and feet had been so badly frozen 
 that the nails all came off. After had got thawed out in the 
 mess wagon and took me home in 15 days I was again in the 
 saddle ready for business but I will never forget those few 
 days I was lost and the marks of that storm I will carry with 
 me always. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE OLD HAZE AND ELS WORTH TRAIL. OUR TRIP 
 TO CHEYENNE. EX-SHERIFF PAT A. GARRET. 
 THE DEATH OF "BILLY THE KID". THE LINCOLN 
 COUNTY CATTLE WAR. 
 
 Early the next, spring 1878 we went on a short trip to 
 Junction City, Kan., with a small herd of horses for Hokin 
 and Herst. We started out from the home ranch early in 
 April, stringing the herd out along the old Haze and Elsworth 
 trail. Everything went well until we were several days out 
 and we had went in camp for the night. The herd had been 
 rounded up and were grazing in the open prairie under the 
 usual watch. And all the cowboys except the first watch had 
 turned in for a good night's rest, when it began to storm 
 finally developing into a genuine old fashioned Texas storm, 
 with the usual result that the herd stampeded. 
 
 The watch at once gave the alarm and we awoke to find 
 everything in confusion. It was a very dark night, and under 
 such circumstances i't is hard to control a herd of horses in a 
 stampede. In a few moments every man was in the saddle, as 
 we always kept our saddle horses picketed out, so they could 
 not join the other horses. And it was our custom when on the 
 trail with a herd of horses on going into camp to leave our 
 saddle horses, saddled and bridled, merely loosing the cinches 
 of the saddles though sometimes we removed the bridles, to 
 enable them to graze better. So when the alarm was given 
 in this instance, it did not take us long to get in the saddle and 
 after the horses who were now going across the prairie as 
 only frightened horses can go in a stampede. 
 
 The storm continued with more or less fury all night and 
 it was late the next day before we got the herd rounded up and 
 under any sort of control. The next morning we found that 
 one of the boys, Frank Smith, had lost his horse and outfit 
 during the night. While chasing the horses over the prairie, 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 117 
 
 his horse stepped in a prairie dog's hole and fell. Throwing 
 his rider and snatching the rope out of Smith's hand, the horse 
 made off over the prairie carrying with him bridle, saddle and 
 outfit, and we never saw or heard of him again. After getting 
 our breakfast, we continued north, and all went well with us 
 until we struck the Wakeeny river, near Junction City, when 
 in fording the stream. It was high water and we were forced 
 to swim our horses across. All went well with the herd and 
 the boys were following when one of them came near being 
 drowned, and was only saved by my quick rope. 
 
 I had entered the river and my horse was swimming 
 easily, when on glancing around I saw one of the boys, Loyd 
 Hoedin by name, go under th.e water. Both man and horse 
 completely disappeared. They soon came up only to disap- 
 pear again. I saw at once something was wrong so when they 
 came up the second time I threw my rope. It fell near Hoe- 
 din, who had the presence of mind to grasp it, and hold on 
 while I snaked both man and horse out to safety. After 
 reaching Junction City and turning the herd over to their new 
 owners we started out to have the usual good time. This 
 lasted for several days during which time we cleaned up pretty 
 near all the money there was in the Junction with our horses 
 in a six hundred yard race, be/tween ourselves and cow boys 
 from different outfits who happened to be in the city. 
 
 Our horses without exception proved the fastest runners, 
 accordingly we pocketed considerable coin, and in conse- 
 quence we were feeling first rate when we struck the trail 
 homeward bound. We arrived at the home ranch all right in 
 June. This was the last trip we were called to make this sea- 
 son, and our time for the remainder of the year was taken up 
 with the general routine work of the large cattle ranch. 
 
 Late the next season we took the trail en route to Chey- 
 enne, Wyoming, with two thousand head of fine Texas steers 
 for the Swan Brothers, 20 mlies northwest of Cheyenne. Noth- 
 ing of unusual importance happened on this trip aside from 
 the regular incidents pertaining to driving such a large herd 
 of cattle on the trail. We had a few stampedes and lost a few 
 
ii8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 cattle, arriving in Cheyenne we had a royal good time for a 
 few days as usual before starting home. On arriving at the 
 home ranch again we found considerable excitement, owing to 
 the war between the cattle men and cattle rustlers and every 
 man was needed at home and few there were who did not take 
 part in one way or another in the most bitter and furious cattle 
 war of history and I being one of the leading cowboys of the 
 West, necessarily took an active part in the dispute and many 
 were the sharp clashes between the waring factions that 1 
 witnessed and fought in and was wounded many times in these 
 engagements. For years the cattle rustlers had been invading 
 the large cattle ranges belonging to the large cattle kings of 
 the West and running off and branding large numbers of 
 choice cattle and horses, this led to many a sharp fight be- 
 tween the cowboys and the rustlers, but of late these thieves 
 had become so bold and the losses of the cattle men had be- 
 come so great that the latter determined to put a stop to it, 
 and so open war was declared. 
 
 On one side was the large ranchmen and cattle men and 
 en the other the Indians, half breeds, Mexicans and white out- 
 laws that made the cattle country their rendezvous. The cat- 
 tle men had now organized with the given determination of 
 either killing or running out of the country for good these 
 thieves, who had caused them so much loss. And during the 
 war many of them cashed in and the others for the most part 
 left for pastures new, having been virtually whipped out of the 
 country. It was a desperate and bloody war while it lasted. 
 
 But it was satisfactory to the cattle men who could now 
 rest easier in the security of their herds and their grazing 
 grounds. It was at this time that I saw considerable of Will- 
 iam H. Bonney alias "Billie the kid", the most noted desper- 
 ado and all around bad man the world has known. 
 
 The first time I met Billie the Kid was in Antonshico, 
 New Mexico, in a saloon, when he asked me to drink with him, 
 that was in 1877. Later he hired to Pete Galligan, the man in 
 whose employ I was. Galligan hired the Kid to drive his buck 
 board between the White Oaks, the nearest town, and Gallir 
 gan's ranch with provisions for the boys, and the Kid told me 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 119 
 
 himself that one these trips he would drive the team, on a 
 dead run, the whole distance of 30 miles to the Oaks in order 
 to get there quick so he would have more time to stay around 
 town before it was time to start back, then when he would ar- 
 rive home the team was nearly dead from exhaustion. He re- 
 mained in the employ of Galligan for about eleven months, 
 then he was hired by John Chisholm to rustle cattle for him. 
 Chisholm agreed to pay the Kid so much per head for all the 
 cattle the Kid rustled. When the time came for a settlement, 
 Chisholm failed to settle right or to the Kid's saisfaction, then 
 the Kid told Chisholm he would give him one day to make up 
 his mind to settle right, but before the Kid could see Chis- 
 holm again, Chisholm left the country going east where his 
 brother was. The Kid then swore vengence, and said he would 
 take his revenge out of CTiisholm'-s men, and he at once began 
 killing all the employ of John Chisholm. He would ride up to 
 a bunch of cowboys and enquire if they worked for Chisholm. 
 If they replied in the affirmative, he would shoot them dead on 
 the spot, and few men were quicker with a 45 or a deadly 
 shot than "Billie the Kid". The next time I met the Kid was 
 in Holbrook, Arizona, just after a big round up. The Kid, 
 Buck Cannon, and Billie Woods were together. I was on my 
 way to Silver City, New Mexico, in the fall of 1880 when I met 
 them, and as they were going there also, we rode on together 
 The "Kid" showed me the little log cabin where he said he 
 was born. I went in the cabin with him, and he showed me 
 how it was arranged when he lived there, showing me where 
 the bed sat and the stove and table. He then pointed out the 
 old postoffice which he said he had been in lots of times. 
 
 He told me he was born and raised in Silver City, New 
 Mexico, which is near the Moggocilion Mountains, and at that 
 time the Kid was badly wanted by the sheriffs of several coun- 
 ties for numerous murders committed by him mostly of John 
 Chisholm's men in Texas and New Mexico. 
 
 The Kid bid me good bye. He said he was going to the 
 mountains as he knew them well, and once there he was all 
 rigtit as he could stand off a regiment of soldiers. The three 
 of them departed together. I never saw him again until the 
 
120 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 spring of 1881. I was in the city of Elmorgo, New Mexico, 
 and saw him the morning he was forced to flee to the moun- 
 tains to escape arrest. We could see him up there behind the 
 rocks. He was well armed having with him two Winchesters 
 and two 45 Colts revolvers and plenty of ammunition, and al- 
 though the offiicers wanted him badly, no one dared go up after 
 him as it was certain death to come with range of the Kid's 
 guns. Later on he escaped and the next time I saw him was 
 in Antonshico, New Mexico. It was in June, and we had come 
 up from Colonas after some saddle horses, and I met and 
 talked with him. 
 
 The next time I saw him he was laying dead at Pete Max- 
 well's ranch in Lincoln county, New Mexico, having been 
 killed by Pat A. Garret at that time sheriff of Lincoln county, 
 New Mexico. We arrived in Lincoln county the very night 
 he was killed at Pete Maxwell's ranch and went into camp 
 a short distance from Maxwell's, and we saw the Kid a short 
 time after he had been killed. The Kid had been arrested by 
 Pat Garret and his posse a short time before at Stinking 
 Springs, New Mexico, along with Tom Pickett, Billy Wilson 
 and Dave Rudebough, after arresting these men which was 
 only effected after a hard fight and after the Kid's ammunition 
 had given out. Garret took the men heavily ironed to Los 
 Vegas. When it became known that Billy the Kid had been 
 captured a mob formed for the purpose of lynching him. But 
 Garret placed his prisoners in a box car over which himself 
 and deputies stood guard until the train pulled out which was 
 nearly two hours. During that time the mob was furious to 
 get at the men, but they well knew the temper of 'Sheriff Gar- 
 ret so they kept their distance. 
 
 The men were tried and convicted. The Kid and Rud- 
 bough were sentenced to be hanged. Rudbough for having 
 killed a jailer at Los Vegas in 1880. The judge on pass- 
 ing sentence on the Kid, said you are sentenced to be hanged 
 by the neck until you are dead-dead-dead. The Kid laughed 
 in the judge's face saying, and you can go to Hell, Hell, Hell. 
 After the Kid had been sentenced he was placed in jail at Los 
 Vegas, ironed hand and foot, and under heavy guard, but 
 
DEADWOOD DICK rtzi 
 
 never lost confidence and was always looking for a chance to 
 escape. When the day of his execution was not much more 
 than a week off, the Kid saw his chance, while eating his sup- 
 per both handcuffs had been fastened to one wrist so the Kid 
 could better feed himself. He was only guarded by one 
 deputy named Bell. The other deputy, Ollinger, had gone to 
 supper across the street from the jail. Bell turned his head for 
 a moment and the Kid noticing the movement quick as a flash 
 brought the handcuffs down on Bell's head, stunning him. 
 The Kid then snatched Bell's revolver, he shot the deputy 
 through the body. Bell staggered to the steps down which he 
 fell and into the yard below where he died. Ollinger hearing 
 the shot rushed across the street. As he entered the jail yard 
 he looked up and saw the Kid at a window. As he did so the 
 Kid shot Ollinger dead with a shot gun which was loaded 
 with buck shot. The Kid then broke the gun across the win- 
 dow sill, then going to the room where the weapons were kept 
 the Kid picked out what guns he wanted and broke the bal- 
 ance. Then he made the first person he met break the irons 
 from his legs and bring him a horse. The Kid then took four 
 revolvers and two Winchester rifles and rode away. Sheriff 
 Garret was at White Oaks at the time and as soon he as heard 
 of the escape he hurried home and organized a posse to recap- 
 ture the Kid, but the Kid was at liberty two months before he 
 was finally rounded up and killed at Pete Maxwell's ranch. 
 At the time the Kid escaped at Los Vegas myself and a party 
 of our boys had our horses at Menderhall and Hunter's livery 
 stable, just a few doors from the jail and I was standing on 
 the street talking to a friend when the Kid rode by. From Los 
 Vegas he went to the borders of Lincoln county where his 
 ever ready revolver was always in evidence. Shortly after his 
 escape he shot and killed William Mathews and a companion 
 whom he met on the prairie without apparent cause, and sev- 
 eral other murders were attributed to him before he was 
 finally located at Maxwell's ranch and killed by Sheriff Garret. 
 The Kid was only 22 years of age when his wild career 
 was ended by the bullet from the sheriff's gun and it is safe to 
 assert he had at lease one murder to the credit of every year 
 
122 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 of his life. He was killed by Sheriff Garret in a room of one 
 of the old houses at Fort Sumner, known at that time as Max- 
 well's ranch, July 12, 1881, about two months after his escape 
 from the Lincoln county jail, and Sheriff Pat A. Garret, one of 
 the nervest men of that country of nervy men and the only 
 man who ever pursued the Kid and lived to tell the tale, is at 
 present at the head of the Customs Service at El Paso, Texas, 
 and to meet him and note his pleasant smile and kindly dis- 
 position, one would not believe him the man who sent Billie 
 the Kid to his last account. But behind the pleasant twinkle 
 in his eye and the warm hand clasp there is a head as cool and 
 a nerve as steady as ever held a 45. 
 
CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 ANOTHER TRIP TO OLD MEXICO. I ROPE AN EN- 
 GINE. I FALL IN LOVE. MY COURTSHIP. DEATH 
 OF MY SWEETHEART. MY PROMISED WIFE. I 
 MUST BEAR A CHARMED LIFE. THE ADVENT 
 OF PROGRESS. THE LAST OF THE RANGE. 
 
 On one of these memorable trips after cattle, and with 
 cattle on the trail, one that I will most likely remember, the 
 longest was a trip to Old Mexico after a herd of horses. It 
 was on this trip that I fell in love, the first time in my life. 
 During my wild career on the western plains I had met many 
 handsome women, and they often made much of me, but 
 somehow I had never experienced the feeling called love, un- 
 til I met my charming sweetheart in Old Mexico. I had per- 
 haps been too much absorbed in the wild life of the plains, in 
 the horses, and cattle which made up my world, to have the 
 time or inclination to seek or enjoy the company of the gentler 
 sex. But now that I had met my fate, I suppose I became as 
 silly about it as any tenderfoot from the east could possibly 
 be. as evidence of how badly I was hit. While on the trail 
 with the herd our route lay along a narrow gauge railroad, 
 and I was feeling up in the air caused no doubt partly from the 
 effects of love and partly from the effects of Mexican whiskey, 
 a generous measure I had under my belt, however I was feel- 
 ing fine, so when the little engine came puffing along in the 
 distance I said to the 'boys I have roped nearly everything that 
 could be roped, so now I 'am going to rope the engine. They 
 tried to persuade me not to make the attempt, but I was in no 
 mood to listen to reason or anything else, so when the engine 
 came along I put my spurs to my horse and when near enough 
 1 let fly my lariat. The rope settled gracefully around the 
 smoke stack, and as usual my trained horse set himself back 
 for the shock, but the engine set both myself and my horse in 
 the ditch, and might have continued to set us in places had 
 
*o 
 
 ~ !* 
 
 fill 
 
 4\ " 5 
 
 l?i 
 
 a .8 
 
 111 
 
 +3 .-3 hr 1 
 tJffi* 
 W^ > 
 
 15^ e 
 
 C u'g 
 rt w 5 
 
 t|a 
 E ?l 
 
 -T V u-^ 
 
 O 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 125 
 
 not something given way, as it was the rope parted, but the 
 boys said afterwards that they thought they would have to 
 send for a wrecking train to clean the track or rather the ditch. 
 
 Roping a live engine is by long odds worse than roping 
 wild Buffalo on the plains or Uncle Sam's cannon at the forts. 
 This incident cleared the atmosphere somewhat, but my love 
 was as strong as ever and I thanked my lucky start she did 
 not see me as they dragged me out of the ditch. 
 
 I first saw my sweetheart as we were driving the herd 
 along the dusty road, passing a small adobe house near the 
 city of O'ld Mexico. I saw a handsome young Spanish girl 
 standing in the yard and I suppose I fell in love with her at 
 first sight, anyway I pretended to be very thirsty and rode 
 up and asked her for a drink. She gave it to me and I ex- 
 changed a few words with her before joining the boys and the 
 herds. 
 
 After that I saw her quite often during my stay in Old 
 Mexico before we again returned home. One day shortly be- 
 fore I was to leave for the North I went to see her and over- 
 heard a conversation between her and her mother, in which 
 her mother said to her : "My daughter will you leave your 
 mother for to go with the wild cowboy?" And she answered 
 no mother I will not leave you to go with any wild cowboy. 
 On hearing this I bid her goodbye and a long farewell, as I 
 told her I did not expect to ever see her again. Then leaping 
 to the back of my faithful horse I rode like mad across the 
 Mexican plains, until I had somewhat cooled down, but it was 
 a hard blow to me, as I truly loved her. After that I joined 
 the boys and returned up the trail with them. Six or seven 
 months later we were again in Old Mexico with a herd of 
 cattle and went in camp some distance out from the city, and 
 as soon as she heard our rutfit had returned she rode out to 
 the camp and after looking around and not seeing me, she 
 said to the camp boss, "Where is the wild cowboy that was 
 here with you last time? Did he not come up the trail with 
 you". The boss told her I had come up the trail but that I had 
 not been seen since crossing the last mountains as of course 
 he knew whom she meant as my little love affair was pretty 
 
\ 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 127 
 
 generally known among the boys. When the boss told her 
 that I had not been seen since they had crossed the last moun- 
 tains, she hung her head and looked completely heart broken. 
 1 was lying in the mess wagon at the time an interested spec- 
 tator of all that took place, and seeing her looking so down- 
 hearted I could hardly restrain myself from jumping out of 
 the wagon and taking her in my arms. After a time she slowly 
 raised her head and looked long and wistfully up the trail. 
 Then turning to the camp boss again she said, "Camp boss tell 
 me truly if Nat Love works with you and did he come on this 
 trip with you". The boss answered her as before that I had 
 not been seen since crossing the last mountains, which was 
 true as I had been riding in the mess wagon. On hearing\the 
 boss' answer she took it as final and started to ride away. 
 
 I thought it high time to make my presence known, as 
 with the sight of her, all my old love returned, and I forgot 
 every thing except that I loved her. So I jumped out of the 
 wagon exclaiming here I am, and in a minute we were locked 
 in each others arms and I believe I kissed her before all the 
 boys, but I didn't care, she was mine now. We became en- 
 gaged and were to be married in the fall and were to make our 
 home in the city of Mexico, but in the spring she took sick and 
 died. Her death broke me all up and after I buried her I be- 
 came very wild and reckless, not caring what happened to me 
 and when you saw me in the saddle you saw me at home, and 
 while I saw many women since I could never care for any as I 
 did for her. And I vainly tried to forget her and my sorrow 
 in the wild life of the plains and every danger I could find 
 courting death in fights with Indians and Mexicans and dare 
 devil riding on the range, but it seemed to me that I bore a 
 charmed life. Horses were shot from under me, men were 
 killed around me, but always I escaped with a trifling wound 
 at the worst. As time passed I began to recover from my dis- 
 appointment and to take my old interest in the work of the 
 ranch, and as my reputation had spread over the country I did 
 not lack work, but was kept on the go all the time, first with 
 one large cattle owner, then with another. Most of my work- 
 ing being in the round ups and brandings, brand reading, and 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 129 
 
 with large herds on the trail, as during my long experience in 
 the cattle country I had traveled every known trail, and over 
 immense stretches of country where there was no sign of a 
 trail, nothing but the wide expanse of prairie ; bare except for 
 the buffalo grass, with here and there a lone tree or a giant 
 cactus standing as a lone sentinel in the wildest of long stret- 
 ches of grazing land rolling away in billows of hill and gully, 
 like the waves of the ocean. Likewise I could read, identify 
 and place every brand or mark placed on a horse or steer be- 
 tween the Gulf of Mexico and the borders of Canada, on the 
 North and from Missouri to California. Over this stretch of 
 country I have often traveled with herds of horses or cattle or 
 in searching for strays or hunting the noble buffalo on his own 
 native feeding grounds. The great buffalo slaughter com- 
 menced in the west in 1874, and in 1877 they had become so 
 scarce that it was a rare occasion when you came across a herd 
 containing more than fifty animals where before you could 
 find thousands in a herd. Many things were responsible for the 
 slaughter, but the principal reason that they had now become 
 so scarce was that in 1875 and 1876 the Indians started to kill 
 them in large numbers for their skins. Thousands were killed 
 by them, skinned and the carcasses left as food for the wolves 
 and vultures of the prairie. Many were killed by the white 
 hunters to furnish meat for the railroad graders and the troups 
 at the frontier forts. 
 
 While the big cattle ranches were always kept well sup- 
 plied with buffalo meat, on the stock of my rifle is one hun- 
 dred and twenty-six notches, each one representing a fine 
 buffalo that has 'fallen to my own hand, while some I have 
 killed with the knife and 45 colts, I forgot to cut a notch for. 
 Buffalo hunting, a sport for kings, thy time has passed. Where 
 once they roamed by the thousands now rises the chimney and 
 the spire, while across their once peaceful path now thunders 
 the iron horse, awakening the echoes far and near with bell 
 and whistle, where once could only be heard the sharp crack 
 of the rifle or the long doleful yelp of the coyote. At the pres- 
 ent time the only buffalo to be found are in the private parks 
 of a few men who are preserving them for pleasure or profit. 
 
130 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 With the march of progress came the railroad and no 
 longer were we called upon to follow the long horned steers, 
 or mustangs on the trail, while the immense cattle ranges, 
 stretching away in the distance as far as the eye could see, 
 now began to be dotted with cities and towns and the cattle in- 
 dustry which once held a monopoly in the west, now had to 
 give way to the industry of the farm and the mill. To us wild 
 cowboys of the range, used to the wild and unrestricted life 
 of the boundless plains, the new order of things did not appeal, 
 and many of us became disgusted and quit the wild life for the 
 pursuits of our more civilized brother. I was among that 
 number and in 1890 I bid farewell to the life which I had fol- 
 lowed for over twenty years. 
 
 It was with genuine regret that I left the long horn Texas 
 cattle and the wild mustangs of the range, but the life had in 
 a great measure lost its attractions and so I decided to quit it 
 and try something else for a while. During my life so far I 
 had no chance to secure an education, except the education of 
 the plains and the cattle business. In this I recognize no 
 superior being. Gifted with a splendid memory and quick ob- 
 servation I learned and remembered things that others passed 
 by and forgot, and I have yet to meet the man who can give me 
 instruction in the phases of a life in which I spent so long. 
 After quitting the cowboy life I struck out for Denver. Here 
 I met and married the present Mrs. Love, my second love. We 
 were married August 22, 1889, and she is with me now a true 
 and faithful partner, and says she is not one bit jealous of my 
 first love, who lies buried in the city of Old Mexico. 
 
 One year later, in 1890, I accepted a poslition in the Pull- 
 man service on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, running 
 between Denver and Salida, Colorado. The Pullman service 
 was then in its infancy, so to speak, as there was as much dif- 
 ference between the Pullman sleeping cars of those days and 
 the present as there is between the ox team and the auto- 
 mobile. 
 
My First Experience as a Pullman Porter 
 
CHAPTER XVHL 
 
 THE PULLMAN SERVICE. LIFE ON THE RAIL. MY 
 FIRST TRIP. A SLUMP IN TIPS. I BECOME DIS- 
 GUSTED AND QUIT. A PERIOD OF HUSKING. 
 MY NEXT TRIP ON THE PULLMAN. TIPS AND 
 THE PEOPLE WHO GIVE THEM. 
 
 After my marriage in Denver, I rented a small cottage 
 which I comfortably furnished and we, Mrs. Love and myself, 
 started to housekeeping in a modest way. Then I began to 
 look around for a job, but to a man who was used to the ex- 
 citement and continual action of the range and the cattle 
 ranches, the civilized and quiet life of the city is apt to prove 
 stale and uninteresting. It was that way with me, and after 
 passing up several jobs offered to me I thought I would try 
 railroading for awhile, probably for the same reason that 
 prompted me to leave home twenty years before ; I still wanted 
 to see the world. With that idea in mind, I went to the Pull- 
 man offices in Denver, and after making some inquiries I was 
 directed to the office of Superintendent Rummels who was at 
 that time superintendent of the Pullman service. 
 
 A Mr. Wright was his assistant. I found Superintendent 
 Rummels in his office, and I asked him if he wanted to hire any 
 more porters. He asked me if I had ever worked for the Pull- 
 man company. I told him no that I had been a cowboy ever 
 since I was 16 years old. He then asked 'me if I had money 
 enough to buy my pullman uniform. I asked him how much 
 it would cost and he said $22.00. I told him yes, I had the 
 price. He asked me if I knew any one in Denver. I told him 
 yes and gave him the name of Mr. Sprangler who had my 
 money in his bank. Supt. Rulrrimels told me to get a letter 
 from Mr. Sprangler and he would put me on. So I went and 
 got the letter and with it the money to pay for my uniform, 
 after having my measure taken and sending for my suit. I 
 borrowed a uniform from one of the other porters and the sec- 
 
132 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 ond day after I called on the superintendent I was sent on the 
 run between Denver and Salida. One of the old men put me 
 on to my duties and showed me how to make up my car and 
 the general run of things. 
 
 On my first trip I found a kind friend in the Pullman con- 
 ductor, a Mr. Keely, who helped me in many ways and I sup- 
 pose I made many blunders as the difference between a Pull- 
 man car and the back of a Texas mustang is very great. How- 
 ever I managed to get around among the passengers in my car, 
 and attend to their needs in some sort of a way. 
 
 My first trouble commenced when I succeeded in getting 
 the shoes of passengers which had been given to me to polish, 
 badly mixed up. The shoes of a portly red faced man whose 
 berth was in the forward end of 'the car, I placed by the berth 
 of a tall and slim western yankee at the other end of the car, 
 while a number 7 and a number 9 shoe were placed decorously 
 by the berth of a sour spinster from New York. This natur- 
 ally caused a good sized rumpus the next morning. And sun- 
 dry blessings were heaped on the head of yours truly. Nearly 
 all the passengers were mad and the tips were conspicuous by 
 their absence. That made me mad and thoroughly disgusted 
 with the job. On returning to Denver I again called on Super- 
 intendent Rummels and told him that I had enough of the 
 Pullman service, and would rather go back to the cattle and 
 the range. Superintendent Rummels tried to persuade me to 
 stay with it saying I had done all right, and would improve 
 with experience but I was thoroughly disgusted and wanted 
 no more of it, so I turned in my keys, got my uniform and 
 walked out. So again I was without a job. 
 
 After going around Denver for several days, it struck me 
 that there was money to be made selling fruit, vegetables, 
 honey and chickens around the town. Accordingly I pur- 
 chased a horse and wagon and an assorted stock and started 
 out on my new vocation. This proved profitable from the 
 start and I made good money Which caused me to stay with 
 it for nearly a year, when my natural restfulness caused me to 
 become discontented and to yearn for more excitement and 
 something a little faster so I disposed of my stock, horse and 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 133 
 
 wagon, and started out to look for something else to do, but 
 that something else was about as hard to find as the proverbial 
 needle in the straw stack, at that particular time. Whether it 
 was fate or the talk of the other porters whom I met I finally 
 concluded to give the Pullman service another try. According- 
 ly I called on Mr. J. M. Smith who was now district superin- 
 tendent of the Pullman service and asked him for a job. He 
 asked me if I had been in the company's service before and I 
 told him yes. He asked me how long and I told him one trip, 
 and I told him why I quit, and that the tips were too slow for 
 me. He asked me if I thought it was any better now, and I 
 said I did not know whether it was any better or not but that 
 I thought I could do better*. 
 
 He told me the whole secret of success was in pleasing all 
 my passengers. I told him I thought it was all right about 
 pleasing two or three passengers but when it came to pleasing 
 a whole car full of passengers, that was another matter. He 
 said to try anyway. He than assigned me to a car running on 
 the narrow gauge line between Denver and Alamosa, Creed 
 and Durango. This was the real beginning of my Pullman 
 service. 
 
 I ran on the Colorado roads under Superintendent Smith 
 for a number of years and always found him courteous and 
 obliging, always ready and willing to help us with advice and 
 counsel, but what proved a mystery to me for a long time was 
 how the superintendent managed to find out things that hap- 
 pened on my car when he was not present. Sometimes when 
 i went to report or met him he would question me about 
 things that happened on my run, such as pleasing the passen- 
 gers and other things, which I did not suppose he knew a 
 thing about and inquiries among the other trainmen only deep- 
 ened the mystery. 
 
 I would ask the Pullman conductor if he told the superin- 
 tendent such and such a thing and he would say no. Then I 
 would ask him how the superintendent knew about them as he 
 was not on the train. He would say he did not know. This 
 kept up until finally I made up my mind that if there ever was 
 a clairvoyant the superintendent certainly was one. 
 
134 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 The fact that he was able to find out things that happened 
 hundreds of miles away without any one telling him, kept me 
 worked up for a long time until I finally tumbled to the special 
 agents who are employed to travel as common passengers and 
 report how things are going to the superintendent. That ex- 
 plained the whole mystery, but it did not in any way make me 
 move easy in my mind, because if a special agent was along 
 one trip, there was no reason to think that one was not along 
 every trip. At least I made up my mind there was, and gov- 
 erned myself accordingly, but the increased attention given to 
 my passengers as a result caused an increase in the tips, that 
 came my way. With the increase in my earnings and the ex- 
 perience I was gaining I came to have a liking for the service, 
 which is in no wise diminished at this time. I soon learned 
 rthe knack of pleasing the greater number of my passengers, 
 und this reported to the superintendent by the special agents 
 raised me in the official's favor with the result that I was given 
 more extensive and more profitable runs and soon became one 
 of the most popular porters in Colorado. This brought with 
 it increased responsibilities as well as increased profits and 
 favors enjoyed. 
 
 When I started to work it was for $15.00 per month this 
 nas been increased from time to time until at present owing to 
 my long service and having gained a thorough knowledge of 
 my business, I am often made porter in charge. This position 
 pays -me as high as $40.00 per month. The difference between 
 a porter and a porter in charge is that a porter generally has 
 a car over which a Pullman conductor presides, which the por- 
 ter, in charge owing to his long service and his knowledge 
 of the business is placed in full charge of a car, making the 
 services of a Pullman conductor unnecessary. A porter in the 
 employ of the Pullman company for ten years and giving good 
 service for that time receives from the company two suits of 
 clothes per year, and other privileges not enjoyed by the 
 beginner. 
 
 A porter just beginning in the service has to purchase his 
 own uniform, the cost of which is never less than $20.00 for 
 the summer suit or $22.00 for the winter suit. After five years 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 135 
 
 of good service a porter is entitled to wear one white stripe 
 on his coat sleeve to which one is added for every succeeding 
 live years of good service. Naturally the porter that under- 
 stands his business and gives his whole attention to the pas- 
 sengers in his car and to his work, will make more money than 
 the porter who has not the patience to try and please his pas- 
 sengers. I have had porters complain to me about the small 
 amount they were able to earn in the service and on question- 
 ing them I found it was wholly because they did not think it 
 necessary to try and make friends of the people in their car. I 
 early recognized the fact that if I expected to succeed in 
 the Pullman service I must make all the friends I could on my 
 runs, and the cases are very rare where I have failed to re- 
 ceive a tip of some kind from my passengers, although as it 
 happens sometimes I have people in my car who are not very 
 well blessed with this world's goods, and who can ill afford to 
 spend money in tips. To such people I always give the same 
 attention and care, as if I was sure to receive a $10 tip, and 
 they rarely failed to give me a kind thank you, on leaving my 
 car. In the course of our duties we naturally meet all manner 
 of people, the business man out. for business or pleasure, the 
 drummers who nearly always give us a tip ; the wife going to 
 join her sick husband or the husband hurrying home to the 
 bedside of his sick child ; the invalid in search of health, or the 
 family going home to attend the funeral of a loved one; the 
 young man going to be married, and the young couple on their 
 honeymoon ; the capitalist, the miner, the sportsman and the 
 vast army of people that go to make up the traveling public, 
 who like the sands of the desert are forever shifting around 
 from place to place, and with whom we porters are brought 
 in closer contact perhaps than any one else on their travels. 
 We must necessarily be good judges of human nature to be 
 able to please the majority of the people who travel under our 
 care. We nearly always receive a tip from those who ride 
 with us for any distance. The size of the tip often depends 
 on the mode of the passenger giving it. Even those who ride 
 with us only a short distance often give us a tip of more gener- 
 ous proportions than will the man who has ridden with us 
 
I 3 6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 several thousands of miles. The superintendent himself when 
 he rides in our car, we are sure to receive from him 25 cents or 
 50 cents for a day or a day's ride. 
 
 The smallest tip I have received from a passenger during 
 my service was 2 cents. This amount I received from a rather 
 cranky individual, who when I went to brush him off handed 
 me two copper cents and followed them up with the remark 
 that some of us porters needed calling- down and some needed 
 knocking down. My opinion if what he needed caused me to 
 smile, wherein he wanted to know what I was smiling at. 
 Needless to say I did not feel like wasting any more breath 
 on him so I bundled his boxes and satchel out on the platform 
 and left him to follow at his leisure. 
 
 The largest tips I ever received from a single traveler 
 was $25.00 given me by one of the Rothschilds whom I 
 brought from Chicago to Frisco, but this has been largely sur- 
 passed several times in car tips or trips. The Knights Tem- 
 plar one of whose cars I had charge of between Denver and 
 Boston made, up a purse of $150.00 and presented it to me with 
 the compliments of the passengers in recognition of the good 
 service I had rendered them. While in charge of the private 
 car of General Manager Fisher in a trip through California 
 and Mexico, Mr. Fisher made up a purse of $75.00 for me, in 
 recognition of my attentions to the members of his party. But 
 the man who gave me 5 cents received as much attention from 
 me as the man who gives me $5.00 . It is perhaps all he can 
 afford and the manner in which he gives it often makes up for 
 the smallness of the tip. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE PULLMAN SLEEPING CAR. LONG TRIPS ON 
 THE RAIL. THE WRECK. ONE TOUCH OF NA- 
 TURE MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD KIN. A FEW 
 OF THE RAILROADS OVER WHICH I HAVE 
 TRAVELED. THE INVALID AND THE CARE WE 
 GIVE THEM. 
 
 The modern Pullman sleeping car is a veritable palace on 
 wheels furnished in the best materials, without regard to ex- 
 pense, comfort, convenience and the safety of the passengers 
 being the main object. To say that the builders of the Pull- 
 man cars have succeeded in attaining this object is but a mild 
 expression. Fine carpets cover the floors, the seats and chairs 
 are upholstered in the best and softest of material, while every 
 convenience is provided for the use of the lucky mortal who is 
 called across the continent on business or pleasure, and whose 
 pleasure it is to travel and sleep in the Pullman sleeping car 
 of the present day. The traveler of today when he has to go 
 from Chicago to San Francisco, simply throws a few things 
 in a grip, is driven to the Union terminal station in Chicago, 
 where he secures a through ticket and a sleeping car berth. At 
 the car steps he is met by the Pullman porter who relieves him 
 of his grip and assists him on the train if necessary. From 
 that time until four days later when he arrives in San Fran- 
 cisco, he has no more care. If he wishes to write letters there 
 is a handy writing tablet with stationery and everything need- 
 ful. He can write his letters and hand them to the porter to 
 mail and continue his perusal of the morning paper. If he gets 
 hungry he has but to step in the dining car, where he will find 
 viands fit for a king. If he wants a shave or a haircut, the bar- 
 ber is in the next car. If he wants to view the scenery en 
 route, the observation car is but a few steps away. When he 
 gets sleepy and wishes to retire he presses the electric button 
 
138 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 at his elbow and the porter will do the rest, but if he prefers 
 to lay in his luxurious bed and read, he has but to turn on the 
 electric light at his bedside and he can read as long as he 
 pleases, and when he arrives at San Francisco he will be 
 cleanly shaven, nicely brushed, with his shoes freshly shined, 
 and on the outside of a good breakfast, ready to tackle at 
 once the business or the pleasure that brought him across 
 the continent. Or, if the traveler prefers, he may swing aboard 
 the magnificently equipped and royally appointed Los An- 
 geles Limited, one of the finest through trains that this 
 mundane sphere can boast. Catch this train in Chicago, 
 which you may do any day in the year, and it will carry you 
 with safety, speed and comfort over the fertile 'farms, 
 meadows and plains ; through the City of the Saints on the 
 second day; then around the Great Dead Sea of America, 
 over the sage brush plains and grazing ranges of southern 
 Nevada, and into the Land of Sunshine and Flowers and the 
 City of the Angels on the third day after leaving your home 
 in Chicago. 
 
 What a contrast to the mode of travel our grandfathers 
 were forced to adopt, a decade ago, when the old ox team 
 and the prairie schooner wended its slow way over the moun- 
 tains and plains, over trails in every turn of which lurked 
 danger and death. "Verily the sun do move." During ray 
 service with the Pullman company I have traveled from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
 borders of Canada, over nearly all the many different lines 
 of railroad that makes the map of North America look like 
 a spider had been crawling over it in search of a fly. I have 
 visited all the principal cities and towns where the sound of 
 the bell and the whistle is heard, and I have in a great measure 
 satisfied my desire to see the country. Among the great lines 
 of railway over which I have traveled are the Union Pacific, 
 whose overland limited, the Atlantic Express and the Portland- 
 Chicago Special, are the acme of quick, safe and comfortable 
 travel. The overland limited is electric lighted, steam heated 
 and contains every known luxury and convenience of travel. 
 The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad is noted the world over 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 139 
 
 for its quick time, fine scenery, comfort and safety. The 
 Southern Pacific, the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern, the 
 Missouri Pacific between St. Louis and all points east, all 
 electric lighted trains with observation, parlor, cafe dining 
 cars and Pullman sleeping cars ; the Chicago & North- 
 western, whose through train service to Chicago and the East 
 from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake, Ogden 
 and Denver is not excelled in any land; the Illinois Central 
 Railroad, whose eight track entrance to Chicago from the 
 south along the lake front is one of the triumphs of Yankee 
 railroading, and whose train service is elegant in the extreme. 
 The Pennsylvania lines which will take you from Chicago to 
 New York in eighteen hours and make you feel thoroughly 
 comfortable while doing it. The Louisville and Nashville 
 Railroad, whose lines reach every town and hamlet in the 
 solid South. The Nickel Plate road, the direct line from Chi- 
 cago to New York, Boston and all points east, all trains of 
 the Nickel Plate road arrive and depart from the new LaSalle 
 Street station, one of the finest railroad stations in the coun- 
 try. The Santa Fe, from whose trains you can view some of 
 the finest scenery in the Rocky Mountains, including the 
 Grand Canyon of Arizona, a mile deep, thirteen miles wide, 
 two hundred and seventeen miles long and painted like a 
 flower. The Lehigh Valley Railroad to Chicago, New York 
 and Philadelphia, from whose car windows one may view 
 the world-famous Niagara Falls. The Colorado & Southern, 
 the Colorado road over which travel is one continuous de- 
 light. The San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, 
 one of the youngest but by no means the least of railroads, 
 the road that lies as straight as the crow flies, linking to- 
 gether the City of the "Saints" and the City of the "Angels." 
 The snow-capped Rocky Mountains and the sun-kissed shores 
 of the Pacific Ocean, the dead sea and the live sea; the rail- 
 road that makes it possible to have a sleigh ride with your 
 second wife in the City of the "Saints" on Sunday and pick 
 flowers and eat oranges with your first wife in the City of 
 the "Angels" on Tuesday. Over this line I am running at 
 present, and while it has only been in operation a short time, 
 
HO LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 yet the time and service equals and in some cases surpasses 
 the time and service of the great Trunk Lines of the east. 
 We often make ninety miles an hour over the standard gauge 
 roadbed, that equals any in this country. The cars are all 
 new, the engines are the latest up-to-date kind. The cars 
 are built for comfort and convenience, the trains are all elec- 
 tric lighted, steam heated and have every modern convenience 
 for the safety and comfort of the passengers. This road, in 
 common with some of the eastern roads employs chair car 
 porters in addition to the Pullman porters. On all trains 
 from Salt Lake to Los Angeles there are three or four Pull- 
 man porters and one chair car porter. 
 
 All trains have dining cars,-which are in reality magnifi- 
 cent dining rooms, where three times a day the dainties of the 
 season are prepared by a competent chef to satisfy the most 
 discriminating inner man. The furnishings of these cars, the 
 fine linen, the artistic glass (china and silverware, are guar- 
 anteed to make you enjoy your meal, even if you have got 
 dyspepsia. Besides the dining car and the Pullman 
 sleeping cars, there is attached to all overland trains on the 
 Salt Lake route, a through tourist sleeper, which differs from 
 the Pullman sleeper only in a slight difference in the 
 furnishings. The service is the same, but the cost of a berth 
 in them between Salt Lake and Los Angeles is just one-half 
 that of the standard sleeepr. I have never run on a road 
 where better service, more courteous treatment or better time 
 was made than on the S. P., L. A. & S. L. Railroad. 
 
 In these latter years, when progress is the watchword of 
 the railroads in common with the other industries of the 
 country, no expense or pains are spared by the railroad people 
 to add to the comfort, enjoyments, safety and convenience of 
 the traveling public, until now it is about as safe to travel as 
 it is to stay at home, and not much if any more expensive. 
 But in spite of all safeguards adopted by the railroads a 
 wreck occurs once in a while the same as accidents occur at 
 home. 
 
 The first wreck I was in the train struck a split switch 
 with the result that the cars turned over and piled up in a 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 141 
 
 ditch. That happened in Colorado. We were forced to crawl 
 out through the windows, like a prairie dog out of his 
 hole. No one was killed but the passengers were all pretty 
 well shaken up and somewhat scared. As soon as the cars 
 got comfortably piled up and the passengers were able to 
 speak they all commenced yelling for the porter. But at that 
 particular moment the porter was busy rubbing his shins and 
 assuring himself there was nothing to be scared about. The 
 passengers at such times are apt to forget that the porter is 
 as scared as they are, and has forgotten all about tips and such 
 commonplace matters as that, but after he gets his wits about 
 him he loses no time in looking after his flock, and rendering 
 assistance to such of his passengers as need it, and most, of 
 them do need assistance of some kind if for no other reason 
 than to be assured that they are not hurt. The Pullman porter 
 of today must be a very versatile sort of a person, he must 
 have plenty of patience, be a good judge of human nature, 
 quick, kind and observant. Many are the times a gouty and 
 crusty passenger has traveled in my car, who was in such a 
 bad humor that it was next to impossible to please him, yet 
 before he had ridden a hundred miles with me, I had him in 
 good humor and laughing with the rest of the passengers. 
 "Laugh and the whole world laughs with you." 
 
 It is by no means an uncommon thing for us porters to 
 be called upon to turn nurse for sick or invalid passengers in 
 our car, and often have I watched by the bedside of a sick 
 passenger, feeding him, giving him medicine, bathing him 
 and in fact becoming for the time being a hospital nurse, and 
 many are the blessings I have received from my sick pas- 
 sengers, both men and women, whose pain I have eased, and 
 their last moments on earth I have cheered. And this, dear 
 reader, we do in the name of humanity and not in the name 
 of tips. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE TOURIST SLEEPING CAR. THE CHAIR CAR. 
 THE SAFEGUARDS O'F MODERN RAILROADING. 
 SEE AMERICA, THEN LET YOUR CHEST SWELL 
 WITH PRIDE THAT YOU ARE AN AMERICAN. 
 
 The Pullman tourist sleeping car, which you can find on 
 all through trains of the different railroads throughout the 
 United States, are to the traveler of moderate means what 
 the Pullman car is to the millionaire traveler. They are de- 
 signed for the comfort and convenience of the traveling public 
 to whom the expenditure of a dollar more or less is a matter 
 of moment, and who cannot afford or do not care for the small 
 extra show and tinsel of the Pullman sleeping car, but whose 
 only desire is to make their journey pleasant, comfortable and 
 safe. This they can do as well in the tourist as in the standard 
 sleeping car. 
 
 There is a difference in price that will amount to a tidy 
 sum in a long trip across the continent, but that fact does 
 not always appeal to the traveling public, as I have had the 
 poorest of passengers in the palace car and at other times a 
 millionaire and his family would be my passengers in the 
 tourist cars. It seems to me a matter of fact and one which 
 my long experience seems to verify, that the American trav- 
 eler does not care so much about his comfort as his ability 
 to get there, as the average American traveler is always in a 
 hurry and in nine cases out of ten, he is thinking more about 
 the speed of the train than he is about his immediate sur- 
 roundings or the price he had paid for his ticket. The rail- 
 roads, knowing this, have made and are continually making 
 every effort to add to the speed and safety of their trains, but 
 traveling long distances is a tiresome matter at the best and 
 for that reason the railroads are continually making im- 
 provements with a view to add to the comfort, convenience 
 -and pleasure of the traveler, and in a journey such as one from 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 143 
 
 Chicago to Los Angeles, for instance, there is no time to stop 
 for meals and such trivial matters as a shave, as time is money 
 lost to most of the passengers and to the railroad company 
 also. For that reason the sleeping car is provided that you 
 may sleep with as much comfort as if you were in your own 
 home, the dining car is provided to furnish you a good meal 
 on the fly and at a price that all can afford. The library and 
 drawing room cars are provided, where you can make your- 
 self as comfortable as you can in your own house. The porter 
 will get your morning paper, furnish you with writing ma- 
 terials or your morning high ball, and look after you like a 
 hen after her brood. 
 
 But on all railroads there are rules governing the pas- 
 sengers as well as the employees, the same as there are in all 
 lines of business. A passenger may not, for instance, smoke 
 in the body of the Pullman car, but must retire to the 
 drawing room or his stateroom. As an instance in point, I 
 had J. J. Corbett for a passenger in my car between Ogden 
 and Chicago, a gentleman who was at that time in the height 
 of his career and naturally thought he owned the earth or a 
 large part of it, at any rate he came in the sleeper from the 
 dining car, lit a cigar, propped his feet upon the opposite seat 
 and prepared for a comfortable smoke. But it was against 
 the rules to smoke in that part of the car, so I approached 
 him and politely requested him not to smoke in that part of 
 the car. He regarded me a few moments and with a sneer 
 said, "So you are Mr. Pullman, are you?" I told him I was 
 not Mr. Pullman, but I was in charge of one of Mr. Pullman's 
 cars, and for that reason I was a representative of Mr. Pull- 
 man, and that it was strictly against the rules to smoke in that 
 part of the car, and that if he wished to smoke he would have 
 to go to the drawing room. He went, but the sleeping car 
 conductor, who had watched the incident, told me I had 
 better look out or Corbett would have my scalp. I told the 
 conductor I was not scared and that if Corbett hadn't gotten 
 out I would have thrown him out, all of which I meant, but 
 the conductor shook his head and said to look out. Sure 
 enough the matter was reported to the superintendent, but 
 
144 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 that official on hearing the facts in the matter said I had done 
 perfectly right, and. what I was paid to do. 
 
 It is necessary that all passengers as well as all employees 
 shall observe the rules of the company, for the benefit, safety 
 and enjoyment of all the passengers and employees alike. 
 
 All the railroad men I have met from the president down 
 have all proved themselves jolly good fellows, kind, consider- 
 ate and always ready to render assistance and service to those 
 in need, but at the same time they are strict about the rules 
 and discipline. Thoroughly understanding their business 
 themselves, they insist on the beginner obeying instructions 
 and the laws of the road, because on that depends the lives of 
 hundreds of people, and the value of thousands of dollars 
 worth of property, and for the same reason they are expending 
 thousands of dollars annually in new appliances, inventions 
 and equipment, that will add to the saving of time or insure 
 the safety of the traveler. Among the new inventions adopted 
 by the modern railroads are the "Block" System, which makes 
 collisions between two trains approaching each other on the 
 same track almost an impossibility if the engineer is awake 
 and attentive to business. Under this system when the trains 
 approach a certain distance of each other a bell is rung in 
 the cab of each locomotive simultaneously, and will continue 
 to ring until the danger is over. This with the powerful 
 electric headlights now used, with which the roadbed is lit 
 up for a distance of five miles, makes a head-on collision 
 almost impossible, while the air brakes, heavy rails, solid 
 roadbed, doing away with the sharp curves and heavy grades, 
 all add to the safety of the passengers and the saving of 
 many miles in travel and many precious moments. It has 
 always seemed strange to me that so many Americans rush 
 off to Europe and foreign countries every year in search of 
 health and pleasure, or to climb the Alps in Switzerland, and 
 to view the scenery of the old world, when our own North 
 America, the new world, offers so many better opportunities 
 to study Dame Nature in all her phases, and I always say 
 to the traveling American, "See America." How many of 
 you have done so? Only those who have seen this grand 
 
This is Where I Shine. Now I am Out for the Money 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 145 
 
 country of ours can justly appreciate the grandeur of our 
 mountains and rivers, valley and plain, canyon and gorge, 
 lakes and springs, cities and towns, the grand evidences of 
 God's handiwork scattered all over this fair land over which 
 waves the stars and stripes. Go to New York and view the 
 tall buildings, the Brooklyn bridge, the subway, study the 
 works of art to be found there, both in statuary and painting, 
 ponder on the vast volume of commerce carried on with the 
 outside world. Note the many different styles of architecture 
 displayed in the palace of the millionaire and the house of the 
 humble tradesman, view the magnificent Hudson river and 
 the country homes along its grassy, tree-lined shores, note 
 the ships from every clime riding at anchor in the East river. 
 Then speculate on the changes that have been wrought in the 
 course of the short time since Manhattan Island was pur- 
 chased from the Indians by Pete Minuts for a few blankets 
 and -beads amounting in value to $24.00. Then board the 
 Pennsylvania Limited, whose trains are the acme of modern 
 railroading and go to Washington, the nation's capital city. 
 Walk along Pennsylvania avenue and note its beauty. Visit 
 the capitol and let your chest swell out. with pride that you 
 are an American. Visit the tomb of General Grant and the 
 thousand and one magnificent statues scattered throughout 
 the city. Visit Annapolis and West. Point, where the leaders 
 of the nation's navy and army are trained. Walk over the 
 battlefields of Fredricksburg, Gettysburg and Lexington, and 
 let your mind speculate on the events that made modern his- 
 tory. 
 
 Note the majestic Potomac and the Washington monu- 
 ment. Take a short trip north and see the great Niagara 
 Falls, listen to what they tell vou in their mighty roaring 
 voice. Go to Pittsburg wher^ _ie great steel works are lo- 
 cated, and see how the steel pen and the steel cannon are 
 made. Go to Chicago, that western hive of commerce. See 
 the Great Lakes, or better still take a cruise on them. Note 
 the great lumber industry of Michigan, and the traffic of the 
 lakes. Go to Kansas City and Omaha and see the transforma- 
 tion of the Texas steer into the corned beef you ate at your 
 
I4 6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 last picnic, or was it chipped beef? See the immense stock 
 yards with their thousands of cattle, hogs and sheep, and 
 think of the thousands of people that they feed. Cross the 
 Missouri river and enter on the plains of the great and re- 
 cently unknown west. Think of the pioneer who in 1849 
 traversed these once barren stretches of prairie, walking be- 
 side his slow-moving ox team, seeidng the promised land, 
 breaking a trail for the generations that were to come after 
 him as you are coming now in a Pullman car . Think of the 
 dangers that beset him on every hand, then wonder at the 
 nerve he had, then again let your chest swell with pride that 
 you are an American, sprung from the same stock that men 
 were composed of in those days. Note the grandeur of the 
 Rocky Mountains as they rise from the plains, their peaks 
 snow-capped, glistening in clear blue sky, breathe the pure 
 essence of life, drink of the crystal streams twinkling down 
 their sides, then scorn the wine made by man. Listen to the 
 salute of the bells and the whistles as the trains approach 
 and pass that strange monument of nature's handiwork, the 
 Mount of the Holy Cross. 
 
 Go to the Yellowstone National Park and revel in the 
 wonders thereof, walk in the garden of the Gods and listen 
 to the voice of the Giant Geyser as it sends forth its torrents 
 of boiling water. Bathe in the life-giving springs and mud 
 baths. Note the fantastic forms of the rocks and trees, carved 
 by the hand of nature, then go to Colorado Springs and climb 
 Pikes Peak and behold the world stretch out before you in 
 valley, mountain and plain. Visit the mines of Leadville and 
 Cripple Creek, the store houses of a part of the nation's 
 wealth. Visit Denver and see the strides made in the im- 
 provement of the west in a short time. Board the Denver & 
 Rio Grande train and note the magnificent scenery of moun- 
 tain, canyons, gorges and the beautiful mountain lakes and 
 streams, note the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, the royal 
 gorge. Now note the great white expanse of the great Salt 
 Lake, as it lies glistening in the rays of the setting sun, and 
 think of the stories you have heard of it until the conductor 
 brings you back to earth with the cry of "Ogden." 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 147 
 
 Note this bustling railroad center in the heart of the 
 Rocky mountains, and acknowledge our country's greatness. 
 Visit Salt Lake City, the "City of Zion," the Canaan of the 
 new world. See the beautiful city nestling within the protec- 
 tion of the Warsatch and Oquirrh range of mountains. Walk 
 its wide tree-lined streets, visit the tabernacle and hear the 
 sweet strains of the world's greatest organs. See the Mormon 
 temple. Visit Saltair and sport in the waves of the briny 
 sea. Board the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake west- 
 bound train and cross the end of this same lake, one of na- 
 ture's wonders. 
 
 Cross the desert of Nevada, which was only a short time 
 ago a desert waste, on and on until you smell the orange 
 blossoms of sunny California, and the train emerges from 
 the mountains and brings into view the grand Pacific Ocean. 
 See the big trees of California, the seals and the scenery of 
 the Yosemite valley. Visit the orange groves and the vine- 
 yards, and partake of the orange and the grape. Visit Cata- 
 lina Island in the Pacific Ocean, and try a couple of hours 
 fishing in its waters. Then take the Southern Pacific and re- 
 turn to New York by way of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, 
 New Orleans, Florida and other southern states. Then again 
 let your chest swell with pride that you are an American. 
 
 I think you will agree with me that this grand country 
 of ours is the peer of any in the world, and that volumes can- 
 not begin to tell of the wonders of it. Then after taking such 
 a trip you will say with me, "See America." I have seen a 
 large part of America, and am still seeing it, but the life of a 
 hundred years would be all too short to see our country. 
 America, I love thee, Sweet land of Liberty, home of the 
 brave and the free. 
 
CHAPTER XXI, 
 
 A FEW OF THE RAILROAD MEN UNDER WHOM I 
 HAVE SERVED. GEORGE M. PULLMAN. THE 
 TOWN OF PULLMAN, ILL. AMERICAN RAIL- 
 ROADS LEAD THE WORLD. A FEW FIGURES. 
 
 Among the large number of railroad men I have served 
 under and worked with during the fifteen years I have been 
 on the road it. gives me pleasure to recall the names of a few 
 with whom I was more intimately acquainted and to whom 
 I am indebted for many favors given and courtesies extended, 
 and the pleasant duty devolves on me to mention the always 
 courteous, obliging and most competent head of the Pullman 
 department in Denver, Mr. Runnells, and his assistant, Mr. 
 Wright, who sent me out on my first run in 1890. Next comes 
 the well known name of District Superintendent J. M. Smith, 
 who one year later sent me out on the run that marked the 
 beginning of my Pullman service. To Mr. Smith more than 
 to any other railroad man I am indebted for advice, counsel 
 and countless favors shown me while I was in the service in 
 the department over which he presided so long. I always 
 found him courteous and obliging and never too busy to 
 listen or to give a kind word of advice or counsel to all who 
 approached him on company business or on the private affairs 
 of the employees of the road. I had charge of a car for several 
 years in his territory and many a time I have had him for a 
 passenger and at such times he seemed more like an old 
 friend than he did like the superintendent of the Pullman 
 service. 
 
 I next transferred to the Ogden division. Here I met 
 and came to know very well Superintendent Baker and his 
 assistant, Johnnie Scarce, and to these two gentlemen I am 
 also indebted for many favors shown me, as they tried in 
 every way possible to make my employment pleasant and 
 profitable while I was in their territory. I was sent out on 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 149 
 
 runs that covered the greater portions of the United States, 
 and while on some of my longer runs I often started from 
 and returned to stations in different districts under different 
 superintendents, but I always looked on Ogden as my home 
 station and Superintendent Baker as my chief until another 
 superintendent was given charge of the district and I trans- 
 ferred to Salt Lake and started to run on Senator Clark's new 
 road, the S. P., L. A. & S. L. road, between Salt Lake and 
 Los Angeles, under the superintendency of Mr. Twining and 
 his assistant, Mr. Gotten, and these gentlemen also during 
 the time I have been with them have shown me every favor 
 and consideration, which goes far towards making my work 
 a pleasure. In this connection also I mention the names of 
 Jim Donohue, traveling engineer; W. H. Smith, trainmaster, 
 and P. Randoff Morris and Jos. Jones, special agents, all jolly 
 railroad men from A to Izard. 
 
 During my fifteen years' service I have met and served 
 under many different superintendents and to mention the 
 names of them all, would require a separate volume, but I 
 will always hold them in kindly remembrance as they all have 
 without exception been kindness itself to me. 
 
 Another old friend I have recently met on the steel road 
 is William H. Blood, at present one of the popular conductors 
 on the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. In the 
 early seventies "Billy" was one of the best cowboys ranging 
 over the western cattle country. He was with me on many 
 of the old trails and in many a tight place, and like myself 
 he always came out right side up with care and none the worse 
 for wear. 
 
 E. W. Gillett, at present general passenger agent of the 
 Salt Lake road, and one of the best known and most popular 
 railroad men of the west, is another friend of the old days it 
 is my pleasure to meet often now. I first met him under the 
 following circumstances. I think it was in the year 1874 
 along in the fall, I had been up the trail with some cattle 
 and was returning through Wyoming en route to Arizona. I 
 had been riding hard all day and as it began to get dark I 
 sighted a small station on the main line of the Union Pacific, 
 
150 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and I concluded to give it a passing call out of curiosity. As 
 I drew near T noticed several rough-looking customers hang- 
 ing around in a suspicious manner, and I at once concluded 
 that they were robbers there for the purpose of holding up 
 the station. Events immediately following proved that I was 
 right. They had not noticed me and they proceeded to hold 
 up the agent in true western style, but that they had caught a 
 tartar was evidenced by the rattle of the agent's artillery. Of 
 course it was out of the question for me to miss such fun, 
 so not waiting for an invitation I lost no time in getting my 
 own forty-fives in active operation, and in less time than it 
 takes to tell it what was left of those greasers were making 
 tracks for the nearest state line, while a red-headed youngster 
 with a smoking 45 in his fist was shaking hands with me and 
 trying to say something about my saving his life. I took a 
 shine to him at once on account of his pluck and our friend- 
 ship thus begun has lasted through the years until now time 
 .and fate have thrown us both together on the same line of 
 railroad. 
 
 The railroad men as a class are the most jovial set of 
 men one could find in any profession, well educated, broad 
 minded, and always considerate of others and at the same 
 time they know their business thoroughly, as they have to 
 serve many years as apprentices, so to speak, in railroading^ 
 before they are given places of trust and responsibility, and 
 the man who has reached the position of president or general 
 manager of a railroad system, has learned pretty much all 
 there is to be learned about the iron horse and the steel road, 
 and they use that knowledge in providing for the safety and 
 comfort of the millions of lives that are annually intrusted 
 to their keeping. 
 
 The general manager is responsible not only for the lives 
 of the traveling public, but of the army or railroad employes 
 under him and he is supposed to know everything, and must 
 always be prepared to do the right thing in the right place at 
 the right time, and as in many cases life and death depend 
 on it, he must know how. 
 
 A college education does not make a railroad manager, 
 
The Close of My Railroad Career 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 151 
 
 although it may help to do so. He in a great, measure gets 
 his education in the school of experience, and in some cases 
 it is a hard school, and the most exacting of all schools, but 
 at the same time it is a school in which one can learn any- 
 thing under the sun, and learn it well, and in these days of 
 the twentieth century's activity and progress, it is the man 
 who knows how to do things that makes the world move. 
 And after boiling everything down there is left in the pot two 
 undisputable facts. They are that the railroad men cause 
 the world to move by knowing how to do things, the other 
 is that the railroad men move the people who live in the 
 world, thus they move things/ all around. And they are con- 
 tinually on the move themselves, which goes to prove that 
 they are different from many other people inasmuch as they 
 practice what they preach. And from these men of all classes 
 from the president down I have received courtesies and the 
 kindest of consideration, and these pleasant associations are 
 pleasant memories to me and will always remain so . 
 
 It was my pleasure to meet and to chat with George M. 
 Pullman, the father of the sleeping car, several times, and I 
 found him to be a fine man, broad-minded in every sense of 
 the word, always approachable and with always a kind word 
 for every one of the large army of his employees that he met 
 on his travels, and he always tried to meet them all. It was 
 also my pleasure to meet his two boys who are veritable 
 chips of the old block. 
 
 One of the legends connected with the western mining 
 history is that early in the 6os George M. Pullman was a poor 
 prospector and had secured a lease on a piece of mining 
 ground in Colorado, and that he formed the idea of the sleep- 
 ing car from the tiers of bunks in the miners' lodging house, 
 "bunk houses" they are called. However that may be Mr. 
 Pullman has been the recipient of many a blessing from the 
 weary traveler, and the idea, whatever it was, that led him to 
 invent the sleeping car that has proved such a comfort to the 
 traveler of today, deserves to go down in history as the 
 greatest idea that ever came from the place where ideas come 
 from. 
 
152 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 It has been my pleasure to visit all the large shops of 
 the Pullman company, including the town of Pullman, 111., 
 which is a good-sized city, namejd after Mr. Pullman, and was 
 owned by him principally, and the large number of men em- 
 ployed in his shops there. The town contains fine churches 
 and public buildings, a splendid library and reading rooms 
 and amusement halls. And while I was there I failed to see 
 a single saloon. It seems such places are tabooed there. The 
 shops are the finest in this country, containing all the modern 
 machinery of the finest kind and the men employed there are 
 all past masters of their trades. Here are built all the finest 
 sleeping cars and many of the finest special cars and rail- 
 way cars seen on the railroads of this country. In addition 
 there is also a very large amount of repairing done. As soon 
 as anything goes wrong with a Pullman car it is at once sent 
 into the shops for repair, and soon comes out in apple pie 
 order. You may see the Pullman cars all over this country 
 where there is a steel road, and other countries have their 
 eyes on the mof late, and in the near future it will be possible 
 to sleep in a Pullman car whether you are traveling in Eng- 
 land, France, Sweden or Cihna. They are a good thing and 
 are sure to be pushed or rather pulled along. 
 
 In 1893 I went to Mr. Pullman and told him I was think- 
 ing of getting the porters of the Pullman Car Company to 
 club together and contribute fifty cents per month apiece for 
 the purpose of investing the proceeds in land, in view of 
 eventually owning what we would call "The Porters' Home." 
 Mr. Pullman told me he thought that a good idea, and said 
 if we succeeded in buying one thousand acres of land, he 
 would erect us a building on it, and signed a statement to 
 that effect. 
 
 I then went to work and communicated with all the divi- 
 sions of the Pullman Company, presenting this proposition 
 to the porters of these different districts, but only succeeded 
 in getting about twenty-five subscribers, the rest of them 
 refusing to go into such a proposition, some of them saying 
 all I wanted was to get the money and make away with it. 
 Inasmuch as this amount was to be sent to the main Pullman 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 153 
 
 office in Chicago and I was to be there each month to see 
 this money deposited. Others refused to go into it upon the 
 ground that they were liable to be discharged from the Pull- 
 man service at any time, and many other various excuses were 
 offered. There were many of the Pullman conductors, how- 
 ever, who promised to contribute from one to five dollars 
 toward this enterprise when we were ready to purchase the 
 land. 
 
 My object was to have a Home and Hospital, with ad- 
 joining farming land, for the benefit of old and disabled 
 porters who were not able to perform their duties as Pullman 
 car porters. Had this been accomplished at that time, we 
 would by now have had a large farm and a house and hospital 
 connected therewith, and all the porters who are now unable 
 to work would have had a good home and be cared for the 
 rest of their lives. I hope to live long enough to yet see this 
 plan become a reality. 
 
 At present the American railway leads the world. In 
 no other country does the traveler find so much comfort, so 
 many conveniences, so much pleasure, safety and speed as 
 does the dweller in this robust young country belonging to 
 our Uncle Samuel. At the present time there are in the 
 United States upwards of two hundred and sixty thousand 
 miles of railroad open and in operation, not to mention several 
 thousand miles now building and projected. This immense 
 mileage is divided between over one thousand different roads, 
 while in 1851 there were only 149 different railroads with a 
 total mileage of 9000 miles. The railroads today have a capi- 
 tal back of them amounting to over $14,000,000,000, and they 
 pay their employees wages that foot up over $7,000,000 an- 
 nually, while their earnings amount to the tidy sum of $2,- 
 500,000,000 in the same length of time. They carry somewhat 
 more than 800,000,000 passengers every twelve months, and 
 2,200,000,000 tons of freight. These figures do not include 
 the several million tons of trunks, sachels, grips, hat boxes 
 and carpet bags that the average traveler considers it neces- 
 sary to load him or herself down with on starting on a journey 
 of any distance, and which comes in such large quantities 
 sometimes as to make life a burden for us porters. 
 
154 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Read these figures again, dear reader, they are a conserva- 
 tive estimate of the business transacted by the railroads of 
 this fair land of ours. You can count a million, can you 
 count a billion? Immense, isn't it? It seems to show that 
 the people of this country are great travelers, forever on the 
 move, yet they tell us this is a country of homes and that the 
 average American loves his home and home life above all 
 things. These figures seem to show there are a few people 
 who havn't any home or if they have they are looking for 
 one they like better, which, like the will of the wisp, evades 
 them always, but they continue to shift around, always hope- 
 ful, never satisfied, and they will continue to shift around 
 until Gabriel blows on his little tin horn. 
 
 But this class of people make but a small percentage of 
 the traveling public. Business in this latter day of strife and 
 competition makes long journeys necessary, and as the busi- 
 ness of the world grows apace and the countries of the earth 
 crowd closer together in the struggle for the almighty dollar, 
 there will be need of more railroads to make the globe smaller 
 and to cut off the hours and minutes of precious time that 
 means money to the man of today. And as a man makes and 
 saves money so will he spend it for the pleasure of himself 
 and family, and as he must travel to find pleasure there must 
 be railroads to carry him, and hence these figures I write now 
 will look insignificant beside the magnificent total that will 
 be put before the reader of that day, because if they increase 
 in the next century as they have in the past, walking will be 
 out of fashion and every body will ride and I hope sleep in a 
 Pullman sleeping car. 
 

CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A FEW REMINISCENCES OF THE RANGE. SOME 
 MEN I HAVE MET. BUFFALO BILL. THE JAMES 
 BROTHERS. YELLOWSTONE KELLEY. THE MUR- 
 DER OF BUCK CANNON BY BILL WOODS. THE 
 SUICIDE OF JACK ZIMICK. 
 
 It has now been many years since I quit the range, and as 
 my mind wanders back over those years as it often does, 
 memories both pleasant and sad pass in review and it is but 
 fitting that I record a few of them as a final to the history of 
 my life which has been so full of action, which is but natural 
 as the men of those days were men of action. They had to 
 be, and probably their actions were not all good, that I freely 
 admit, but while that is so, it is equally so that their actions 
 were not all bad, far from it. And in the history of the 
 frontier there is recorded countless heroic deeds performed, 
 deeds and actions that required an iron nerve, self denial in 
 all that these words imply, the sacrificing of one life to save 
 the life of a stranger or a friend. Deeds that stamped the 
 men of the western plains as men worthy to be called men, 
 and while not many of them would shine particularly in the 
 polite society of today or among the 400 of Gotham, yet they 
 did shine big and bright in the positions and at a time when 
 men lived and died for a principle, and in the line of duty. 
 A man who went to the far west or who claimed it as his 
 home in the early days found there a life far different from 
 that led by the dude of Fifth Avenue. There a man's work 
 was to be done, and a man's life to be lived, and when death 
 was to be met, he met it like a man. It was among such men 
 and surroundings that I spent so many years of my life and 
 there I met men some of whom are famous now, while others 
 never lived long enough to reach the pinnacle of fame, but 
 their memory is held no less sacred by the men who knew 
 them well. 
 
156 LIEF AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Some men I met in the cattle country are now known to 
 the world as the baddest of bad men, yet I have seen these 
 men perform deeds of valor, self sacrifice and kindness that 
 would cause the deeds recorded as performed by gentlemen 
 in "ye olden time when knighthood was in flower" to look 
 insignificant in comparison, and yet these men lay no claim 
 to the title of gentlemen. They were just plain men. 
 
 It was my pleasure to meet often during the early sev- 
 enties the man who is now famous in the old world and the 
 new world, Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), cowboy, ranger, 
 hunter, scout and showman, a man who carried his life in his 
 hands day and night in the wild country where duty called, 
 and has often bluffed the grim reaper Death to a standstill, 
 and is living now, hale, hearty and famous. 
 
 Others who are equally famous but in another way are 
 the James brothers, Jesse and Frank. I met them often in the 
 old days on the range, and became very well acquainted with 
 them and many others of their band. Their names are record- 
 ed in history as the most famous robbers of the new world, 
 but to us cowboys of the cattle country who knew them well, 
 they were true men, brave, kind, generous and considerate, 
 and while they were robbers and bandits, yet what they took 
 from the rich they gave to the poor. The James brothers 
 band stole thousands of dollars ; yet Jesse was a poor man 
 when he fell a victim to the bullet of a cowardly, traitorous 
 assassin, and Frank James is a poor man today. What then 
 did they do with the thousands they stole? The answer is 
 simple, they gave it away to those who were in need. That 
 is why they had so many friends and the officers of the law 
 found it so hard to capture them. 
 
 And if they were robbers, by what name are we to call 
 some of the great trusts, corporations and brokers, who have 
 for years been robbing the people of this country, some of 
 them, I am glad to say, are now behind prison bars, still 
 others are even now piling up the dollars that they have been 
 and are still stealing from the American people, and who on 
 account of these same dollars are looked up to, respected and 
 are honored members of society, and the only difference be- 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 157 
 
 tween them and the James brothers is that the James brothers 
 stole from the rich and gave to the poor, while these respected 
 members of society steal from the poor to make the rich 
 richer, and which of them think you reader, will get the benefit 
 of the judgment when the final day arrives and all men appear 
 before the great white throne in final judgment? 
 
 Jessie James was a true man, a loving son and husband, 
 true to his word, true to his principles and true to his com- 
 rads and his friends. I had the pleasure of meeting Frank 
 James quite recently on the road while he was en route to the 
 coast with his theatrical company and enjoyed a pleasant 
 chat with him. He knew me and recalled many incidents of 
 the old days and happenings in "no man's land." 
 
 Quite a different sort of man was Yellowstone Kelley, 
 government scout, hunter and trapper. He was one of the 
 men who helped to make frontier history and open up the 
 pathless wilds to the march of civilization. He was in the 
 employ of the government as a scout and guide when I first 
 met him, and thereafter during our many wanderings over 
 the country, I with my cattle, he with Uncle Sam's soldiers 
 or on a lone scout, we often bumped up against each other, 
 and these meetings are among my treasured memories. He 
 was a man who knew the country better than he knew his 
 own mother, absolutely fearless, kind and generous to a fault. 
 He was the sort of a man that once you meet, him you could 
 never forget him, and us boys who knew him well considered 
 him the chief of all the government scouts of that day. I 
 also had the pleasure of meeting Kit Carson in Arizona and 
 nearly all the government scouts, hunters and trappers of 
 the western country, and they can all be described in one 
 sentence, they were men whom it was a pleasure and an honor 
 to know. 
 
 "Billie the Kid" was another sort of a man and there has 
 never been another man like him and I don't think there ever 
 will be again. Writers claim that he was a man all bad. This 
 I doubt as I knew him well and I have known him to do 
 deeds of kindness. He had many traits that go to make a 
 good man, but fate and circumstances were against the kid, 
 
i S 8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 yet I know he always remembered a kindness done him and 
 he never forgave an enemy. I have rode by his side many a 
 long mile, and it is hard to believe he was as bad as he is 
 pictured to be, but the facts are against him, and when his 
 career was ended by the bullet from Sheriff Garrett's colt, 
 the world was better off ! , -likewise were some men who stood 
 in mortal fear of the kid, and I suppose they had good reason 
 to be afraid as the kid always kept his word. 
 
 During my employment with the Duval outfit and Pete 
 Gallingan I often made trips on the trail with herds of cattle 
 and horses belonging to other ranch owners, and on these 
 trips many incidents occurred, amusing and sad. The follow- 
 ing incident happened in the fall of 1878, when I went up the 
 trail with the half circle box brand outfit, belonging to Arthur 
 Gorman and company. 
 
 We had a small herd of horses to take to Dodge City, 
 where we arrived after an uneventful trip, and after disposing 
 of the horses we started out to do the town as usual. But 
 in this we met an unexpected snag. Our bookkeeper, Jack 
 Zimick, got into a poker game and lost all the money he 
 had to pay the cowboys off with, which amounted to about 
 two thousand dollars, and also about the same amount of the 
 boss' money. The boys had about one and a half years' 
 wages coming to them, and consequently they were in a 
 rather bad humor when they heard this bit of news. They 
 at once got after Zimick so hard that he took me and went 
 to Kinsely, Kas., where Mr. Gorman was. Arriving there 
 he went to the Smith saloon to get a room, as Smith ran a 
 rooming house over his saloon, and it was the custom for all 
 the cattle men to make it their headquarters when in the 
 city. Here he met Mr. Gorman, and we were sitting around 
 the room and Zimick had only told Mr. Gorman a few things, 
 when all of a sudden Zimick drew his 45 colt revolver re- 
 marking as he did so, "Here is the last, of Jack Zimick." He 
 placed the gun to his head and before we could reach him he 
 pulled the trigger, and his brains were scattered all over the 
 room. 
 
DEADWOOD DICK 159 
 
 They arrested Mr. Gorman and myself and held up for a 
 short time until things could be explained. Mr. Gorman was 
 very much overcome by the act, as Jack was one of his best 
 men, and had been with him a long time. Mr. Gorman had 1 
 the body sent to Zimick's friends in Boston, and he personally 
 paid off all the boys, taking 1 the money out of his own pocket 
 to do so, but when the boys heard of Jack's rash deed they 
 said they would rather have lost every dollar they had, rather 
 than have had Jack kill himself, as he was a favorite amongf 
 all the cowboys, especially so among those in Mr. Gorman's 
 employ. Zimick had been in the employ of Gorman and 
 company for over ten years and he was Mr. Gorman's right 
 hand man, and this was the first time he ever went wrong. 
 Jack did not have the nerve to face his comrades again, and 
 so I suppose he concluded that his colt 45 was the only friend 
 he had to help him out of it. 
 
 In May 1882, I was in Durango, Colorado, and chanced 
 to be in a saloon on Main street where a lot of us boys were 
 together, among them being Buck Cannon and Bill Woods. 
 The drinks had been circulating around pretty freely when 
 Cannon and Woods got into a dispute over Cannon's niece, to 
 whom Woods had been paying attention, much against that 
 young lady's wish. After some hot. words between the men, 
 Woods drew his 45 colt revolver, remarking as he did so, "I 
 will kill you," and in raising it his finger must have slipped, 
 as his gun went off and the bullet hit a glass of beer in the 
 hand of a man who was in the act of raising it to his lips, 
 scattering the broken glass all over the room, then passing 
 through the ceiling of the saloon. In an instant Woods threw 
 three bullets into Cannon, remarking as he did so, "I will kill 
 you, for your niece is my heart's delight and I will die for 
 her." Buck Cannon's dying words were, "Boys, don't let a 
 good man die with his boots on." 
 
 Along in the spring of 1879 we sent to Dodge City, Kan- 
 sas, with a herd of cattle for the market and after they were 
 disposed of, we boys turned our attention to the search of 
 amusement. Some of the boys made for the nearest saloon 
 and card table, but I heard there was to be a dance at Bill 
 
160 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Smith's dance hall and in company with some of the other 
 boys decided to attend. There was always quite a large num- 
 ber of cowboys in Dodge City at this time of the year, so we 
 were not surprised to find the dance hall crowded on our ar- 
 rival there. Smith's place occupied a large, low frame build- 
 ing down by the railroad tracks on the south. We found 
 many old acquaintances there, among them being Kiowa Bill, 
 a colored cattle man and ranch owner of Kansas, whose ranch 
 was on Kiowa creek. I had met him several times but this 
 was the first time I had seen him in a couple of years, but as 
 he was dancing with a young lady I could not get to speak 
 with him at once. So I looked up a wall flower and proceeded 
 to enjoy myself. We had not been dancing long when I be- 
 came aware of a commotion over near the bar, and all eyes 
 were turned in that direction. I soon ascertained the cause 
 of the commotion to be a dispute between Kiowa Bill and Bill 
 Smith, the proprietor of the place, who was behind the bar. 
 Kiowa Bill, after finishing the dance with his fair partner, 
 took her to the bar to treat her. Smith, who was tending bar 
 refused to serve her saying she had enough already. Kiowa 
 Bill told Smith he (Kiowa Bill) was paying for what she 
 wanted to drink and that he wanted her to get what she 
 wanted. Smith said no, she could not have anything more to 
 drink as she had too much already. At this Kiowa Bill reach- 
 ed over the bar and struck Smith over the head with a whis- 
 key bottle, partly stunning him, but he recovered in an in- 
 stant and grabbed his 45 Colt, Kiowa Bill doing the same and 
 both guns spoke as one. Smith fell dead behind the bar with 
 a bullet through his heart. Kiowa Bill rolled against the bar 
 and slowly sank to the floor and was dead when we reached 
 him. 
 
 The next day they were hauled to the cemetery, laying 
 side by side in the same wagon, and were buried side by side 
 in the same grave. Kiowa Bill had made his will a short time 
 before and it was found on his body when he was killed. 
 
 I had known Kiowa Bill for several years and was present 
 at a shooting scrape he had two years before, down in Texas, 
 near the Arizona line. At one of the big round ups there,- in 
 1877, myself and quite a crowd of the other boys were in 
 
DEADWOOD DICK i6f 
 
 camp eating our dinner when Kiowa Bill rode up. He had 
 been looking after his own cattle as he owned over two thou- 
 sand head himself. One of the boys in our party who did not 
 like Bill, there being a feud between them for sometime, on 
 noticing Bill approaching, remarked, "If that fellow comes 
 here I will rope him." True to his word as Bill rode up, the 
 cowboy threw his lariat. Kiowa Bill, seeing the movement, 
 threw the rope off at the same time springing down on the op- 
 posite side of his horse. 
 
 The cowboy, enraged at his failure to rope Bill, shouted, 
 "I will fight you from the point of a jack knife, to the point 
 of a 45," at the same time reaching for his 45 which was in 
 the holster on his saddle, which was lying on the ground a 
 short distance away. At that Kiowa Bill fired, striking the 
 cowboy in the neck, breaking it. Bill then sprang in the sad- 
 dle and put spurs to his horse in an effort to get away. 
 
 Several of the cowboys commenced shooting after Bill 
 who returned the fire. One of the cowboys, squatting down 
 and holding his 45 with both hands, in an effort to get a bet- 
 ter aim on Bill, received a bullet in the leg from Bill's revol- 
 ver that knocked him over backwards, and caused him to turn 
 a couple of somersaults. Bill got away and went to New 
 York. He was later arrested in St. Louis and brought back. 
 At his trial he went free as it was shown that he killed the 
 cowboy in self-defense. And his appearance at the dance Was 
 the first time I had seen him since the scrape in Texas. 
 
 Kiowa Bill was of a peaceful disposition and always re- 
 frained from bothering with others, but if others bothered 
 with him they were liable to get killed as Kiowa Bill allowed 
 no one to monkey with him. Such was life on the western 
 ranges when I rode them, and such were my comrades and 
 surroundings ; humor and tragedy. In the midst of life we 
 were in death, but above all shown the universal manhood. 
 The wild and free life. The boundless plains. The countless 
 thousands of long horn steers, the wild fleet footed mustangs. 
 The buffalo and other game, the Indians, the delight of living, 
 and the fights against death that caused every nerve to tingle, 
 and the every day communion with men, whose minds were 
 
162 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 
 
 as broad as the plains they roamed, and whose creed was 
 every man for himself and every friend for each other, and 
 with each other till the end. 
 
 Another friend of the old times is Chas. R. Campbell, 
 superintendent of the Kelso mines. Chats with these good 
 whole-souled people of the cattle range bring back remini- 
 scences of the past that would fill volumes but space and time 
 in these days of hustle and bustle are but dreams and the 
 world is full of them now. 
 
 I am at the present time connected with the General Se- 
 curities Company in Los Angeles. Mr. A. A. C. Ames is 
 president; Mr. James O. Butler, vice-president; Mr. Jacob E. 
 Meyer, secretary, and Mr. Geo. W. Bishop, treasurer. These 
 gentlemen are always extremely kind to me and the apprecia- 
 tion I feel for the kindnesses shown me will be fully rewarded. 
 
 As I stop to ponder over the days of old so full of adven- 
 ture and excitement, health and happiness, love and sorrow, 
 isn't it a wonder that some of us are alive to tell the tale. One 
 moment we are rejoicing that we are alive; the next we are so 
 near the jaws of death that it seems it would be almost a 
 miracle that our lives be saved. 
 
 Life today on the cattle range is almost another epoch. 
 Laws have been enacted in New Mexico and Arizona which 
 forbid all the old-time sports and the cowboy is almost a being 
 of the past. But, I, Nat Love, now in my 54th year, hale hearty 
 and happy, will ever cherish a fond and loving feeling for the 
 old days on the range, its exciting adventures, good horses, 
 good and bad men, long venturesome rides, Indian fights and 
 last but foremost the friends I have made and friends I have 
 gained. 
 
 FINIS