The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-08
OLD BORDER TOWNS.
Two Kansas Villages Where Cowboys
Ruled and Tenderfeet Obeyed.


Tho two towns of Caldwell and Hunnewell,
ua;cb have always attracted more or less
..ton+ion in every Oklahoma agitation, are
10th distinctly border Kansas towns, gath
oring-places for cowboys and toughs from
+he Indian territory, and are now posse sed
of many peculiarly interesting remlnl S
H censes of BOZ der NE.
The forme Caldwell, called by its in
hobitants the Gateway to Oklahoma has
1rroyn into place of some little import
eence has the offices of the large stock COM
nnies that control the Cherokee Strip lands
ppnd is the home of several of the promin mt
otficers of these corporations. Here live
tbe most bitter opponents and the warmest
friends of the Oklahoma BILL
Many a business man through his too
nan ssnousal of the "boomelS s." Gauss has
4 s5ao ali of his wealthy customers desert
him. Still with the peculiar foldness OF
eastern town for advertisement, they have
invited the despised boomers when they
I'D stopped upon the banks of the Shikas-
4 Ia river to reconsider their moveme into
share their hospitality, offering them pro
n lection and sustenance, because they be-
4 loved that where was the body of the
4 nhoouersn there, too, would be ordered the
soldiers.
The Cherokee Indian Strip police, in their
rstty blue uniforms and red stripes and
hrass buttons, sombreros and ominous belts
If iyorv-handled pistols, are to be seen upon
the streets Each one is reputed to have
A killed his man or men, and feels that his
nersoua safety depends upon his own vigi-
d lance: for more than one desperate has
A sworn toaveng3 the death of pal.
Still standing are to be seen dance-houses,
and saloons now vacant and deserted, but
once the scene of revelry and the widest
4 dissipation. Each place had its brass baud
and women; the former played all night,
4 and the latter were always willing to dance
TO its music and driak the poor whisky and
beer that flowed like water. The walls and
the ceilings are full of bullet holes, and
4 during the gay season hardly night passed
without at least one man turning up his
toes.
Here were the headquarters of "Flatty"-
no one knew him by any other name-one
of the most notorious desperadoers of Kan
sas How many men he had killed is not
estimated. but If the stories of the old-tlm-
ers are to be believed they would have
made a little graveyard by themselves.
They tell how ''Flatty" was taken unawares
i in his saloon one night, and with a revolver
in each hand piled up the dead bodies of
the men who attempted to come in upon
him from the two doors. He had sworn a
terrible oath to kill more men than any
body else. He was at last shot in the back
by some unknown as he walked arm in arm
between two of his friends. The assassin
4 stepped ou0 from between buildings and
fired the fatal shot. THAT ere is the only
way they could have got the drop on Flat
Il ty,' remarked the old-timer.
''See that ere big bluff over there just on
the lIne," said the same authority, as he
lounged in front of the hotel. well, sir,
right thare is where we planted Billy Man
4 ming. Don't know who Billy Manning is?
He and his two brothers came here
4 in the '70s from back i'll Illenoi with l 200
a hoo Of a off rdt hav f.,cly
their cattle to Newton to sell. They
gambled and disslpated away every burned
cent of the money, and besides two
Of the boys got kilt. When Billy
came back he had 1t in for some
feller down in Bluff Creek who, he said, did
him up. So one day when he had come to
town and got filed up Billy mounted his
pony, took his gun, and went out to look
fur him-and found him, too. His horse came
into town with blood on the saddle, and we
went out and found Billy lynn il the plain.
4 am dun fur, he said, kind of weak like,
but don't we bury me in that burned state
Of Kansas; plant me up there pointin to
that bluff So we all got together and had
big burryin'. But, gewhilikers, when they
made the survey it was diskivered that the
bluff was in Kansas, aud SO Bllly's dyin' re-
quest wasn't carried out at all"
In the cemetery is grave in which are
buried two horse thieves clasped in each
others arms as they were found after their
last DO Aie-knife struggle. The undertake
er put both into the same coffin and SO in
tered them.
Hunnewell is twelve miles east Of Cald-
well and on the territorial line. Its few
garde come right up to the line and one
can stand here aud see on the north Guilt
waited fields, gardens, farms, houses and
signs of civilization; and on the south moth
ing but a vast waste of buffalo grass which
rolls away to the south, and is at last lost
where land and sky appear to meet 1t is
an unusual sight, and perhaps nowhere else
In the world is the demarkation SO distinct
between state and state between the work
Of man and tnat Of nature.
The town itself Is a striking example of
burst BOOM" 1t was the northern ter
minus of the Texas cattle trail, and when
the Santa Fe built a branch of their road
south from Wellington some Chicago spec
ulators took hold of the place and doomed"
it. Great cattle pens were built, stores,
residences, a fine school-house and
big hotel were erected: the country
all around was laid out in town lots, which
soon scared to high prices Then the boom
ourst the stores were deserted, and now the
dig tour-story hotel rents for but 81 year,
even al which the proprietor says he loses
money
nut IN its PALMER days it wonld be diff
cult TO conceive of a livelier or more wicked
to"h' The cowboys came up over the trail
from Texas and here received the wages for
tnelr services. Gamblers, saloon-keepers,
Gesperadoes and lewd women were here in
lull force to win from or rob them of their
money: Dance houses of the lowest type
nllVed, and their bullet-pierced walls and
ceilngs to day bear testimony of wild scenes
Ievelry enacted within.
mere was TIE dive of the notorious "Texas
ann, and her laughter. 1t is a one-story
Duidlng, with additions upon the east and
IuCn sides all at present in a state of
uecay; The walls of the additions are
pasted over with pictures from the police
RSpers, and ornamented with bullet holes.
ne whisky was kept in cellar reached
!! steep flight Of stairs. This cellar, was
WV, 1t IS sad, used for other purposes, aud
g gauy drugged man has been pitched into
myo De robbed and his dead body afterwards
wnceaIed. If those dingy old walls could
FAX OF how many crimes, murders, rob-
UereS they could tell!
suspended from the fronts of low one
&C. l5 buildings are still to be seen the signs
sC0lowooys' Headquarters" "Cattlemens
AV MO- and Texas Jim's Place"
ol " nen the now deserted town was in its
St9'y Art Hughes was mayor and Frank
. Guy marshal. Neither position was
cl1negcure, as the lawless patrons we're in
6ou 10 obey the laws Of man no more
~ ~ . nose OF God, and the first victims
0'e usually the otiicers Thew had driven