The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-04-20
oLD-Imt BORDER LIFE.
"Reminiscences Of the Gateway to Okla.
homA and Other Frontier Towns.

4
Hunnewell, which have always at.
tracted more or less attention in
every Oklahoma agitation, are both
distinctly border Kansas towns
gathering-places for cowboys and
toughs from the Indian Territory
and are now possessed of many in.
teresting "reminiscences of border
life.
The former, Caldwell, called by
its inhabitants the Gateway to
Oklahoma, has grown into a place
of some little Importance, has the
Offices of the large stock companies
that control the Cherokee Strip
lands, and is the home of several
of the prominent officers of these
corporations. Here live the most
bitter opponents and the warmest
friends of the Oklahoma bill.
Many a business man through
his too open esponsal of the 'boom-
ers'" cause has seen all of his veal
thy customers desert him. Still,
with the peculiar fondness of g.
western town for advertisement,
they have invited the despised
boomers"-when they had stopped
upon the banks of the Shikaska
river to reconsider their movement
to share their hospitality, offering
them protection and sustenance, be-
cause they believed that where was
the body of the boomers" there,
too, would be ordered the soldiers.
The Cherokee Indian Strip police,
in their natty blue uniforms and
red stripes and brass buttons, SON.
breros and ominous belts of ivory
handled pistols, are to be seen upon
the streets. Each one is leputed to
have killed his man, or men, and
feels that his personal safety de-
pends upon his own vigilance; for
more than one desperate has sworn
to avenge the death of pal.
Still standing are to be seen
dance-houses and saloons, now va
cant and deserted, but once the
scene of revelry and the widest
dissipation. Each place had its
brass band and women: the former
played all night, and the latter were
always willing to dance to its music
and drink the poor whisky and
beer that flowed like water. The
walls and the ceilings are full of
bullet holes, and during the gay
season hardly night passed with
out at least one man turning up
his toes.
Here were the headquarters of
4" Flatty"-no one knew him by any
other name-one of the most noto-
rious desperadoes of Kansas. How
many men he had killed is not es-
timated, but if the stories of the
old-timers are to be believed they
would have made a little grave yard
by themselves. They tell how
"Flatty" was taken unawares in his
saloon one night, and with revol-
yer 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 anybody
else. He was at last shot in the
back by some unknown as he walked
arm in arm between two of his
friends. "That ere is the only way
they could have got the drop on
: Flatty,'" 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 there
is were we planted Billy Manning
Don't know who Billy Manning is?
He and his two brothers came here
in the '7G's from back in Illenoi
with 1900 head of cattle. A ye1r
afterwards they took their cattle
to Newton to sell. They gam
bled and dissipated away every
burned cent of the money, and
besides two of the boys got kilt.
When Billy got back he had it in
for some feller down in Bluff Greek
who, he said, did him up. So one
day when he had come to town and
got filled up, Billy mounted his
pony, took his gun, and went out
to look for him-and found him,
too. His horse came into town with
blood on the saddle, and we went
out and found Billy lyin' in the
plain. i am dun fur he said,
kind of weak like, 'but don't you
bury me in that burned State Of
Kansas; plant me up there point
IN to that bluff. So we all got to-
zether and had a big buryin'. But,
yewhilikers, when they made the
survey, it was discovered that the
bluff was in Kansas, and so Billy's
lynn request wasn't carried out at
ILL.,"
In the cemetery is q grave in
which are buried two horse thieves,
,lasped in each others arms as they
we're found after their bowie-knife
The undertaken put both
nto the same coffin and inferred
hem.
Hunnewell is twelve miles east
# Caldwell and on the territorial
80 IAa Eou nandana come right [