The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-11-20
THEY HADA ROUGHJOURNEY
Story ola Memorable Wagon Ride from
the Indian Nation TO Wichita.
Getting a Lift from Prairie Gambling He'll
Sunrise on The Plsins-Dead Broke
aud DisconsOlate.

"Gamblin' amt much to follow fer a
steady thing. that's fact; but I'll never
forget how 1t kinder helped me an FREUD
o. mine out of u rather tight pinch once
-leastways we thought ir was tight
pinch. We was kids in them days. and took
pretty serious-iike what we might laugh at
now The speaker was man. not
old in years. bnt with face
that furrowed IN deep wrinkles
about the eyes and mouth when he smiled,
and hair that was already beginning to
turn gray. His manner of speech. his Dress
his SLOUGH hat, which a man who has lived
long in frontier towns or rougbed it on
cattle ranges finds hard to discard. al
though he may narrow its brim when he
turns eastward, were all indicative of a
man who had but recently come from that
country where. IN the mind of the small
boy infatuated by Beadles best efforts. In
dams lie in wait for unwary whites to de-
nude them of their heads of hair,
and cowboys ride rampant over hill and
dale. laws OF civilization and other things
known only TO Beadle. This man and some
friends and acquaintaDces were sittihgin q
private room of one of the all-night restau-
rants on Illinois street in the early morn
lag hours and the conversation which had
been running on the different ways. classes
and natIonalIties of people who gambled,
led to the opening remark. He had been
telling what a serious thing gambling was
with the men who ride ranges for living.
and particularly those down in the In
dian Territory, 1.-The Nation" as
he called it, and Texas. where
Spanish and Indian blood 10 a good deal
mixed with that of the native-born Amer
lean. Every body kept silence as though
by assent, aud be continued with his story.
1T was in the winter of "a and 'S5. l
think. or, at any rate. when they was shov-
In the first branch of the 'Fe' meaning the
Santa Fe railroadi down through the Ma
ton. A party of four young fellers, of
which | was one. who had made little
money up at Wichita when that town had
her big boom on, had invested all
they had in camDin' outfit and
with an OF cow-puncher. by the name of
Bill Fleming. 10 steer 'em around had
spent about three months down just below
tho ClmarrOn river, IN 'Gyp hills. The
eov'ment didn't allow no hunters In the
Nation but we got special permit TO hunt
on n cattIeman's range, and We occupied an
OF deserted camp that used to be on one of
his ridin' lines. We broke up in January.
an como I'D to New kIowa. We was
pretty near dead i'd broke ,ot Kin tell tell
TO pay for our fodder while we was down
in the hills. We had a wagon, o team of
ponies that cost US S25 for both of 'em, an
each one of us a Winchester an SIX
shooter. We tried TO sell our 1.-Two stock
first. but we couldn't get anybody to offer
Us enough to carry the four of US by rail
to Wichita, where was headed for, so
we DIDN'T sell. We tried our Winchesters
next an got rid of three of 'em. Out of
this we paid our bills. an had enough left
TO git two passes TO Wichita. We bumped
our four heads together pretty hard to
fgger out how we was all goln' to make,
an how We was goiD' 10 GIT rid o them
rats of ponies. anu it finally ended by
DRAWN lots TO see which two should ride
by cars up TO town. the other two to drive
the outfit through and git along as best
they could. A Teller by the name of Joe
Field an myself got stuck TO do the drivi1'
and the other feilers climbed the first train
out of the berg promisin' TO have place
tor US 10 bunk by the time we got there.
This was about the middle OF January,
and the afternoon they left it was warm
as spring. most. Joe and took stock of
orr effects. We had two lean ponies, =
wagon that could ride one wheel atop o. n
rail fence and the other in the ditch and
never spring q JOINT an so high up that
we had TO look over the dash board to
see where the ponies was when
shss was our p 0ne
some blankets and S2.S5 in money.
It was a pretty small pile to drive 125 miles
with. and the roads little better than a
trail. New KiOwa was u pretty tough
place in them days. All the pnnchers from
the Nation. and there was some hard cIti-
zens down IN there you better believe
fellers thatd-done something crooked mp
ID the States used 10 90 down there TO hide.
because when they GOT into some parts of
it no power top o. ground couId find 'em-
and the Irish and Dagoes that was work
ing on the railroad grades used to
come mp to that little Joint of
n place to blow in their stuff. Most of 10
went for gambling. and the popular game
was three-card monte. There was hotel.
O livery stable, half dozen stores, that
many or more resl-estate offices-land-
boomers was plenty in them days-and
about forty saloons. oil set right down in a
heap ON the prairie. That was the town.
with q few houses for the residents to live
in, of course. 1t had u couple of thousand
floating population. but they lived around
In tents or dug-outs, Just where they
durned rather. an they was. for the
most part. no count anyhow. Every
one of these saloons ran gam
bling layout. No screens there. boys.
A faro dealer could rake 10 his dust and
spit tobacco juice on the sidewalk at one
and the same time and they did il. too. Il
reckon Ii you'd shown one Il spittOon he'd
a. thought 1t was new wrinkle to mix hot
whisky in.
Joe an figgered mp one side an down
the other till after dark. an then went
into saloon and squandered 10 cents
apiece for supper. One end of low bar
was used to serve drinks over, the middle
was a lunch stand and the far end was
covered with n faro layout. We chawed
on our sandwiches and watched the
run o the cards ut the same tine.
Finally Joe says: 'Pll take so cents an
tackle this faro game. II You'll take
another half an go against that chuck-a-
luck board over there IL we lose we can
get through on Sl.l5 about as easy as on
S215, m if we win, we're fixed l told
him was agreeable. an We went at It,"
Did you win" asked somebody in the
crowd.
did we wins Well. / guess we did
rather. Joe Quit with his eyes bulgin' out
bigGern n prairie-do mound with SIS the
best of it. an made me quit with the
bank OWN me 1913 The first
/ think we stored away enough 'vittels' To
stock mp tins resort. We was hungry, and
we wasn't so poor that il took the edge all
off. We made q sneak for bed, after we had
lit up our pipes. Bed was at the bottom of
our wagon. which was just outside of
town where our ponies was lariated out.
We turned In. using the spring-seat for a
pillow, an wasn't looking for gettln' to
sleep.
About midnight it began to turn cold
an by morDIn' everything was froze MP
solid. never suffered more with 1t in nay
life than did when we crawled out OF that
wagon bed and tho wind struck us. The
ground was wet and muddy the night be-
fore, but the horses feet made no impress
sion on il when We led 'em
round and hooked up. We ct
cold breakfast nfore sun np
and started. strikin' across country over
q 81 IT.