Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-07-06
TURNER AND HIS GUN
DOUBLED Eek, THE cOWeOY, AND
HIS MODEST RECORD CLAIM.


How He Showed His Dislike For . Horse-
man Who Rode at . Trot-Finally His
Spirit Was Conquered by . Mild Man
nered Soldier With o Winchester.
Now and then a "bad man. tries to
cultivate something which he mistakes
for humor. One of these devotces of lev
lty used to haunt the cattle range of
western Kansas, and every fall and
spring he appeared in Dodge City at the
general roundup" Every time he
came to town he left some proof of n
facetious mind, and was very sure of be-
ing talked about by every idle man and
most OF the busy ones who remained
when the rush was over
His name was Eek Turner, though
Dodge City will hest remember him by
the title "Double-L Eek, the duplicated
capital being Leonard s. Loughrain's
brand, and he being one of their best
riders. In fact, Turner might have been
foreman if he had cared for the position,
for he could ride well. and there were
few more expert with the rope and prob
ably none who could bear fatigue and
hardship more patiently than he
But the trouble was he wanted recon-
pense for the dull life of a cowboy. He
didn't care for money. Any wages going
We're acceptable to him. But when the
cattle got rounded up and there was half
a days escape from the tedium of labor
Eek Turner wanted his fling. And he al
ways went into town and had it.
Now, q foreman cannot do these
things. he must stay by the herd all the
time, preserve q clear head and firm
place i'll the saddle. He is the represent
| alive Of the owner-the custodian of
much wealth-and dissipation is not to
be thought Of
One Of Eel, Turner's pet bits Of hu-
NOR was to pick out people whose APP
pearance displeased him and shoot just
near enough to them to express his SEN
timents. He particularly disliked to see
horsemen go by on the trot. It was in a
| cowboy country, and cowboys galloped,
whether or not they were in hurry.
And if the rider had a habit of 'ris-
ing" in the stirrups, rs conventional
trotters often do, Eek Turner hated him
| violently. So that when he came down
Main street one day and saw q rather
well dressed man go by trotting and
rising" with the motion Of his horse
Eek called general attention to the spec
| tacle.
Really the trotter was not a very good
horseman. 1t was possible, as Eek OBJ
served, to "see daylight under him" ev-
cry time he rose in the saddle. And the
| glimpseS of that recurring daylight"
provoked Eek to bit of pistol practice.
Il bet" said lie, watching the rider
and reaching for large revolver, pretty
we'll back On his belt, II bet can shoot
between him and the saddle and never
touch a feather. ....
He had been drinking in so decorous
a manner as to be dangerous, and SO no
one interfered. The rider was half a
block away when Eek fired, and the
bullet must have gone true, for the rider
passed on unconscious, while a sign di-
agonally across tho street was shattered
by the shot.
He tried it again later in the day and
fortunately-miraculo usly-escaped the
infection of injury. Dodge City talked
about Doubled Eek and his new Joke
all summer, and in the autumn he came
in and tried it again.
The first shot he made he hit a man
in the leg and was very indignant be-
cause they would not give him another
chance, assuring tho crippled victim it
was an accident, and urging him to
mount and trot past just one time more,
rising no higher than he had done, and
guaranteeing to put three shots out Of
five between him and the saddle or buy
the drinks for the crowd.
But it was the uncertainty about the
other two shots that interfered with ne
gotiations-that and the trotting man s
persistent eadeavor to enjoy the freedom
of his own pistol arm while Eek re-
manned in his presence.
Eek thought it was funny, and that
hallucination grew on him till he got
into trouble. When the wave of Texas
fever" swept over Kansas in 1880, kill
ing off so many of the Kansas cattle, a
state law stopped those drives" which
had been the life of western Kansas, and
Eek Turner lost his occupation. He went
farther west and south and tried to shoot
the top off mans plug hat in Colorado
| Springs because he insisted the fashion
was two inches shorter than the man
was wearing.
At La Veta he took exception to the
| suffering sound occasionally made by
an electric lamp and went about shoot
| ing the carbons in two till the city
marshal engaged in repartee and shot
off the end Of Eck's thumb, alleging as
| a sufficient reason the fact that no man
| with two good thumbs could be real
| ly bad man." Eek replied in kind, and
there were no applicants for the position
the marshal's demise left vacant until it
was known that Eek had left that region
| and gone to Arizona.
At Fort Wingate he had the misfor-
| tune to shoot into an ambulance driven
| by a very mild hammered private SOL
dier, who pulled up winchester and
crippled Eek for life, destroying the use
| fitness of both shoulders and incidental
| ly putting out his right eye.
L