Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1895-06-14
TURNER AND HIS GUN
DOUBLED Eek, THE COWBOY, AND
HIS MODEST RECORD CLAIM.

How He Showed His Dislike For q Horse
man Who Rode at a Trot-Finally His
Spirit Was Conquered by Mild Man
nered Soldier With a Winchester.
Now and then "bad man" tries to
cultivate something which he mistakes
for humor. One Of these devotces of lev
ity 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
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 lame was Eek Turner, though
Dodge City will best remember him by
the title Doubled Eek, d" the duplicated
capital being Leonard & Loughrain's 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 we'll, and there We're
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 cowboy. He
didn't care for money. Any wages going
were acceptable to him. But when the
cattle got rounded up and there was half
days escape from the tedium of labor
Eek Turner wanted his fling. And he al
ways went into town and had it.
Now, foreman cannot do these
things. He must stay by the herd all the
time, preserve clear head and firm
place in the saddle He is the represent
ative of the owner-the custodian Of
much wealth-and dissipation is not to
be thought of.
One of Eek Turner's pet bits Of hu-
NOR was to pick out people whose ap-
pcarance displeascd him and shoot jnst
near enough to them to express his SEN
t:ments He particularly dislilicd to see
horsemen 60 by on the trOt. 1t was i'll
cowboy country, and cowboys galloped,
whether or not they were in hurry.
And if the rider had 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 rather
we'll dressed man 60 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, us 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.
II bet" SID he, 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 feather. y
He had been drinking in so decorous
Il manner as to be dangerous, and so no
one interfered. The rider was half q
block away when Eek fired, and the
bullet must have gone true, for he rider
passed OH unconscious, while sign di-
agonally across the street was shattered
by the shot.
He tried it again later in the day and
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES the
infiictioN 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 man
in the leg and was very indignant be-
cause they would not give him another
chance, assuring the crippled victim it
was an accident, and urging him to
mount and trot past just one tine 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
;;otiations-that and the trotting mans
persistent cndcavor to enjoy the freedom
uf his own pistol arm while Eek re-
manned in his presence.
Eek thought it was funny, and that
hallucination grew OIL him till he got
into trouble. When the wave of Texas
fever" swept over Kansas Ill 1851, 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
further west aud south and tried to shoot
the top off a mans plug hat in Colorado
Springs because he insisted the fashion
was two inches shorter than the man
was wearing.
At La Vcta he took exception to the
sputtering 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 a real
" "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