Evening star., 1898-10-29


souri,, up near Fort Leavenworth for a
swim, when a couple of rough~looking men
came along. Tie men stopped and watch
ed preparations for the swim Small
as we were, both my brother and I We're
good swimmers. and we struck out into the
swift-fiowing current of the Big Muddy to
show off before the two thard-looking
strangers. When we came in again to the
shore the two men were runfastening from
its moorngs an old skiff That had been tied
up for a long time. They ripped off of an
old tumbe-down shed fon The shore a
couple of boards, which they split and
roughly Whitfield into oars, and then they
pushed the skif off. O.
Hite's Idea of Fun.
Want to take a row, 7sons?' one of the
men. who had an evil face and a fiery red
beard. asked us, and grabbing our clothes,
my brother and l hopped into the skiff
with the two men. They pulled and sculIed
the boat out into the middle of the Big
Muddy, which is about mile wide at Fort
lIeavenworth. and then the man with the
red beard deliberately picked us two kids
up. one under each arm, and threw us over
board into the dangerous eddieS of the
Missouri. He roared with delight when
our two heads bobbed to the surface and
he seemed to be immensely ticked 70 note
our Intellectual efforts to reach the skiff
Northumberland on account of the tre-
mendous swiftness of the current The
other man was apparently more humane,
for he said to tormentor, the fellow
with the red beard:
Better let EN- in again Hite THEY'RE
gettin' weak
The red-bearded man sculed downstream
bit after u.s. and permitted to climb
into the stern sheets of the skiff. weak and
exhausted. Then he rowed us back to the
beach. He had taken off his coat and roll
ed up the sleeves of his hickory shirt
big blue and red snake was tattooed In
numerous coils around his right forearm
thn L in h 1.tx
was tattooed the name Wood Hite.' We
lost no time in dressing and getting away
from the two men, once we got On shore.
The red-bearded man was Wood Hite, one
of the most desperate and cruel members
of the James gang. A Leavenworth paper
published picture of Hite a few months
later, in an illustrated story recounting in
rather admiring terms the robberies of the
gang, and my small brother and 1 surely
did do some shivering when we looked at
the picture and recalled how we had been
at his mercy in the middle of the Big Mud
dy few months before.
In the early spring of 1875 man named
Daniel Askew, who lived near Kearney
Mo-, the home of the James boys mother
and who was in mortal dread of the gang
because he had given shelter to the detec-
tives who, in the preceding January, had
thrown bomb into the home of Mrs. Sam
uels the name of the mother of the des-
peradoes}, resulting in the tearing off of
one of her arms, came to Fort Leaven-
worth IN fruitless effort to get the COM
manding officer Of the post to send squad
of regular army soldiers to protect him in
his kearney home from the vengeance of
the gang. Askew took dinner at our house
on one of the days he was in Leavenworth
on this errand Three days after his re-
turn to kearney he was shot dead on his
own doorstep.
An Exciting Runaway.
cone midsummer afternoon in 1876 nv
mother, who was at that time young and
H.,
beftted the wife of an army officer was
driving alone in a side-bar buggy on very
wild road. called Sheridan's drive back
of Fort Leavenworth. At q sudden turn of
the road the horse, a scary, nervous ami
NAL, came smack into prairie vulture that
was feeding upon dead blacksnake lying
across the road. The vulture flew into the
air with a trem ndous Tapping Of wings,
and the crazy horse took fright bolted and
with his barrel almost touching the ground
started a dead run. bound for almost
any old place. The road was narrow and
crcuitous. with heavy trees lining 1t on
both sides, but, as ! say, my mother was
de2d-game young woman. She stood up
right, braced her feet against the foot rests
close to the dashboard, wrapped the rens
around her strong arms couple of times
and just began to saw on that frenzed
horses mouth. The saving didn't do any
coed, and she admitted afterward that
after the brute had raced for two miles
without a sign of letting down. she began
to get nervous, especially as there were a
lot of high bluffs overlooking Salt Creek
valley not far ahead. The horse WIS still
jumping along. lick etty-spHt. at a 1.s0 gait
when. at another sudden turn in the road
where my mother was absolutely certain
that she would be dumped, a man su 1denly
shot out of the woods only ten feet ahead
of the flying horse. He waved his arms
and yelled and the horse eased up Idden-
ly, but when the man attempted to grab the
horse by the bride close to the bit he rear-
cd n MI Il atai,y hy,tic
chap who had turned up just in tn, nick
of time. The mans shins were so badly
marled that he could barely walk, and my
mother, after petting the horse an6 thus
cooling him down, invited the stranger,
who was gray haired yet young 10 oking
to step into the buggy with her and drive
to her physicians office in the city, where
he could have his bruises treated The
man, quiet, gentemanly chap, thanked
her and accepted her offer, and she drove
him to DR.. Van Dyne's office in down
town IeavenWorth Whare she gave him in
to the keeping of the doctors assistant A
few days later DR.. Van Dyne passed by
our house in his buggy and dropped in. My
father and mother received him.
Say, Fred said the doctor tc my
father, how long have you been perm ting
your wife to drive around with me1abers
of the James gang"
My father looked puzzled as the doctor
regarded him blandly.
Then the doctor told them that the man
VINO mad stopped the runaway horse and
who had beer driven to his office a few
days before by my mother was no other
man in this world than CleN Miller, one
OF the brainiest and most desperate luem-
bers of the gang of Jesse and Frank il mes
Not two months later Clell Miller was kill
ed In the streets of Mortified, Minr in
the attempt the James gang made tC rob
the bank at that place.
Experience With Charlie Pitts.
Not long after that 1 was sneakilg a
horseback ride on vicious riding horse of
my fathers that had been in a cavalry
outfit and had been condemned out of that
service for lack of steadress. The lorse
was born bolter, shier and runaway, and
my father only rode him once In while
He was a bit afraid of the beast, in fact.
his boys, of course, were absolutely for
bidden to go near the horse. but we used
to sneak rides on him occasionally, all the
same We couldn't get at saddles or bri-
dies because my father locked then up
when he was away. but used to snake the
erute out of the barn and ride him wit aout
saddle or bride, and nothing but halter
to hang on to. When he'd bolt, I'd take
a couple of twists in his name, + had
often seen the boys of the Nez Perce tribe
or Indians do with their fractions Indian
pories, and hang like grim death. The
lnI y,, i Aty,fr y,on