The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-09-16

standing fear. as ferocious in the minority as
he was in majority, Oklahoma will never see
his like again.
He vas probably sixty.fve years of age. He
looked thirty five, He was six feet high
strsighter than the most arrow-like Indian, but
unlike the ordinary westerner. graceful as a
dancing. master, 1.-THE of limb. fair of complec-
ton, with hands like those OF trained pianist,
He had a head of glorious curling raven hair
which fell nearly to his shoulders His nous
taehe was black and fine with small inky
goatee. His eyes were always on fire, dark.
keen. dagger-ike in their penetration. In the
earnestness of conversation, speech or argument
they were always the same burning Goals of fire
He attended all the big conventions in OKLA
homa for years, He drove eighty miles each
time to take his place as delegate either at q
statehood convention or Republican nomina-
ton. His absolute sincerity In everything al
ways gained him a place on a committee and in
that committee he always had something to
say and most always controversy. He never
aimed at humor.
At the Kngisher statehood convention he
arose when someone had loudly called his
name ana said.
Formerly our county was only allotted one
delegate. l came to headquarters and demand.
ed that our county be accorded two delegates
so that one delegate could yell out the name Of
the other delegate and get him chance to
make a speech"
The convention roared. Nc of ID. didn't
smile. He did not mean it for Joke
For years he had been travelling westward
He dill not like neighbors too close. Within
ten miles they crowded him. When forty PEG.
pie came into a township it got too populous for
him Born in Kentucky he was pushed west.
ward and westward from one pioneer post to
another, for every few years the settlement
would push him further and further back.
Finally he ended up in a shaded, EMPOWERED
draw Just west of Taloga, in far western Okla
homa. There he built him log house, s-story.
and.half residence as comfortable as ever log
house was built, scrupulously clean on the out
side and inside, The great trees bent over it.
squirrels jumped from roof to branch and
frollicked in the yard. Birds nibbled in the
doorway with the chickens and coyotes lurked
in the brambles. knowing their refuge. For
Nc Of d. killed nothing without sigh. A fawn
or two wandered about the place. He was very
near to Nature. this tall cultured, rugged
pioneer.
His family consisted Of his wife, his daughter,
young woman of 20, a young son ana an
adopted boy. This last boy is living witness
to the great heart that beat in Mel breast. The
boy wasa waif of New York city sent west to a
family which was on the point of sending him
back TO the city when Nc heard OF it and
adopted the boy himself. The little fellow
worshipped the tall dark. eyed man and loved
him.
Had he lived he would have gone still further
west for the country around him was settling
up and crowdiug him.
His ideas ofcivilization were unique Society
offended him, partly through its indifference,
partly through its cloaked falsity, partly be-
cause his sincere nature could not brook its
thoughtless hippaucy.
The birds and the deer, the crickets and his
dogs understood him. Men did not.
The sun has gone down on the wind-swept
praTies and ON the shifting sandmists of the
arid Canadian near his home, down behind the
rolling hills, and down upon his little cabin
and his life. Particulars of how this man met
death are not at hand, will probably never be
at hand but he must have met it with his thin
lips compressed his long fingers olenched
tightly, his eyes, as ever. darling fire his figure
erect. supple in action He must have died as
he lived, with every muscle, fibre, nerve and
drop Of blood concerted into mighty earnest
ness.
To all who know him there comes a tiAge Of
sympathy for the little family in the log cabin
out across the prsiries who are tonight watch
ing over the long, still form Of the last of the
pioneers.
In the main that is pretty fair
summing up. Is is not true though,
we think, that Mcdonald spent his
life on the frontier for the romantic
reasons above suggested. The mans
ruling passion was ambition. He
coveted power. He wanted to be a
ruler among men. More than any
thing else, he coveted and cultivated
the gift of Oratory. If he could have
been leader in any of the great cities
he would never have dreamed of the
frontier. But knowing that could not
be, he went where men were fewer,
where the competition was not so
great. He would rather be the leader
of dozen Arabs in the desert than to
he a follower in the proudest army of
Christendom.
His death came as the ending of q
feud that grew out of some dispute
about claim. The particulars can
not yet be learned, to show where the
right and wrong lay. We never knew
him to seek quarrel, but we never
knew him to avoid one. So when his
enemy met him in broad daylight, on
the empty prairie, and asked him if
he was ready, he answered that he
was. His gun missed fire, and his
opposer's aim was true. So he fell in a
fair fight and died as he had lived
without fear.
But how deep must be the black
ness of darkness in the little log cabin
out on the wide, lonesome prairie,
where the wife and the daughter are
left to continue alone the hard, hard
battle. No word has come from them
l.