The times., 1899-10-06
From the New York SUM

i've been very much interested IN
reading about them former alcoholic di-
generates remarked Col. Martin Haley,
of the Cherokee Strip. at present. sojouIn-
ing in Brooklyn for the reason that habit
has accustomed him to sleep only when
surrounded by the soft silence of the
] prairie, and he finds too sharp a contrast
I in the street noises of Manhattan.
Not that I'm an alcoholic degenerate
myself he continued, for in the first
place ! never drink more than / can carry,
and in the second 1 can't reconcile meself
to allyn such word as degenerate with
good whisky. But l once found meself in
much the same position as some of them
fellers, barrin' the jag, only much worse
of than any of them. What would 20 say
to man with Y cents in his pocket,
broken head and 10000 miles away from
soul that knew him? Well, that's the
way | was fixed, but l won out, and at
the present time have money in the bank
fifteen hundred acres of decent land, and
God knows how many head of cattle. Let
any of them former digenerates beat that
if they can.
The way it happened was this. | run
away from Dublin when ! was a lad of
twelve, for the reason that me father was
a hard man, and the fist of him was no
softer than the rest of his makeup | got
job as cabin boy on an Australian
trader, and settled down near Sydney
where stayed for ten years and saved up
$500; not bad for a lad, Ell? The sheep
business was good one in them days.
Then / pulled up stakes and started for
the United States. My idea was to invest
my small bit OF money in d ranch some-
where and become a landed gentleman
heard about Kansas bein' decent spot
and came 10 Kansas City. l didn't know
soul in the place, or in the country, for
that matter, barrin' a few travelin' ac-
quaintances I'd met.
We'll, the day l struck Kansas City the
gas house was blown up. That night it was
darker than blazes, and We can imagine
that none but an Irishman would start ont
TO see town under them circumstances
Before I'd gone far l saw more light than
million gas houses could make in a month,
and then ! saw nothin' at all. Some coyote
had cracked me over the head with a stock
ing filled with sand so they told me at the
hospital week later, and all he'd left me
was seventy-two cents and the keys to my
trunk. His little trick had netted him two
thousand dollars in bills and a diamond
stud with funny little flaw in 1t. l told
the police / would know that stone any
where, and they started out TO trace up
the fellow that soaked me by that clew
They never found him nor the diamond
neither, and meanwhile / got fired from
my hotel, for I'd lodged out the value of
my trunk. There / was, as told ye, thou
sands of miles from any one / knew and
without cent to my name. Don't that
beat your retired digenerates in a canter?
Il started to hoof it through Kansas,
lookin' for any old kind OF job. The
place was full of tramps-I was no better
than that, mind ye-and the divil of per-
manent situation could l get anywhere.
Farmers were driving the whole bunch of
hoboes along with guns, me with the rest.
Finally got down to place called Cofey-
vile. There wasn't any tramps there,
most likely because it was such bum
town at that time. Coffeyville, ye know,
is down by the Indian Territory line.
got a job there in a livery stable at SO
week and my grub, and the boss was
decent man. He says to me one day,
I Martin he says, I've got a good place
for ye, if ven take IL, down in the Ter
ritory, where yen have a chance to get on
better than here What doin'? says ].
Ranch hand on a big place says he.
What, me work for an Injun?' / says, for
/ knew that none but a Cherokee tribes
man could hold land in the Strip-that was
long before Uncle Sam bought it and
opened it up for settlement. What of it,?
says the boss. It's s15 a month and yer
keep, and it's steady. which is more than
yer job is here What's the name of the
savage?' says I. Mcguire says he
Mother Of Mosesp ! says, the gall of
beast of a savage redskin, insultin fine
old Irish namen He's not so red as ye
think says the boss. He's as Irish as
yerself, only he married a squaw, and SO
became a Cherokee citizen
well, this Irish Injun come to town the
next day. OF course he hired me, bein' as
how our language was the same, him COM
/ ing from Dublin, too. 'How's your wife?'
says on our way down to the ranch She's
/ dead heaven rest her SOUL, says he.
4 Heavens no place for pagan Injun,
says, gettin' mad, for I'm good Catholic
meself. She was only a half-breed, says
| he. Her father was Pole from Poland,
/ and as good a Christian as yerself OF
course, that made a difference.
ut was a fine big place he had, fifteen
/ hundred acres, with a barb wire fence
around it, and as fine house as ye'd
want on it. After I'd helped him unhitch
we went to the house. There was fine
slip of a girl standin' IN the door. She
had black eyes and hair to match. That's
my daughter, Dovita,' says Mcguire. You
would never think she was Injun, barrin'
the straightness OF her hair and her back
| bone, for in the first place she was clean
and in the second place she was pretty,
! but that's not TO be wondered at, seem
that she was half colleen and only quar-
! ter squaw. Wanting to be pleasant, I gave
|
! up her nose and begins talkin' TO her papa,
showin' me that she considered me nothin'
more than what really was-a hired man.
My pride was hurt, but l went right to
| work and made up my mind that some day
| / would make that aristocratic Cherokee
| lady take off her hat to me, so to speak.
| Bein' brought up In the saddle, ! could
ride anything that wore hair as the say
in is, and one day l noticed that while
was havin' a beautiful argument with a
little diyil of bronco from Texas, Miss
Doyita was watchin' me with the kind of
a light in her eye that bode me no bad
So after that, when / went to Dustin
from etaoin agood LSce etaoi nshdrluup
broncos, j managed to do it not so far
away from the house but that them as had
eyes could see the operation without any
assistance from a spyglass There's
notAin' an 1rishman viii fight SO hard for
as somethin' ne thinks he can't get, and
I was workin' overtime for a decent word
from the lady who needn't have been so
dom proud over the maternal end Of her
beginnings, don't yer see?
We'll, in two or three months, or maybe
Fl was four down comes a fine lookin' fell
Ter with elegant ways, who has q letter TO
Mcguire. He was thinkin' of ranchin' it.
he says, and wanted chance 10 learn the
business. Would Mcguire take him on as
q hand, he says. just for experience? OF
course Mcguire takes him on, gives him the