The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-26
HAD SAND.
How a Widow Cap
tured a Husband.
A BORDER ROMANCE
Times When Women and
Men Had to Be Brave.

In the days when 1 was knocking
around among the Rocky mountains
and beyond said Col Noah Parker.
to a reporter OF the Chicago Inter-
Ocean, 1T required a good many diff
ferent kinds of nerve for d person to
keep the lamp of life from going en-
tirely out, TO say nothing of being
comfortable and happy. l particular
ly remember one example that illus
trates how nerve had to be adapted TO
different walks Of life out there in
those days in order that everything
might come ont right There was the
nerve of Widow McCool and Jim Kidd,
who eloped in spite of Mart Huntoon
and his gang of bad men, and jim was
stealing the widow away from Mart
at that, or rather. the widow was
stealing herself away from Mart and
taking Jim along.
The Widow McCool's exhibition of
nerve began at Dry Cheyenne and,
although she was a widow. she wasn't
IS years old yet. She hadn't wanted
10 take the name of McCool a little
bit, but Sam McCool had plenty, of
money and her folks didn't have Amy
and wanted some. Sam wanted her.
and so her folks insisted that she
should marry him, and she had the
nerve to do it, for it required nerve
for any girl to marry Sam McCooi.
But she was the Widow McCool in
less than six months. Sam got into
d n1uss down at Douglas and the 9TH
er fellow was the quickest with his
gun. Not long after she became the
Widow McCool the stage route COM
pany made her its agent at Dry
cheyenne.
THE widow was trim and snappy,
dark as a Mexican almost. and pretty
as a picture. A dozen Of the boys fell
in love With her on the go in, but she
kept 'em at a distance. BY and by
Mart HuntoOn. the rich ranchman, saw
the widow one day, and he wasn't in
the habit Of letting anything get away
that he wanted, and the upshot of the
matter was that the Widow McCool at
last consented to marry him and help
him get rid of some Of the dollars. Mart
was .. tough one, and about the handi-
est man with gun there was in that
region, and he had a bad gang of rust
lers at his back. Mart and the widow
were to be married early in May and
about the first of the month who should
drop into Dry Cheyenne but Jim Kidd
Jim was a quiet sort of a chap but
he was game. He sold goods out
through the country for q house in the
east. The minute he got his eyes on the
widow .McCool he was gone. and the
g fun of it was that the widow fell in
love with him on sight, too There was
TO be darce at Sheffield a couple of
nights after Jim struck Dry Cheyenne,
and he asked the Widow McCool if she
would go with him and take it in She
said thai she would, but at the same
time told Jim that if Mart Huntoon got
wind of ii the chances were first rate
Tor their both coming back to Dry
Cheyenne feet first But she and Jim
sneaked away and went to the dance
sheffield was 20 miles from Dry Chey-
enne. 1t wasn't long before some of the
boys missed Jim and the widow They
suspected that they had gone to the
dance, and word was sent to Mart. He
came down from his ranch, crazy mad.
and got together half a dozen or so of
his gang. and away they went for Shelf
neld aud the dance. When thew got
there they found Jim and the Widow
MeCool in the midst of the festive
throng. The widow discovered the new
arrivals at once. and quietly asked Jim
II ne mad pistol. Jim said he had two
All right said the widow, keep
long.
= ''9Then she and Jim took their nlaces
for the next dance. Before this was
over Marts gang started a row and
begun to close in on jim Kidd. He
backed up against door at one side
of the ball room and whipped out his
two six-shoOters. The gang pressed on
and Jim shot Ed Cooke Narfis- forsl
man, and another of Mart's mon dead
in their tracks. In the eycitennbt ,tba+
followed the lights were NM mr. 4
second later Jim felt the door 6neT
behind him and he was vapiyad
through it 20 quick thar he didn't
know where he was until h. bea,,I f'i fi,a
door bolted and heard fhe voice If
Widow McCool. The merry I,-idoy,,
knew the house. and she had eee,, he
door Jim backed up against led 10 y
bed room that had 4 window, ON Tho
other side. She had slipped ont oF
doors, got into the bed room tTro,,eb
- the window opened tba 49, t!a,,Itsi