The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-24
Exciting Life of a Bad Man In
Southern Colorado.
CLEANED OUT A DEN
AND AVENGED AN INJURY
DONE HIS BROTHER.
Was Closely Connected In Several
Deals, But Came Out of the Last
One Minus His Right Hand-Ac-
cepted his Fate Philosophically
and Was Glad 1t Wasn't Left.

&
IT noticed the other day the name of
Overland Doc Hughes as among the
missing men who started over that VI
cious Edmonton trial for the Klondike
last spring. said an inspector of In
dian agencies. IF Hughes has sue
cumbed to the frost ana the scurvy,- III
bet a poncho he gave both of them
run for their auburn chip. When !
knew him, back in the early SOS. and
later when the Creole excitement was
putting the hectic flnsh into the cheeks
of all the old-tiners, be was so daunt-
less that l used to think ii would take
nothing short of q bolt of lightning 10
get the breath out Of him. Hughes
wasn't afraid OF anybody. He stuck up
some good men in his day at the point
of his old sawed-off irons-not in the
way of depriving them of their dust, OF
anything like that, but just because he
wanted to indicate that he was on hand
right there and in the game.
Hughes must be Looping toward sc
years of age if he's alive now. he be-
gan nosing around in Colorado, Nevada,
New Mexico and Arizona for pay rock
when he was a young fellow, and he
struck ii right three times. But he al
ways sold out before developing, just
because he needed the money, and then
he had to sit around without white
chip on his person and watch the fell
lows who had bought his claims for
few thousands take hundreds of thou
sands out of the ground. He never
made any kick about the financial END
of it, though.
"'Ail the fun 1 get out of it is in
finding it, any how he used to say
with the true spirit Of the quartz-chas-
er.
Hughes was pretty bad man. He
had a lot of notches on his gunstock be-
fore ] ever met him, and lots of things
happened to him after ! knew him. His
nickname, Overland Doc, sounds as if
he had been a sawbones. He wasn't
The name was fastened to him because
one time when he was shot twice in the
shoulder by a prospecting pardner of
his, down in New Mexico, he straddled
his cayuse and rode eighty-five miles
between sunset and sunrise 10 get med
ical attention at the nearest settlement,
He was in a daZe from loss OF blood
when the cayuse stumbled into the set
Element, and then rolled over dead-in-
cidentally rolling on Hughes some-and
after that the boys dubbed him Over
land Doc
He did one of the nerviest jobs OF
his life in Durango. Colo, in SO. He
had a brother living there, young fell
low in his tweaties. Hughes looked
upon his brother as a good deal of
dude, and didn't have much commerce
with him. One day Overland Doc got
a letter from this young brother of his
saying that he'd been abused in Frank
Bratton's brace faro bank in Durango
The young man stated in his letter that
he'c S;one up against Bratton's game,
and that after the phony bank had got
all of his gilt, some 500, Bratton and
his bunch had dropped him out of q
a Cf Wi =
leg.
His Hold-up of Bratton's Crowd.
Hughes was in Leadville when he got
this letter, but he made Decline for
Durango ten minutes after he got it.
Now this Frank Bratton man was a
pretty evil gezebu tor anybody to play
tag with. He'd been running a brace
game all over the southwest and the
Rocky country for years, and he'd
never been known to blanch when the
toughest and hottest of his victims had
started in to puncture the fixtures after
dropping their money. He'd always
STAYED right along until the shooting
was over, and then, if any trouble ovek
dead people doomed up in front of him.
he'd just fold up his layout and move
on TO the next stand. He was gun
tanner, knife fighter and Hercules
all in one, and up to the time of the
incident I'm going to tell you about
he'd never been called.
"Bratton ran four tables at his Du-
range outfit. and he'd picked every one
of the four lookouts for their quicl1ness
on the trigger and their shrewdness in
sizing up in advance the fellows who
looked like they were going TO shoot,
Hughes knew Bratton. and he knew al.
about those four sudden guys who sat
in the lool1outs' chairs, too. All the
same, at 10 o'clock on the night after
he'd got that letter from his younger
brother, he turned up at the entrance
TO Bratton's layout. He hadn't been &c
see his broken-legged brother at all
He just wanted to see Bratton. There
was a greaser On the door, and this
greaser tried to tell Hughes that he
couldn't get in-for Bratton, fancyine
that Hughes the elder. might be along
had so instructed his doorman. Hughes
gave the greaser slap in the face an0
then the foot, tripping him, and the
next instant he was inside the layout
waving both of his chopped-off forty
fives from side to side, so as to not only
cover Bratton. who sat at a desk ano.
the four lookouts, but the whole bunch
Of fellows who sat playing at the four
tables.
Now. it would have been the simplest
thing in life for any one of those -four
lookouIs to have poked his hand into
the drawer of the dealer nearest him
and to have got the ready-to-hand gun
out for action. 1t would have been
taking a chance, of course, for Over
land Doc was known to be the limited
mail when il came to getting next to
quick moves OF this kind, but if it had
been done Bratton and the rest of ZEN,
would have been spared some humilia-
ton. Not a man of 'em made a move
except that the players screwed their
heads around 10 see what was going tc
happen.
q" Bratton.' said Hughes to the boss
of the plant, who sat at his desk like
carved man, come over here to me
runnin''
Bratton got up from the desk in
hurry and walked over close to Hughes
at a pretty nifty pace.
That's near enough said Hughes,
still flaming those two sawed-offs so as
70 keep the lookouts in order. What's
this hear about you putin it on that
dude brother o. mine?'
He lost his coin and made a hoiler.
said Bratton. with vicious look out OF
his eyes Then he was dropped out OF
a window
The Tanning of Thug.
Who done the droppin'?' inquired
Hughes, not looking at Bratton, but
watching every move of the lookouts
with regulations for sudden plays.
Bratton hesitated until Hughes
bloodshot, fire-spitting eyes pinned hin.
for a second.
I did, he replied then
- That's what I 6o.rrad Tr,,rl,a-