The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-15
Buck Taylor's Hard Luck.

From the Washington Star.
Buck Taylor, the cowboy, scout and
the hero of thousands of American
youngsters as the leader or the baad
of intrepid ranchmen who in the Wild
West show rescue the stage coach and
its passengers from the hands OF the
redskins, has been of late a patient i'll
the Arsenal hospital. That Bucks
courage is not of the kind that VIII
stand test only under the peaceful can
vas of a circus was demonstrated III
no uncertain way in our late unpleas-
antness with the descendants of Don
Quixote and Sancho Panza. He was
one of the toughest of the Rough Rid
ers, and Theodore Roosevelt thought
so much of him that he had the west
erner accompany him on his rounds in
his effort to corral the governorship of
New York. Representative Serene
Payne the new head of the ways and
means committee, did not despse either
to have Buck lend his presence to the
congressional campaign in his district.
That both Roosevelt and Payne were
elected is certainly no discredit to the
frontiersman.
Buck carries as a memento of his
Cuban campaign wound that has
pulled him down from a likely lad of
1893 pounds to an attenuated and weak
ly cOugh-ridden hero of 1873. This hurt
laid him up in the Roosevelt hospital
in New York city. When Colonel
Roosevelt's political campaign opened,
however Buck pulled himself together
and stuck by his old commander to the
end Then he retired once more to the
hospital. He started for his home in
New Mexico a few days ago, but be-
came so weak that he was forced to
camp in Washington. He has improv-
ed his stay here by paying several
visits to the capitol and laying the
Fn, S1 hi hnn Il,
so completely fail him that he cannot
work again. He will not, he says ac-
cept the governments bounty unless
that calamity overtakes him. He has
intrusted his interests to Representa-
tive Payne, in whom he feels full con-
fidence. Buck isn't much of a talker;
besides his cough worries him. His
long hair he cut off before leaving for
the front and he doesn't look fierce
enough to frighten anybody.
How was shot?" he said. repeating
the Star writer's interrogatory. Just
following the flag, l guess. 1t was on
the third of July, in the last of the
trying to capture blockhouse. Roose-
welt was leading, and we We're all
punched UP near him. The Spaniards
didn't seem to be shooting at us, but
at the flags. The glorious old flag was
being torn to pieces by the storm of
DullelS, bul uoDOuy seemed TO De 1all-
ing. All of a sudden something struck
me and I keeled over. I think it was
spent bullet, but it did the work 1t
hit me here in the left lung, and came
out the back of my neck And now
the doctors say l won't be able to ride
horse any more, after having lived
all my life in the saddle-yes, YOU
might say born there. And don't YOU
know it seems funny to me that I
should have gone back to the land
where l was born to receive the blow
that put me hors du combat for, YOU
know, | came into the world in Ha-
vana, where my father was living at
the time"
Bucks first exploit of moment oc
CURED when he was yet in his teens.
A gang of Indians had swooped down
on the ranch and carried off a bunch
of cattle. He placed himself at the
head of cowboys in pursuit A fight
ensued and sixty or seventy of the ma
rauders We're killed. That gave him a
standing in social circles out West
which his natural daring rapidly added
to. He was often of assistance to the
Washington boy, Captain William
O'Neill, who was killed in the high
grass at Las Quasimas. ONeill was
sheriff of Tucson, Arizona, when Taylor
became acquainted with him, and on
more than one occasion the cowboy
rendered the easterner service.
Did O'NeilI deserve the reputation
he held for nerve?" Taylor was asked
Well" he said, and then hesitated