El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-20
Written Especially for the HERALD.

He Amt blessed With no religion
1t 'ud just be in his way;
When he eats, his knifes more handy than
his fork:
But in any alteration,
He can beat the holy nation
It's the way he m axes his old six shooter
talk.
Songs of the Old Southwest.
SIT was day just like this" said
Perk the Wolfer, when l met Billy
Cody for the first time, and l expected
it was going to be the last. Do L mean
Buffalo Bill? Why, course do. rec
kon 1 must have been out on good
many scouts with him after that. but as
L say, 1 wasn't expecting to do 1t then.
1 thought we was all going under that
time sure Tough. 1 got to KNOWN
Cody pretty we'll after that. Old jack
Pierson was his partner for good many
years, and they was we'll matched.
This here occasion that I'm telling
you about happened up on Cow creek
1 don t remember what year 1t was In,
but Billy Cody was young man then,
and so was Jack, and so was l, so it
must have been good long time ago.
buffalo Bill owned saloon at tn at
time, on the creek, up in the Cheyenne
country, and there used to be so me
rough times in that neigh borhood, let
me tell you. 1t was right In the heart
of bad Indian country and " as in the
bsst kind of a buffalo grass region.
There was ranches scattered all around
and there was thousands of head OF
cattle grazing out. They belonged to
different cattlemen and each bunch
was in charge of COW punchers that
kept 'em punched up, and that bra nd
ed them with the owners marks when
the time come around to round up the
calves.
THE cowboys spent their money at
Bill's saloon, and there was quite con-
siderable going on all the time. They'd
come up to the place when they got
paid off, and get drunk for two or three
days and have a good time. 1t was
q small sort of settlement, two or
three houses may be, but it was the best
the boys could do in the way of having
fun. tell you they made the most of
the rest of the time was hard work.
Cow punching amt no easy job, like it
looks.
Cody ard Jack Pierson owned the
saloon together. The walls run up
higher than the top of the shanty on
all the sides, and there was loop holes
through the planks TO shoot through.
It was almost like fort and if there
was enough grub and plenty of men
inside it could have stood out for q
mighty long time against almost any
thing.
sit was one evening just such
day as this, that l first saw the old
place and Buffalo Bill. 1 had knowed
Jack Pierson for four or five years out
In Kansas and on the north ern plains.
We had secuted together. There
wasn't no better man walked on two
las than JACK, 1 had heard about
Buffalo Bill but l didn't know that he
q I'D Jack had got together.
II rode up to the saloon pretty tired
aud was glad to iud a place to rest.
1t was hot and sultry and the heat just
cone up out of the dirt like fire.
There wasn't breath of air stirring
and the sky was dark from a prairie
fire way off som ewhere to the south.
ST was mighty glad to see Jack, and
he was mighty glad to see me. The
Indians was eettin' troublesome and
they was expected to 60 out on the war
path any minute. Jack, and Buffalo
nd % 1u
the ranch. We sat out on the little
porch, that had a roof to it, an talked
and snapped news, because 1 lad just
come from over on the Smoky Platte,
where they hadn't heard from for a 1
long time.
81 don't reckon I'd been there an
hour before they come, the Cheyennes,
l mean. We found out afterward that
they'd been out of their villages for
three days. We pretty soon seen they
was coming for US. expecting to get
drunk on the whiskey in the saloon af-
ter they had done for them in it. They
would liked to have had Buffalo
Bills hair, and Jack Persons too, and
it would a been a thing for them to
brag about as long as they lived if
they'd have done it, too. OF course
we found all this out when they wasn't
nothing but a handful of dust on the
prairie, miles away.
We knowed what that dust meant.
1t wasn't no prairie fire, but was made
by horses, and coming fast too.
well, we got ready for them and
I'll allow they was pretty surprised