Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-08-24
Sometimes he got

his own ranches. Sometimes he got
thrown. Once he broke a rib. An
other time he wa laid up for several
weeks with a lame shoulder, and he
had several other narrow escapes, but
he was no gutter. When he under
took a job he generally finished it-by
Godfrey, Sylvane, that was a tough
one he used to say. l think more of
Theodore Roosevelt than any man l
ever met.
mo, he has nothing here now ex-
cept four old horses on the retired list
the horses he used to ride hunting
and on the range. When he sold his
stock he told me to reserve them. He
may have intended to take them east,
but never did.and they are now out
on the range, pensioners, as you might
say.
Roosevelt vas interested in two
ranches" continued Mr.. Ferris. HE
was a partner Of mine in the Maltese
Gross ranch, and had one of his w
with about 1000 cattle.
He is tough, too," interrupted Joe
Ferris. "He don't get tired. He has
as much endurance as any man I ever
hunted with. remember the first
time we went buffalo hunting. He and
l went together. l got him as easy a
horse as l could find and reckoned that
I'd better be a little easy with him on
the start, as he was just out from the
city, but, by Jimmy! he tired me all
out, and toward night l begun to feel
like asking him to be a little easy on
me. We got lost that night and had
to sleep out. We couldn't find the
trail anywhere, but we unsaddled and
lay down in the brush and made our
supper off some biscuits we had in our
pockets. During the night our horses
broke away and stampeded. We
heard I'm go, and the only thing to do
was to follow them up, because there
was no telling how far away they
might get before morning, as luck
would have it, we stumbled on to them
after a short tramp, and brought them
back, made them secure and then
rolled up in our blankets and slept like
babies. In the morning we break
tasted on the rest of those biscuits and
toward night we found the camping
outfit and got a good square meal.
What took the boys mostly with
Roosevelt was the easy way he had
with getting in with them. There is
always a sort of opposition or resist
ance or GOODNESS, whatever you call it,
among all kinds of men when a
stranger comes among them, and cat
tlemen are about as sensitive to intrud-
ers as anybody else; but somehow or
other Roosevelt could adapt himself
to all kinds of circumstances, and
made himself one of them without any
fuss or friction and without asking or
getting any instructions. He just did
it naturally. He just naturally fitted
in with everybody, no matter what
was going on, whether it was a round
up or a dance. He was always well
come and he always had a good time.
mo, Mr.. Roosevelt neve killed his
man; that is a mistake; a newspaper
yarn, like one l read the other day
about the cowboys fooling him by
shifting his saddle with the pommel to
the tail of the pony. Nobody ever
fooled Theodore Roosevelt about a
horse. He arrested some thieves here
once. He followed them down the
river and camped for three or four
days before he caught them, and then
ne marched through the snow for
three or four days more until he landed
them in the Jail at Dickinson, and he
may have drawn his gun when it was
necessary, but he never shot any one.
A drunken tough once fired at him in a
barroom here, but Roosevelt took no
notice of it, anu acted as if the shot
was meant for somebody else. He
had a good deal of tact in getting along
with such critters"