Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-09-21
HIS OLD FRIENDS
Cordial Greeting Pass Between Roose'
Welt and Old Friends Of the
BadLands.
Old Timers of the Cattle Region are
Warmly Greeted by the Repub-
lican Statesman.
Interesting Incidents Recalled OF Roose'
velt's Roughing it in the Far
West.
From the Chicago Record.)

Theodore Roosevelt. sitting upon =:
broucho, born and busted in the val
few of the Little Missouri, looking
down upon the tiny town of Medora
and surrounded by a few old friends OF
his cow-punching days, today said:
Here the omance of my life began
governor" suggested Joe Ferris,
who led TeddZ to his first buffalo bull,
governor, l don't believe you'd ever
done so we'll if you hadn't bucked up
agin he real thing with us first"
That's exactly right, joe replied
Roosevelt. Il had studied a lot about
men and things before l saw you fell
lows, but it was only when l came Out
here that l began to know anything
or to measure men right"
He galloped with his old mates over
the grass lands upon the mesa, 23o
feet sheer above the valley. He counted
the towering buttes to the south AID
west that mark the march of Custer
when he finished his last campaign
against the army of the Sioux.
From where he rode he could see the
red-walled mesas that rose above his
own ranches of Maltese Cross and Ell.
Horn, thirty miles apart, across the
valley, and to his companions he
pointed out the distant peaks and
gorges where sixteen years ago and
later they stalked elk together and shot
mountain sheep from high places On
the rocks.
Suppress the band or make it play
sacred music" that was the order telo-
graphed ahead when Gov. Roosevelt
found his Sunday morning stops were
being celebrated by such tunes as "Hct
Time in the Old Town and Come
Kiss Your Honey Boy" The band
master at Dickinson. Roosevelt's old
shipping point, searched his meascr
repertoire for something suitable for
a Sabbath concert, and pitched on
Georgia Camp Meetin," because he
had not anything else with even a sug-
gestion of the desired religious solcm-
nifty.
The rough rider has been puzzled for
a week over the question whether to
stop for a handshake today with his
old neighbors of the cattle region and
run the risk Of raising a protest about
sabbath breaking or to lock himself up
in his car, run past the scenes of what
he calls his happiest days and incur
the suspicion of his former comrades
that he had passed them up"
He decided in favor of his comrades
of the days when he was a deputy I'LL.
der Sheriff "Hell-Roaring Bill Jones'
and before breakfast was ov.r he wa
dropping off his car at lonely little COW
towns, where groups of nnshaveI me1
slapped him on the shoulder and sale
Hello, Ted" to his Hello, Yank, 10;
and Bill" There was nothing of tn
political junket about thes, visits
Roosevelt only lounging about for
few minutes among the men, all o
whom knew him personally, and shak
ing hands with the men and childre,
vino locked about the station, dresse
In their Sunday best.
At Mandan Joe" Ferris, Roosevelt
partner in the Little Missouri regio,
of the Bad Lands fifteen years age
came aboard. The governor at one
had another place set at the breakfas
table. and from there to Medora, tn
new name for Little Missouri, the tall
was all Of the rough-riding, COW
punching. gun-play incidents in whic'
they both figured and which are part Q
the local history of strenuous days tina
are no more.
They recalled the boom days of Me-
dora, when the Marquis de Mores Law
lshed his wealth upon a fantasti
dream of outdoing Chicago and Kansa
City, with the vast abattoirs he bull
there for slaughtering cattle, and toll
stories that set the table in a roar an
brought the tears to Joe" Ferris eyes
The governor could hardly wait I. o
the train to stop at Medora. H
craned his neck out of the window TO
miles before the tiny village, nestliu,
in the basin of the Little Missouri
came into view from the steep inclin
that leads down toward the west int
the Bad Lands.
He was off and in the hands of hi
friends before the conductor alighte
and the way the dozen weather-beaten
looking men upon the platform seize
him, patted him and said, "Golly, we'r
glad to e you again." made his fac
light up with pleasure that he has no
shown at any Of the applause showere
upon him before. Less than a doze,
women with their children then cam
to greet him and in a few minutes b
had shaken hands with the whole Dor
ulatiOn. Some of them had hoon hnr