The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-11-01

were great precipitous peaks, their
SCARED and blistered faces streaked
with scoria and lava. Sheer down
at their feet lay yawning chasms
from out Of the bottomless depths OF
which rose sulphurous smoke from
su%gterranean fires that knew no end.
Winding it's treacherous way, the faint
pony trail led along the faces OF the
giant buttes, where a single misstep
meant death. Occasionally the trail
crossed the swift, silent, t%ortuous
river, that wound it's quicksandy
course through this, the darkest,
strangest, loneliest land that human
foot has ever trod.
Thirty miles to the south the buff
falo herd was struck, and the guide,
whose respect for his employer grew
| with each mile Of the trail, looked on
| with wonder. Here was a new breed
Of 'critter,' a man who, while he kept
his face and blankets clean, rode
straight, shot straight, and took his
medicine like a veteran. Hunger, cold,
exposure were lost on him. With a
grim, logged courage that knew no
end, he hung to the chase. He was
after buffalo, and buffalo he got.
after a most successful trip he
returned home. The denizens of
Big Mouth Bob's' csravansary were
prone to admit that 'ther critter with
a squirt were plum handy with a
gun"
Mr., Dantz relates how Mr.. Roose-
welt returned the next year, shipped
in stock and entered the cattle busi-
ness. An incident of the life that fol-
lows he tells thus:
zone morning late in the fall the
roundup was camped on the Lagguy
Camp range, the horses were brought
in at daylight with frost on their
. backs and all in an i'll humor. Roose'
welt threw his saddle on a big roman
nosed bay named Ben Butler.
ben was a natural born degener
, ate. He was past master in pitching
sun fishing and high and lofty buck
ing. He was a crafty old villain, how
: ever, and submitted to the Tightening
Of the hair cinches with only a mast!
roll of white in his eyes.
Roosevelt mounted and rapid!
braced for the inevitable shock; blu
: to the surprise Of the assembled cow
boys nhree Of whom had alread,
been thrown), Ben trotted off at frs
- like a family COW. Then, reaching
deep washout directly in front, h
gave a bawl like a branded calf an
went into the air.
= "Down he came with his long nee
:. poked under his fore legs, and wit
a shock that Jared the earth. Up h
~. went again, the rider swiftly bracin
:, back until his shoulders nearly toucI
=, ed the beasts loins. But with a trio
that human skill could not avert, tt
horse spun in the air like a top in {
!, straight a perpendicular line as n
evil skill could conceive.
"No human rider could withstar
that shock and Roosevelt was throw
violently to the h%alf-frozen groun
=. Some cowboys lassoed old Ben, wi
-. had taken to his heels at once, Will
80 the rider, pale and drawn-looking, b
with a steady CLEAN in his eyes, 70
from the ground and insisted on ]
mounting. This he did, although
did not tell us until latter that thr
OF his ribs were broken.
"That young fellows got sand
his craw a%-plenty,' sagely remark
o. Three Seven Bill who was captain
~, the roundup.
- bill was a gaunt, hu%ngry-looki
varmint, with a 14-inch waist a
80 long, crooked legs that would ha
shamed an old.fashioned pair
tongs. Nothing delighted him me
than to ride the tail often them you
fellers,' as he called it, which mes
to maze the ground AOur dllei IN
at a 14.mile clip; changing hors
three times daily out Of each ride
individual string of 10, he rode us
a finish.
Saddle sore and half dead from
III haustion, l could many q time he
wept from sheer agony, but on
rode us without mercy at a stiff r
making a wide circle and retiring
camp only to up and at it again.
Months Of this work told on
trim New Yorker. He became ]
the rest Of us--gaunt, wind-swept
bleached white with alkali. Not a
gle time did he seek to take advi