The age-herald., 1901-09-22

lection. It was openly hinted that a certain deputy sheriff was in colluslon with the tough element. The sherlh was present at the meeting. After some revolutionary forms of organization Mir. Roosevelt rose and addressed the sher- if. In the history of that part of the frontier such a speech had never been heard before. Mr. Roosevelt openeiy ac- cused the sheriff of dishonesty and In competency. With the reflected nghe ol the officers pearl-handled revolver at his belt flashing across his gold-rimmed glasses he seorned him as a man uh- worthy and unfit for his orrice. It IS one thing to deliver a fiery accusation of general or personal charges at crowded meeting of law-abiding people; it is another to coolly stand belore handful of frontiersmen and openly ac- cuse one of dishonesty. Death slares closely in the face the man who dares attempt it. for these men, bred In lso- lation, are sensi..ye to the quick on 1neli personal honor, and an accusation that would be laughed at in Cooper Union would eat out mans heart at Medora. With downcast head the sherin never said a word, but his prestige was gone forever and another sheriff quickly sue ceeded him. Mir. Roosevelt's second ln-
 
 Bad Man. Finnegan.
 Bad Man" Fnnegin was very bad man. He delighted in stating that ne was from Bitter Creek where the fur ther up you went the worse the people got and that his dwelling place was at the extreme fountain head. lie was short, stocky, ugly tempered fellow, with long red hair, which fell down over his shoulders; that Is 1t was long until the day the cowboys found him lying under a sage brush suffering from tempor- ary alteration of the mind from the et- fleets of Big Mouth Bob's' barbed-wire whisky They cut off his hair close to his head. save for a ridge down the middle, which gave him the appearance of reached mule. MT. Finnegan eventually woke up and he felt bad. He was pain ed. He took his big rife, and, stepping out to where he could get good view or the town, began to burn 1t up. The first shot went through the printing office of the Bad Lands Cowboy and came out on the opposite side, closely followed by the editor, who was seeting up an editor rial on "The Majesty of the Law The next took off the corner of the stud ta- ble in Blood Raw Johns" oyster grotto. By this time the citizens were rapidly making tracks for the fringe of timber along the base of the bluffs. their speed accelerated by an occasion bullet, seem ingly as big as a calf After making pepper boxes of the few buildings Bad Man" Finnegin shouldered his rifle and sauntered down the river Finding boat tied up, he appropriated 1t and drifted down with the current until he came opposite the Elkborn ranch, where he spied a handsome hunting boat, com pletely equipped. He immediately made a transfer and passed on; things were coming his way. MT. Roosevelt shortly after came Into town and heard how the gentleman from Bitter Creek had been amusing himself Soon after he missed his boat To say he was mad doesn't ex- press 1t. He quickly got another boat and followed A tall chase Is a long chase, particularly when the current of a river carries the pursued as fast as the pursuer It is enough to know that the young New Yorker followed his man for 150 miles and eventually captured and marched his prisoner out of the wilderness and finally lodged him in the adjoining county jail at Dickinson
 MT. Roosevelt employed men cooks on his ranch and washed his own clothes by placing them in the river and weighting them down with powders. He took part in frontier ball and went down the middle with the giggling partner of Kangaroo Bill" The blizzards of the winter of 1S86-7 cost him thousands of cattle, but he restocked his ranch and persevered. While doing all this he was gathering material for his famous Vest ern books. His Ranch Life and Hunt ing Trail'' is the best story of the kind ever written. Frederic Remington Illus trated the volume, and it is replete with information of a period fast passing away in the history of the West He describes the ranch country as "one gi- gantic unbroken pasture, where cowboys ana branding irons take the place of 1ences'" Here is one of his descriptions or the range stream:
 The stream twists down through the valley In long sweeps leaving oval wooded bottoms, first on one side and then on the other, and In an open blade among the thick-growing timber stands the long, low house of heWn logs Just in front of the yeranda is a line of old cottonwoods that shades 1t during the Aerce heats Of summer, rendering 1t aI- ways cool and pleasant. The other buildings stand in the same open glade with the ranch house, the dense growth or cottonwood and matted, thorny under brush making a, wall all about. Deer still lie in 1t, only couple of hundred yards from the house, and from door some times in the evening one can see them peer out into the open or make their way down, timidly and cautiously to drink at the river"
 His description of the ranchman's life is bright bit that may well be preserved by those who have never experienced such delights. He writes:
 His fare is simple, but, if he chooses 1t, is good enough, Many ranches are provided with nothing but salt pork. canned goods and bread-indeed, it is a curious fact that in travelling through tho COW country 1t Is often impossible to get any milk or butter, but this Is only because the owners or managers are too lazy to take enough trouble to insure their own comfort. We ourselves always keep up two or three cows.
 We also keep hens which in spite of the damaging inroads of hawks. bobcats and foxes, supply us with eggs, and in time of need when our rifles have failed to keep us in game with stewed, roast or fried chicken also. From our garden