The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-03-29

thrust upon Colonel Little. this new
role, for it never entered his mind un-
til suggested to him, but now that he
has commenced he intends to make it a
part of his work to chronicle events
typical of the early days in western
Kansas.
body's Maya zine decided to inaugurate
a series of stories of 1.-The bad men of
the west" He invited Theodore Roose-
welt, Col. Ed. c. Little, E. Hough,
them. The first mentioned declined on
account of the events which made him
president Colonel Little has written
two articles which have been accepted.
One, "A Son of the Border" and a
story of the character commonly
known as wild Bill Hickok, who was
city marshal of Abilene in the cattle
days, was printed in the magazine last
summer. The second. THE Round
Table at Dodge" is to appear soon.
How Colonel Little happened to be
selected to write of the early Kansas
characters is interesting, and to tell the
story 1T is just well to give a few
"reminiscences. When Colonel Little
was minister to Egypt and stationed at
Cairo, he met Richard Harding Davis,
who was in Egypt to write his book
Rulers of the Mediterranean" Colonel
Little was of great service to Davis,
and they became quite chummy. They
climbed the pyramids together and
while Davis was always contending
that New York and Ward McAllister
was the only city and the only man to
rule society, Little maintained that
Abilene with Squire White as the ruler
of the local 400, was a better place to
live in than New York The contro-
versy was kept up for several years,
and was never settled.
There was good feeling through it all,
however, for Davis dedicated his book
to Col Little. There are other stories
of how Davis entertained Little in New
York at Delmonico's and other famous
places but that is not here nor there,
although the dinner given Little at The
Players club by Davis should not be
forgotten. To make a long story short,
the enthusiastic Davis once remarked
that the man who knew more about the
west than anyone, dead or alive, was
Little. The man who is now the editor
of Everybody's is named Cosgrove. He
was editor of The Wave in Frisco
while Little was there with the Twen-
tieth Kansas and knew of him. He
heard Davis remark, so when he want
ed stories of the bad men he wrote to
Little. The efforts of the colonel to
chronicle history of the bad men, in
story form, has been successful. judging
from ne criticisms that have been
printed.
Col. Little will devote his attention
mostly to the peace officers and in that
connection, of course, dilate more or less
upon the bad men they have to deal
with as did Hough in his story of BILLY
the Kid the New Mexico outlaw
whose career was ended by Sheriff Pat
Clay Allison shot up Dodge City, or
meant to, hack in the early days,
will be one that Little will use. Allison
was bad. Nowadays the slang express
sion would be that ''he was 40 bad
Allison was killed in Colorado in
row with his boots on not many years
ago. The Dodge City incident is this:
Allison was in town at Dodge. He had
been drinking heavily of that seductive
drink that at 'fWolfville'' would be call
ed "pizen" or forty rod" and in the
VnrnaRlIlar inns ciT nv n
cality of the west 1T was about 10th
drink time before supper" Allison was
loaded with whisky and revolvers. He
was ready for trouble He was not a
make believe bad man. He was bad in
every sense of the word and would kill
for amusement Every body who knew
him was aware of the fact
Bat Masterson, Bob Wright and
Wyatt carp decided to quiet him.
Masterson was sent to a second story
window with a shotgun to shoot Allison