Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-05-21
AN INCIDENT OF THE PLAINS.
Case of lneratitude and the Reward.
That Caught Up.

Case of lneratitude and the Reward.
i That Caught UP.
This is bit of the unwritten his.
tory of the southwest, unworthy
preservation save for the thread of
human interest inextricably inter-
woven with an lighting up its somber
passage. 1t is given as near as may
be in the language of one of the chief
actors in the drama, my friend, the
train robber, the only man on record
who served a life sentence at
, Columbus, O., for one offense and a
five-year term at Fort Leavenworth
for another simultaneously and was
purSed of both in about three years.
But the details OF his crimes, con-
viction, punishment and successful
legal battle for liberty S:e another
story, and it has Already been written.
That the present story is not couched
in the vernacular of the alkal and
sagebrush melodrama is due to the
fact that the man who told it is a
graduate of the university of West
Virginia and as condition precedent
to becoming knight of the roaL
was prosecuting attorney of an Okla
homa county in the early days when
the picking was better than it is now.
He was not an imposing nor a
particularly heroic figure as he sat in
the dingy old city room and told his
story. He was redheaded, five-foot
scrap of humanity with the prison
pallor on his countenance and the
prison faint enveloping him as a
garment, but he had cold, steel
blue eye, fighting jaw and a mouth
that closed in as strong and ex-
pressionless a line as the two halves
of steel trap. AS he talked one
could understand how in the free and
lawless atmosphere of the short grass
country even normally conscienti-
: Gus man, hot on the trail of his
brothers murderer; as he had been,
might through a combination of I'M
fortuitous circumstances and atavis-
tic impulse, become in turn a hunted
outlaw. He was but Ave hours ont
of the United States prison at Fort
Leavenworth.
There was one case that doesn't
give me unmixed grief when think
of it, he said. Zone day turing the
recent unpleasantness. 1t was a west
ern Texas on my way to California
by an unfrequented route. as main
Travelled roads were LIT dangerous
to me at the time. | had been in the
saddle sc hours on end and without
how glad ! was to come upon a soil
tary dugout with a rusty stove pipe
sticking up through the roof, the first
had seen for three days. called
for several minutes before any one
lcame, but finally the door slowly
lopened and a woman stuck her head
cautiously out.
Say, she was a picture of poverty.
Thin faced, gaunt to the point of at
ltenuation, dressed as far as | could
judged in single scant calico gar
men, and barefoot. Several tow
headed kids with scared faces were
peeping out from behind her and
holding on to her dress.
Hello she responded family to
the usual SALVATION of the plains.
tive rode a day without eating
and am nearly famished' said
cant you fix me some dinner? I'll
pay you well for it.
Strange she replied. I'D be
mighty glad to, but there amt a
thing to eat on the place, and we're
pretty hungry ourselves
I'm reasonably hardened, but the
look in that woman's eyes and those
of the kids at the mere mention of
food touched me, and having learned
that the nearest ranch was ~ miles
away / rode on over there and back
as fast as my tired cayuse could
carry me, with bacon, spuds, -four
and coffee enough to last a week.
Man, it was pitifu1 to see those
hungry kids chewing a raw bacon
rind to stay their pinched little
stomachs while the mother was cook
ing something for us to eat Well,
we all gorged ourselves, and after
supper, stimulated by the food and
coffee, the woman told me their story.
Il had wondered where her hus-
! DthN "oo, anu Shc tolu lDt uc udu
gone a week before over about 100
! miles east where a man owed him
some money and she had expected him
back for several days. Her supplies
were exhausted and she and the chill
dren were in desperate straits when
IL providentially rode up. She was
sure something must have happened
TO her husband, and the worry about
him was added TO her other troubles.
1t seems they had formerly owned
little farm over in eastern Texas, but
some Shylock Of a cashier in a
| country bank had made them a small
loan and closed them out when they
were unable to pay the interest