Semi-weekly herald., 1908-03-09

Nhth thN Aldih pulitu III dt Oous'
there was the usual crowd OF men a
the station. and the usual number o
them were drunk and boisterous ant
ugly.
Il When he saw the crowd. 4 reckon
III stay on board and watch this heal
game, observed the old freighter.
All right, said Short, and then h,
stepped out to the car platform, {
queer picture. with the shiny new sill
hat set iauntily on the side of his heac
and his makeup as frontiersman.
"'Howdy there, Luke. said jim
Pudly the day marshal who was in
the station crowd. Purdy was the
only man iu the crowd who knew
Luke, having met up with him in San
Antonio
'The eyes of nearly every man in
the crowd of a hundred and odd were
on little Luke Short as he complais
antly stepped from the train. and not
| a man said word or made an overt
| move. There was something in
shorts serious countenance, in his
outstanding carriage. and probaly in
the incongrnity of the shiny plug hat
in combination with the rest of his
makeup. that held them off.
1T would, of course, have been quite
in keeping with the customs and prac-
tees of Dodge City for the bunch of
men at the station to shoot that silk
hat into ribbons and flinders as Short
deliberately walked across from the
station and down the main street with
out ever once turning around. but the
thing didn't happen, that's all There
wasn't word said, much less a gun
pulled.
Short walked into the 'Gilded
Grub saloon. still with that shiny hat
set rakishly on one ear strolled up to
the bar and called for a drink for
himself There were a lot of bad
men in the saloon too But they just
looked They didn't say anything
about the hat and they didn't shoot.
"'Short disposed OF his drink, and
then removed the hat and held it in
his hands for a minute. Then he put
it on the floor OF the saloon in front of
the bar brim down, and sedately
jumped on 1t until it was the merest
pulp.
Meanwhile the old freighter with
whom he had made the bet had fol-
lowed him up. noticing that there was
no shooting, and he took Short by the
hand.
" 'Buddy-podner,' he said, 'you' win,
an 70 kin telegraft tn man at Duran
90 { ship tn dust along { ye. VILE
| respecks yo' f. bein' a man o nerve,
KANT respecE yo' fr bein' a ID
fool, w'ich tn same harrin' yo' feelin's
an asllin' yo' pardon. | thinks yo' is
Three days later Luke Short was
made night marshal of Dodge, and
the way he eventually succeeded in
tanning that bad camp so that most of
the bad 'uns would all but eat out of
his hand is a matter of general his
tory and recollection with those who
remember the bad camps of the coun-
try.
Now I get to how [ myself made
Luke Shorts acquaintance. This hap
pened when Luke was night marshal
of Dodge.
a was attached to the surveying
corps of a branch railroad that was
being pushed by n point above Dodge.
one night | took it into my head TO
mingle in the hot life of Dodge City
for "A few hours-you are to remember
that I was middling young fellow at
that time. | just hankered to take
look at Dodge's bunch of hard propo-
sitions with the guns strapped to their
surcingles, and that's what l did.
But when | got into Dodge they
didn't seem to me to be bad at all, and
they took me in hand and treated me
royally, as | thought in my foolish,
unseasoned way-if making me drink
whole lot more of bad whiskey than
had ever drank before or than was
good for me was treating me royalty.
"Along toward midnight | got into
poker game with four heavy-artiller-
led chaps mt Toole Kinsley's famous
Hell and Busted combination honka-
tonk and faro bank. One of my table
mates-but didn't find this out until
later-was one of the most Infamous
bad men Of the Indian Territory Bud
Kimbal. who was lynched few years
afterward for the murder OF a whole
family in southern Arkansas.
81 had no business playing cards
/ with that bunch in the first place but
as long as I was in the game sure
enough had no right to win the way
| did. But | did win from the begin
ming. My luck in drawing papers was
something startling, and an hour after
the beginning of the game all four OF
the men I was playing with were re-
pardlng me with suspicion.
considering the almost miraculous
luck | had. couldn't really blame
| them. either. 1t made no difference
what drew to, got the top hand
nearly every time. Pat hands were
giirned tn me almost as often as