The San Francisco call., 1910-05-15
Mz 6he( (ALI5NVT VTRG@2P'LE RE@5
"A. A. A. PATHFINDER
! IS DOING THE SOUTH
Dai II. Lewis Has Queer Ex-
perience in the Town of
Caldwell, Kansas

Many and interesting are the expert
ences that have been encountered by
Dai II. Lewis in his pathfinder Chal-
mers go for the American automobile
association. A trip through the coun-
try, as Lewis made 1t, is an education
and the scout recounts in a letter to
the Chalmers factory an interesting ex-
perience at Caldwell. Kan. He said:
"When the Chalmers "30'' with the
exploring party arrived in Caldwell,
prohibition town, for the MONDAY
lunch all able bodied residents turned
out. 1t is usual for the extenders of
the glad hand to boasts of how much
their own town has grown, the value
of its shipments and the cost of its
principal buildings, but no sooner had
stepped from the car to the ground
than a bearded old man touched me on
the arm and said, in tone denoting a
plaintive yearning for the dear, dead
days: My friend, yuh see that bank
over there? Well, right in front of
there, 90 years ago, there was one of
the dog gumdest gun fights ever pulled
off in this section. Nine men went
down. Yes, sir-nine. A United States
marshal named Mark tried to arrest a
cowpuncher for suthin' and the shoot
fur or against. There was an old well
there and nine men lay wounded or
dead around that well before they
quit
1--WE went in to dinner and sat at a
table with bald person whose thin
face was the hue of well cured tobacco.
Pardon me. stranger, he said. You
amt been here long, have you? Well.
let me tell you something. Right out
there in front of the bank II men got
shot in fight 20 years go, when this
was wide open COW town. Bill Marks,
a United States marshal. come over
from Fort Smith to arrest a cowboy
and the man he was after plugged him.
Then Bits friends took it up and they
went 1t hot and heavy around an old
well that used to be in the middle of
the street. When they finished there
was IL men laying there with bullets
in EN-
I expressed my appreciation of the
thrilling recital and after dinner
strolled into the billiard room. An
old chap with a faded blue bandana
about his neck sat with chair tilted
against the wall Pardner, d. yuh see
that bank over there? he asked point
ing with the stem of a corncob pipe.
| Wal, right thar / seen IA men shot in a
! fight 20 years ago.
He rambled on through a recital of
! how loud and continuous was the rat
! tie of the firearms and how the ground
was strewn with the slain when the
! firing ended. Yes, sir, II as good boys
/ as you ever see. laid out there dead
and dyin' with their shooting irons in
their hands,
Il was in the car. about to give the
signal to start, when some one plucked
my sleeve. Say, mister, | reckon you
never have been in Caldwell before
This amt the town it used to be; no.
sir Twenty years ago / was just
coming out of the Alhambra saloon one
! afternoon, when / see gang of COW
punchers ffghtin' round an old we'll that
stood right near where the bank is
now When the smoke cleared UP, is
men was
Drive on, joe / yelled and the
/ Bluebird shot ahead, leaving fat man
with canvas overalls, gazing after, per-
picked and chagrined."