The Alaska citizen., 1911-01-16

In the Waldorf-Astoria Pike coun ty, being that special part of the lob by where the MiSsOurians gather, they were discussing home affairs recently, among them being the re turn to these shores of the Hon. Richard C. Kerens. of Miss. uri, United States ambassador to Austria and Hungary; Senator stephen Ben ton Elkins. formerly of Missouri; {; Cole Younger. the bandit. yet of Missouri and Col. Fred Schaute, who died in Los Angeles and was buried al .t'. Louis q WttK aEC.
 All four mcn. ii was stated. were friends enc of another, but no one ot them associated with the other three
 Uncle Dick. for instance said one of the MissourianS, never met Cole Younger either before or after Cole went to the Saltwater prison un ter sentence of life Incarceration though kerens'. best friend, Sena tor Elkins. loved Cole as father as he had a right to. Cole Younger had saved Steye's life during the war times.
 Cole never even heard of Elkins friend Korens. though kerens got to be an ambassador from Missouri. The explanation is that all the time ker- ems was running for recognition in their home state Cole was tending he warden's table in the Minnesota prison.
 Col. Fred Schaute. pronounced md spelled by most of us Shorty, was Kerens' bosom friend, but FL kins hardly ever saw him, and Cole Younger certainly never did. Col. Schaute was not introduced to CCle. I saw Cole when I was out home hree weeks ago. He looked fat and rosy and spoke of Steve. At large under parole only, Cole refus- ed to speak of Elkins as anybody put 'Steve'
 T knew Cole right we'll" said an, other of the Pike county contingent T never could get him 10 tell me about that Elkins affair.
 He told Will Cowherd treferrlng 10 the Mssourian who was chairman of the congressional committee six ,ears ago) in my hearing. and he said that one day his gang of bush Nhackers rounded up young Steve Elkins on charge of harboring Northerners. Elkins' folks kept tav, ern in Westport which is now part of Kansas City.
 They took pris ners in the border war, but they did not keep them The regular proceeding was to send l prisoner to the rear. The sum mary proceedings was to hold a lrumhead courtmartial and order him shot. The bushWaCkeTs' rule was to turn prisoner over to member of the parry and let hlm shoot him somo place where the brush would cover him. Young Elkins was turned over O Private Cole Younger, and the guard and prisoner left the main body, both knowing what was eX, peCted Of them.
 In due time Cole reioined the command, and as his rifle shot had been heard and as he was alone, II was all taken for granted that there was one Northerner sympathizer less, Cole was as mum as a mummy.
 Cole had departed from the untold written articles of war it seems. He Mir, CoWherd. in my hearing, that he liked the looks of young Elkins and had told Elkins to walk on up the road piece and not to be any too darned long going. The boy eX' pected to be shot ill the back. Cole divined that and said to him:
 Whatever you do, don't turn to look at me Keep your shoulders square. l never shot a man in the back and l never will.
 This accounted for Steve Elkins running like a deer, right straight ahead until lost to view. He must have wanted to turn when he heard d rifle crack, to see what was going on, but he never peeped.
 Cole told Mir. Cowherd, still in my hearing. that he thought that Steve had run for thirt y-fve years, for he never saw him again until Cole got out of the Minnesota penl- tentiary, partly due to Senator FL kins' unceasing efforts, officially and privately, in his behalf,
 When those two men parted In the bush southeast of WestpOrt, where Kansas City now is, they took diverging paths and kept them for a long time Elkins went to the United States senate and Cole got tangled up with the Younger boys-meaning himself and Jim-with Quantrell, with the James gang, the Stillwater penitentiary and everybody else in cluding the late Col. John T. Crisp. Col. Crisp ought to be recollected here. He was that portly gent who, speaking in Madison Square Garden, bull urhn brought him a delicate cut glass de- canter to drink from.
 Bring me a bucket!'" he rOared, or lead me to the branch
 "Col. Crisp and Senator Elkins got Cole Younger out of the peniten- tiary."
 You have not mentioned Fred Shorty" said one of the men in Pike"
 II hate to. He was an unbend- ing Republcan," was the retort, which brought out another bit of contemporaneous history, this time relating to his eXCellency the ambas- sador to Austria, Col. Richard c. Kerens, alter ego of Senator Elkins, but no acquaintance of Cole Younger, Elkins' best friend.
 When 1 was just big enough to whop mules," said this one, pick Kerens was freighting military beef from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Smith, Ark The war was on and that meant license to rob.
 ITO head the robbers off the war department kept detachment of cavalry in the field under command of Col. Fred Schaute Kerens hauled quartermaster's supplies for three years of the unpleasantness nearly