Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1912-05-23
CHAPTER XVI.
Introducing Doctor Falrbaln.

introducing DOCTOR Fatrbain.
Headed as they were, and having no
other special objective point in view, 1t
was only natural for the two fugitives
to drift into Sheridan. This was at that
time the human cesspool of the plains
country, a seething, boiling maelstrom
of all that was rough, evil, and brazen
along the entire frontier Customar
lily quiet enough during the hours Of
daylight, the town became mad
saturnalia with the approach Of dark
ness, its ceaseless orgies being noisily
continued until dawn. But at this
period all track work on the Kansas
Pacific being temporarily suspended
by Indian outbreaks, the graders made
both night and day alike hideous and
the single dirty street which COM
posed Sheridan, lined with shacks.
crowded with saloons, the dull dead
prairie stretching away on every side
to the horizon, was congested with
humanity during every hour of the
twenty-four.
1t was grim picture of depravity
and desolation, the environment dull,
gloomy, forlorn; all that was worthy
the eye or thought being the pulsing
human element. All about extended
the barren plains, except where on
one side a ravine cut through an over
hanging ridge. From the seething
street one could look up to the sum-
NIT and see there the graves of the
many who had died deaths of violence.
and been borne thither in their
boots" Amid all this surrounding
desolation was Sheridan-the child of
few brief months of existence. and
destined to perish almost as quickly
the center of the grim picture, mere
cluster of rude. implanted houses,
poorly erected shacks. grimy tents
Mapping in the never ceasing wind
swirling across the treeless waste, the
ugly red station, the rough cowpens
filled with lowing cattle, the huge, un.
calmly stores, their false fronts deco
rated by amateur wielders of the
paint brush. and the garish dens OF
vice tucked in everywhere. The pen
dulum of life never ceased swinging.
ASOS1SNJ w ao AA1ASN AiC man St,l GU W iiO
his neighbor was, or dared to question.
OF women worthy the name there
were few, yet there were fitting fe-
male forms in plenty, the saloon lights
revealing powdered cheeks anu paint
ed eyebrows. 1t was strange, rest
less populace, the majority here to-
day, disappearing tomorrow-cow-
l,o Jn 4
desreradoes, gamblers, saloon-keepers,
merchants, generally jewish, petty Of
ficials, and riff-raff no one could ac-
count for, mere floating debris. TIE
town was an eddy catching odd bits
of driftwood such as only the frontier
everywhere, wrecks of dissipation, de-
reflects of the East, seeking nothing
save oblivion.
Everything was neutrality-suspicious.
and pleasure ruled. To spend easily
made money noisily. brazenly, was the
ideal F.on, dawn to dawn the search
after JOY continued. The bagnios and
dance halls were ablaze; the bar
rooms crowded with hilarious OF
duarrelsome humanity, the gambling
tables alive with excitement. Men
swaggered along the streets looking
for trouble. and generally finding it;
cowboys rode into open saloon doors
and drank in the saddle; troops OF
congenial spirits, frenzied with liquor
spurred recklessly through the street
firing into the air, or the crowd, az
their whim led; bands played popular
airs on balconies, and innumerable
"barkers" added their honeyed invi
tations to the perpetual din. From end
to end 1t was saturnalia of vice, 9
babel of sound, glimpse of the in
ferno. Money flowed like water; every
man was his own law, and the gun
the arbiter of destiny. The town
marshal, and few cool-headed depu
ties moved here and there amid the
chaos. patient, tireless, undaunted
seeking merely to exercise some