The Washington herald., 1913-07-13


Buck Taylor. OF Texas. accompanied
me on . trip and made speech fof
me. The crowd took to his speech
from the beginning and 20 dld !, unit.
the pSroration which ran ~ folloWs:
NY fellow -citisens. vote for my col.
onei! Vote for my colonel and he viii
lead you, a. he led us, like sheep to the
slaughter!" This hardly seemed trf-
butte to my military skill. but Il de-
lighted the crowd, and a. far ~ could
tell did me nothing but good.
On another tour. when was run.
ming for Vice President. q member of
the regiment who was along on the
train got into q discussion with . Pop
ulist editor who had expressed an un-
favorable estimate of my character.
and in the course OF the discussion
shot the editor--not fatally. We had
to leave him TO be tried. and as he
had no money I left him $3.50 to hire
counsel-having borrowed the money
from Senator wolcott of Colorado.
who was also with me. After election
I received from my friend q letter
running: Dear Colonel: I ind I will
not have to use that $50 you loaned
me. as We have elected our candidate
IL tos settle Q horse transaction in
which unfortunately became In
volved." A few weeks later. however.
I received q heartbroken letter setting
forth the fact that the District At
Ltorney-whom he evidently felt to be
70 cold-blooded formalist-had put him
In jail. Then the AFFAIR dropped out Of
sight until two or three years later.
when as President I visited . town In
another State. and the leaders Of the
delegation which received me included
A1A All
tor, now fast friends. and both Of them
ardent supporters of mine.
A 3s On A As Frame.
At one Of the regimentaI reunions q
man. who had been an excellent soldier.
in greeting me mentioned how glad he
was that the judge had let him out In
time to get to the reunion. I asked what
was the matter, and he replied with some
surprise: why. colonel, don't you know
I had a difficulty with a gentleman
and er - well. killed the gentleman.
But you can see that the Judge thought
1t was all right or he wouldn't have let
me 60 Waving the latter point,
said: How did 1t happen? How did
you do r?' Misinterpreting my question
as showing an interest only In the
technique Of the performance. the ex-
puncher replied: with a .3s on a .S
answer. and 1t became proverbial with
my family and some Of my friends. in
cluding Seth Bulloch. When I was shot
at Milwaukee. Seth Bullock wired an in
quiry to which / responded that IL was
all right. that the weapon was merely
"a IS on q .45 frame" The telegram in
some way became public, and puzzled
outsiders. BY the way. both the men
Of my regiment and the friends I had
made in the old days in the West were
themselves a little puzzled at the interest
shown In my making my speech after
being shot. This was what they expected.
what they accepted as the right thing for
a man TO do under the circumstances a
thing the non-performance of which would
have been discreditable rather than the
performance being creditable. They
would not have expected a man to leave
battle, for instance, because of being
wounded In such fashion; and they saw
no reason why he should abandon a less
important and less risky duty.
Breaking Even.
One of the best soldiers of my regiment
was a huge man whom I made marshal
OF a Rocky Mountain State. He had
spent his hot and iusty youth on the
frontier during its viking age. and at
that time had naturally taken part in
incident which seemed queer to men "ac-
customed to die decently of zymotic dis
eases l told him that an effort would
doubtless be made to prevent his con-
firmation by the Senate. and therefore
that / wanted to know all the facts in
his case. Had he played faro? He had:
but II was when everybody played faro
and he had never placed a brace game
Had he killed anybody? Yes; but II was
In Dodge City on occasions when he was
dfntIfN marshal NJ q
time when Dodge City. now the most
peaceful Of communities. was the tough
est town on the continent. and crowded
with man-killing outlaws and road
agents: and he produced kilograms from
judges Of high character testifying to
the need Of the actions he had taken
Finally ! raid: Now, Ben. how did you