Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-07-16

hall was so packed that scant room
was left for the ring.
Stripped to trunks and buckskin
moccasins, Walsh and shook hands
and squared up to each other.
| by perhaps twelve pounds, he was
about the most shifty and clever man
with his hand ever tackled, and
tough as hickory.
It was a fight to finish. barehand-
ed, for in those good old grueling
days gloves were as little known and
used as shifting, side-stepping, duck
ing or clinching.
1t was stand up to each other and
slug, give and take. until one was
down for keeps. And so at it we went.
Details? Well, in these finicky days
they would not make pretty reading,
the incidents Of that fight; they would
turn the black ink of my publisher too
red.
Suffice it to say that when, after
full thirty minutes of the fiercest bat
Ting, my opponent got back from the
farther end of Queer Street and the
fight was awarded to me, both were
completely done. We were scarcely
able to stand
I still owned the presence of mind
and voice to order my bottle pusher
to throw champagne into the bunch,
which started The ball rolling SO profit
ably that my house took in eight hun
dretj dollars before the sleigh-bells re-
sumed iingling.
The few remaining weeks Of that
winter left me overfed Of hotel-keep-
ing. for | found it life rather fuller
of battling than any of my previous
experiences.
And vet, try as then did. and often
have, to escape a life of violence, for
me TO this hour there have never been
periods of more than brief and always
armed truce.
Few. indeed. are the mouthfuls OF
bread that have sustained me that
have not literally battled for.
Still in precisely those days Of the
winning of the Far West from saw
agery, and it's pacification, don't
know that my experience was SO vide
ly different from that of most others.
1t was job that never would have
been accomplished without plenty of
powder and lead and at which few men
lasted long who were either sparing
or careless in their use. 1t was battle,
or quickstep back east Of the Missouri,
where most disputes begin and end in
talking match
Speaking of the East, it was there
at Fort Garry that l could scarcely
resist the temptation to slip back into
Michigan. on the chance of at least
news of Bessie McVicker.
But the memory of the still, white
face of Tom Harper, whom J had left
stretched beside the sap-trough, made
me conclude it healthier to stick
among the unenlisted ranks of the
vanguard of the frontier.
So had to go on contenting myself
with my dreams Of the old 1oGia Coun-
ty maple forest where / had last seen
Bessie
The breakup Of the ice found me
padding down the Saskatc heWan,
bound on a seasons hunt for the Hud-
son Bay Company. And there in the
far north I remained nearly two years
the two most happily. peaceful years
of my life-shooting bear, moose, elk,
and caribou, trapping otter, beaver,
and mink, for their pelts. a.
But one winter in the unremlttlng
bitter cold and CHASTITY long nights OF
the Land of Little Sticks SO far sufficed
me, that the autumn Of 1874 drifted
south to Sioux City, burdened with
comfortably fat bank roll, the pro-
ceeds Of my two seasons trapping.
There one night, while I stood in
a dance-hall watching lot OF pretty
wild human animals go round, was
robbed of all my savings, except few
dollars in loose change.
While not entirely certain, L felt
very sure of the culprit; but, being
stranger in the town and wanting to
avoid any personal difficulty, con-
suited policeman outside the place.
The only consolation I received was
"a surly, "You look big enough; why
don't you 60 in and get your money
yourself? But don't say anything to
any one, or you're apt to get plucked
again"
Ito be Continued.)