Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1918-11-29


d. to be In the last stages of consumptio
u 1 told the old fellow to cut out
argument and leave the other fello
!: alone. Upon hearing this he sQuirt'
II well-directed stream Of tobacco Jul,
through his front teeth, which landt
on my shoe. ! inwardly admired an
respected his accuracy. l saw my n
thorIty waning and knew that woul
}, have to answer this insult quickly.
took two or three quick steps forwar
g and swung on his jaw with my ifs
His head went up against the fro
5 bunk with a sickening sound and h
/. crumpled up and fell on the deck, tn
} blood pouring from the cut In his heat
i felt sick and faint thinking that h
/ had been killed, but 1t would not d
to show these signs of weakness OIL
my part, so without even moving to
ward him / ordered one of the men t.
look him over and see If he was al
right. He soon came around. From
that time on he was the most faithful
man In the section and greatly respect
ed me. The rest Of the men growleC
and mumbled and thought / was in
for terrible beating. Lying close al
hand was an Iron spike about eighteen
inches long. Grasping this, turned to
the rest, trying to be as tough as ]
possibly could:
IF any Of the rest of you buns
think they are boss around here, start
something, and i will sink this into
his head" Although / was quailing
underneath, still got away with It,
and from that time on l was boss of
my section.
Now every man was smoking or
chewing tobacco. Pretty soon the hold
became thick with smoke, and / was
gasping for breath, when the voice of
the foreman came down the compan-
ionway:
Turn out on deck and give a hand
loading the horses. Look alive or I'll
come down there and rouse you out
pretty - - quick"
i have been in a cavalry regiment
when hurry-up orders were received to
entrain for the Mexican border and
helped to load eleven hundred horses
on trains. The confusion on that dock
was Understandable. The horses were
loaded by three runways. My gang
and | were detailed on the after run
way. The foreman was leaning over
the rail, glaring down upon us and |
now and then giving instructions mixed |
with horrible oaths. He had huge |
I'm his hand. On the dock |
was the second foreman, In his large
red neckerchief around
his neck, wearing blue shirt with the
sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and
In his right hand colled lariat. 1t
did ones heart good to see him rope
the horses which broke loose. Upon
wntching his first performance l knew
was correct when / figured him as
having Mexican blood in his veins.
A bleary-eyed drunk was trying to
cad horse by the halter up our run.
He was looking back at the horse, at
he same time Juggling and jerking on
he halter. You could see the white
n the horses eyes, and / knew right
~ - CAd w tARtiitntt WIFI uOISGS,
hat this was a bad one, or, as we
would term him in the cavalry, an
outlaw" The drunk was cursing and
wearing and kicking up at the horses
'ead. The foreman saw this and di-
ected his barrage at the offender.
"flow In HI do you expect to lead
horse while looking at him? Turn
our back to him, you lousy bum. You
re blocking the whole run. Turn
our back to him, I say. You can't ;
'ad him that way. If l come down
here to you. I'll soon show you how 9
, get him aboard"
The bleary-eyed one became bewil- I
cred and In his excitement lost his {
'oting on the slippery runway and fell u
nderneath the horse, at the same time {
oscning his hold on the halter chain. Il
he horse jerked his head loose, reared
,, turned around and made break 81
r the deck. The man on the gangway o.
led to scramble out of the way. The fl
rise, in wheeling. let fly with both Il
'els and caught him below the right v,
r with his near hind foot With a t
ercing shrek the drunk clasped both OF