The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1919-03-21

to be in the last stages Of consumption.
told the old fellow t. cut out his
argument and leave the other fellow
alone. Upon hearing this he squirted
Z well-directed stream Of tobacco juice
through his front teeth, which landed
on my shoe. inwardly admired and
respected his accuracy. + saw my au-
thority waning and knew that would
have to answer this insult quickly. l
took two or three quick steps forward
and swung on his Jaw with my fist
His head went up against the iron
bunk with a sickening sound and he
crumpled up and fell on the deck, the
blood pouring from the cut in his head
/ felt sick and faint thinking that he
had been killed, but 1t would not do
to show these signs of weakness on
my part, SO without even moving to-
ward him l ordered one of the men to
look him over and see II he was all
right. He soon came around. From
that time on he was the most faithful
man In the section and greatly respect
and mumbled and l thought was In
for terrible beating. Lying close at
hand was an Iron spike about eighteen
inches long Grasping this. turned to
the rest, trying to be as tough as
possibly could:
IF an, Of the rest Of you buns
think they are boss around here, start
something, and l will sink this into
his heal" Although l was quailing
underneath, still got away with 1t,
and from that time on 1 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 hand
loading the horses. Look alive or I'll
come down there and rouse you out
pretty - quick"
/ have been In 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 indescribable. The horses were
loaded by three runways. My gang
and l 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
vS-if Ia II
marlinspike in his hand On the dock
was the second foreman, In his large
sombrero, a red neckerchief around
his neck, wearing blue shirt with the
sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and
In his right hand a coiled lariat. 1t
die ones heart good to see him rope
the horses which broke loose. Upon
watching his first performance knew
l was correct when l figured him as
having Mexican blood in his veins.
A bleary-eyed drunk was trying to
lead a horse by the halter up our run
He was looking back at the horse, at
the same time tugging and jerking on
the halter. You could see the white
in the horses eyes, and l knew right
away, from my experience with horses,
that this was a bad one, or, as we
would term him in the cavalry, an
outlaw" The drunk was cursing and
swearing and kicking up at the horses
head. The foreman saw this and d.
rected his barrage at the offender.
"How In HI do you expect to lead
horse while looking at him? Turn
your back to him, you lousy bum. You
are blocking the whole run. Turn
your back to him, l say. You can't
lead him that way. If l come down
there to you, I'll soon show you how
to get him aboard"
The bleary-eyed one became bewil-
-dered and In his excitement lost his
footing on the slippery runway and fell
underneath the horse, at the same time
loosening his hold on the halter chain.
The horse jerked his head loose, reared
up, turned around and made break
for the deck. The man on the gangway
tried to scramble out of the way. The
horse. in wheeling, let fly with both
heels and caught him below the right
ear with his near hind foot. With
piercing shrek the drunk clasped both