Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1920-09-29
sWoRE BY TEDDY
Yellowstone Park Rangers With
Roosevelt to a Man.
eolonePs Characteristic GREETING of
oo"n-and-outer, Whom He Had
Known In Happier Days, Is
stu Remembered

VI the few out-of-season visits paid
10 the Yellowstone, that of Colonel
roosevelt who, when president, spent
"a days Of the late winter os 1ooo
there. has the most prominent mage N
tne annals of the Spread Eagle rangers
lie found the scouts. then serving as
cnaperons for luckless cavalry troop
ers and doing their own work besides.
10 De men after his own heart. and did
not hesitate to say so. Before he bad
oeeh In the park week every ranger
was,swearing by him.
Anybody know the whereabouts NJ
one William Jones?" was one of the
colonel's early inquiries.
Jim Mcbride, the preesnt chief
ranger, who was then assistant chief
OF the park scouts under the late Buff
faio Jones, knew a Bin Jones. wood
chopper and neer-do-well. chiefly re-
markable for an Unsuitable thirst and
knack of ministering to it in a bone
dry park. He was about the last man
IN the Rockies for whom president Of
the United States would be expected
to inquire.
"Bill put me into Office once said
Roosevelt. II want to see him, drunk
or sober
He further explained that the dere-
llct had been sheriff during his own
days as a Fanchman and had made him
a deputy in horsethlef posse.
SIT fnpl- thru dave a.
horned toad and bring him in" said
Mcbride, In recalling the incident.
but just to listen In at the colonel's
hearty greeting of that down-and-out-
er was pay in full.
"Well. Ted, you got a right swell
job since l seen you last, Jones re-
marked when they had exchanged
how'd'ye-do's; but that needn't stand
between friends-I got something on
my hip
Colonel Roosevelt didn't partake,
but he did spend the best part of an
hour swapping yarns of the days when
Bill was a white man and sheriff of
his county. The woodchopper tried to
buck up after his talk with the presi-
dent but Ii wasn't to he done. The
next winter we found him dead in the
brush over on Bear creek.
The colonel was enthusiastic over
the sport of ski running, and was
something of a performer on the slabs
himself. for novice. He strapped his
feet into them as often as opportunity
offered. One morning on slide near
the Canon hotel he broke one ski and
came heavy cropper.
The government has fallen at
lastv he cried with a molar showing
grin, as / coasted down to help I'M
tangle a living president and a pair
of dead sticks.
He was looking at the wreck he
had made Of the hickory slabs when
Capt. John Pitcher OF the First cav
airy then in~command of the park, ar
rived.
Have you plenty of theseT Teddy
said.
only a few pairs, and they are
the property of the interior depart
ment," replied the officer.
In less than three weeks there came
a rush shipment Of hundred pairs.
Next afternoon the president chal-
lenged me to a race on snow shoes
from Canyon to Mammoth, a distance
of thirty-one miles. Those with him
decided that the trip would be an I'M
wise strain upon him. and began to
argue against his attempting 1t. He
got me to one side after while and
whispered:
"well let them talk, Mcbride. Just
you stick around until midnight
They'll be asleep then, and well hit
the trallr
at took Harry W. Child and Cap
tain Pitcher two hours to talk him out
of that. He wasn't at all pleased at
having to veto his own plan for
secret departure. Ethel and James
Dorrance in Munsey's Magazine.
II ID