The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1921-06-16

Qeur OF IL an; the lanQ Wnere IN mid
winter the perishing blasts came down
from the north, shrinking up the
earth till the ground heaved and
cracked like contracting ice on a
pond, and the mercury hung for days
between the bulb and the zero mark.
Wonderful land! Grand Suggesting
for that glorious drama-"The Win
ming of the Vest" Grand properties,
too. The waning herds of buffalo, the
big game, the bull teams trekking out
from the railroad to the Hills, the
stage coach with it's plunging team,
the wild broncho, the lariat, the sag
ging cartridge belt and gun. There
were wonderful players upon the
stage,-Roosevelt, Gaul, Jud LaMour,
Sitting Bull! Scores of humber NOR
tails were her,-each taking his mart
with equal virile zest. The college
man from the East, touching elbows
with the outlaw who had left splotch
of blood somewhere along the trail;
the stold Indian; the cowpuncher, the
most picturesque man of his time.
The pioneer doctor, often in the
center of the stage, played his part
and played it we'll. He rode out into
the night when the clouds yelled the
stars, careless alike of binding sleet
or drifting snow. He rode at grilling
speed until his horse, taxed to extreme
fatigue, stood with heaving sides and
nose dropping to the ground; then
he caught another and rode on. He
rode relays to ranch way out yon-
der on the prairie, over course of
hundred miles at speed that seemed
Incredible at the end of his
journey operated, for gun-shot
wound or cruelty broken bone, on the
box of a mess-wagon turned upside
down on the prairie. He sterilized his
instruments in Dutchoven, and gave
his own anesthetic. No skilled assist
ant here! No council! No white-clad
nurse! He drank black coffee to
steady his shaking hand and searched
his soul for support, that the opera
ton might be we'll done. His tired
up in a "tarp" for few hours need
full rest and slept the sleep that only
exhaustion may know. He turned out
in the early morning when the stars
were yet shining, and drank his coffee
and ate his bacon and hot biscuits
while the gray dawn was streaking
the East.
His breakfast finished, he mounted
his horse with stiffened limbs, and
rode back over the trail where but a
few hours before he had come at such
urgent speed, his body swaying in the
saddle from fatigue, his head nodding
from lack of sleep. The bride rein is
slack; the cruel spur withheld. The
scent of the damp prairie is in his
nostrils, the cadence of the liquid
notes of the meadow lark in his ears.
The mist is hanging low in the coulees
and the sun coming up over the east
ern rim of the world is bridging the
valleys with beams of gold. He picks
up his relay mounts at the ranches
where they had been left, and rides
leisurely home.
The weary trip was done, another
on the morrow perhaps-many of
them during the varying days Of the
year. Sometimes he rode alone;
sometimes with guide riding at his
side. He knew the landmarks through
the radius of hundred miles and
was rarely lost. At. night, when the
trail grew faint, he held his course
by the guiding stars. When the un-
expected blizzard swept down upon
him and the drifting snow hid the
trail, he sought brush patch in a
coulee and tramped back and forth,
lest he should sleep, till the storm
was spent. His brain was stocked
with all the cannie knowledge Of the
plainsman. Exacting toll had tough
ened his muscles and life in the open
had built up within him the resistance
Of an athlete. He, was not only
physician, he was a councilor,-a
friend. He shared the lives of those
who lived in the lonesome places and
his heart went out in sympathy for
the hard conditions Of their lives. His
practice often embraced territory as
large as New England state. Te-
dious trips on his errands of mercy
made him stranger in his own home.
His work was hard and his reward
small; but he loved it and would not
have changed if he could. He lived
life of wholesome usefulness and
richly deserved the honor and respect
that was bestowed upon him. Some
times when the battle with death had
failed, he tarried on and helped pre-
pare the dead, and perhaps upon the
morrow, read the burial service
("Ashes to ashes, dust to dusty, as
the rude box was lowered into the
grave on the wind-swept prairie.
Later on when the trail crossings
had been made passable and light We
hicles introduced, he made his rounds
with pair of leaping bronchos hitch
ed to a blackboard, and later still with
closed top buggy the fatigue of the
journey was much reduced. However,
he was never completely weaned from
a saddle horse, and even to this day
gets the keenest pleasure from a
brisk ride over the prairie when the
moist sod gives under his rorse's feet
and the air is hazy and the fresh
winds sweep over the plains.
His early training was lacking in
clinical experience, hospital training,
modern equipment, and all the many
other things that today send men
forth from the schools into medical
practice so capably prepared. But he
had courage, resourcefulness, adapta-
bility. He carried into his days work
all that scientific medicine Of the time
had to offer. His library held the
most recent medical books and he read
the best medical literature. The faith
that a trustful clientele had in him,
spurred him TO extreme effort. He
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