The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-04-16

Lon with his trusty old Graflex, snap
ping merrily ava and %oblivious to
flying hoofs, berserker bulls and pull
chritudinous cowgirlS.
Do not get him wrong though about
the girls. Women play a large part in
Cooks professional life. A glance at
the fair forms that sprinkle his pho
tographic Sticks is proof of this. Cook
knows what a lady's knees will do to
an art editor, and the ladies after a
session Of posing for Cook usually Sc
riously consider taking up aesthetic
dancing.
Once Cook travelled $50 miles to snap
a series Of ranch life pictures. Upon
his return to Seattle he discovered that
through his failure to pull the proper
slide on a strange camera his plates
were uneXposed. He Immediately re-
turned to the scene of action and again
put every living creature on the place
through its PAGES. Think of it! Six
hundred miles for n story-a story
which appeared in a limited number Of
northwest newspapers and whose &C
companying art did not even bear
Cooks name; just a SiX-point line Say-
ing: Courtesy The Milwaukee Road"
One day a tinkling telephone in.
formed Cook that friends had arrived
from the Montana range. A hurried trip
w q Ny 4ASSSAs oA4o NJ WIN Pt~SS
such a reunion as could only be pos
sible in fiction. 1t was Hell Roarin'
Jones and wife from Miles City. Mon
tana.
Why. Lon, you ole Maverick" wept
He'll Roarin'.
You OLE Singing Lizard" came the
response.
The two embraced and whacked each
other between the shoulder blades. It
sounded like a kettle drum player on
trial with a symphony orchestra. The
two broke clean and circled like two
strange gamecocks just before the first
blow. Suddenly they clinched again.
Hell Roarin' you're a cure for YER
tigo and liver spots before the eyes,"
crooned Cook.
why you salivated dose of Leprosy
Liniment," crowed He'll Roarin'.
Words, mere words, can not do justice
to the remainder of this greeting. Any
how city editors could only use aster-
iSkS from here on.
which are invited gentlemen of the
Fourth Estate. So famous have these
Cook parties become that hard- boiled
news hawks and desk men fight for
invitations. These affairs are to the
northwest what the famous Gridiron
club and Lambs club frolics are to the
east.
SOOh correspondence llle COlILdllIS
letters from the late Will Rogers, Mae
West, William Hart and other prom
inent Hollywood artists.
LeonidaS Cook a born in Missouri
during the reconstruction period, fol-
lowing the War of The Rebellion. His
father was a member of Quantrill's
guerillas, composed mostly of those
self-styled border ruffians who claimed
to be persons of terrible experiences
who could, scream louder, jump high
er. shoot closer, get more drunk at
night, and wake up more sober in the
morning than any other human this
you don't believe it," challenged they,
its easy I am to whup stranger. I
am, Just pitch in, will you, and don't
stand on ceremony" g.
Cooks boyhood ambition was to be
a b~uggy-whip salesman. He modified
this later and day-dreamed about join
ing up with the James Boys of Mis-
souri,. He finally compromised between
the two professions by selling groceries
for wholesalers out of St. Louis and
Kansas City-and this in a day when
sample cases were carried from village
to village via horse and buggy, and
Gratis Of that picturesque era known as
the gay nineties." ~
The years between" venturing with
a telegraph key, and he still holds the
worlds record for fast sending over
the old-time leased press wire. Then
there was a commercial venture with
q chain of waffle shops about which
Cook says: Il got out from under lust
a assn the eating, public's yen for wafflea
! Here he is today. chasing pictures