The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-01-15

had their troubles, and to an extent
which sometimes reacted to n
discomfort of their customers,
whose pains and aches they were
supposed to allay by the application
of various Inducements carried in
their necessarily scanty stocks OF
goods.
One such incident occurred at old
CoulSon, predecessor to the city OF
Billings, when cayenne pepper, as an
unsupported ingredient in a flaXSeed
poultice made the late Col. A. L.. Bah
cock forget all about the lesser torture
of a boil that he was treating with an
application of the old-fashioned rem
edy which, in its way, had as much to
do with winning the western wilder
ness as did rifles and shotguns.
only drug store in Coulson was that
housed in a tent and operated by A. S.
Shannon and w. E. Hull under the
firm name of Shannon & Hull.
Coulson was located on the bank of
the Yellowstone river. It had adjacent
to it up and down the valley a wide
sweep of sagebrush flats over which
times with hurricane velocity. One such
windstorm tumbled over most of the
tents in Coulson, which was chiefly a
tent. city. The only buildings were Nc
AdoW'S general store. the National no.
tel. operated by Dewey & Brown. the
Headquarters saloon, and a couple OF
small residences.
Drugs Swept Into Heap
When the wind got through playing
tag upon this particular occasion, the
tent drug store vas a wreck. Contain
ers of all descriptions, bottles, boxes
and drawers were generally mixed
when a couple Of shelves collapsed and
their contents scattered over the
ground. One of the containers falling
with the shelves held the stores supply
of flaXseed. and another the cayenne
pepper. Calomel, quinine and castor
oil were pretty generally messed up.
MI. Shannon. who related the story
afterwards. said that he rescued what
he could Of the scrambled drugs. Some
of them. however, were irretrievably
ruined. Quantities of the others were
saved and replaced in their bottles,
boxes or bags, as the case might be.
Among the latter was the flaXseed.
Then came Colonel Babcock and his
to make a poultice. His order was filled.
Shannon knew the cayenne pepper had
got into the flaXseed, as we'll as into
some of the other drugs, but he had
blown and picked at it until he thought
he had it all out.
But he hadn't. Colonel Babcock. how
ever. didn't know that. He made his
poultice. or had it made, and ap-
piled it.
A Counter Irritant
The boil didn't count after that. The
irritation which attended application
of the cayenne seasoned poultice wiped
the boil completely from the picture.
The colonel hobbled back to the tent
store and demanded to know what kind
of flaXseed had been given him, and
Shannon, after scratching his head, eX-
planned about the pepper.
Colonel Babcock couldn't sit down
for a week afterwards" said Shannon
in telling of the incident. II told him
that something extra strong was needed
to do him any good. But he never for
gave me-"
Colonel Babcock was afterwards and
for many years head of the Yellowstone
National bank in Billings and was
one Of southern Montana's leading
financiers.
Fort Pierre-Robbers' Meal Ticket
Shannon, before coming to Montana,
had been a drug clerk in Minnesota and
he and Hull had owned a store at Fort
Pierre, Dakota territory. Shannon al
ways said that Fort Pierre at that time
was a tougher place than Coulson ever
was. During the two years he and Hull
were in business at Fort Pierre every
other business house in town was held
up at least once.
In their drug store, Shannon and
Hull had screened off a portion which
they used as sleeping quarters. If q
late customer called them from bed,
Shannon went from behind the screen
to admit the patron and wait on him.
while Hull remained behind the screen
with a double barreled shotgun rest
ing across a dry goods box pointed in
the general direction of the visitor.
The plan of operation was that if
the customer turned out to be a holdup
man, Shannon would drop to the floor
and his partner would NOV down the
enemy with his shotgun.
Word of the n in which they
handled their midnight customers got
about town, and they were never mo-
Tested during their stay in that place.
Shannon, however, although possess
ing sufficient nerve to take care of
himself and his store, was no trouble
hunter. Once when he was sitting on
a log guard rail that had been erected
as a protection in front of his Coulson
tent drug store, 3; couple of drunken
cowboys came Whooping down the
street on horseback. n of them way