USA > Kansas > Ford County > Dodge City > Dodge City, the cowboy capital, and the great Southwest in the days of the wild Indian, the buffalo, the cowboy, dance halls, gambling halls and bad men > Part 16
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While much of the history connected with the buf- falo is nothing but a record of hardships, fighting, and
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slaughter of various sorts, there is a brighter tinge to it, now and then, and sometimes its incidents are even laugh- able, as the story of Harris' ring performance with the bull buffalo, in another chapter, can testify. In many ways, the buffalo was much like domestic cattle in their nature. They could be tamed, handled, and trusted to the same extent. At one time, in Dodge City's early days, Mr. Reynolds had two very tame, two-year-old buffaloes. They were so exceedingly tame and docile that they came right into the back yards, and poked their noses into the kitchen doors, for bread and other eatables.
There came a large troupe to Dodge City, to play a week's engagement at our nice little opera house, just built. They had a big flashy band of about twenty-four pieces, their dress was very gaudy, indeed-like Jacob's coat, made up of many colors-and their instruments, as well as their uniforms, were very brilliant; so much so that they attracted great attention, and I presume their flashy appearance also attracted the attention of the two tame buffaloes, who took exceptions to the noise and ap- pearance, and they took their time and opportunity to resent it.
The band leader was a great tall man, and he had a big bear-skin cap, a baton, and all the shiny regalia they generally wear. Now, as this big bang was strung out, coming down Bridge Street, playing for all that was out, those two buffaloes were listening in their back yard, and began to snort and show other signs of restlessness. The band leader stepped out of the ranks, shook his baton, and flourished it right in the buffaloes' faces. This was too much-or more than the buffaloes could stand, and they made a vicious charge at the fellow. With heads lowered, they made for him, and of course he ran right into his band, the buffaloes following with nostrils dis- tended and blood in their eyes. The waterworks had the street all torn up, a big ditch full of water in the middle of the street, and a picket fence on each side.
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On charged the buffaloes, horning and plunging into everything in sight. The big bass drum was thrown up into the air, and, as it came down, the buffaloes went for it, as well as for the members of the band, and such a scatterment you never saw. Some took the fence; some took the ditch; all threw away their instruments; some had the seats of their pants torn out; the drum major lost his big hat; and there were those who took the fence, roosting there on the pickets, holloing like good fellows to be rescued.
Now this might have been the last of it; but that night, when the buffalo charge had been forgotten, and the band was drawn up in the street, playing in front of the opera house before the performance, some mis- chievous persons led the two buffaloes down, and turned them loose in the rear of that band, with a big send off, driving them right into the thickets of the band. This was enough. They not only threw away their instru- ments, but took to their heels, shouting and holloing, almost paralyzed with fear.
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CHAPTER XI. Joking with Powder and Ball
A S has been said, the well-behaved stranger, visiting Dodge City in the old days, was always treated courteously and never molested; on the other hand, how- ever, the stranger entering town in quarrelsome, patroniz- ing, critical, or any other boldly flaunted mood, distaste- ful to the resident citizens, was quite likely to receive a swift and severe check to his propensities, by being made the butt of some prank, designed to cure him forever of his offensive quality. In like manner, if one of the resi- dent citizen chanced to assume undue airs or otherwise conduct himself in a way not strictly in accordance with the popular idea of what was comely, he was a certain candidate for some practical joke which would speedily show him the error of his ways, and even punish him for it. That such pranks and jokes were neither gentle nor considerate of the feelings of the victims, need not be said. Indeed, the humor of those wild days was often almost as startling and nerve-testing, as its warfare was desperate and its adventures were thrilling.
Our boys were in possession of a great many Indian trophies which they had captured at the adobe wall fight. Among them were war bonnets, shields, bows and arrows, and quivers; and when twenty or more of them would don these costumes and mount their horses, also decorated with Indian fixings, at a short distance, they appeared like the Simon-pure stuff.
If a young man came to Dodge, bragging that he would like to participate in an Indian fight, he would surely get it. Once a young man, who is now a merchant in Kansas City, arrived, and expressed himself as eager to meet hostile Indians. The boys invited him to an ante- lope hunt. Antelope were plentiful then. Young men
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in Indian costume quietly slipped out ahead. A dozen or more went along with the visitor. After proceeding ten or twelve miles his companions commenced to brace the stranger up by saying: "We had better keep a sharp lookout. Indians have been in this vicinity lately, and they say they are the 'dog soldiers,' the worst on the plains." Then they told him a few blood curdling stories about horrible atrocities, just to keep up his courage. At this junction from out of the arroyo came the most un- earthly yells, and at the same time the twenty men dashed out. The boaster fled precipitately, coming into town on the dead run, yelling to every one he saw to get his gun; the town would soon be attacked by a thousand Indians; all the other boys were killed and he had a narrow escape; to send at once to the fort for the Gatling gun and the soldiers to defend the town, as he was sure they would take it if they didn't get assistance. This young man was easily scared; but one time they got the wrong rooster. When they ran up close to him and commenced firing at short range, (and this man Pappard) of whom I spoke before, was one of those who did it), he found his horse could not outrun the others and stopped and commenced firing back. Peppard said he heard one bullet whiz right by his head, and had enough and quit. After Peppard got in, he said it was a put-up job to get him killed, and wanted to murder the whole outfit.
Above Dodge, and nearly adjoining thereto, was a large marsh grown up with brush and high grass. Many times was the unsuspecting stranger and the young unso- phisticated traveling man invited to a snipe hunt, and with sack and lantern trudged away with bounding hopes and a stomach fairly yearning for the delicious feast awaiting him next morning at breakfast, instead of the tough buffalo meat. When they got to the swamp, they would place the traveling man on a path leading into the swamp, tell him to spread his sack open with a hoop, and have his lantern at the mouth of the sack. The snipe
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would see the light and run right into the sack; and as soon as the sack was full, it was to be closed. In the meantime, they would go up and beat all around the swamp and drive the snipe down to his trap. Of course, they would come home and leave the traveling man hold- ing the sack. Some of the hunters would find their way back that same night; others came in in the morning.
Along in the early years of Dodge City's existence, a doctor from the east, a specialist in venereal and private diseases, wrote persistently to our postmaster and others, to know if it was not a good field for his practice. Some of the gang got hold of his letters and wrote him that the town was overrun with disease, that even our ministers were not free, and that more than half the people were suffering. Anyhow, they made out a frightful condition our people were in and that it had got beyond our physi- cians, and to come at once if he wanted to make a for- . tune. They signed one letter, "Sim Dip, Ed Slump"; and another, "Blue Pete".
Now, if the man had had any gumption, he would have known these were fictitious names, but he took the bait and away he came. On his arrival he hunted up Sim Dip and Blue Pete. Of course he was introduced to these gentlemen. They came to me for the key and the loan of the Lady Gay Theater, a large old building. At first I refused, but they promised to do no harm, or only to scare the fellow and have some fun. They printed and put out their notices and in the afternoon started two boys with bells to ring up the town, which they did effectually, judging by the crowd assembled that night. The house was crammed and jammed from the door to the stage. Bat Masterson was on one side of the doctor and Wyat Erb on the other, with Jack Bridges and other gun men sitting around on the stage in chairs.
The doctor had only got on a little way in his lecture when some on in the audience called him a liar. He stopped and said to Bat, "What is that? I don't under-
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Ottimavisas River at Dodg
THE OLD BRIDGE This bridge was replaced, several years ago, by a magnificent steel bridge.
stand." Bat got up, pulled his gun in front, and said: . "I will kill the first man that interrupts this gentleman again." The lecturer had not gone much farther when some one again called him a vile name. Bat and Wyat both got up and said: "This gentleman is a friend of ours, you want to understand that, and the next time he is interrupted we will begin shooting and we will shoot to kill." He had not gone much further in his talk when some one in the audience said, "You lie, you s- of a b -! "
Bat, Wyat, and Bridges all arose and began shooting at the same time. First they shot out the lights and my! what a stampede began. The people not only fell over each other, but they tumbled over each other, and rolled over, and trampled each other under foot. Some reached the doors, others took the windows, sash and all, and it was only a short time till darkness and quiet reigned in the Lady Gay. Only the smell of powder and a dense smoke was to be seen, coming out the windows and doors.
There was a broken-down, tin-horn gambler by the name of Dalton, a total wreck from morphine and whisky, whose avocation was a sure-thing game, and his specialty was robbing the stiffs (as the dead bodies were called), and he was an expert at this. Dalton happened to be asleep when this occurred, in a room back of the stage, but the noise and shooting awakened him. He lo- cated the place at once from the pistol smoke coming through the windows, and was sure there must be stiffs in the building after so much shooting.
I must interpolate here, there was scarcely any one of that big audience who were wise to the lecture, but nearly all thought everything was straight and, when the shooting began, thought, as a matter of course, it was a genuine shooting scrape, and they could not get away from the scene of action fast enough or far enough, but kept on running in the opposite direction and never look- ing back. Now this lecturer thought as the audience did
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and, as soon as the firing began, he ducked down under a table in front of the platform and there he lay, as still as a mouse, for fear someone would find him and kill him yet.
Mr. Dalton crawled along the floor on his belly, hunting the stiffs. When he came to the table, of course he felt the stiff underneath and proceeded to divest him of his wealth. But the lecturer gave one mighty spring, threw Dalton over to one side, and jumped up and ran for dear life holloing, "Murder! Thieves!" and everything else, as loud as he could bawl. Dalton, equally scared to have a stiff come to life and pitch him off, just as he was about to rob him, took to his heels the other way. That was the last seen of the lecturer that night; he sneaked off and hid out.
The next morning Sim Dip and Blue Pete waited on him and told him a fine story-how sorry they were, but if he would stay over that night, they would assure him a fine audience and ample protection to his meeting, and he, never dreaming but what it was all on the square. stayed.
The gang wanted to know of me if ten pounds of powder would hurt him. I told them a pound would kill him if it was rightly confined. This put me on my guard and, just before dark, I found out they were going to place a big lot of powder under the box on which he was going to lecture, and I knew it would blow him up and maybe kill him. So I sent to him privately and said: "My friend, you don't know what you are up against. Get on the local freight, which leaves here inside an hour, and never stop until you get back to your own Illinois, because you are not fit to be so far away from home without a guardian." When the gang was certain he was gone, they touched a match to the fuse they had con- nected with the powder under the box, and blew it to kingdom come. It went way up in the air and came down
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a mass of kindling wood. When the boys saw the result, they were glad they did not carry the joke any further.
Soon after the little town of Jetmore, the county seat of Hodgeman County, twenty-five miles north of Dodge City, was started, a man who resided in that neighbor- hood walked to Dodge. He said he came to see the sights, the rows, and ructions, which he had heard of, that were a daily occurrence in Dodge.
After "histing" in a few big drinks that the boys had treated him to, he was full of Dutch courage, said he was wild and woolly and hard to curry, that he could whip his weight in wildcats, and the gang could not start anything too rough for him, and the sooner he got action the better it would suit him. He was a tall, lank, slab- sided galoot-one of those overgrown, loose-jointed speci- mens of humanity, without muscle, brawn, or brains, all blow and bluster, and a weak coward one could see by his looks.
The gang saw at once there was more chance for fun than a fight, and they took him in hand and treated him accordingly. He was very poorly dressed, his pants stuck down in his old boots, an old, flap-down, dirty white hat, and a long, dirty, drab duster for a coat. This duster had once been white, but was now so ragged and dirty you could scarce tell what color it had been. Well, it was not worth two bits, and his old wollen shirt was no better. The boys soon found him a freak from way back, and, as usual, the gang was flush, and you never struck a more liberal crowd when they had money. It was, "Come on boys! brace up to the bar and name your poison," and it was their especial delight to entertain strangers.
The man from Jetmore was no exception. As fast as one would treat him another would step to the front, but it was just like pouring water down a rat hole; and, while he was drinking, someone would set his duster on fire, and I expect a dozen times they came near burning him up, until the old duster was completely used up. Of
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course, the man would rave and swear and go on at a terrible rate, threatening the ones who set the fire with all kinds of punishment, if he only knew who they were. They then bought him a new duster, but he took it so hard and raised such a row that this duster shared the same fate as the old one, until they had bought him three or four. Besides burning his duster, they had all sorts of fun with him-had gun plays with blank cartridges, but of course the man didn't know they were blank, and they frightened him nearly to death.
When they found there was no fight in him at all, they persuaded him to have these parties arrested, and, sure enough, they made several arrests for the man, ap- pointed a sheriff, empaneled a jury, and held court that night in one of the principal saloons. There were several bright young lawyers in Dodge, and they were anxious for the play, and let me say right here, there was much wit and argument and repartee displayed on both sides. It was really a great treat to hear the witty arguments that each side put up, as well as the eloquence that flowed spontaneously from these lawyers over nothing. The twelve jurors were selected with all the decorum a regular court would exact. They were seated in chairs on a raised platform, they erected a rostrum for the judge, a box for the prisoner, and a seat for the witness. When- ever a good point was made by either side, someone pro- posed a drink for all hands; judge, jury, prisoner, and witness, as well as the general crowd, all planted their stomachs up to the bar and were helped.
Soon, with the constant drinking, the crowd began to get hilarious, and began to pelt the witness, the prisoner, the sheriff, and the jury with eggs. They were fresh, (they could get no bad ones), and they kept that crowd dodging. First one and then another, and then the sheriff, the witness, and the jury would get it all together. I tell you, the eggs fell around there as thick as hail, and no one would seem to be hit who was looking; they were
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always taken by surprise. The judge sat there on his platform and just shook with laughter until the tears came out of his eyes. I never did see a more tickled man. He just enjoyed that fun more than anyone in the crowd. He was nicely dressed and well gotten up for the occasion, very slow and dignified, except when he gave way to laughter.
When the egging had been going on some time, I took several of the boys outside and said: "This is too good for the judge; why not give him some of the chicken pie? We're not giving him a fair deal. It is a shame to neglect him; he might feel offended. He ought to have his share of the hen fruit." The idea caught and they went back loaded. The judge was giving in his wise opinion on a point when, whang! an egg took him in the forehead and then another came. He took out his fine, large, white silk handkerchief and said: "This may be real funny to you, but d-d if I see any fun in it. You all think yourselves mighty smart!" This was too much and they just showered him, pelted him from head to foot. He got down, put on his hat, and walked out as mad as a bull, and never more was seen down town after night. It cured him completely of playing his jokes. He had been, up to that time, one of the greatest jokers Dodge City ever had, but, while he de- lighted in playing them on others, it made him hot to have jokes played on him. He was one of those who couldn't stand a joke. He caught the writer asleep one day, and succeeded in handcuffing him, and I had to get the services of a blacksmith. Still, he was an all around good fellow, God bless his soul! and was beloved by every one who knew him.
Among the first signal officers sent to Dodge was Sergeant W. W. Wimberg, an innocent, nice, polite gen- tleman, but what a greenhorn! and he richly deserved the name-as green as a gourd. The gang soon got on to this, and what pranks they did play on him!
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He was taking a young lady, on whom he was much struck, home from a dance one night, to the west part of the town, when the boys jumped out of a hollow and began firing their guns. The young lady, I think, was wise to the job, but Wimberg never bade that young lady goodnight; he stood not on the question of going, but, without looking to the east or west, he turned tail and just flew.
Mr. A. B. Webster took it upon himself to avenge the insult to the lady, said his conduct was unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, and next day challenged the sergeant. He-the sergeant-took the matter up before the commanding officer at Fort Dodge, who was onto the joke and in with the boys. He promptly told Wim- berg he must accept the challenge and fight Webster. He said the dignity of the army must be maintained at all hazards, but referred him to General Pope, the Com- mander of the Department of the Missouri, at Fort Leav- enworth, saying he must consult the general by wire. The gang had the operator fixed, so when Wimberg tele- graphed General Pope, of course the message never went, but General Pope's answer was prompt and to the point: "You must fight, by all means. The dignity of the army must be maintained, or resign at once." Of course, the poor fellow was in a great dilemma, and of the two evils he chose the least and wrote out his resignation, when mutual friends interfered and stopped the duel.
They had charades at Dodge, and the sergeant was generally head man. They got him to deliver a darkey speech, and of course he had to black up for the occasion, so they put shellac or some kind of substance into the blacking, which, when dried, could not be rubbed off nor washed off, and this poor fellow had to keep his room until the blacking wore off his face.
Once they were moving a house, just outside the back door of which there was a large sink hole, filled with vile filth, and this sink was lightly covered up to stop the
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smell. An idea struck the gang, and they got Wimberg next to this door, while right across the street opposite the back door they started to shooting. Some one threw open the back door, exclaiming, "There is murder going on!" Wimberg was very excited, and this was enough for him. He made a big jump and landed in that vile filth, up to his neck, and he could not get out without assistance. He always was neatly dressed, but this day, I think he had on a white suit. He was so hounded by these rough jokes that he asked to be changed, and the boys lost their game, much to their sorrow.
Once upon a time, a long while ago, when Dodge was young and very wicked, there came a man to town, an itinerant preacher. In the present age you would call him an evangelist. Well, anyway, he possessed a wonder- ful magnetic power, he was marvelously gifted that way; he would cast his spell over the people, and draw crowds that no one ever dreamed of doing before, in fact he captured some of the toughest of the toughs of wicked Dodge, and from the very first he set his heart on the capture of one Dave Mathews-alias, Mysterious Dave- who was city marshal at the time, said to be a very wicked man, a killer of killers. And it was and is an undoubted fact that Dave had more dead men to his credit, at that time, than any other man in the west. Seven by actual count in one night, in one house, and all at one sitting. Indeed he was more remarkable in his way than the preacher was in his.
Well, as I said, he set his heart on Dave, and he went after him regularly every morning, much to the disgust of Dave. Indeed he was so persistent, that Dave began to hate him. In the meantime, the people began to feel the power of the preacher, for he had about him an unexplainable something that they could not resist, and the one little lone church was so crowded they had to get another building, and this soon would not hold half the audience. Finally they got a large hall known as
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the "Lady Gay Dance Hall" and fitted it up with boards laid across empty boxes for seats. There was a small stage at the rear of the building, and on this was placed a goods box for a pulpit for the preacher. Now whether or not Dave had become infected by the general com- plaint that seized the people, or whether the earnest persistence of the preacher had captured him I know not. Anyhow, certain it was, he promised the preacher to attend the meeting that night, and certain it was, Dave would not break his word. He was never known to do that. If he promised a man he would kill him, Dave was sure to do it.
It was soon noised around by the old "he pillars" of the church, and the "she pillars" too that Dave was captured at last, and what a crowd turned out that night to see the wonderful work of God brought about through the agency of the preacher-the capture of Mysterious Dave.
Soon the hall was filled to its utmost capacity, and Dave, true to his promise, was seen to enter. He was at once conducted to the front, and given the seat of honor reserved for him in front of the preacher, and Oh! how that preacher preached straight at him. He told how wonderful was the ways of Providence in softening the heart of wicked Dave Mathews, and what rejoicing there would be in heaven over the conversion of such a man. Then he appealed to the faithful ones, the old "he pillars" of the church, and said to them, now he was ready to die. He had accomplished the one grand object of his life. He had converted the wickedest man in the country, and was willing now and at once to die, for he knew he would go right straight to heaven. Then he called upon the faithful ones to arise and give in their experience, which they did, each one singly, and said, they too, like the preacher, were willing to die right now and here, for they knew that they, too, would go right straight to heav- en for helping to carry out this great work. In fact, most
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of them said, like the preacher, that they wanted to die right now so they could all go to heaven rejoicing to- gether. Dave sat their silent with bowed head. He told me afterwards, he never in all his scrapes was in such a hot box in his life. He said he would much rather to have been in a hot all around fight with a dozen fellows popping at him all at once, than to have been there. He said he would have been more at ease, and felt more at home, and I expect he told the truth.
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