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 19
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There was an old man who picked bones and hauled them to Dodge. He had two very old, bony horses. They did not seem to have any life whatever, and the gang thought they would have fun out of the old man, so they asked him if his horses were for sale. Well, he would sell the horse but didn't want to sell the mare. They asked him if they had ever been locoed or would eat the loco weed. "No, indeed, sir! my horses were never known to touch it." "You have no objection to our trying them?" "No, indeed, sir; try them all you want to." So they took the horse out of the wagon, and some
one held a bunch of loco weed to the horse's head while another applied the hokey-poky. Now that old horse, like all the balance, just went crazy, and some one got around and applied the medicine to the mare, also, who was still hitched to the wagon. She took wagon, harness and everything along with her kicked out the front end of the wagon, and they liked never to have got her stopped, the way she turned that wagon around. The gang gave the old fellow a ten dollar bill, and he collected his scattered pieces of wagon and went after more bones, wondering what could have ailed the horses and made him lose a good sale.
The gang surely had great sport, until things got so bad there was an ordinance passed, prohibiting the sale of hokey-pokey.
One day two dagoes came to town, leading a very large bear. The bear sure was a good one, and performed many cute tricks. For such a tremendous animal, he was very active. When the gang had seen all they wanted of the bear's tricks, they hokey-pokied him, and we thought
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he was active before but we hadn't seen any of his activ- ity. That bear rolled and ran and squalled just like a human, and he cut up all manner of didoes. The Italians tried their best, at first, to soothe down his pain by petting him, but the bear would have none of it and carried on so outrageously that the Italians got afraid of him and retreated to a safe distance. Every once in awhile that bear would spy them and rush towards them, seeking relief, I suppose, but when the dagoes would see him coming with his mouth wide open and his eyes roll- ing they would turn and fly. They were afraid of his company, thinking he had gone mad. Well, when the effects wore off, Mr. Bear looked pretty sheepish, and the dagoes caught him by the chain and led him off out of sight into a cut, got a railroad tie, and the way they rubbed that bear's stomach, one on each side, until the sweat poured down their faces! I don't suppose they ever worked so hard before. You see, they thought the bear had eaten something that did not agree with him and he had the stomachache. When they got tired rub- ing, they brought him back, but Mr. Bear, as soon as he saw the crowd, jerked away and climbed a telegraph pole and sat there among the wires until the crowd dis- persed. He had more sense than his owners-he would not be hokey-pokied again.
Among the many favorite amusements, pastimes, and fun of the gang was to scare a greenhorn with a big stuffed bull snake. A party who kept a large establish- ment to entertain the thirsty and gratify the sports with billiards, cards, dice, and, in fact, it was a great and favorite resort for the lovers of fun; also, in his back yard he had a large wire cage, filled with big rattlesnakes. More than a dozen of these venomous reptiles occupied the cage and lived in peace and harmony, up to the fatal day which I shall tell about farther on.
Now then, it was the duty of some loafer or hanger-
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on around the saloon to go out and hunt up a greenhorn, invite him to a drink, then tell him about the big den of rattlers, and take him out and show him the snakes, relating an interesting history of this big rattler and that rattler, how they had bitten a man who died. When he had his auditor absorbed in the story, with his eyes bulged out, and attending to nothing else but the story of the big snakes, the story teller would suddenly say: "Bend your neck and look down there at that monster;" and when his man would bend his head and stoop over, someone would place the enormous stuffed snake on his neck, its tail and its head almost touching the ground from either side. Mr. Man, feeling the snake and, at the same time, seeing it, would give an ungodly whoop, bend his head, and keep jumping up and down, trying to shake it off over his head, instead of straightening up, as he ought to have done, when the snake would have dropped off his back. Then there would be a seance. The crowd would whoop and hollo, and the poor fellow would join them from fear and keep jumping up and down, until, finally, he would get rid of the terrible snake-it would drop off.
Now negroes fear snakes worse than any race of people on earth, and no sooner would the darkey get over his fright (when the victim chanced to be a darkey), than he would go out into the street and bring in another darkey to go through the same performance as himself. This was his mode of revenge.
One day an old fellow came along, traveling back east to his wife's folks, and he proved to be an easy victim of the gang, but in the end, it was an expense to them. After going through the same performance as the negro, they found he had a prairie dog in his wagon, which the boys persuaded him to let them put into the cage with the snakes, and they told the old man the dog would whip the snakes. They had no idea he would, but
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the little fellow made a gallant fight, I tell you. He made the attack and began the fight himself, as soon as he was placed with them, and, my! how he did fight. He just went for those snakes like a little tiger, would grab one in his teeth, lift it almost off the floor, and shake it sav- agely; and he just kept on until he got all those snakes so riled up, he set them crazy, and they all got to fighting and biting each other. The little dog would get so tired he would rush up the side of the cage and hold on for a little while, until he regained his wind, and then he would jump down and at 'em again, harder than ever. He did make a gallant fight and a long one. It surprised us all that he could last so long, but, finally, the little fellow began to weaken, and the old man declared the fight off. The prairie dog died soon after they took him out of the cage, but he got his revenge; next day there was not on of those dozen big rattlers alive. They must have poisoned each other in the fight. Anyhow, they were all dead-not one left alive to tell of the fight; the little prairie dog took them all with him to the happy hunting grounds. It was a fit ending for such a gallant fight as the little fellow made.
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CHAPTER XIV.
Where the Swindler Flourished and Grew Fat
W TITH its cosmopolitan crowds and free and easy life with the broad frontier for refuge close at hand, it was natural that Dodge City, in its early days, should be a fruitful field for the street fraud and professional swindler of every description. Probably, there was not a confidence game nor a fake proposition known, at that time, that was not worked to the full on the streets of Dodge City, and even the open-hearted kindness and liberality which so characterized the town in cases of distress and need, was often made material for dishonest manipulation, and the foundation for ill-gotten gains, by unprincipled individu- als.
So proverbial had the liberality of the citizens of Dodge City become that it was known for miles up and down the old Santa Fe trail. Unprincipled immigrants and strangers took advantage of it. For instance, a strong, hearty, middle-aged man, bronzed from exposure to the weather, and having other appearances of an honest, hard working, industrious man who was taking Horace Greeley's advice and moving west to better his condition, came into Dodge, one afternoon, hitched in harness by the side of a poor, old raw-boned horse, drawing a wagon in which was the younger portion of his family. The others were barefooted and walking. He claimed that his other horse got alkalied and died some distance down the river, which was a likely story, as they were lots of alkali pools in the river bottom. Some sympathetic per- sons went around with a hat in their hands and his hard- luck story on their tongues, and soon enough money was raised to buy him a good span of horses, grub for his family, and to pay his expenses for some time. He went on his way, saying in his heart, "What fools these people
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be! They have much more generosity than sense," for he had sent his hired man around north of town with two good horses, and we heard he was fairly well to do.
Another time, a poor family, with a dilapidated wagon and horses to match, the wagon full of children, rolled into Dodge and exhibited a dead baby and a sick mother. No money, no clothes, no food, and, as a Mexican says, "no nather." This was a piteous sight to behold, and soon the generous feeling, always slumbering in the hearts of the good people of Dodge, was aroused and they raised a subscription for a coffin and buried the little one, and gave the mother quite a snug little sum of money, and bought groceries for the family. That night they dug up the corpse and took it and the coffin to the next town, after filling up the grave. You see, it was a wax baby- a good imitation. We heard of them playing the same trick on other towns.
One morning in the early days of Dodge City, two gentlemen, elegantly dressed and groomed, made their appearance at the Long Branch saloon. One could see at a glance they were educated and refined, and both men had lovely manners and exceedingly great persuasive powers. They were quiet and unassuming, both were lib- eral spenders as well as drinkers, but they never were under the influence of liquor. It was only a short time until they had captivated a lot of friends, and I among the number. They were admirable story tellers. One we will call Doc Holiday, the other Creek. They had traveled all over Europe, spoke several languages, and the doctor had diplomas from several colleges in Europe, having finished his education in Heidelberg.
They and I soon became very intimate. Of course, before our friendship ripened, I took them to be what I thought them, elegant gentlemen; but, to my surprise, under a promise from me not to betray them, they told me they were big crooks and gold brick men. The first year
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of the great boom at Leadville, they gold-bricked an Ohio banker. The banker came to Leadville with scads of ready money, hunting soft snaps. Their stool pigeons soon discovered him and brought them together. The gold brick men claimed they were the last of a gang of mountain bandits who robbed the Deadwood stage. Most of these gold bricks, they said, belonged to the govern- ment and were being shipped to the mint at Denver when they were captured. The government had a record of the number of the bricks and the actual weight of each brick, so they could be identified, which was the reason they were making such a sacrifice, for they, themselves could not possibly dispose of the bricks, to get anywhere near their value.
The price was soon fixed at about twenty thousand dollars, but then came the test. The old banker thought he was very cunning. They brought a brick and had the banker file it at the ends, center, and middle, took the filings to an isolated spot in a fine, white silk handker- chief, and applied the acid. The filings stood the test because they had exchanged handkerchiefs, substituting genuine gold filings for the base metal. The banker then demanded to see all the bricks. They had them sunk in a little lake in the mountains, with a gravelly bottom. They dove down and brought up a brick which the bank- er filed the same as the other, and took the filings, that night after dark, to an old log cabin on the outskirts of the town. When they were about to make the acid test again, someone knocked. They blew out the light and made the grand change again, and told the banker to take the filings himself to a jeweler, and apply the acid. Of course, the test was approved by the jeweler and the bank- er, because the dust was genuine gold dust.
Now then, Creek stayed with the banker, at his re- quest, as far as Chicago. This was playing into their hands, of course. The banker was anxious to have Creek
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at the final test in Chicago, but Creek had no such notion. Of course, these men were disguised, and had their own plans, and were in constant communication with each other. At some large city east of the Missouri River, an officer came on board, put his hand on the banker's' shoulder, and said: "I arrest you as an accomplice in a theft of government gold, which I have reason to believe you have with you, and, if you promise to behave, I won't put the handcuffs on you." The officer who made the arrest said to his deputy who stood behind him, "Look out for this man and his partner, too (meaning Creek) ; while I go out and get us some lunch, as I don't intend they shall leave this train until it pulls into Chicago." As soon as the officer was gone, Creek said to the deputy, "Please go with me to the closet." When they returned, Creek said to the banker, "The deputy wants to talk to you privately." The deputy said, "Why not buy off this United States marshal? You will not only lose your bricks, but you will be disgraced forever, and may go to the penitentiary for a long term. Try him when he gets back." Of course, at first, the United States marshal was very indignant, but finally said he would turn the banker loose on the payment of fifteen thousand dollars, and he got the money soon after reaching Chicago. It is needless to say the United States marshal was no one else but Doc Holiday.
The last I saw of the two, they were starting south, overland, in a buckboard, with tent, cooking utensils, and camp equipage of all kinds. They had along a race horse, a prize fighter, a fighting bulldog, and two prize-win- ning game cocks. They were sports, every inch of them, if they were crooks, and both were dead shots with the six-shooter. These men were in Dodge City under cover, and stayed all summer, or until the hunt for them had been abandoned. Dodge was the hiding place for a great many crooks of every description. They even say Jesse
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James was here, for a short time, under cover, and Bob Ford, his murderer, was also.
On one occasion, word reached Dodge City several days in advance, of the arrival of a large band of Gypsies, headed for Dodge City. Large bodies move slowly, and so it was with this band, so the "gang" had plenty of time to prepare a proper reception for them. This band was the most filthy set of vagabonds imaginable, and their animals and outfit were worse, if such a thing could be.
They anticipated a rich harvest here, as they had heard of the liberality and generosity of our people and expected large returns from fortune telling, horse racing, horse trading, begging, and all the tricks in which they are proficient. They began business with horse racing, but the gang "hokey-pokied" their horses, and the result was the throwing of the riders over the horses' heads, and the bucking, kicking, and pitching of the animals, until they got to camp. The second day, the women brought in their chimpanzees, and they had some mon- sters, but they were mangy, skinny, and repulsive, and their monkeys, bears, parrots, and other animals were in the same condition. They were a scabby looking lot.
For shelter, the Gypsies had a hundred little low dog tents, black with smoke, dirt, and filth, and their wagons were dilapidated, wabbly, and of all sizes and descrip- tions, from a wheelbarrow and dog cart to a two-horse wagon.
Their chimpanzees were intelligent and well trained and understood their business, but they did not under- stand their trouble when they received a liberal applica- tion of "hokey-pokey" from the gang, and it made them vicious and crazy. They had sense enough, however, to know who applied it to them, and they went after the fellows and very nearly caught some of them. What a fight and struggle the women had to control these ani-
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mals, and it certainly was an interesting and amusing diversion to see them.
There was a large, smooth, piece of ground, just out- side the town limits, where they camped, expecting to stay a long time. They had one very large, ferocious bear, and twenty or thirty dogs of all kinds and varieties, with which they would give their big show or "principal attraction." This attraction they would not put on unless they got their price. Their big performance was to tie a rope, several hundred feet long, to this big, half-starved bear, give him a large beef bone, then turn in the whole pack of half-starved dogs with him. Now this was a fight, as they say here, "for your whiskers." They an- nounced their first exhibition for Saturday evening, it was soon advertised all over town, and another exhibition was announced for the following morning.
It was a beautiful summer morning, and I do not think that many went to church that day, judging from the crowd on the grounds. The boys were posted from the exhibition of the evening before, and were ready to make a slight change in the program. Just as the bear was turned out, with the rope attached, he received an application of the "hokey-pokey" and he was doped plentifully. At the same time, every cage containing a wolf, coyote, bear, monkey, or chimpanzee, which had been previously assigned to some member of the gang for attention was carefully attended to, and all of the animals were doped. The work was perfectly done, and the results were highly satisfactory. The bear just simply went crazy, and he struck the dogs right and left, as they came to him, and every lick sent a dog some distances in some direction. The dogs were just as determined and industrious as the bear, and would come at him more fiercely than ever, but they made no impression on him. He wanted to get away from something, he did not know what. He would run the whole length of the rope, when
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the men at the other end of the rope would check him. He would then take a swing in some other direction, and the people would fall all over each other and in every direction. The bear had the right of way and used it. Our marshal, Low Warren, was busy, trying to keep the people out of the way of the bear and danger, and to restore order, but, notwithstanding he was perhaps the largest man in the county, he might as well have tried to stop the flow of the Arkansas river. In an attempt to get some women and children out of the way, he went sprawling down and took several more with him.
As here related, all the animals were doped at the same time, and the effect was the same on all, and at the same time. The howling, screaming, moaning, and acro- batic performances of people and animals were certainly worth the price of admission, and such confusion I never saw. When the Gypsies could come to a realization of what had happened, the women made a charge on the gang, armed with sticks, stones, and everything that would serve as a weapon of offensive warfare. The dis- regard for polite language was very noticeable, and the confusion of tongues was bewildering.
As a fitting climax to this unique entertainment, a young fellow named Gibson, rode up to the outskirts of the camp, on a fiery young colt, and was viewing the results of the performance, when some member of the fraternity slipped up behind the colt and doped him. Gibson and the colt parted company immediately, and the colt took his departure, giving an excellent exhibition of pitching and bucking through the camp, scattering the women and children of the Gypsies, and adding fuel to their already consuming passions and rage. They con- cluded that Dodge City was certainly the capital of all the demons in existence, and, the next day, they folded their tents and departed for more congenial parts. Dodge City was too much for them.
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A unique but decidedly significant warning to the swindlers and crooks infesting Dodge City, was made by a newly elected mayor, A. B. Webster, who, upon assum- ing office, issued the following proclamation :
"To all whom it may concern: All thieves, thugs, con- fidence men, and persons without visible means of sup- port, will take notice that the ordinances, enacted for their special benefit, will be rigorously enforced after April 7th, 1881."
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CHAPTER XV.
The Cattle Business and the Texas Drive
FOR a few of Dodge City's earliest years, the great herds of buffalo were the source from which sprung a large share of the business activity and prosperity of the place. As has been virtually stated, buffalo hunting was a regular vocation, and traffic in buffalo hides and meat a business of vast proportions. But after a time, the source of this business began to fail, and something to take its place was necessary if a gap were not to be left in Dodge City's industrial world. A substitute, in the form of a new industry, was not wanting, however, for immediately in the wake of the buffalo hunter came the cowboy, and following the buffalo came the long-horned steer. As the herds of the former receded and vanished, the herds of the latter advanced and multiplied, until countless num- bers of buffaloes were wholly supplanted by countless numbers of cattle, and Dodge City was surrounded with new-fashioned herds in quite the old-fashioned way. Be- ing the border railroad town, Dodge also became at once the cattle market for the whole southwestern frontier, and, very shortly, the cattle business became enormous, being practically all of that connected with western Kansas, eastern Colorado, New Mexico, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), and Texas. Cattle were driven to Dodge, at intervals, from all these points for sale and transportation, but the regular yearly drive from the ranges of Texas was so much greater in numbers and importance than the others, that they were quite obscured by it, while the Texas drive became famous for its immensity.
The "Kansas City Indicator," and other reliable papers and estimates, place the drive north from Texas, from 1866 to 1878, at 3,413,513 head. The "San Antonio Express" says of the enormous number: "Place a low
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THIRD WARD SCHOOL ON FAMOUS BOOT HILL
average receipt of seven dollars per head, yet we have the great sum of $24,004,591.00. Not more than half of this vast amount of money finds its way back to the state, but much the larger portion is frittered away by the reckless owner and more reckless cowboy." Of this money, a con- temporary writer says: "Of course Dodge receives her portion which adds greatly to the prosperity of the town and helps build up our city. The buyers pay on an average of eight dollars per head for yearling steers and seven dollars for heifers. They place these yearling steers on ranches, both north and south of us, and market them in two years, when they net in Kansas City, Chicago, and other markets at twenty-five dollars, making the net profit of two hundred per cent on their investments or doubling their capital twice over, as their losses are not more than two or three per cent, and the cost of running them for two years are very light."
They paid no taxes; they paid no rent for their ranches; and their ranges were free. The cost of living was very light, and all they were out were the men's wages. You can readily see how all those engaged in the stock business quickly made fortunes, and the business was the cleanest, healthiest on earth.
The cattle drive to Dodge City first began in 1875- 1876, when there were nearly two hundred and fifty thousand head driven to this point. In 1877, there were over three hundred thousand, and the number each year continued to increase until the drive reached nearly a half million. We held the trade for ten years, until 1886, when the dead line was moved to the state line. There were more cattle driven to Dodge, any and every year that Dodge held it, than to any other town in the state, and Dodge held it three times longer than any other town, and, for about ten years, Dodge was the greatest cattle market in the world. Yes, all the towns that enjoyed the
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trade of the Texas Drive, Dodge exceeded greatly in number, and held it much longer.
In corroboration of this assertion, I give a quotation from the "Kansas City Times," of that period, thus: "Dodge City has become the great bovine market of the world, the number of buyers from afar being unprece- dently large this year ), giving an impetus to the cattle trade that cannot but speedily show its fruits. The wonderfully rank growth of grasses and an abun- dance of water this season has brought the condition of the stock to the very highest standard, the ruling prices showing a corresponding improvement. There are now upwards of one hundred thousand head of cattle in the immediate vicinity of Dodge City, and some of the herds run high into the thousands. There is a single herd numbering forty thousand, another of seventeen thou- sand, another of twenty-one thousand, and several of five thousand or thereabouts. On Saturday, no less than twenty-five thousand were sold. The Texas drive to Dodge this year will run close to two hundred thousand head."
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