USA > Kansas > The northern tier: or, Life among the homestead settlers > Part 3
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The entire scene was one of loveliness to a denizen of the prairie. We bagged a number of squirrels and a couple of ruffed grouse in crossing that range of hills, and arrived late in the afternoon on the bank of the Nodaway, at or near one of those small lakes or ponds in the bottom, where we spent an hour, during which time we had rare sport at "wing shooting," as the wild ducks were constantly approaching and departing from the pond. We succeeded in securing a num- ber of ducks, and then continued our journey down the Nodaway, where we found Joe and Charley in camp in a beautiful grove, preparing supper. Joe was not an expert at hunting, his forte being fishing; but with Charley's gun he had managed to bring down a bird commonly called, in the
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West, a "mud - hen," a species of fowl found along small streams and marshy places, somewhat resembling a small black barn-yard fowl, with feet partially webbed, and which might properly be described as a cross between a duck and a small crane. It is entirely ignored by sportsmen as not be- ing a game bird-its flesh of a dark, astringent character, unfit for the table. Joe declared that as it was the only game he had killed, he designed to prepare it and broil it for his supper. Charley declared he could not eat it, and the Judge volunteered sundry expressions descriptive of the bird not found in any work on ornithology, and not very complimen- tary to the bird's pedigree; but all to no purpose, as Joe in- sisted he would have it for his supper, and placed it on a forked stick facing the fire, before he commenced preparing supper for us.
The grove, the silent water of the Nodaway, the shadows of night closing around us, with the mild rays of the moon penetrating the spaces between the branches and checkering the landscape with spots of light, made the whole scene romantic, interrupted only by the unwelcome music of a mus- quito as he reconnoitered the vulnerable points about our ears.
As we assembled for supper, Joe deposited his broiled bird on his tin-plate. It resembled a dark-colored piece of bark
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A DAY ON THE TARKIO.
warped by alternate rain and sunshine. After he had eaten a portion of his bird, the significant nod by Charley was the signal for the Judge to interrogate Joe as to the quality.
"Joe, how do you like the mud-hen?"
"Well," said Joe, "it tastes like tansy bitters with the bitters left out !"
We finally prevailed upon him to discard the unsavory carcass, and join us in dispatching the fish and squirrels he had so neatly prepared and cooked for supper, which he did, after paying his respects to the demijohn, which he insisted was necessary after his attempt to eat the mud-hen.
Supper over, we put out the lines for fish, and after the usual story-telling around the camp-fire, spread our blankets for sleep. When the others had retired, I sat upon a log and meditated upon the surrounding scenery. My memory floated back to the journal of Julius Rodman, which I had read when a boy, wherein that explorer described his ascent of the Mis- souri river at the close of the eighteenth century, in which he described the Nodaway, its beautiful scenery, grapes and wild fowl along its banks. I also remembered that at a later period Lewis and Clarke had passed up the river, moored their boats at the mouth of the Nodaway, and probably had spent a night in the same grove of ancient elms in which we were camped. My revery was suddenly interrupted by dis-
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tant thunder in the west, and on looking in that direction I beheld a dark storm-cloud rising slowly and majestically, gradually obscuring the light of the moon, while the far-away flashes of lightning denoted an approaching storm. I roused my comrades, and we hastily prepared a shelter by placing forks in the ground, with poles laid across, covered with brush, as a partial protection from the rain, which soon came down in torrents, and the lightning flashed among the trees, followed by heavy thunder. Our shelter proved a failure, as the rain penetrated through it, and we were obliged to roll up our blankets and cover them with a buffalo-robe. Joe, thinking the lightning might strike some of the trees beneath which we were sheltered, retired to a thicket of underbrush some rods distant, taking the demijohn with him. The storm lasted about an hour, and as it cleared away we replenished our fire with all the available combustible material at hand.
Reader, if you have ever camped out during a thunder storm at night you can appreciate our situation at that time : fire nearly out; guns and ammunition, if not seriously dam- aged, certainly in bad condition; provisions moistened ; blankets damp, and buffalo-robe soaked.
As the storm rolled away to the eastward, leaving a clear, star-lit sky, with the moon disappearing behind the western hills, Joe emerged from the thicket, Charley and the Judge
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filled their pipes, and I replenished the fire with wood; and we listened to the stories of the Judge until our blankets were dry, when we all retired to get a few hours' sleep. Sometime during the small hours of the night, Joe became restless, arose from his blanket and began to move about the camp, as though morning had dawned, and it was time to be cooking breakfast. His movements awakened the Judge, who evi- dently had been dreaming of Romeo and Juliet (he being the poet of the outfit), for he exclaimed : "Joe, wilt thou be up so soon ?- 'tis not yet near day. 'Twas the night-owl, and not the mud-hen, that pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear."
"Confound the mud-hen!" said Joe; "I was looking for the demijohn."
About sunrise, we were awakened by Charley, who was taking fish from the lines we had out during the night; and Joe soon prepared an excellent breakfast.
All nature was joyous and brilliant after the storm. The freshness of the morning air, the flowers bright and beautiful, the light of the morning sun, and the perfume arising from the dewy verdure, as the mists cleared away over the tree- tops and lost themselves in the distant blue sky, gave us new energy after a night of doubtful prospects.
Charley claimed the right to hunt with the Judge on that day, and insisted that I should assist Joe with the boat. That 4
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agreed upon, the Judge and Charley set out for the ponds and hills, and Joe and I embarked in the boat and rowed down stream, halting occasionally to set the net.
About midday, having caught a number of fish, we landed in an eddy just below the mouth of the Nodaway, at a sandy beach near the timber, with the view of preparing dinner. Joe conveyed the provisions and cooking utensils on shore, while I went to the timber to collect wood to make a fire. As I approached a fallen tree, I discovered a small rattle- snake coiled ready for attack. Thinking Joe would desire to see the snake, I called to him, telling him of my discovery. Joe, not hearing me distinctly, thought I was bitten by a snake, and in his haste to get the demijohn from the stern of the boat, upset or careened the craft, and the demijohn, falling into the water, was conveyed by the expanding waves to the current, and floated away, despite Joe's herculean efforts to secure it. Seeing Joe in the water, and his difficulty, I has- tened to his rescue. When I arrived on the scene, Joe, with wet garments, was standing on shore looking sorrowfully at the demijohn, as it was bobbing up and down, far away in the current of the Missouri river. "I don't care so much for the demijohn as for the contents," said Joe. Then recurring to the snake, he added, "Where did the snake bite you?" I could not refrain from laughing, but informed him that I was
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not bitten, and said that we were even, barring the difference between being mud-bound in the Tarkio and immersed in the Missouri. Joe replied with some frontier phrases and ludi- crous epithets. Charley and the Judge arrived, and added to the merriment at Joe's expense; but he was sullen, and de- clared the day's sport at an end, whereupon Charley produced a flask from his game-sack, after which Joe prepared dinner.
After dinner, on beholding our teamster on the Kansas shore, we prepared to cross the river. It was late in the afternoon when we arranged to start homeward. We esti- mated our profit and loss by the following inventory : Profit-Two days' genuine sport, a goodly amount of game and fish. Loss-Joe's demijohn.
As we rode homeward, Charley smoked, the Judge quoted poetry and sang "Home, Sweet Home," while Joe moodily sat in the wagon, and at intervals indulged in some frontier expressions about the loss of his household treasure, vaguely intimating that I was the cause of the aforesaid loss.
Such was life and a part of the amusements during the first settlement of Northern Kansas. Looking back through the dim vista of the past to those golden days, when the hardships of our frontier situation were ignored for a day's sport, I agree with the poet-
"There's a feeling within us that loves to revert
To the merry old times that are gone."
CHAPTER 5.
SAMP NODKINS.
Where is the early settler of Northern Kansas who has not stood upon the desolate, gray sand-bar on the west bank of the Missouri river, opposite St. Joseph, in stormy weather, waiting for the return trip of the ferry-boat that plied be- tween the two shores, while teamsters sat upon their loads of grain, holding in check the restless horses, and foot passengers paced to and fro, whistling fugitive airs, that no sooner es- caped their shivering lips than they were borne away in faint echoes by the wind, to accompany the roaring of the current of the turbid river? The bleak wind from the north whirled the sand in eddying gusts or at obtuse angles the entire length of the bar, or penetrated, with a dismal sound, the thicket of straggling cottonwoods and willows that grew along the al- luvial bottom near the perpendicular, treacherous bank - huge portions of which at intervals fell with a splash into the water.
As the wind increased in power and velocity, the miniature waves of the river increased in magnitude to surging, white-
(52)
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crested billows, creating a doubt as to whether the boat would make another trip in the next twelve hours. The patient, chilled pedestrians paced to and fro amid the drifting sand, while the muttering imprecations of the disgusted teamsters added to the feeling of disappointment in not being trans- ferred over the river to the busy streets of St. Joseph, in full view.
Ou a bleak day in the latter part of April, 1860, I stood upon that sullen, gray bar, waiting for the return of the boat. The wind hurled the drifting sand in every conceivable direc- tion along the bar, and among the cottonwoods and willows, blowing my hat off, or dallying in a rude, violent manner with the skirt of my threadbare coat, then passing onward among the bending cottonwoods and willows, blending a dis- consolate sound with the roar of the raging waters, that were rolling in billowy majesty, as if to defy the power of man; while the boat seemed to be stationary on the other shore, the pilot not daring to venture across the turbid and angry cur- rent with his frail craft.
A number of immigrants had crossed and were waiting for the remainder of their party, who were on the other shore. They were from Indiana, on their way to Kansas, to settle on the frontier. There were several covered wagons loaded with every species of household fixture in use during that period,
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including mildewed bedsteads, rickety chairs, rusty stoves, decayed washtubs, old-fashioned kettles, pots and pans, and a general stock of old trumpery that had decorated the cabins in the Hoosier State for a generation. Although straggling blades of grass were issuing from the sandy soil and decayed leaves among the dwarfed willows, denoting spring-time, the chill April wind from the north caused a disagreeable flapping of the unfastened part of the wagon-sheets, and the purple circle visible about the quivering lips of the immigrants and their dust-covered faces denoted that their situation was un- comfortable. To add to their discomfort, a number of cows and calves, as thin in flesh as the seven lean kine in Joseph's dream, persisted in penetrating the thicket of willows, not- withstanding the exertion of some small boys and over-grown girls, who had charge of them.
I ascertained who was the leader of the, outfit, from the authority he assumed and the commands he gave, which were implicitly obeyed; and as he is the subject of this chapter, I here append a brief description of him as he appeared among the immigrants on that bleak April day, twenty years ago.
In height he was six-feet-six, more or less-possibly less. His forehead was low, from which his head retreated at an angle of forty-five degrees, terminating at a point about which the hair seemed to form a circular, bristle-like growth about
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SAMP NODKINS.
a spot resembling a small whirlpool. His arms were of great length, with large hands and thick-jointed fingers in propor- tion. A scanty, cream-colored beard adorned his chin, with a few scattering volunteer productions along the side of his face at a convenient distance from his ponderous ears. His limbs seemed to be out of proportion to his body, which doubtless only appeared so from the fact that his blue jeans pants, either from shrinkage in length or a desire to dissolve partnership with his sun-tanned ankles, terminated midway between his knees and an enormous pair of cow-hide, snuff- colored shoes, that resembled a traveling tan-yard or migratory shoe-shop. He wore a red-flannel shirt, without any vest, over which was a blue-jeans coat, the dividing line of which between the skirt and body of the coat, as indicated by a zig- zag seam, two brass buttons and two large pockets, was mid- way between the point adopted by fashion and his shoulders, while the skirt was economically curtailed to a ridiculous de- gree of shortness, scarcely extending to that portion of his person that a fashionable coat-skirt is intended to obscure.
He approached me, and with that inquisitive address pecu- liar to an immigrant on arriving in Kansas or on the western border at that time, made the following inquiry : "Do you live in this 'ere neck of woods?"
I replied that I did.
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"Well, stranger, I am . wagon-boss of this 'ere outfit of immigrants, and some of them want to go fur enough west in Kansas to get Government land, without seeing Injins; but: as for me, I have practiced law in Indiana, and I would like. to settle near a county-seat, where I can open a farm and also. practice law."
With a piercing, cunning expression on his godless coun- tenance, he inquired my name and what I "follered for a. livin'." I gave him my name, and informed him that, hav- ing been admitted to the bar in one of the States, I had come. West to grow up with the country; but since I had been in Kansas, failing to get a practice sufficient to support me, I had engaged in chopping cord-wood for steamboats that ran up and down the Missouri.
"Give me your hand, stranger!" said he, grasping my hand. "I am a member of the bar; and have chopped cord- wood in the beech-woods of Indiana, and have left my wood- chopping many a time to attend court." And thereupon he- gave me an elaborate account of his forensic efforts at the bar -how he had vanquished Hendricks, Pettit, Morton and other gentlemen of legal ability in Indiana. By way of returning the compliment of his inquiring my name and occupation, I asked him his name, and he replied: "This 'ere outfit of im- migrants call me Samp Nodkins, and my name is Nodkins;
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most every one in Indiana knows the Nodkinses, leastways they ought to, for I have practiced law there, and my father was a jestice of the peace." Whether his christian name was "Samp" or a nick-name among the immigrants, or a con- traction of the word "Sampson," I did not then learn, but from the extraordinary power of his lungs manifested in his- speeches to juries before justices of the peace, I concluded his christian name was Sampson, doubtless named in honor of the muscular hero who levied war against the Philistines.
I informed him that law books were scarce in Kansas, and expressed the desire that he would occasionally permit me to peruse his valuable law books that I supposed an old practi- tioner, as he claimed to be, had brought with him, should he conclude to settle in the county. He pointed to an old- fashioned lidless chest in his wagon, with the emphatic remark,. "There is all the law I rely on in my practice, and you are welcome to use it if I settle in this county." The books, or book, for there was but one, as I afterward learned, consisted of Blackford's Indiana Digest, old edition. "But," said he, "who is your Judge?" "Judge P-," I replied. "Judge P -! " He's from Indiana, and I know him! And if he is the Judge of this deestrick, I will settle in this county." I learned afterward that the only time he had ever seen Judge P- was when the latter, while traveling the circuit as a
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lawyer, had stopped for dinner once at the cabin of Samp's father, when Samp was a rustic youth.
We separated, and Samp settled in the county, among the bluffs along the Missouri river. He was not idle, and by his colloquial power he induced the neighbors to believe that he was capable of managing all their legal affairs. Scarcely had his cabin been completed, when he was employed to procure a divorce for one of those temporary subjects of neglect in the then frontier society, irreverently called "grass widows," whose husband, as she thought, had been unnecessarily de- layed on a freighting trip across the Plains. Without con- sulting the statutes of Kansas-the old "Compiled Laws"- Samp had hastily and unwisely concluded that a divorce was as easily obtained in Kansas as in Indiana, and had written his petition on a large sheet of "foolscap" paper, evidently by candle-light in his cabin, as certain oily marks, ink-blots and other evidence of the stringency of the times appeared on the irregularly-folded document which he had filed, and caused a summons to issue thereon against the defendant, who was then far away on the Plains, or at the mountains. In due time the sheriff returned the summons, indorsed, "The said defendant not found in my county." After causing the summons to issue, Samp had failed to pay any more attention to his case, supposing he could obtain judgment by default
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for a divorce, in the same manner as in a civil action for debt, and his petition was not verified by the affidavit of the plaintiff.
Meantime the defendant was traversing the sun-dried trail of the plains, or whiling away his lonely hours in solitude around the camp-fires in the mountains, and had as little knowledge of the suit pending against him as a Highland shepherd had of the bounty paid for wolf-scalps by a county court in Kansas; while the plaintiff was dispensing her smiles indiscriminately among her friends in the vicinity, relying upon the legal acumen and potent ability of Samp Nodkins to dissolve the union between her and her wayfaring hus- band, as the shortest route to a free, unmarried life.
I attended court at the next session, to try an appealed case from a justice's court, and, upon arriving at the court house, found Samp Nodkins seeking some one to introduce him to the Judge. Samp said, "I think the Judge would know me, but I desire an introduction." It was a rule of court that an attorney holding a certificate of admission in another State could be enrolled to practice on motion; and upon stating that to Nodkins, he declared that he had for- gotten to bring his certificate with him ( raising a doubt in my mind whether he ever had one). But he insisted that he had been admitted to the bar in the courts of Indiana.
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When court was called and announced to be in session, in the long-drawn-out common-law style, by the bailiff, I made a motion, by request, to have Mr. Nodkins enrolled or ad- mitted to practice, informing the court that the applicant had neglected to bring his certificate of admission by a court of competent jurisdiction of the State of Indiana (throwing in the name of the State by way of an extra inducement for the Judge to recognize Nodkins). The Judge looked over his glasses a moment at Samp, and then appointed a committee, myself among the number, to examine the candidate, stating that we could do so after adjournment of court for the day, and make our report when court convened the next morning. Samp cast a disappointed, imploring look, first at the Judge, and then at me; but the decree had gone forth, and it would have been at the risk of a fine for contempt to request a modi- fication of an order, when once made by Judge P -. He was an excellent Judge, save in one respect - he was irritable, and severe in his reprimands of attorneys and officers of the court, when business did not run smoothly; the least inter- ruption or confusion in the court room or in the street was the signal for a severe reprimand of the bailiff for not pre- serving order. The. incessant, violent winds that blew in those days (which have since been pensively described by journalists and travelers as "gentle zephyrs") annoyed the
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Judge beyond endurance, and as his weight was a trifle less than three hundred pounds avoirdupois, in going from his hotel to the court house the wind seemed to circle around him, whirling the dust in his face, and banishing every expression of kindness from his stern and rigid countenance, as he or- dered court opened. He threatened to fine the bailiff for not keeping order, on hearing the croaking of a flock of wild geese flying over the court house, mistaking the noise they made for the hilarity of urchins about the court-house door. He abruptly adjourned a term of court because of the inability of the bailiff to stop the clattering of the window-sash in the court house on a windy day. Withal he was a sound lawyer, a just and upright judge, and when off the bench was a pleas- ant, social companion-a gentleman of the old school, pos- sessing rare colloquial powers.
On the day the committee was appointed to examine Samp Nodkins, the criminal docket was called and the cases con- tinued, the county attorney not being ready to try them. The civil cases set for the first day were then called for default. As Samp's case was set for that day, he whispered to me to attend to his case, and take judgment for a divorce by default. Supposing that Samp had caused the proper service to be had upon the defendant, and had evidence of the marriage and desertion, and sufficient evidence to prove the averments in
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his petition, I called for the papers, with a view of reading the petition to the court, and then producing the evidence. The petition was a remarkable document in length and breadth, and resembled a large sheet of white wrapping-paper that had inclosed several pounds of butter from a grocery store. I read it through with some difficulty, and then re- quested of Samp the names of his witnesses. He replied that he had no witnesses !
"What is the service upon the defendant?" inquired the Judge. I was about to examine the papers to ascertain, when Samp replied that "the return of the sheriff showed that the defendant was not found in the county." I moved for con- tinuance for service. Samp sprang to his feet, and demanded judgment by default. The Judge replied that no such judgment could be rendered. Samp continued with his ear- deafening voice. The Judge ordered him to take his seat, or he would fine him for contempt. Samp persisted, and was preparing to read from his Indiana Digest. "Take your seat, sir!" said the Judge. "Mr. Bailiff, preserve order!" "Order in the court room!" cried the bailiff. "I fine you for contempt," said the Judge to Samp. I endeavored to in- duce Samp to take his seat, which movement the Judge mis- took as encouraging him to proceed, and with a scowling, withering look at me threatened to fine me as the author and
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cause of the trouble; and as I had no money with which to pay a fine, and could no longer repress my smothered laughter at the ridiculous situation, just as the Judge ordered the bailiff to arrest Samp I dashed out of the court room, mounted my horse and rode swiftly away, to engage in the rustic exercise of chopping cord-wood.
I learned afterward that Samp's fine was remitted, owing to his inability to pay it, but he never forgave me for desert- ing him, not only in the divorce case, but for not meeting with the committee appointed to examine him for admission to the bar. He was admitted to practice, however, by what means I never knew.
Samp was a staunch Republican in politics, and did yeoman service in the glee club, in the campaign of 1860. His voice, trained on the highest key by practice at camp-meetings in Indiana, when accompanied with a practical demonstration of Sam. D-'s musical talents in singing the parody on the old hymn, "Where now is our good old Daniel?" by which the Democratic party was musically consigned on a voyage to that mythical region known in Western political parlance as "Up Salt river" -- 'twas music that awakened the hills and valleys from their solitude at night; while their stirring vocal music reminded one of an old-time revival at a camp- meeting, barring the difference in sentiment between the pious
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