"What for?" asked Roosevelt sharply. "It's that Frenchman's outfit," said Sewall. "I thought there'd be trouble there." "Maunders- he's the boss trouble-maker of the Frenchman's outfit - he says he wants to shoot you," said Sewall. This was decidedly interesting. Maunders was known as a good shot and had, in fact, recently killed a man. Roosevelt went out to the corral, roped and saddled his horse, and rode to Maunders's shack. Maunders was there. velt rode up to him. Roose "I hear that you want to shoot me," he said quietly. "I came over to find out why." After a brief conversation it appeared that Maunders did not, after all, want to shoot him. He had been "misquoted." They parted, excellent friends. Sewall and Dow one day were at Elkhorn, busy cutting the timber for the new house, which was to stand under the shade of a row of cottonwood trees overlooking the broad, shallow bed of the Little Missouri. They were both mighty men with the ax. Roosevelt himself was no amateur, but he could not compete with the stalwart backwoodsmen. One evening he overheard one of the cowboys ask Dow what the day's cut had been. "Well, Bill cut down fifty-three," answered Dow, "I cut forty-nine, and the boss," he added dryly, not realizing that Roosevelt was within hearing - "the boss he beavered down seventeen." Roosevelt remembered a tree stump he had seen recently, gnawed down by a beaver, and grinned. WINTER IN THE BAD LANDS Winter settled down over the Bad Lands. There was little snow, but the cold was fierce in its intensity. By day, the plains and buttes were dazzling to the eye under the clear weather; by night, the trees cracked and groaned from the strain of the biting frost. Even the stars seemed to snap and glitter. The river lay fixed in its shining bed of glistening white, "like a huge bent bar of blue steel." Wolves and lynxes traveled up and down it at night as though it were a highway. Roosevelt was now living mainly at Chimney Butte, writing somewhat and reading much, sharing fully meanwhile in the hardship of the winter work. It was not always pleasant to be out of doors, but the herds had to be carefully watched and every day (which began with breakfast at five-three hours before sunrise) he or one of his men was in the saddle from dawn to dark, riding about among them and turning back any herd that seemed to be straggling toward the open plains. In the open country there was always a strong wind that never failed to freeze ears or fingers or toes, in spite of flannels and furs. The cattle suffered much, standing huddled in the bushes in the ravines, and some of the young stock died of exposure. During the severest weather Ferris and Merrifield, whom Roosevelt had sent out to buy ponies, returned with fifty which had to be broken then and there. Day after day in the icy cold Roosevelt labored with his men in the corral over the refractory animals, making up in patience what he lacked in physical address. He did not find this business altogether pleasant, and the presence of a gallery of grinning cowboys, gathered “to see whether the high-headed bay could buck the boss off," did not make it any easier to preserve a look of smiling indifference while the panic-stricken pony went through his gyrations. The high-headed bay did buck the boss off; and he wasn't the only one who did. But it is worth remarking that in the end it was not the boss, but the pony, who was "broken." THE STOCKMEN'S ASSOCIATION Theodore Roosevelt, twenty-six years old, no longer asthmatic now, but as hardy in body as he was fearless in spirit, became, in scarcely more than a year from that morning when he had first descended from the train at Medora, an important factor in the life of the Bad Lands. He had established himself firmly in the respect and affection of those law-abiding ranchmen whose respect and affection were worth having; and it was not long before they began to look upon him as a leader. He had, from the first, felt the need of government in this strip of wild country, which offered so secure a refuge to evil-doers, and had done what he could to secure the organization of the county in which Medora was situated. But the time was not yet ripe for this step and Roosevelt decided, therefore, to endeavor to bring the honest ranchmen together in an association for mutual protection. Early in December, 1884, he issued the following appeal in the columns of the Bad Lands Cowboy: NOTICE OF A PROPOSED MEETING OF THE STOCKMEN At the request of Messrs. Huidekooper, Wadsworth, All gentlemen interested in stock-raising, both those on the Little Missouri and those on the neighboring waters, are urgently requested to attend. (By request) THEODORE ROOSEVELT On December 19th a dozen or more ranchmen met, in response to this letter, in a dance hall over Medora's leading and most wicked saloon, and formed the Little Missouri River Stockmen's Association, for mutual protection, as the by-laws ran, "against frauds and swindles, and to prevent the stealing, taking, and driving away of horned cattle, sheep, horses, and other stock from the rightful owners thereof." Roosevelt was presiding officer at the meeting and was elected chairman of the association, though he was one of the youngest men present. The whole matter attracted little attention, but it meant the beginning of the end of lawlessness in the Bad Lands. Few men in history have had so many and such varied interests as Theodore Roosevelt. He was parent, naturalist, hunter, soldier, politician, writer, and world statesman. Everything he did was done with great energy and enthusiasm. The adventures here related occurred after his graduation from Harvard College and a short period of business and political life in New York City. In early life Roosevelt was not physically robust. One of his reasons for undertaking ranch life was to recover his health, which at the time was being undermined by asthma. Having spent all his early life in the city, he had little experience to equip him for the exactions of the rugged out-of-doors on the Dakota prairies. The "cow country" developed its own special vocabulary, with such expressions as these: cow-puncher, tenderfoot, round-up, light-triggered, smoky, corral, breaking ponies, buck the boss off. EXPLANATORY NOTES Four-eyes. Roosevelt was nearsighted and always wore prominent spectacles. Skinned his teeth. Roosevelt's teeth always showed prominently when he smiled or when he was angry. Set up the drinks refers to a custom of one man paying for drinks of liquor, usually for all present. The bar was always a part of the frontier hotel. Hard with his right. Roosevelt was an excellent boxer, keeping up with the practice even during his occupancy of the White House. He was an ardent advocate of "the manly sport." Bad Lands, the name given to a rough section of country in South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska. A PIONEER OF TODAY 1 JACKSON DAVIS "WHAT can one or two stations on the Atlantic coast do toward educating half a continent in the broad domain of agriculture? As well might a single cannon, planted on Bunker Hill, defend the seaboard cities of the nation from the combined attack of the navies of the world." This was the spirit in which Seaman A. Knapp fought the good fight for better agriculture. It was largely through his efforts that Congress, in 1887, passed a law providing for the establishment of an agricultural experiment station in each state. He had been for ten years in charge of a girls' school at Poultney, Vermont. He humorously referred to it as a select school, "for," he said, "we selected all who would come." Here he met with an accident which threatened to leave him a cripple for life. Broken in health, he was advised by his physicians to go west and follow an outdoor life, for they thought he could not live more than a year. He accordingly went to Iowa, where he became a successful farmer, then a teacher, and later president of the State Agricultural College at Ames, Iowa. In 1884 he went to Louisiana to direct the development of a large area of land in which a number of his friends in Iowa were interested. He saw the possibilities of this land, selling at that time for about one dollar an acre, and he introduced the cultivation of upland rice, which has brought prosperity to large areas of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. It was in developing this region that Dr. Knapp hit upon the demonstration method of teaching adult farmers. Many of those attracted to the region became discouraged and left. He therefore chose some of the best farmers from Iowa and other states and induced them to come in and demonstrate good 1 Reprinted in abbreviated form from Southern Pioneers. Copyright, 1925, by the University of North Carolina Press. |