The Indian Journal from Eufaula, Oklahoma • Page 11

CURRENT COMMENT By J. H. LOWRY POLITICAL Before attempt- rflDOLS, ing a discussion of political idols I desire to retract, a statement made last month in the Magazine Section. I At that time I said the issue in Oklahoma politics next year would be evolution, and that candidates for the many off ices rould.be elected or defeated on account if their views on this paramount issue. good reasons at that time to be- ieve evolution i would be paramounted politics next year, but it's langerous to attempt to forecast issues wo mdnths ahead, for already evolu- ion, like the cross-word puzzle, has been propped in favor of questions of greater iport.

I erred last month, and I take Jhis occasion to retract. The poltical Ssue next year, in Oklahoma and other States, will.be Col. Mitchell and his attack on the navy department. If you a candidate, and guess correct- the sentiment of the people on the Tol. Mitchell issue, you will make a safe landing at the- pie counter; otherwise, 'our banner will trail in the dust of Meat.

In the July installment of "Current I promised, even though I lad, following last year's election, -declared myself out of politics forever, to ielect a candidate next year and give iim enthusiastic support. I sven promised to believe for a time that riy candidate, whoever he may be, voula make good his promise to lower axes, and to throw up my hat and execute a whirling Dervish dance when le speaks. This led a friend to write md ask who is my ideal statesman. I )eg to reply here that I have no ideal statesman at present, but will have one by- June or July of next year. I always have an Jdeal statesman when" a hot "political campaign is on, but never have one long at a timei And I do not promise to idolize the statesman I will select, next year for more a dew months.

I reserve the right to oppose him and cuss him the next time he runs. Experience has taught me that my political idols will not stay enthroned, but like Dagan they soon- fall and shatter. I have had many political idols in my time, but they all tumbled from the pedestal in a few months or years, and I said mean things about them after I began worship at other shrines. My first political idol was Grover Cleveland. When he was nominated in 1884 I had not the slightest doubt that if he should be elected all the country's trbubles would soon disappear and prosperity's lights would gleam in every section of our great nation.

Mr. Cleveland was strong in his opposition to the tariff, and I Was confident be would hunt down the fellow who started the tariff and slay him on the spot, following which the pockets of the poor Would begin to fill with coin and the thieving tariff barons would have to go to work. Soon after his nomination there were whisperings that Mr. Cleveland had slightly shattered the moral code, but these whisperings I denounced as slanderous lies, Cleveland, however, 'faced the charges made against him, admitted them, and said a person should always "tell the truth." For this I applauded him and gave even more enthusiastic support than I had given him before he'made the admission, notwithstanding I had gone on record as declaring I would never support any man -guilty of such Cleveland was elected, but so far as I could learn he' never went gunning for the tariff, barons, and the golden lights of prosperity to appear. In truth (ancfy I tell it with went down to 5 and 6 cents.

I stayed with, my idol through the time depression, however, and fold the people it was very unkind and foolish to blame a president for the low price of cotton, explaining to them that the price of alj commodities was regulated by the laws of supply and demand. But Mr. Cleveland did not last long as a political idol. Before the close of his second term a goodly number of patriotic Democrats made'the discovery that it was not the tariff that was ruining the country and enslaving the people, but the cruel demonetization of sQyer and the enthronement of the gold standard. We began a mighty crusade, for the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1.

I am not sure why we fixed the ratio at 16 to 1: in truth, as I now recall, I never learned the meaning of ratio, but" I did make some progress; I pronounce the word. While did net know why we settled on 16 to 1 as the" do know that I would have denounced as a vile heretic and traitor to a noble cause any man who would have proposed 15 or 17 to 1. We were told by our wicked opponents that if we set up a double Standard our money would not be good in Europe. Our reply was that we didn'tjgive a dern if it wasn't; we didn't want anything to do 'with Europe anyway. When one of our orators would answer this argument and 'pronounce Europe "Ytirrup," the applause would be deafening.

Cleveland came out strong against free silver, and like Achilles, sulked in' his tent through the campaign, and actually refused to support the Democratic nominee. This was the shattering of my first political idol, and 'the shattering was complete. I boldly charged that he had' sold out to Wall Street, and nounced him as drunkard and other things that would not look well in print. But I did not remain long without a political idol. About the time Grover Cleveland's treason and perfidy became known there flashed across the political firmament the brightest meteor that the people of our day have seen.

He came with a voice as strong as the thunder's sullen roar, and yet as musical as the falling waters. Like the prophets of Israel of old, he denounced sin and corruption in high places, and like the gentler prophets of the Lord, he promised the people a land of plenty and peace if they would quit following false gods and return to the ways of political righteousness. With ink of vitriol and pen of fire he tattooed the backs of those guilty of the great "crime of '7H'' men who, like a band of midnight assassins, stabbed silver, the money of the like the Israelites in the wilderness erected and bowed down before a golden calf. He didn't mince ri words, but with the boldness of a Rienzi declared the bonds which held the people in slavery should be broken. In thunder tones he told the trusts, the interests, and the stabbers of silver that they should not press down upon the brow of labor a crown of thorns, neither should they crucify mankind upon a cross of I knew he meant it.

I had found in William J. Bryan another political idol, and I knew he was a mart of iroft without a touch of clay. I organized Bryan and free silver clubs and Wept when the returns came in showing McKinley 's election, declaring the stripes on our country's flag should become dim from disloyalty and the stars put out their lights for shame. I did not desert my political idol because of his defeat, but drew closer to him and shouted a little louder when he made his second race. In the time, loyal Democrats had reached the conclusion that the gold standard was not our country's greatest evil, and we said-very little about it.

Imperialism had reared its ugly head, and on it our clubs and guns were trained. The Philippines had been grabbed, and the party of the' wicked were threatening conquest of the World. Our leader made speeches that should have made the grabbers of the Philippines dshamed of themselves, but McKinley was elected, and we have the Philippines on our hands, with no intention of turning them loose, especially if the' rubber plantations develop, as they now promise. the third race I stayed with my political idol. For this race we dropped silver and imperialism, made for our platform the golden rule; sad to relate, it proved less popular than either of the other paramount issues.

But my political idol had to fall and shatter. In 1912 I picked Champ Clark as the man to save his country. In Nebraska a popular vote was taken and Clark had a long lead, Mr. Bryan, who had declared himself favorable to Clark, being choMn a delegate. At the convention, when Clark, was within a few votes of the nomination, Bryan deserted him, giving as his reason that the New York delegation was supporting Clark.

The reason was unsatisfactory to me and my idol fell, never to be re- enthroned. Yes; I will have another political idol next year. It may be I will find this idol in our own good State of Oklahoma. I have no idea what his or her name shall'be, but I know I will believe him or her the savior of our country, and that I will get mad at folks who talk against him or her. And I am reasonably sure that if I live long, and my new idol lives long, I will also see him or her fall and shatter.

Wild Bill Hickok, Scout and Peace Officer By FRANK J. WILSTACH, Staff Writer New York Times. J.LTHOBGH Wild Bill Hickok appeared on the stage in the 70s along with Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack Omohundro, and so is re- jembered by people still living, he has rown to be almost as fabulous a per- i of the Western frontier as Paul 3unyan of the Far Northwest. Over ind above his authenticated adventures, great many incredible exaggerations, he outpourings of perfervid fictioneers, lave incrusted his name. Some of these I ipocryphal tales were set going afresh )y the Deadwood anniversary celebra- ion this year; for it was Deadwood hat Hickok 's career came to an end.

Wild Bill Hickok was not a killer in same sense as the nefarious Willie Jonney, otherwise Billy the Kid, for he neither a desperado nor a had man. fhile Wild Bill had, as they say in literature, forty notches on his a dead man- for every year of -his I never shot to kill except in the iXercise of duty or in self-defense. It ould better be said of him than of any gun-toter and tamer of bad men that wild time on the frontier that, i the language of Mr. Beadle 's Dime Jbrary, he "bore a' charmed life." He Vad amazing success in killing instead pf getting killed. This luck has been attributed in great part to his well-nigh Jnbelievable speed in drawing and to lis accuracy in firing his pistols.

Not Bill, But James. How he acquired his sobriquet of Bill has been variously reported. Ehere is some mystery in the matter, kri the first place, his Christian name fas not Bill, but James. Many years Buffalo Bill said that Wild Bill, vhom he first met in the course of the lormon war, in 1858, was then known imong his friends as Jim Hickok. It appears, according to Buffalo Bill, that fild Bill had a brother William, who known as Wild Bill.

The exploits 3 the younger Hickok came into such general and astonishing report, how- that James, instead of his brother William, came to be known as Wild Bill. It has been reported that when asked, (ate in life, how he came by the name, ie'replied: "When I am 'put it just keems everything gets cloudy. I'm wild, (i'iiust seem to lose control over myself." lis story, considering what is well mown of the man. js most likely. Both 3at Masterson and Buffalo Bill, as well is others who knew'him well, have said.

Vat he was the least boastful of men, ind that instead wild in the jace of danger he was exceedingly calm collected. In short, he was not a bad man, but bad man to fool with, and lunting for trouble usually found it ten they "met up with" Wild BUI lickok. That- he was not the rattle- lead indicated by the speech so fre- fuently quoted is proved by his. un- altering and his frigid demeanor in danger, as well as by the Inerrihg precision of his constant com- inions, a brace of Mr. Colt 's best 45s.

In the Wild Bill saga are at least two Mhts on which there is general agreement, to wit: That he was a very handsome man and that nis pistol practice was beyond anything else known on the The most concise and picturesque description of him that the writer knows is from the pen of General George A. Custer, the famous Indian fighter, under whose command Wild Bill served as a scout. "He was," wrote General Custer, "about six feet and one inch in height; straight as an Indian warrior, whose implacable foe He had broad shoulders, well formed chest and liinbs and a face strikingly handsome; a sharp clear blue eye which stared you straight in the face when in conversation; a finely shaped nose inclined to. be aquiline; a well-turned mouth and lips only partially concealed by a handsome mustache. His hair and complexion were those of a perfect blond.

The former was worn in uncouth ringlets, falling carelessly over his powerfully formed shoulders. Whether afoot or on horseback, he was one of the most perfect types, of manhood I ever saw." George Ward Nichols of bets at half a dollar a -shot." Mr. Nichols requesting him to give anf exhibition with his pistols he- pointed to letter on a signboard fifty yards away. Without sighting with his eye he discharged six rapid shots and every one of the bullets hit the white of the letter. The late Joseph Wheelock used to say that he had repeatedly when a young man seen Wild Bill stand between two telegraph poles, fire with a revolver in each hand and never miss either pole.

To put it in- the language of the vernacular, the gentleman, as a pistoleer, had class. The adventures Of Sindbad the Sailor were juvenile compared to some of Wild Bill Hickok's. Born in La Salle County, Wild, Boston, met Bill in Springfield, after the Civil War. His extensive description of him, published in Harper's Monthly Magazine in February, 1867, tallies with that of General Custer, except that while Custer said he had clear blue eyes Nichols wrote that the eyes Were "clear gray." Of his genera! appearance Mr. Nichols said: "His was the handsomest physique I had ever seen.

It was a figure Ward would delight to model as a companion to his Ihdian. There was a singular grace and dignity of carriage. He had fine dark hair and an eye as gentle as a dauntless person who, as Nichols added, "had killed hundreds of men." Mrs. Custer's Appraisal. Mrs.

Elizabeth B. Custer, widow of General Custer, who resides in-New York, gives further testimony to the man's unQbtrusiyeness, having said to the writer recently: "Wild Bill Hickok was famous all along the frontier when my husband campaigned. He was a valuable scout and a modest man." The amazing marksmanship of the man with his pistols, which he never aimed by sight, but fired from the hip, might well be set down as fiction were it not that all those who knew him have given like evidence of his ability. Mr. Nichols, who interviewed him for- Harper's Monthly, was curious in the matter and asked for an explanation.

Wild Bill replied: "I always shot well, but I came, to be perfect in the mountains by shooting at a dime for a mark at Wild Bill Hickok. 111., in 1837, Hickok ran away from home and lived for many years among the Indians and trappers of the Far West. In 1858 he was in the Mormon War, after which, he Was a stage driver, frequently displaying a courage excellent rifle work attacked by Indians. Buffalo-Bill, said he was one of the riders of the famous pony express of 1860, but there is some doubt as to this point. He was all through the Civil War as spy and'scout, principally under General Samuel R.

Curtis. Some of his adventures were widely heralded at the time; but the one great exploit of his career that blazoned his name over the country-was his famous encounter with the McCanles gang. The name Mc- Canles, by the way, is also spelled Mc- Candles and McKandlas in frontier literature. happened in the Summer of 186l, in Southern Nebraska, just over the Kansas line. The McCandleses were an outfit of horse thieves and desperadoes.

There are conflicting stories as to how Wild Bill happened on the gang; some -say it was by accident, when calling on a woman friend, others say he was sent to the scene by the Government, at which time he was guiding a detachment of Union cavalry. Anyway, with hardware consisting of but one pistol instead of two, as was his habit, he arrived at Mrs. Waltham's cabin. He-was no sooner there than he discovered that he had been followed and the cabin surrounded. McCanles, the leader of the gang, knew Wild Bill, bore him a grudge, and had promised to wipe him out.

Killed the Whole Lot. When the fight started there were ten of the Mc- Canleses, all heavilv armed, while Wild Bill had but one pistol, a rifle found in the cabin and a hunter's knife. When the affair was over, a rrjere matter of a few minutes, all were dead but one, and that one was Wild Bill. The incomparable pistoleer had acquired a full dozen sizable knife wounds in his body and lost considerable blood, and his fame, from the acquisition of buckshot, resembled a sieve. Otherwise he was all right.

He was built for the-business. The war over, he settled down at Springfield, Mo. There he fought a duel with David Tutt, a gambler and former Confederate scout. Tutt tried to pick a fight with Wild Bill in a gambling house, but Bill swal-. lowed his insults.

Fearing trouble, he had left his guns at his hotel. Unarmed men were not shot at in those gallant times. But the next day friends of Tutt informed Wild Bill that Tutt would be in the square at a certain hour in the afternoon and expected to meet him there. Wild Bill told them he was "through with being put on." When the two were within fifty paces of each other Tutt drew; two shots followed and Tutt was a dead man. Hickok wandered over the West for some years and finally became the Marshal of Abilene, a town then overrun with a lawless element and known as "the toughest place in the world." Marshal Hickok shot his way into popular confidence, and in doing so found it necessary to plant about a dozen men in the renowned Boot-Hill Cemetery, including the fastest and most dangerous gunman of the Texas Trail, Phil Coe.

Having pacified lene, which, it was said, "he kept like a church," he joined General George A. Custer as a scout. Outside of the men killed in the war, and Indians in various encounters, Wild Bill is said to have snuffed out the lives of at least forty men; yet General Custer was of the opinion that "There is not a single instance itv which a verdict of twelve fair- minded men would not have pronounced in his favor." Bat Masterson, who had a penchant for romance, used to say that the frontier lost its one big chance for the one big kick through the failure of that streak of frontier lightning, otherwise Billy the Kid, to cross the path of Wild. Bill Hickok. That would have been an encounter well worth crossing the continent to to be able to say you were there when it happened.

The insufferable Billy was. of course, well enough acquainted With firearms. Happily Married. At Cheyenne Wild Bill met Mrs. Emma Lake, proprietor the highly successful Lake Circus, and a performer of note in her day, and after a short courtship he married her in February, 1876.

That it was a happy marriage is indicated the letters to his wife, written by him when in the West. These now in possession of Gil Robinson, whose" wife was Wild Bill's stepdaughter, the daughter of Mrs. Hickok by her first husband, the famous war-time circus proprietor, William Lake. Wild Bill's tragic death occurred at Deadwood, S. Aug.

2, 1876. On that afternoon he was playing cards with some friends at the Bell Union saloon, but, contrary to his custom, he sat with his back to the door. That indiscretion cost him his life. Jack McCall. a desperado, entered and shot Wild Bill in the back of the head.

The murderer was hanged. A monument was placed over Wild Bill's grave at Mount Moriah Cemetery by his life-long friend, Colorado Charlie Ulter, and it is said was inscribed: "Custer Will Be Lonely Without Him." This legend is somewhat difficult to understand, for General George. A. Custer had himself been killed- in a battle with the Indians on the Little Big Horn River, in June of the same year, or two months before the Great Spirit called Wild Bill. Relic hunters hewed the gravestone to the ground.

When, a new one was erected some years later a steel wire mausoleum was placed around it. Mrs. Lake, otherwise Mrs. James Butler Hickok. died Aug.

20, 1917, at Jersey City, N. at an advanced age. Near Wild Bill's grave is another, the resting place of the one-time "Queen of the Plains," the famouTs "Calamity Jane," otherwise Mrs. Mary E. Burke.

Her last request was that she might be buried alongside the noted scout and bad-man tamer, for whom, it appears, she treasured the deepest admiration. LEAF WORM ROUTED. Poisoning has proved sure death for theMeaf worms in cotton patches in Tillman County, according to L. H. Beatty, Tillman County farm agent..