Roosevelt In The Bad Lands - free ebook by Hermann Hagedorn

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Roosevelt In The Bad Lands

Hermann Hagedorn

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ROOSEVELT IN THE BAD LANDS

ROOSEVELT IN THE BAD LANDS

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1921 COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY HERMANN HAGEDORN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO WILLIAM BOYCE THOMPSON CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY AND DREAMER OF DREAMS It was still the Wild West in those days, the Far West, the West of Owen Wister's stories and Frederic Remington's drawings, the West of the Indian and the buffalo-hunter, the soldier and the cowpuncher. That land of the West has gone now, "gone, gone with lost Atlantis," gon

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PREFACE.

PREFACE.

To write any book is an adventure, but to write this book has been the kind of gay and romantic experience that makes any man who has partaken of it a debtor forever to the Giver of Delights. Historical research, contrary to popular opinion, is one of the most thrilling of occupations, but I question whether any biographer has ever had a better time gathering his material than I have had. Amid the old scenes, the old epic life of the frontier has been re-created for me by the men who were the le

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INTRODUCTION.

INTRODUCTION.

The trail-tracer of Theodore Roosevelt's frontier life has given the members of this Advisory Committee of Three of the Roosevelt Memorial Association the opportunity of a first reading of his book. The duty of considering the manuscript and making suggestions has been merged in the pleasure of the revealing account of that young man who forty years ago founded a personal College of the Plains in raw Dakota. Three are the essentials of the good biographer—historic sense, common sense, and human

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ROOSEVELT IN THE BAD LANDS.

ROOSEVELT IN THE BAD LANDS.

Rainy dark or firelight, bacon rind or pie, Livin' is a luxury that don't come high; Oh, be happy and onruly while our years and luck allow, For we all must die or marry less than forty years from now! Badger Clark The train rumbled across three hundred feet of trestle and came to a stop. A young man, slender, not over-tall, with spectacles and a moustache, descended the steps. If he expected that his foot, groping below the bottom step in the blackness for something to land on, would find a pla

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II.

II.

It rains here when it rains an' it's hot here when it's hot, The real folks is real folks which city folks is not. The dark is as the dark was before the stars was made; The sun is as the sun was before God thought of shade; An' the prairie an' the butte-tops an' the long winds, when they blow, Is like the things what Adam knew on his birthday, long ago. From Medora Nights Joe in the buckboard and Roosevelt on his new acquisition started south at dawn. The road to Lang's—or the trail rather, for

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III.

III.

Some came for lungs, and some for jobs, And some for booze at Big-mouth Bob's, Some to punch cattle, some to shoot, Some for a vision, some for loot; Some for views and some for vice, Some for faro, some for dice; Some for the joy of a galloping hoof, Some for the prairie's spacious roof, Some to forget a face, a fan, Some to plumb the heart of man; Some to preach and some to blow, Some to grab and some to grow, Some in anger, some in pride, Some to taste, before they died, Life served hot and a

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IV.

IV.

No, he was not like other men. He fought at Acre (what's the date?), Died, and somehow got born again Seven hundred years too late. It wasn't that he hitched his wagon To stars too wild to heed his will— He was just old Sir Smite-the-dragon Pretending he was J. J. Hill. And always when the talk was cattle And rates and prices, selling, buying, I reckon he was dreaming battle, And, somewhere, grandly dying. From Medora Nights The inhabitants of "Little Misery" who regarded law as a potential ball

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V.

V.

He wears a big hat and big spurs and all that, And leggins of fancy fringed leather; He takes pride in his boots and the pistol he shoots And he's happy in all kinds of weather; He's fond of his horse, it's a broncho, of course, For oh, he can ride like the devil; He is old for his years and he always appears Like a fellow who's lived on the level; He can sing, he can cook, yet his eyes have the look Of a man that to fear is a stranger; Yes, his cool, quiet nerve will always subserve For his wil

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VI.

VI.

Once long ago an ocean lapped this hill, And where those vultures sail, ships sailed at will; Queer fishes cruised about without a harbor— I will maintain there's queer fish round here still. The Bad Lands Rubáiyat Through the long days of that soft, green June, Roosevelt was making himself at home in his new and strange surroundings. A carpenter, whose name was the same as his trade, built him a bookcase out of scraps of lumber, and on the shelves of it he assembled old friends—Parkman and Irvi

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VII.

VII.

An oath had come between us—I was paid by Law and Order; He was outlaw, rustler, killer—so the border whisper ran; Left his word in Caliente that he'd cross the Rio border— Call me coward? But I hailed him—"Riding close to daylight, Dan!" Just a hair and he'd have got me, but my voice, and not the warning, Caught his hand and held him steady; then he nodded, spoke my name, Reined his pony round and fanned it in the bright and silent morning, Back across the sunlit Rio up the trail on which he ca

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VIII.

VIII.

All day long on the prairies I ride, Not even a dog to trot by my side; My fire I kindle with chips gathered round, My coffee I boil without being ground. I wash in a pool and wipe on a sack; I carry my wardrobe all on my back; For want of an oven I cook bread in a pot, And sleep on the ground for want of a cot. My ceiling is the sky, my floor is the grass, My music is the lowing of the herds as they pass; My books are the brooks, my sermons the stones, My parson is a wolf on his pulpit of bones

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IX.

IX.

Young Dutch Van Zander, drunkard to the skin, Flung wide the door and let the world come in— The world, with daybreak on a thousand buttes! "Say, is this heaven, Bill—or is it gin?" Bad Lands Rubáiyat Roosevelt returned to the upper ranch on August 11th. Everything so far has gone along beautifully [he wrote to his sister on the following day]. I had great fun in bringing my two backwoods babies out here. Their absolute astonishment and delight at everything they saw, and their really very shrew

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X.

X.

The pine spoke, but the word he said was "Silence"; The aspen sang, but silence was her theme. The wind was silence, restless; and the voices Of the bright forest-creatures were as silence Made vocal in the topsy-turvy of dream. Paradise Found Roosevelt started for the Big Horn Mountains on August 18th, but Sewall, after all, did not go with him. Almost with tears, he begged off. "I'd always dreamed of hunting through that Big Horn country," he said long afterward. "I had picked that out as a ha

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XI.

XI.

The rattlesnake bites you, the scorpion stings, The mosquito delights you with buzzing wings; The sand-burrs prevail, and so do the ants, And those who sit down need half-soles on their pants. Cowboy song The day that Roosevelt started south on his journey to the mountains, Sewall returned north down the river to rejoin his nephew. Will Dow was watching the cattle on the plateau a few miles south of Elkhorn Bottom, near the mouth of the defile which the cowboys called Shipka Pass. "You never loo

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XII.

XII.

It was underneath the stars, the little peeking stars, That we lay and dreamed of Eden in the hills: We were neither sad nor gay, but just wondering, while we lay, What a mighty lot of space creation fills. Our fire was just a spark; dot of red against the dark, And around the fire an awful lot of night. The purple, changing air was as quiet as a prayer, And the moon came up and froze the mountains white. Henry Herbert Knibbs Fantastic Formation At Medicine Buttes. Medicine Buttes. The "boss" of

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XIII.

XIII.

Oh, we're up in the morning ere breaking of day, The chuck-wagon's busy, the flapjacks in play; The herd is astir o'er hillside and vale, With the night riders rounding them into the trail. Oh, come take up your cinches, come shake out your reins; Come, wake your old bronco and break for the plains; Come, roust out your steers from the long chaparral, For the outfit is off to the railroad corral. The Railroad Corral Roosevelt returned to the Bad Lands on the 16th of November and was greeted with

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XIV.

XIV.

I'll never come North again. My home is the sunny South, Where it's never mo' than forty below An' the beans don't freeze in your mouth; An' the snow ain't like white smoke, An' the ground ain't like white iron; An' the wind don't stray from Baffin's Bay To join you on retirin'. From Medora Nights Roosevelt arrived in New York a day or two before Christmas with the trophies of his hunt about him and his hunting costume in his "grip." He settled down at his sister's house, at 422 Madison Avenue,

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XV.

XV.

When did we long for the sheltered gloom Of the older game with its cautious odds? Gloried we always in sun and room, Spending our strength like the younger gods. By the wild, sweet ardor that ran in us, By the pain that tested the man in us, By the shadowy springs and the glaring sand, You were our true-love, young, young land. Badger Clark Spring came to the Bad Lands in fits and numerous false starts, first the "chinook," uncovering the butte-tops between dawn and dusk, then the rushing of ma

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XVI.

XVI.

He went so high above the earth, Lights from Jerusalem shone. Right thar we parted company, And he came down alone. I hit terra firma, The buckskin's heels struck free, And brought a bunch of stars along To dance in front of me. Cowboy song Early in May, Roosevelt's men returned from Fergus Falls with a thousand head of cattle. In a letter to his brother, Sewall describes what he terms the "Cattle Torture," in which he had been engaged. "It will perhaps interest you," he adds. "It certainly must

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XVII.

XVII.

At a round-up on the Gily, One sweet mornin' long ago, Ten of us was throwed right freely By a hawse from Idaho. And we thought he'd go a-beggin' For a man to break his pride, Till, a-hitchin' up one leggin', Boastful Bill cut loose and cried— " I'm an on'ry proposition for to hurt; I fulfill my earthly mission with a quirt; I kin ride the highest liver 'Tween the Gulf and Powder River, And I'll break this thing as easy as I'd flirt. " So Bill climbed the Northern Fury, And they mangled up the a

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XVIII.

XVIII.

Somewhere on some faded page I read about a Golden Age, But gods and Caledonian hunts Were nothing to what I knew once. Here on these hills was hunting! Here Antelope sprang and wary deer. Here there were heroes! On these plains Were drops afire from dragons' veins! Here there was challenge, here defying, Here was true living, here great dying! Stormy winds and stormy souls, Earthly wills with starry goals, Battle—thunder—hoofs in flight— Centaurs charging down the night! Here there were feasts

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XIX.

XIX.

We're the children of the open and we hate the haunts o' men, But we had to come to town to get the mail. And we're ridin' home at daybreak—'cause the air is cooler then— All 'cept one of us that stopped behind in jail. Shorty's nose won't bear paradin', Bill's off eye is darkly fadin', All our toilets show a touch of disarray; For we found that City life is a constant round of strife, And we ain't the breed for shyin' from a fray. Chant your war-whoops, pardners dear, while the east turns pale

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XX.

XX.

Bill's head was full o' fire An' his gizzard full o' rum, An' the things he said wuz rich an' red An' rattled as they come. Dave wuz on his stummick, Readin' the news at his ease-like, When Bill comes, brave, sayin' what he'll do to Dave In words what could walk away, cheese-like. Ol' Bill's fist wuz man-size Sure as any alive— But Dave, never squintin', turns over the printin' An' there wuz his Forty-five. Bill he chokes an' swallers, But Dave he's gentle an' mild, An' they talks together o' co

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XXI.

XXI.

I'd rather hear a rattler rattle, I'd rather buck stampeding cattle, I'd rather go to a greaser battle, Than— Than to— Than to fight— Than to fight the bloody In-ji-ans. I'd rather eat a pan of dope, I'd rather ride without a rope, I'd rather from this country lope, Than— Than to— Than to fight— Than to fight the bloody In-ji-ans. Cowboy song All through that autumn of 1885, Roosevelt remained in the Bad Lands. With his whole being he reveled in the wild and care-free life; but the newspapers di

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XXII.

XXII.

"Listen, gentle stranger, I'll read my pedigree: I'm known on handling tenderfeet and worser men than thee; The lions on the mountains, I've drove them to their lairs; The wild-cats are my playmates, and I've wrestled grizzly bears; "The centipedes have tried and failed to mar my tough old hide, And rattlesnakes have bit me, and crawled away and died. I'm as wild as the wild horse that roams the boundless plains, The moss grows on my teeth and wild blood flows through my veins. "I'm wild and woo

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XXIII.

XXIII.

Oh, I am a Texas cowboy, light-hearted, brave, and free, To roam the wide, wide prairie, 'tis always joy to me. My trusty little pony is my companion true, O'er creeks and hills and rivers he's sure to pull me through. When threatening clouds do gather and herded lightnings flash, And heavy rain drops splatter, and rolling thunders crash; What keeps the herds from running, stampeding far and wide? The cowboy's long, low whistle and singing by their side. Cowboy song By a curious coincidence the

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XXIV.

XXIV.

The road is wide and the stars are out, and the breath of night is sweet, And this is the time when wanderlust should seize upon my feet, But I'm glad to turn from the open road and the starlight on my face, And leave the splendor of out-of-doors for a human dwelling-place. Joyce Kilmer A few days after the celebration in Dickinson. Roosevelt went East. The political sirens were calling. He was restless for something to do that would bring into service the giant's strength of which he was becomi

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XXV.

XXV.

I may not see a hundred Before I see the Styx, But coal or ember, I'll remember Eighteen-eighty-six. The stiff heaps in the coulee, The dead eyes in the camp, And the wind about, blowing fortunes out As a woman blows out a lamp. From Medora Nights Roosevelt accepted the Republican nomination for Mayor of New York City, "with the most genuine reluctance," as he wrote Lodge. He recognized that it was "a perfectly hopeless contest; the chance for success being so very small that it may be left out

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XXVI.

XXVI.

Some towns go out in a night, And some are swept bare in a day, But our town like a phantom island, Just faded away. Some towns die, and are dead, But ours, though it perished, breathes; And, in old men and in young dreamers Still, glows and seethes. From Medora Nights Roosevelt returned from Europe on March 28th. The loss among the cattle has been terrible [he wrote Sewall from New York early in April]. About the only comfort I have out of it is that, at any rate, you and Wilmot are all right;

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APPENDIX.

APPENDIX.

(A copy of this contract, in Mr. Roosevelt's handwriting, is in the ranch-ledger, kept, somewhat fitfully, by Mr. Roosevelt and his foremen. This ledger, which contains also the minutes of the first meeting of the Little Missouri River Stockmen's Association, held in Medora on December 19, 1884, is now in the possession of Mr. Joseph A. Ferris, of Terry, Montana.) We the undersigned, Theodore Roosevelt, party of the first part, and William Merrifield and Sylvane Ferris, parties of the second par

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ROOSEVELT'S CONTRACT WITH WILLIAM W. SEWALL AND WILMOT S. DOW.

ROOSEVELT'S CONTRACT WITH WILLIAM W. SEWALL AND WILMOT S. DOW.

Little Missouri, Dakota June 20, 1885 We the undersigned, Theodore Roosevelt, party of the first part, and William Sewall and Wilmot S. Dow, parties of the second part, do agree and contract as follows: (1) The party of the first part having put eleven hundred head of cattle, valued at twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) on the Elkhorn Ranche, on the Little Missouri River, the parties of the second part do agree to take charge of said cattle for the space of three years, and at the end of thi

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ROOSEVELT'S DAKOTA INVESTMENT.

ROOSEVELT'S DAKOTA INVESTMENT.

Mr. Roosevelt's accounts were kept by Mr. Frank C. Smith, confidential clerk in the office of his brother-in-law, Douglas Robinson. The ledgers reveal the following facts concerning his Dakota investments: On March 28, 1892, Roosevelt formed the Elkhorn Stock Company, incorporated under the laws of the State of New York, with Archibald D. Russell, R. H. M. Ferguson, and Douglas Robinson, and on December 5, 1892, transferred his cattle holdings to this Company at a valuation of $16,500. Subsequen

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