Title: The Conquest - The Story of a Negro Pioneer
Author: Micheaux, Oscar, 1884-1951
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Conquest - The Story of a Negro Pioneer" ***


[Illustration]



  The Conquest

  _The Story of a Negro Pioneer_

  BY THE PIONEER

  1913
  THE WOODRUFF PRESS
  Lincoln, Nebr.



Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1913,
  by the Woodruff Bank Note Co., in the office of the
    Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C.

First Edition, May 1, 1913



_To the_
_HONORABLE BOOKER T. WASHINGTON_



_INTRODUCTORY_


_This is a true story of a negro who was discontented and the
circumstances that were the outcome of that discontent._



INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS


                                      PAGE

  Became number one in the opening      56

  Everybody for miles around had journeyed thither to
    celebrate      113

  Made a declaration that he would build a town      128

  Although the valley could not be surpassed in the production
    of grain and alfalfa, the highlands on
    either side were great mountains of sand      133

  On the east the murky waters of the Missouri seek
    their level      140

  The real farmer was fast replacing the homesteader      145

  Everything grew so rank, thick and green      160

  Had put 280 acres under cultivation      177

  Bringing stock, household goods and plenty of money      192

  Were engaged in ranching and owned great herds in
    Tipp county      209

  As the people were all now riding in autos      241

  A beautiful townsite where trees stood      251

  Ernest Nicholson takes a hand      256

  The crops began to wither      289

  The cold days and long nights passed slowly by, and I
    cared for the stock      304



LIST OF CHAPTERS


                                              PAGE

        I Discontent--Spirit of the Pioneer      9

       II Leaving Home--A Maiden      18

      III Chicago, Chasing a Will-O-The-Wisp      24

       IV The P----n Company      34

        V "Go West Young Man"      48

       VI "And Where is Oristown?"      54

      VII Oristown, the "Little Crow" Reservation      61

     VIII Far Down the Pacific--The Proposal      67

       IX The Return--Ernest Nicholson      72

        X The Oklahoma Grafter      74

       XI Dealin' in Mules      79

      XII The Homesteaders      86

     XIII Imaginations Run Amuck      91

      XIV The Surveyors      94

       XV "Which Town Will the R.R. Strike?"      104

      XVI Megory's Day      108

     XVII Ernest Nicholson's Return      117

    XVIII Comes Stanley, the Chief Engineer      123

      XIX In the Valley of the Keya Paha      126

       XX The Outlaw's Last Stand      132

      XXI The Boom      134

     XXII The President's Proclamation      140

    XXIII Where the Negro Fails      142

     XXIV And the Crowds Did Come--The Prairie Fire      148

      XXV The Scotch Girl      153

     XXVI The Battle      164

    XXVII The Sacrifice--Race Loyalty      168

   XXVIII The Breeds      175

     XXIX In the Valley of the Dog Ear      182

      XXX Ernest Nicholson Takes a Hand      186

     XXXI The McCralines      193

    XXXII A Long Night      201

   XXXIII The Survival of the Fittest      208

    XXXIV East of State Street      216

     XXXV An Uncrowned King      233

    XXXVI A Snake in the Grass      241

   XXXVII The Progressives and the Reactionaries      251

  XXXVIII Sanctimonious Hypocrisy      265

    XXXIX Beginning of the End      273

       XL The Mennonites      280

      XLI The Drouth      284

     XLII A Year of Coincidences      294

    XLIII "And Satan Came Also"      297



The Conquest



CHAPTER I

DISCONTENT--SPIRIT OF THE PIONEER


Good gracious, has it been that long? It does not seem possible; but it
was this very day nine years ago when a fellow handed me this little
what-would-you-call-it, Ingalls called it "Opportunity." I've a notion
to burn it, but I won't--not this time, instead, I'll put it down here
and you may call it what you like.

    Master of human destinies am I.
    Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait.
    Cities and fields I walk. I penetrate
    Deserts and seas remote, and passing by
    Hovel, and mart, and palace--soon or late
    I knock unbidden once at every gate.
    If sleeping, wake--if feasting, rise before
    I turn away. It is the hour of fate,
    And they who follow me reach every state
    Mortals desire, and conquer every foe
    Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate,
    Condemned to failure, penury, and woe
    Seek me in vain and uselessly implore,
    I answer not, and I return no more.

Yes, it was that little poem that led me to this land and sometimes I
wonder well, I just wonder, that's all. Again, I think it would be
somewhat different if it wasn't for the wind. It blows and blows until
it makes me feel lonesome and so far away from that little place and the
country in southern Illinois.

I was born twenty-nine years ago near the Ohio River, about forty miles
above Cairo, the fourth son and fifth child of a family of thirteen, by
the name of Devereaux--which, of course, is not my name but we will call
it that for this sketch. It is a peculiar name that ends with an "eaux,"
however, and is considered an odd name for a colored man to have, unless
he is from Louisiana where the French crossed with the Indians and
slaves, causing many Louisiana negroes to have the French names and many
speak the French language also. My father, however, came from Kentucky
and inherited the name from his father who was sold off into Texas
during the slavery period and is said to be living there today.

He was a farmer and owned eighty acres of land and was, therefore,
considered fairly "well-to-do," that is, for a colored man. The county
in which we lived bordered on the river some twenty miles, and took its
name from an old fort that used to do a little cannonading for the
Federal forces back in the Civil War.

The farming in this section was hindered by various disadvantages and at
best was slow, hard work. Along the valleys of the numerous creeks and
bayous that empty their waters into the Ohio, the soil was of a rich
alluvium, where in the early Spring the back waters from the Ohio
covered thousands of acres of farm and timber lands, and in receding
left the land plastered with a coat of river sand and clay which greatly
added to the soil's productivity. One who owned a farm on these bottoms
was considered quite fortunate. Here the corn stalks grew like saplings,
with ears dangling one and two to a stalk, and as sound and heavy as
green blocks of wood.

The heavy rains washed the loam from the hills and deposited it on these
bottoms. Years ago, when the rolling lands were cleared, and before the
excessive rainfall had washed away the loose surface, the highlands were
considered most valuable for agricultural purposes, equally as valuable
as the bottoms now are. Farther back from the river the more rolling the
land became, until some sixteen miles away it was known as the hills,
and here, long before I was born, the land had been very valuable. Large
barns and fine stately houses--now gone to wreck and deserted--stood
behind beautiful groves of chestnut, locust and stately old oaks, where
rabbits, quail and wood-peckers made their homes, and sometimes a
raccoon or opossum founded its den during the cold, bleak winter days.
The orchards, formerly the pride of their owners, now dropped their
neglected fruit which rotted and mulched with the leaves. The fields,
where formerly had grown great crops of wheat, corn, oats, timothy and
clover, were now grown over and enmeshed in a tangled mass of weeds and
dew-berry vines; while along the branches and where the old rail fences
had stood, black-berry vines had grown up, twisting their thorny stems
and forming a veritable hedge fence. These places I promised mother to
avoid as I begged her to allow me to follow the big boys and carry their
game when they went hunting.

In the neighborhood and throughout the country there had at one time
been many colored farmers, or ex-slaves, who had settled there after the
war. Many of them having built up nice homes and cleared the valley of
tough-rooted hickory, gum, pecan and water-oak trees, and the highlands
of the black, white, red or post oak, sassafras and dogwood. They later
grubbed the stumps and hauled the rocks into the roads, or dammed
treacherous little streams that were continually breaking out and
threatening the land with more ditches. But as time wore on and the
older generation died, the younger were attracted to the towns and
cities in quest of occupations that were more suitable to their
increasing desires for society and good times. Leaving the farms to care
for themselves until the inevitable German immigrant came along and
bought them up at his own price, tilled the land, improved the farm and
roads, straightened out the streams by digging canals, and grew
prosperous.

As for me, I was called the lazy member of the family; a shirker who
complained that it was too cold to work in the winter, and too warm in
the summer. About the only thing for which I was given credit was in
learning readily. I always received good grades in my studies, but was
continually criticised for talking too much and being too inquisitive.
We finally moved into the nearby town of M--pls. Not so much to get off
the farm, or to be near more colored people (as most of the younger
negro farmers did) as to give the children better educational
facilities.

The local colored school was held in an old building made of plain
boards standing straight up and down with batten on the cracks. It was
inadequate in many respects; the teachers very often inefficient, and
besides, it was far from home. After my oldest sister graduated she went
away to teach, and about the same time my oldest brother quit school and
went to a near-by town and became a table waiter, much to the
dissatisfaction of my mother, who always declared emphatically that she
wanted none of her sons to become lackeys.

When the Spanish-American War broke out the two brothers above me
enlisted with a company of other patriotic young fellows and were taken
to Springfield to go into camp. At Springfield their company was
disbanded and those of the company that wished to go on were accepted
into other companies, and those that desired to go home were permitted
to do so. The younger of the two brothers returned home by freight; the
other joined a Chicago company and was sent to Santiago and later to San
Luis DeCuba, where he died with typhoid pneumonia.

M--pls was an old town with a few factories, two flour mills, two or
three saw mills, box factories and another concern where veneering was
peeled from wood blocks softened with steam. The timber came from up the
Tennessee River, which emptied into the Ohio a few miles up the river.
There was also the market house, such as are to be seen in towns of the
Southern states--and parts of the Northern. This market house, or
place, as it is often called, was an open building, except one end
enclosed by a meat-market, and was about forty by one hundred feet with
benches on either side and one through the center for the convenience of
those who walked, carrying their produce in a home-made basket. Those in
vehicles backed to a line guarded by the city marshall, forming an
alleyway the width of the market house for perhaps half a block,
depending on how many farmers were on hand. There was always a rush to
get nearest the market house; a case of the early bird getting the worm.
The towns people who came to buy, women mostly with baskets, would file
leisurely between the rows of vehicles, hacks and spring wagons of
various descriptions, looking here and there at the vegetables
displayed.

We moved back to the country after a time where my father complained of
my poor service in the field and in disgust I was sent off to do the
marketing--which pleased me, for it was not only easy but gave me a
chance to meet and talk with many people--and I always sold the goods
and engaged more for the afternoon delivery. This was my first
experience in real business and from that time ever afterward I could
always do better business for myself than for anyone else. I was not
given much credit for my ability to sell, however, until my brother, who
complained that I was given all the easy work while he had to labor and
do all the heavier farm work, was sent to do the marketing. He was not a
salesman and lacked the aggressiveness to approach people with a basket,
and never talked much; was timid and when spoken to or approached
plainly showed it.

On the other hand, I met and became acquainted with people quite
readily. I soon noticed that many people enjoy being flattered, and how
pleased even the prosperous men's wives would seem if bowed to with a
pleasant "Good Morning, Mrs. Quante, nice morning and would you care to
look at some fresh roasting ears--ten cents a dozen; or some nice ripe
strawberries, two boxes for fifteen cents?" "Yes Maam, Thank you! and O,
Mrs. Quante, would you care for some radishes, cucumbers or lettuce for
tomorrow? I could deliver late this afternoon, you see, for maybe you
haven't the time to come to market every day." From this association I
soon learned to give to each and every prospective customer a different
greeting or suggestion, which usually brought a smile and a nod of
appreciation as well as a purchase.

Before the debts swamped my father, and while my brothers were still at
home, our truck gardening, the small herd of milkers and the chickens
paid as well as the farm itself. About this time father fell heir to a
part of the estate of a brother which came as a great relief to his ever
increasing burden of debt.

While this seeming relief to father was on I became very anxious to get
away. In fact I didn't like M--pls nor its surroundings. It was a river
town and gradually losing its usefulness by the invasion of railroads up
and down the river; besides, the colored people were in the most part
wretchedly poor, ignorant and envious. They were set in the ways of
their localisms, and it was quite useless to talk to them of anything
that would better oneself. The social life centered in the two churches
where praying, singing and shouting on Sundays, to back-biting,
stealing, fighting and getting drunk during the week was common among
the men. They remained members in good standing at the churches,
however, as long as they paid their dues, contributed to the numerous
rallies, or helped along in camp meetings and festivals. Others were
regularly turned out, mostly for not paying their dues, only to warm up
at the next revival on the mourners bench and come through converted and
be again accepted into the church and, for awhile at least, live a
near-righteous life. There were many good Christians in the church,
however, who were patient with all this conduct, while there were and
still are those who will not sanction such carrying-on by staying in a
church that permits of such shamming and hypocrisy. These latter often
left the church and were then branded either as infidels or human devils
who had forsaken the house of God and were condemned to eternal
damnation.

My mother was a shouting Methodist and many times we children would slip
quietly out of the church when she began to get happy. The old and less
religious men hauled slop to feed a few pigs, cut cord-wood at fifty
cents per cord, and did any odd jobs, or kept steady ones when such
could be found. The women took in washing, cooked for the white folks,
and fed the preachers. When we lived in the country we fed so many of
the Elders, with their long tailed coats and assuming and authoritative
airs, that I grew to almost dislike the sight of a colored man in a
Prince Albert coat and clerical vest. At sixteen I was fairly disgusted
with it all and took no pains to keep my disgust concealed.

This didn't have the effect of burdening me with many friends in M--pls
and I was regarded by many of the boys and girls, who led in the
whirlpool of the local colored society, as being of the
"too-slow-to-catch-cold" variety, and by some of the Elders as being
worldly, a free thinker, and a dangerous associate for young Christian
folks. Another thing that added to my unpopularity, perhaps, was my
persistent declarations that there were not enough competent colored
people to grasp the many opportunities that presented themselves, and
that if white people could possess such nice homes, wealth and luxuries,
so in time, could the colored people. "You're a fool", I would be told,
and then would follow a lecture describing the time-worn long and cruel
slavery, and after the emancipation, the prejudice and hatred of the
white race, whose chief object was to prevent the progress and
betterment of the negro. This excuse for the negro's lack of ambition
was constantly dinned into my ears from the Kagle corner loafer to the
minister in the pulpit, and I became so tired of it all that I declared
that if I could ever leave M--pls I would never return. More, I would
disprove such a theory and in the following chapters I hope to show that
what I believed fourteen years ago was true.



CHAPTER II

LEAVING HOME--A MAIDEN


I was seventeen when I at last left M--pls. I accepted a rough job at a
dollar and a quarter a day in a car manufacturing concern in a town of
eight thousand population, about eight hundred being colored. I was
unable to save very much, for work was dull that summer, and I was only
averaging about four days' work a week. Besides, I had an attack of
malaria at intervals for a period of two months, but by going to work at
five o'clock A.M. when I was well I could get in two extra hours, making
a dollar-fifty. The concern employed about twelve hundred men and paid
their wages every two weeks, holding back one week's pay. I came there
in June and it was some time in September that I drew my fullest pay
envelope which contained sixteen dollars and fifty cents.

About this time a "fire eating" colored evangelist, who apparently
possessed great converting powers and unusual eloquence, came to town.
These qualities, however, usually became very uninteresting toward the
end of a stay. He had been to M--pls the year before I left and at that
place his popularity greatly diminished before he left. The greater part
of the colored people in this town were of the emotional kind and to
these he was as attractive as he had been at M--pls in the beginning.

Coincident with the commencement of Rev. McIntyre's soul stirring
sermons a big revival was inaugurated, and although the little church
was filled nightly to its capacity, the aisles were kept clear in order
to give those that were "steeping in Hell's fire" (as the evangelist
characterized those who were not members of some church) an open road to
enter into the field of the righteous; also to give the mourners
sufficient room in which to exhaust their emotions when the spirit
struck them--and it is needless to say that they were used. At times
they virtually converted the entire floor into an active gymnasium,
regardless of the rights of other persons or of the chairs they
occupied. I had seen and heard people shout at long intervals in church,
but here, after a few soul stirring sermons, they began to run outside
where there was more room to give vent to the hallucination and this
wandering of the mind. It could be called nothing else, for after the
first few sermons the evangelist would hardly be started before some
mourner would begin to "come through." This revival warmed up to such
proportions that preaching and shouting began in the afternoon instead
of evening. Men working in the yards of the foundry two block away could
hear the shouting above the roaring furnaces and the deafening noise of
machinery of a great car manufacturing concern. The church stood on a
corner where two streets, or avenues, intersected and for a block in
either direction the influence of fanaticism became so intense that the
converts began running about like wild creatures, tearing their hair and
uttering prayers and supplications in discordant tones.

At the evening services the sisters would gather around a mourner that
showed signs of weakening and sing and babble until he or she became so
befuddled they would jump up, throw their arms wildly into the air,
kick, strike, then cry out like a dying soul, fall limp and exhausted
into the many arms outstretched to catch them. This was always
conclusive evidence of a contrite heart and a thoroughly penitent soul.
Far into the night this performance would continue, and when the
mourners' bench became empty the audience would be searched for sinners.
I would sit through it all quite unemotional, and nightly I would be
approached with "aren't you ready?" To which I would make no answer. I
noticed that several boys, who were not in good standing with the
parents of girls they wished to court, found the mourners' bench a
convenient vehicle to the homes of these girls--all of whom belonged to
church. Girls over eighteen who did not belong were subjects of much
gossip and abuse.

A report, in some inconceivable manner, soon became spread that Oscar
Devereaux had said that he wanted to die and go to hell. Such a
sensation! I was approached on all sides by men and women, regardless of
the time of day or night, by the young men who gloried in their
conversion and who urged me to "get right" with Jesus before it was too
late. I do not remember how long these meetings lasted but they suddenly
came to an end when notice was served on the church trustees by the city
council, which irreverently declared that so many converts every
afternoon and night was disturbing the white neighborhood's rest as
well as their nerves. It ordered windows and doors to be kept closed
during services, and as the church was small it was impossible to house
the congregation and all the converts, so the revival ended and the
community was restored to normal and calm once more prevailed.

That was in September. One Sunday afternoon in October, as I was walking
along the railroad track, I chanced to overhear voices coming from under
a water tank, where a space of some eight or ten feet enclosed by four
huge timbers made a small, secluded place. I stopped, listened and was
sure I recognized the voices of Douglas Brock, his brother Melvin, and
two other well known colored boys. Douglas was betting a quarter with
one of the other boys that he couldn't pass. (You who know the dice and
its vagaries will know what he meant.) This was mingled with words and
commands from Melvin to the dice in trying to make some point. It must
have been four. He would let out a sort of yowl; "Little Joe, can't you
do it?" I went my way. I didn't shoot craps nor drink neither did I
belong to church but was called a dreadful sinner while three of the
boys under the tank had, not less than six weeks before, joined church
and were now full-fledged members in good standing. Of course I did not
consider that all people who belonged to church were not Christians, but
was quite sure that many were not.

The following January a relative of mine got a job for me bailing water
in a coal mine in a little town inhabited entirely by negroes. I worked
from six o'clock P.M. to six A.M., and received two dollars and
twenty-five cents therefor. The work was rough and hard and the mine
very dark. The smoke hung like a cloud near the top of the tunnel-like
room during all the night. This was because the fans were all but shut
off at night, and just enough air was pumped in to prevent the formation
of black damp. The smoke made my head ache until I felt stupid and the
dampness made me ill, but the two dollars and twenty-five cents per day
looked good to me. After six weeks, however, I was forced to quit, and
with sixty-five dollars--more money than I had ever had--I went to see
my older sister who was teaching in a nearby town.

I had grown into a strong, husky youth of eighteen and my sister was
surprised to see that I was working and taking care of myself so well.
She shared the thought of nearly all of my acquaintances that I was too
lazy to leave home and do hard work, especially in the winter time.
After awhile she suddenly looked at me and spoke as though afraid she
would forget it, "O, Oscar! I've got a girl for you; what do you think
of that?" smiling so pleasantly, I was afraid she was joking. You see, I
had never been very successful with the girls and when she mentioned
having a girl for me my heart was all a flutter and when she hesitated I
put in eagerly.

"Aw go on--quit your kidding. On the level now, or are you just chiding
me?" But she took on a serious expression and speaking thoughtfully, she
went on.

"Yes, she lives next door and is a nice little girl, and pretty. The
prettiest colored girl in town."

Here I lost interest for I remembered my sister was foolish about
beauty and I said that I didn't care to meet her. I was suspicious when
it came to the pretty type of girls, and had observed that the prettiest
girl in town was oft times petted and spoiled and a mere butterfly.

"O why?" She spoke like one hurt. Then I confessed my suspicions. "O,
You're foolish," she exclaimed softly, appearing relieved. "Besides,"
she went on brightly "Jessie isn't a spoiled girl, you wait until you
meet her." And in spite of my protests she sent the landlady's little
girl off for Miss Rooks. She came over in about an hour and I found her
to be demure and thoughtful, as well as pretty. She was small of
stature, had dark eyes and beautiful wavy, black hair, and an olive
complexion. She wouldn't allow me to look into her eyes but continued to
cast them downward, sitting with folded hands and answering when spoken
to in a tiny voice quite in keeping with her small person.

During the afternoon I mentioned that I was going to Chicago, "Now
Oscar, you've got no business in Chicago," my sister spoke up with a
touch of authority. "You're too young, and besides," she asked "do you
know whether W.O. wants you?" W.O. was our oldest brother and was then
making Chicago his home.

"Huh!" I snorted "I'm going on my own hook," and drawing up to my full
six feet I tried to look brave, which seemed to have the desired effect
on my sister.

"Well" she said resignedly, "you must be careful and not get into bad
company--be good and try to make a man of yourself."



CHAPTER III

CHICAGO, CHASING A WILL-O-THE-WISP


That was on Sunday morning three hundred miles south of Chicago, and at
nine-forty that night I stepped off the New Orleans and Chicago fast
mail into a different world. It was, I believe, the coldest night that I
had ever experienced. The city was new and strange to me and I wandered
here and there for hours before I finally found my brother's address on
Armour Avenue. But the wandering and anxiety mattered little, for I was
in the great city where I intended beginning my career, and felt that
bigger things were in store for me.

The next day my brother's landlady appeared to take a good deal of
interest in me and encouraged me so that I became quite confidential,
and told her of my ambitions for the future and that it was my intention
to work, save my money and eventually become a property owner. I was
rather chagrined later, however, to find that she had repeated all this
to my brother and he gave me a good round scolding, accompanied by the
unsolicited advice that if I would keep my mouth shut people wouldn't
know I was so green. He had been traveling as a waiter on an eastern
railroad dining car, but in a fit of independence--which had always been
characteristic of him--had quit, and now in mid-winter, was out of a
job. He was not enthusiastic concerning my presence in the city and I
had found him broke, but with a lot of fine clothes and a diamond or
two. Most folks from the country don't value good clothes and diamonds
in the way city folks do and I, for one, didn't think much of his
finery.

I was greatly disappointed, for I had anticipated that my big brother
would have accumulated some property or become master of a bank account
during these five or six years he had been away from home. He seemed to
sense this disappointment and became more irritated at my presence and
finally wrote home to my parents--who had recently moved to
Kansas--charging me with the crime of being a big, awkward, ignorant
kid, unsophisticated in the ways of the world, and especially of the
city; that I was likely to end my "career" by running over a street car
and permitting the city to irretrievably lose me, or something equally
as bad. When I heard from my mother she was worried and begged me to
come home. I knew the folks at home shared my brother's opinion of me
and believed all he had told them, so I had a good laugh all to myself
in spite of the depressing effect it had on me. However, there was the
reaction, and when it set in I became heartsick and discouraged and then
and there became personally acquainted with the "blues", who gave me
their undivided attention for some time after that.

The following Sunday I expected him to take me to church with him, but
he didn't. He went alone, wearing his five dollar hat, fifteen dollar
made-to-measure shoes, forty-five dollar coat and vest, eleven dollar
trousers, fifty dollar tweed overcoat and his diamonds. I found my way
to church alone and when I saw him sitting reservedly in an opposite
pew, I felt snubbed and my heart sank. However, only momentarily, for a
new light dawned upon me and I saw the snobbery and folly of it all and
resolved that some day I would rise head and shoulders above that
foolish, four-flushing brother of mine in real and material success.

I finally secured irregular employment at the Union Stock Yards. The
wages at that time were not the best. Common labor a dollar-fifty per
day and the hours very irregular. Some days I was called for duty at
five in the morning and laid off at three in the afternoon or called
again at eight in the evening to work until nine the same evening. I
soon found the mere getting of jobs to be quite easy. It was getting a
desirable one that gave me trouble. However, when I first went to the
yards and looked at the crowds waiting before the office in quest of
employment, I must confess I felt rather discouraged, but my new
surroundings and that indefinable interesting feature about these crowds
with their diversity of nationalities and ambitions, made me forget my
own little disappointments. Most all new arrivals, whether skilled or
unskilled workmen, seeking "jobs" in the city find their way to the
yards. Thousands of unskilled laborers are employed here and it seems to
be the Mecca for the down-and-out who wander thither in a last effort to
obtain employment.

The people with whom I stopped belonged to the servant class and lived
neatly in their Armour Avenue flat. The different classes of people who
make up the population of a great city are segregated more by their
occupations than anything else. The laborers usually live in a laborer's
neighborhood. Tradesmen find it more agreeable among their fellow
workmen and the same is true of the servants and others. I found that
employment which soiled the clothes and face and hands was out of
keeping among the people with whom I lived, so after trying first one
job, then another, I went to Joliet, Illinois, to work out my fortune in
the steel mills of that town. I was told that at that place was an
excellent opportunity to learn a trade, but after getting only the very
roughest kind of work to do around the mills, such as wrecking and
carrying all kinds of broken iron and digging in a canal along with a
lot of jabbering foreigners whose English vocabulary consisted of but
one word--their laborer's number. It is needless to say that I saw
little chance of learning a trade at any very early date.

Pay day "happened" every two weeks with two weeks held back. If I quit
it would be three weeks before I could get my wages, but was informed of
a scheme by which I could get my money, by telling the foreman that I
was going to leave the state. Accordingly, I approached the renowned
imbecile and told him that I was going to California and would have to
quit and would like to get my pay. "Pay day is every two weeks, so be
sure to get back in time," he answered in that officious manner so
peculiar to foremen. I had only four dollars coming, so I quit anyway.

That evening I became the recipient of the illuminating information
that if I would apply at the coal chutes I would find better employment
as well as receive better wages. I sought out the fellow in charge, a
big colored man weighing about two hundred pounds, who gave me work
cracking and heaving coal into the chute at a dollar-fifty per
twenty-five tons.

"Gracious", I expostulated. "A man can't do all of that in a day".

"Pooh", and he waved his big hands depreciatingly, "I have heaved forty
tons with small effort".

I decided to go to work that day, but with many misgivings as to
cracking and shoveling twenty-five tons of coal. The first day I
managed, by dint of hard labor, to crack and heave eighteen tons out of
a box car, for which I received the munificent sum of one dollar, and
the next day I fell to sixteen tons and likewise to eighty-nine cents.
The contractor who superintended the coal business bought me a drink in
a nearby saloon, and as I drank it with a gulp he patted me on the
shoulder, saying, "Now, after the third day, son, you begin to improve
and at the end of a week you can heave thirty tons a day as easily as a
clock ticking the time". I thought he was going to add that I would be
shoveling forty tons like Big Jim, the fellow who gave me the job, but I
cut him off by telling him that I'd resign before I became so
proficient.

I had to send for more money to pay my board. My brother, being my
banker, sent a statement of my account, showing that I had to date just
twenty-five dollars, and the statement seemed to read coldly between the
lines that I would soon be broke, out of a job, and what then? I felt
very serious about the matter and when I returned to Chicago I had lost
some of my confidence regarding my future. Mrs. Nelson, the landlady,
boasted that her husband made twenty dollars per week; showed me her
diamonds and spoke so very highly of my brother, that I suspicioned that
she admired him a great deal, and that he was in no immediate danger of
losing his room even when he was out of work and unable to meet his
obligations.

My next step was to let an employment agency swindle me out of two
dollars. Their system was quite unique, and, I presume, legitimate. They
persuaded the applicant to deposit three dollars as a guarantee of good
faith, after which they were to find a position for him. A given
percentage was also to be taken from the wages for a certain length of
time. Some of these agencies may have been all right, but my old friend,
the hoodoo, led me to one that was an open fraud. After the person
seeking employment has been sent to several places for imaginary
positions that prove to be only myths, the agency offers to give back a
dollar and the disgusted applicant is usually glad to get it. I, myself,
being one of many of these unfortunates.

I then tried the newspaper ads. There is usually some particular paper
in any large city that makes a specialty of want advertisements. I was
told, as was necessary, to stand at the door when the paper came from
the press, grab a copy, choose an ad that seemed promising and run like
wild for the address given. I had no trade, so turned to the
miscellaneous column, and as I had no references I looked for a place
where none were required. If the address was near I would run as fast as
the crowded street and the speed laws would permit, but always found
upon arrival that someone had just either been accepted ahead of me, or
had been there a week. I having run down an old ad that had been
permitted to run for that time. About the only difference I found
between the newspapers and the employment agencies was that I didn't
have to pay three dollars for the experience.

I now realized the disadvantages of being an unskilled laborer, and had
grown weary of chasing a "will-o-the-wisp" and one day while talking to
a small Indian-looking negro I remarked that I wished I could find a job
in some suburb shining shoes in a barber shop or something that would
take me away from Chicago and its dilly-dally jobs for awhile.

"I know where you can get a job like that", he answered, thoughtfully.

"Where?" I asked eagerly.

"Why, out at Eaton", he went on, "a suburb about twenty-five miles west.
A fellow wanted me to go but I don't want to leave Chicago".

I found that most of the colored people with whom I had become
acquainted who lived in Chicago very long were similarly reluctant about
leaving, but I was ready to go anywhere. So my new friend took me over
to a barber supply house on Clark street, where a man gave me the name
of the barber at Eaton and told me to come by in the morning and he'd
give me a ticket to the place. When I got on the street again I felt so
happy and grateful to my friend for the information, that I gave the
little mulatto a half dollar, all the money I had with me, and had to
walk the forty blocks to my room. Here I filled my old grip and the next
morning "beat it" for Eaton, arriving there on the first of May, and a
cold, bleak, spring morning it was. I found the shop without any
trouble--a dingy little place with two chairs. The proprietor, a drawn,
unhappy looking creature, and a hawkish looking German assistant
welcomed me cordially. They seemed to need company. The proprietor led
me upstairs to a room that I could have free with an oil stove and table
where I could cook--so I made arrangements to "bach".

I received no wages, but was allowed to retain all I made "shining". I
had acquired some experience shining shoes on the streets of M--pls with
a home-made box--getting on my knees whenever I got a customer. "Shining
shoes" is not usually considered an advanced or technical occupation
requiring skill. However, if properly conducted it can be the making of
a good solicitor. While Eaton was a suburb it was also a country town
and this shop was never patronized by any of the metropolitan class who
made their homes there, but principally by the country class who do not
evidence their city pride by the polish of their shoes. Few city people
allow their shoes to go unpolished and I wasn't long in finding it out,
and when I did I had something to say to the men who went by, well
dressed but with dirty shoes. If I could argue them into stopping, if
only for a moment, I could nearly always succeed in getting them into
the chair.

Business, however, was dull and I began taking jobs in the country from
the farmers, working through the day and getting back to the shop for
the evening. This, however, was short lived, for I was unaccustomed to
farm work since leaving home and found it extremely difficult. My first
work in the country was pitching timothy hay side-by-side with a girl of
sixteen, who knew how to pitch hay. I thought it would be quite romantic
before I started, but before night came I had changed my mind. The man
on the wagon would drive alongside a big cock of sweet smelling hay and
the girl would stick her fork partly to one side of the hay cock and
show me how to put my fork into the other. I was left-handed while she
was right, and with our backs to the wagon we could make a heavy lift
and when the hay was directly overhead we'd turn and face each other and
over the load would go onto the wagon. Toward evening the loads thus
balanced seemed to me as heavy as the load of Atlas bearing the earth. I
am sure my face disclosed the fatigue and strain under which I labored,
for it was clearly reflected in the knowing grin of my companion. I drew
my pay that night on the excuse of having to get an overall suit,
promising to be back at a quarter to seven the next morning.

Then I tried shocking oats along with a boy of about twelve, a girl of
fourteen and the farmer's wife. The way those two children did
work,--Whew! I was so glad when a shower came up about noon that I
refrained from shouting with difficulty. I drew my pay this time to get
some gloves, and promised to be back as soon as it dried. The next
morning I felt so sore and stiff as the result of my two days'
experience in the harvest fields, that I forgot all about my promise to
return and decided to stay in Eaton.

It was in Eaton that I started my first bank account. The little
twenty-dollar certificate of deposit opened my mind to different things
entirely. I would look at it until I had day dreams. During the three
months I spent in Eaton I laid the foundation of a future. Simple as it
was, it led me into channels which carried me away from my race and into
a life fraught with excitement; a life that gave experiences and other
things I had never dreamed of. I had started a bank account of twenty
dollars and I found myself wanting one of thirty, and to my surprise the
desire seemed to increase. This desire fathered my plans to become a
porter on a P----n car. A position I diligently sought and applied for
between such odd jobs about town as mowing lawns, washing windows,
scrubbing floors and a variety of others that kept me quite busy. Taking
the work, if I could, by contract, thus permitting me to use my own time
and to work as hard as I desired to finish. I found that by this plan I
could make money faster and easier than by working in the country.

I was finally rewarded by being given a run on a parlor car by a road
that reached many summer resorts in southern Wisconsin. Here I skimped
along on a run that went out every Friday and Saturday, returning on
Monday morning. The regular salary was forty dollars per month, but as I
never put in more than half the time I barely made twenty dollars, and
altho' I made a little "on the side" in the way of tips I had to draw on
the money I had saved in Eaton.



CHAPTER IV

THE P----N COMPANY


The P----n Company is a big palace, dining and sleeping car company that
most American people know a great deal about. I had long desired to have
a run on one of the magnificent sleepers that operated out of Chicago to
every part of North America, that I might have an opportunity to see the
country and make money at the same time, and from Monday to Friday I had
nothing to do but report at one of the three P----n offices in my effort
to get such a position. One office where I was particularly attentive,
operated cars on four roads, so I called on this office about twice a
week, but a long, slim chief clerk whose chair guarded the entrance to
the Superintendent's office would drawl out lazily: "We don't need any
men today." I had been to the office a number of times before I left
Eaton and had heard his drawl so often that I grew nervous whenever he
looked at me. That district employed over a thousand porters and there
was no doubt that they hired them every day. One day I was telling my
troubles to a friendly porter whom I later learned to be George Cole
(former husband of the present wife of Bert Williams, the comedian). He
advised me to see Mr. Miltzow, the Superintendent.

"But I can never see him" I said despairingly, "for that long imbecile
of a clerk."

"Jump him some day when he is on the way from luncheon, talk fast, tell
him how you have been trying all summer to 'get on', the old man" he
said, referring to the superintendent, "likes big, stout youngsters like
you, so try it." The next day I watched him from the street and when he
started to descend the long stairway to his office, I gathered my
courage and stepped to his side. I told him how I had fairly haunted his
office, only to be turned away regularly by the same words; that I would
like a position if he would at any time need any men. He went into his
office, leaving me standing at the railing, where I held my grounds in
defiance of the chief clerk's insolent stare. After a few minutes he
looked up and called out "Come in here, you." As I stood before him he
looked me over searchingly and inquired as to whether I had any
references.

"No Sir," I answered quickly, "but I can get them." I was beside myself
with nervous excitement and watched him eagerly for fear he might turn
me away at the physicological moment, and that I would fail to get what
I had wanted so long.

"Well," he said in a decisive tone, "get good references, showing what
you have been doing for the last five years, bring them around and I'll
talk to you."

"Thank you Sir," I blurted out and with hopes soaring I hurried out and
down the steps. Going to my room, I wrote for references to people in
M--pls who had known me all my life. Of course they sent me the best of
letters, which I took immediately to Mr. Miltzow's office. After looking
them over carelessly he handed them to his secretary asking me whether
I was able to buy a uniform. When I answered in the affirmative he gave
me a letter to the company's tailor, and one to the instructor, who the
next day gave me my first lessons in a car called the "school" in a
nearby railroad yard placed there for that purpose. I learned all that
was required in a day, although he had some pupils who had been with him
five days before I started and who graduated with me. I now thought I
was a full-fledged porter and was given an order for equipment, combs,
brushes, etc., a letter from the instructor to the man that signed out
the runs, a very apt appearing young man with a gift for remembering
names and faces, who instructed me to report on the morrow. The thought
of my first trip the next day, perhaps to some distant city I had never
seen, caused me to lie awake the greater part of the night.

When I went into the porter's room the next day, or "down in the hole,"
as the basement was called, and looked into the place, I found it
crowded with men, and mostly old men at that and I felt sure it would be
a long time before I was sent out. However, I soon learned that the most
of them were "emergency men" or emergies, men who had been discharged
and who appeared regularly in hopes of getting a car that could not be
supplied with a regular man.

There was one by the name of Knight, a pitiable and forlorn character in
whose breast "hope sprang eternal," who came to the "hole" every day,
and in an entire year he had made one lone trip. He lived by "mooching"
a dime, quarter or fifty cents from first one porter then another and
by helping some porters make down beds in cars that went out on midnight
trains. It was said that he had been discharged on account of too strict
adherence to duty. Every member of a train crew, whether porter,
brakeman or conductor, must carry a book of rules; more as a matter of
form than to show to passengers as Knight had done. A trainman should,
and does, depend more on his judgment than on any set of rules, and
permits the rule to be stretched now and then to fit circumstances.
Knight, however, courted his rule book and when a passenger requested
some service that the rules prohibited, such for instance as an extra
pillow to a berth, and if the passenger insisted or showed
dissatisfaction Knight would get his book of rules, turn to the chapter
which dwelt on the subject and read it aloud to the already disgruntled
passenger, thereby making more or less of a nuisance to the traveling
public.

But I am digressing. Fred, the "sign-out-clerk" came along and the many
voices indulging in loud and raucous conversation so characteristic of
porters off duty, gave way to respectful silence. He looked favorably on
the regular men but seemed to pass up the emergies as he entered. The
poor fellows didn't expect to be sent out but it seemed to fascinate
them to hear the clerk assign the regular men their cars to some distant
cities in his cheerful language such as: "Hello! Brooks, where did you
come from?--From San Antonio? Well take the car 'Litchfield' to Oakland;
leaves on Number Three at eleven o'clock to-night over the B. & R.N.;
have the car all ready, eight lowers made down." And from one to the
other he would go, signing one to go east and another west. Respectfully
silent and attentive the men's eyes would follow him as he moved on,
each and every man eager to know where he would be sent.

Finally he got to me. He had an excellent memory and seemed to know all
men by name. "Well Devereaux," he said, "do you think that you can run a
car?"

"Yes Sir!" I answered quickly. He fumbled his pencil thoughtfully while
I waited nervously then went on:

"And you feel quite capable of running a car, do you?"

"Yes Sir" I replied with emphasis, "I learned thoroughly yesterday."

"Well," he spoke as one who has weighed the matter and is not quite
certain but willing to risk, and taking his pad and pencil he wrote,
speaking at the same time, "You go out to the Ft. Wayne yards and get on
the car 'Altata', goes extra to Washington D.C. at three o'clock; put
away the linen, put out combs, brushes and have the car in order when
the train backs down."

"Yes Sir," and I hurried out of the room, up the steps and onto the
street where I could give vent to my elation. To Washington, first of
all places. O Glory! and I fairly flew out to Sixteenth street where the
P.F. & W. passenger yards were located. Here not less than seven hundred
passenger and and P----n cars are cleaned and put in readiness for each
trip daily, and standing among them I found the Altata. O wonderful
name! She was a brand new observation car just out of the shops. I dared
not believe my eyes, and felt that there must be some mistake; surely
the company didn't expect to send me out with such a fine car on my
first trip. But I should have known better, for among the many thousands
of P----n cars with their picturesque names, there was not another
"Altata." I looked around the yards and finally inquired of a cleaner as
to where the Altata was. "Right there," he said, pointing to the car I
had been looking at and I boarded her nervously; found the linen and
lockers but was at a loss to know how and where to start getting the car
in order. I was more than confused and what I had learned so quickly the
day before had vanished like smoke. I was afraid too, that if I didn't
have the car in order I'd be taken off when the train backed down and
become an "emergie" myself. This shocked me so it brought me to my
senses and I got busy putting the linen somewhere and when the train
stopped in the shed the car, as well as myself, was fairly presentable
and ready to receive.

Then came the rush of passengers with all their attending requests for
attention. "Ah Poiter, put my grip in Thoiteen," and "Ah Poiter, will
you raise my window and put in a deflector?" Holy Smitherines! I rushed
back and forth like a lost calf, trying to recall what a deflector was,
and I couldn't distinguish thoiteen from three. Then--"Ah, Poiter, will
you tell me when we get to Valparaiso?" called a little blonde lady,
"You see, I have a son who is attending the Univoisity theah--now Poiter
don't forget please" she asked winsomely.

"Oh! No, Maam," I assured her confidently that I never forgot anything.
My confusion became so intense had I gotten off the car I'd probably not
have known which way to get on again.

The clerk seemed to sense my embarrassment and helped me seat the
passengers in their proper places, as well as to answer the numerous
questions directed at me. The G.A.R. encampment was on in Washington and
the rush was greater than usual on that account. By the time the train
reached Valparaiso I had gotten somewhat accustomed to the situation and
recalled my promise to the little blonde lady and filled it. She had
been asleep and it was raining to beat-the-band. With a sigh she looked
out of the window and then turned on her side and fell asleep again. At
Pittsburg I was chagrined to be turned back and sent over the P.H. & D.
to Chicago.

At Columbus, Ohio, we took on a colored preacher who had a ticket for an
upper berth over a Southerner who had the lower. The Southern gentleman
in that "holier than thou" attitude made a vigorous kick to the
conductor to have the colored "Sky-pilot," as he termed him, removed. I
heard the conductor tell him gently but firmly, that he couldn't do it.
Then after a few characteristic haughty remarks the Southerner went
forward to the chair car and sat up all night. When I got the shoes
shined and lavatory ready for the morning rush I slipped into the
Southerner's berth and had a good snooze. However, longer than it should
have been, for the conductor found me the next morning as the train was
pulling into Chicago. He threatened to report me but when I told him
that it was my first trip out, that I hadn't had any sleep the night
before and none the night before that on account of my restlessness in
anticipation of the trip, he relented and helped me to make up the beds.

I barely got to my room before I was called to go out again. This time
going through to Washington. The P.F. & W. tracks pass right through
Washington's "black belt" and it might be interesting to the reader to
know that Washington has more colored people than any other American
city. I had never seen so many colored people. In fact, the entire
population seemed to be negroes. There was an old lady from South Dakota
on my car who seemed surprised at the many colored people and after
looking quite intently for some time she touched me on the sleeve,
whispering, "Porter, aren't there anything but colored people here?" I
replied that it seemed so.

At the station a near-mob of colored boys huddled before the steps and I
thought they would fairly take the passengers off their feet by the way
they crowded around them. However, they were harmless and only wanted to
earn a dime by carrying grips. Two of them got a jui jitsu grip on that
of the old lady from South Dakota, and to say that she became frightened
would be putting it mildly. Just then a policeman came along and the
boys scattered like flies and the old lady seemed much relieved. Having
since taken up my abode in that state myself, and knowing that there
were but few negroes inhabiting it, I have often wondered since how she
must have felt on that memorable trip of hers, as well as mine.

After working some four months on various and irregular runs that took
me to all the important cities of the United States east of the
Mississippi River, I was put on a regular run to Portland, Oregon. This
was along in February and about the same time that I banked my first one
hundred dollars. If my former bank account had stirred my ambition and
become an incentive to economy and a life of modest habits, the larger
one put everything foolish and impractical entirely out of my mind, and
economy, modesty and frugality became fixed habits of my life.

At a point in Wyoming on my run to Portland my car left the main line
and went over another through Idaho and Oregon. From there no berth
tickets were sold by the station agents and the conductors collected the
cash fares, and had for many years mixed the company's money with their
own. I soon found myself in the mire along with the conductors. "Getting
in" was easy and tips were good for a hundred dollars a month and
sometimes more. "Good Conductors," a name applied to "color blind" cons,
were worth seventy-five, and with the twenty-five dollar salary from the
company, I averaged two hundred dollars a month for eighteen months.

There is something fascinating about railroading, and few men really
tire of it. In fact, most men, like myself, rather enjoy it. I never
tired of hearing the t-clack of the trucks and the general roar of the
train as it thundered over streams and crossings throughout the days and
nights across the continent to the Pacific coast. The scenery never
grew old, as it was quite varied between Chicago and North Platte.
During the summer it is one large garden farm, dotted with numerous
cities, thriving hamlets and towns, fine country homes so characteristic
of the great middle west, and is always pleasing to the eye.

Between North Platte and Julesburg, Colorado, is the heart of the
semi-arid region, where the yearly rainfall is insufficient to mature
crops, but where the short buffalo grass feeds the rancher's herds
winter and summer. As the car continues westward, climbing higher and
higher as it approaches the Rockies, the air becomes quite rare. At
Cheyenne the air is so light it blows a gale almost steadily, and the
eye can discern objects for miles away while the ear cannot hear sounds
over twenty rods. I shall not soon forget how I was wont to gaze at the
herds of cattle ten to thirty miles away grazing peacefully on the great
Laramie plains to the south, while beyond that lay the great American
Rockies, their ragged peaks towering above in great sepulchral forms,
filling me alternately with a feeling of romance or adventure, depending
somewhat on whether it was a story of the "Roundup," or some other
article typical of the west, I was reading.

Nearing the Continental divide the car pulls into Rawlins, which is
about the highest, driest and most uninviting place on the line. From
here the stage lines radiate for a hundred miles to the north and south.
Near here is Medicine Bow, where Owen Wister lays the beginning scenes
of the "Virginian"; and beyond lies Rock Springs, the home of the famous
coal that bears its name and which commands the highest price of any
bituminous coal. The coal lies in wide veins, the shafts run
horizontally and there are no deep shafts as there are in the coal
fields of Illinois and other Central states.

From here the train descends a gentle slope to Green River, Wyoming, a
division point in the U.P. South on the D. & R.G. is Green River, Utah.
Arriving at Granger one feels as though he had arrived at the jumping
off place of creation. Like most all desert stations it contains nothing
of interest and time becomes a bore. Here the traffic is divided and the
O.S.L. takes the Portland and Butte section into Idaho where the scenery
suddenly begins to get brighter. Indeed, the country seems to take on a
beautiful and cheerful appearance; civilization and beautiful farms take
the place of the wilderness, sage brush and skulking coyotes. Thanks to
the irrigation ditch.

After crossing the picturesque American Falls of Snake River, the train
soon arrives at Minidoka. This is the seat of the great Minidoka
project, in which the United States Government has taken such an active
interest and constructed a canal over seventy miles in length. This has
converted about a quarter of a million acres of Idaho's volcanic ash
soil into productive lands that bloom as the rose. It was the beautiful
valley of the Snake River, with its indescribable scenery and its many
beautiful little cities, that attracted my attention and looked as
though it had a promising future. I had contemplated investing in some
of its lands and locating, if I should happen to be compelled by stress
of circumstances to change my occupation. This came to pass shortly
thereafter.

The end came after a trip between Granger and Portland, in company with
a shrewd Irish conductor by the name of Wright, who not only "knocked
down" the company's money, but drank a good deal more whiskey than was
good for him. On this last trip, when Wright took charge of the car at
Granger, he began telling about his newly acquired "dear little wifey."
Also confiding to me that he had quit drinking and was going to quit
"knocking down"--after that trip. Oh, yes! Wright was always going to
dispense with all things dishonest and dishonorable--at some future
date. Another bad thing about Wright was that he would steal, not only
from the company, but from the porter as well, by virtue of the rule
that required the porter to take a duplicate receipt from the conductor
for each and every passenger riding on his car, whether the passenger
has a ticket or pays cash fare. These receipts are forwarded to the
Auditor of the company at the end of each run.

Wright's method of stealing from the porter was not to turn over any
duplicates or receipts until arriving at the terminus. Then he would
choose a time when the porter was very busy brushing the passengers'
clothes and getting the tips, and would then have no time to count up or
tell just how many people had ridden. I had received information from
others concerning him and was cautioned to watch. So on our first trip I
quietly checked up all the passengers as they got on and where they got
off, as well as the berth or seat they occupied. Arriving at Granger
going east he gave me the wink and taking me into the smoking room he
proceeded to give me the duplicates and divide the spoils. He gave me
six dollars, saying he had cut such and such a passenger's fare and that
was my part. I summed up and the amount "knocked down" was thirty-one
dollars. I showed him my figures and at the same time told him to hand
over nine-fifty more. How he did rage and swear about the
responsibilities being all on him, that he did all the collecting and
the "dirty work" in connection therewith, that the company didn't fire
the porter. He said before he would concede to my demands he would turn
all the money in to the company and report me for insolence. I sat
calmly through it all and when he had exhausted his vituperations I
calmly said "nine-fifty, please." I had no fear of his doing any of the
things threatened for I had dealt with grafting conductors long enough
to know that when they determined on keeping a fare they weren't likely
to turn in their portion to spite the porter, and Wright was no
exception.

But getting back to the last trip. An old lady had given me a quart of
Old Crow Whiskey bottled in bond. There had been perhaps a half pint
taken out. I thanked her profusely and put it in the locker, and since
Wright found that he could not keep any of my share of the "knocked
down" fares he was running straight--that is with me, and we were quite
friendly, so I told him of the gift and where to find it if he wanted a
"smile." In one end of the P----n where the drawing room cuts off the
main portion of the car, and at the beginning of the curved aisle and
opposite to the drawing room, is the locker. When its door is open it
completely closes the aisle, thus hiding a person from view behind it.
Before long I saw Wright open the door and a little later could hear him
ease the bottle down after taking a drink.

When we got to Portland, Wright was feeling "about right" and the bottle
was empty. As he divided the money with me he cried: "Let her run on
three wheels." It was the last time he divided any of the company's
money with a porter. When he stepped into the office at the end of that
trip he was told that they "had a message from Ager" the assistant
general superintendent, concerning him. Every employee knew that a
message from this individual meant "off goes the bean." I never saw
Wright afterwards, for they "got" me too that trip.

The little Irish conductor, who was considered the shrewdest of the
shrewd, had run a long time and "knocked down" a great amount of the
company's money but the system of "spotting" eventually got him as it
does the best of them.

I now had two thousand, three hundred and forty dollars in the bank. The
odd forty I drew out, and left the remainder on deposit, packed my trunk
and bid farewell to Armour Avenue and Chicago's Black Belt with its beer
cans, drunken men and women, and turned my face westward with the spirit
of Horace Greeley before and his words "Go west, young man, and grow up
with the country" ringing in my ears. So westward I journeyed to the
land of raw material, which my dreams had pictured to me as the land of
real beginning, and where I was soon to learn more than a mere observer
ever could by living in the realm of a great city.



CHAPTER V

"GO WEST YOUNG MAN AND GROW UP WITH THE COUNTRY"


In justice to the many thousands of P----n porters, as well as many
conductors, who were in the habit of retaining the company's money, let
it be said that they are not the hungry thieves and dishonest rogues the
general public might think them to be, dishonest as their conduct may
seem to be. They were victims of a vicious system built up and winked at
by the company itself.

Before the day of the Inter-State Commerce Commission and anti-pass and
two-cent-per-mile legislation, and when passengers paid cash fares, it
was a matter of tradition with the conductors to knockdown, and nothing
was said, although the conductors, as now, were fairly well paid and the
company fully expected to lose some of the cash fares.

In the case of the porters, however, the circumstances are far more
mitigating. At the time I was with the company there were, in round
numbers, eight thousand porters in the service on tourist and standard
sleepers who were receiving from a minimum of twenty-five dollars to not
to exceed forty dollars per month, depending on length and desirability
of service. Out of this he must furnish, for the first ten years, his
own uniforms and cap, consisting of summer and winter suits at twenty
and twenty-two dollars respectively. After ten years of continuous
service these things are furnished by the company. Then there is the
board, lodging and laundry expense. Trainmen are allowed from fifty to
sixty per cent off of the regular bill of fare, and at this price most
any kind of a meal in an a-la-carte diner comes to forty and fifty
cents. Besides, the waiters expect tips from the crew as well as from
the passengers and make it more uncomfortable for them if they do not
receive it than they usually do for the passenger.

I kept an accurate itemized account of my living expenses, including six
dollars per month for a room in Chicago, and economize as I would,
making one uniform and cap last a whole year, I could not get the
monthly expense below forty dollars--fifteen dollars more than my
salary, and surely the company must have known it and condoned any
reasonable amount of "knock down" on the side to make up the deficiency
in salary. The porter's "knock down" usually coming through the
sympathy, good will and unwritten law of "knocking down"--that the
conductor divide equally with the porter. All of which, however, is now
fast becoming a thing of the past, owing to recent legislation,
investigations and strict regulation of common carriers by Congress and
the various laws of the states of the Union, with the added result that
conductors' wages have increased accordingly. Few conductors today are
foolish enough to jeopardize their positions by indulging in the old
practice, and it leaves the porters in a sorry plight indeed.

All in all, the system, while deceptive and dishonest on its face, was
for a time a tolerated evil, apparently sanctioned by the company and
became a veritable disease among the colored employees who, without
exception, received and kept the company's money without a single qualm
of conscience. It was a part of their duty to make the job pay something
more than a part of their living expenses.

Ignorant as many of the porters were, most of them knew that from the
enormous profits made that the company could and should have paid them
better wages, and I am sure that if they received living wages for their
services it would have a great moralizing effect on that feature of the
service, and greatly add to the comfort of the traveling public.

However, the greedy and inhuman attitude of this monoply toward its
colored employees has just the opposite effect, and is demoralizing
indeed. Thousands of black porters continue to give their services in
return for starvation wages and are compelled to graft the company and
the people for a living.

Shortly before my cessation of activities in connection with the P----n
company it had a capitalization of ninety-five million dollars, paying
eight per cent dividend annually, and about two years after I was
compelled to quit, it paid its stockholders a thirty-five million dollar
surplus which had accumulated in five years. Just recently a "melon was
cut" of about a like amount and over eight thousand colored porters
helped to accumulate it, at from twenty-five to forty dollars per month.
A wonder it is that their condition does not breed such actual
dishonesty and deception that society would be forced to take notice of
it, and the traveling public should be thankful for the attentive
services given under these near-slave conditions. As for myself, the
reader has seen how I made it "pay" and I have no apologies or regrets
to offer. When that final reckoning comes, I am sure the angel clerk
will pass all porters against whom nothing more serious appears than
what I have heretofore related.

While I was considered very fortunate by my fellow employees, the whole
thing filled me with disgust. I suffered from a nervous worry and fear
of losing my position all the time, and really felt relieved when the
end came and I was free to pursue a more commendable occupation.

In going out of the Superintendent's office on my farewell leave, the
several opportunities I had seen during my experience with the P----n
company loomed up and marched in dress parade before me; the conditions
of the Snake River valley and the constructiveness of the people who had
turned the alkali desert into valuable farms worth from fifty to five
hundred dollars an acre, thrilled me so that I had no misgivings for the
future. But Destiny had other fields in view for me and did not send me
to that land of Eden of which I had become so fond, in quest of fortune.
Such a variety of scenes was surely an incentive to serious thought.

What was termed inquisitiveness at home brought me a world of
information abroad. This inquisitiveness, combined with the observation
afforded by such runs as those to Portland and around the circle and,
perhaps, coming back by Washington D.C., gave practical knowledge. Often
western sheepmen, who were ready talkers, returning on my car from
taking a shipment to Chicago, gave me some idea of farming and
sheepraising. I remember thinking that Iowa would be a fine place to own
a farm, but quickly gave up any further thought of owning one there
myself. A farmer from Tama, that state, gave me the information. He was
a beautiful decoration for a P----n berth and a neatly made bed with
three sheets, and I do not know what possessed him to ever take a
sleeper, for he slept little that night--I am sure. The next morning
about five o'clock, while gathering and shining shoes, I could not find
his, and being curious, I peeped into his berth. What I saw made me
laugh, indeed. There he lay, all bundled into his bed in his big fur
overcoat and shoes on, just as he came into the car the evening before.
He was awake and looked so uncomfortable that I suggested that he get up
if he wasn't sleepy. "What say?" he answered, leaning over and sticking
his head out of the berth as though afraid someone would grab him.

As this class of farmers like to talk, and usually in loud tones, I led
him into the smoking room as soon as he jumped out of his berth, to keep
him from annoying other passengers. Here he washed his face, still
keeping his coat on.

"Remove your coat," I suggested, "and you will be more comfortable."

"You bet," he said taking his coat off and sitting on it. Lighting his
pipe, he began talking and I immediately inquired of him how much land
he owned.

He answered that he owned a section. "Gee! but that is a lot of land," I
exclaimed, getting interested, "and what is it worth an acre?"

"The last quarter I bought I paid eighty dollars an acre" he returned.
That is over thirteen thousand and I could plainly see that my little
two thousand dollar bank account wouldn't go very far in Iowa when it
came to buying land. That was nine years ago and the same land today
will sell around one hundred and fifty dollars an acre, and the "end is
not yet."

I concluded on one thing, and that was, if one whose capital was under
eight or ten thousand dollars, desired to own a good farm in the great
central west he must go where the land was new or raw and undeveloped.
He must begin with the beginning and develop with the development of the
country. By the proper and accepted methods of conservation of the
natural resources and close application to his work, his chances for
success are good.

When I finally reached this conclusion I began searching for a suitable
location in which to try my fortune in the harrowing of the soil.



CHAPTER VI

"AND WHERE IS ORISTOWN?" THE TOWN ON THE MISSOURI


It came a few days later in a restaurant in Council Bluffs, Iowa, when I
heard the waiters, one white man and the other colored, saying, "I'm
going to Oristown." "And where is Oristown?" I inquired, taking a stool
and scrutinizing the bill of fare. "Oristown," the white man spoke up,
drawing away at a pipe which gave him the appearance of being anything
from a rover to a freight brakeman, "is about two hundred and fifty
miles northwest of here in southern South Dakota, on the edge of the
Little Crow Reservation, to be opened this summer." This is not the
right name, but the name of an Indian chief living near where this is
written.

Oristown is the present terminus of the C. & R.W. Ry. and he went on to
tell me that the land in part was valuable, while some portions were no
better than Western Nebraska. A part of the Reservation was to be opened
to settlement by lottery that summer and the registration was to take
place in July. It was now April. "And the registration is to come off at
Oristown?" I finished for him with a question. "Yes," he assented.

At Omaha the following day I chanced to meet two surveyors who had been
sent out to the reservation from Washington, D.C. and who told me to
write to the Department of the Interior for information regarding the
opening, the lay of the land, quality of the soil, rainfall, etc. I did
as they suggested and the pamphlets received stated that the land to be
opened was a deep black loam, with clay subsoil, and the rainfall in
this section averaged twenty-eight inches the last five years. I knew
that Iowa had about thirty inches and most of the time was too wet, so
concluded here at last was the place to go. This suited me better than
any of the states or projects I had previously looked into, besides, I
knew more about the mode of farming employed in that section of the
country, it being somewhat similar to that in Southern Illinois.

On the morning of July fifth, at U.P. Transfer, Iowa, I took a train
over the C.P. & St. L., which carried me to a certain town on the
Missouri in South Dakota. I did not go to Oristown to register as I had
intended but went to the town referred to, which had been designated as
a registration point also. I was told by people who were "hitting" in
the same direction and for the same purpose, that Oristown was crowded
and lawless, with no place to sleep, and was overrun with tin-horn
gamblers. It would be much better to go to the larger town on the
Missouri, where better hotel accommodation and other conveniences could
be had. So I bought a ticket to Johnstown, where I arrived late in the
afternoon of the same day. There was a large crowd, which soon found its
way to the main street, where numerous booths and offices were set up,
with a notary in each to accept applications for the drawing. This
consisted of taking oath that one was a citizen of the United States,
twenty-one years of age or over. The head of a family, a widow, or any
woman upon whom fell the support of a family, was also accepted. No
person, however, owning over one hundred and sixty acres of land, or who
had ever had a homestead before, could apply. The application was then
enclosed in an envelope and directed to the Superintendent of the
opening.

After all the applications had been taken, they were thoroughly mixed
and shuffled together. Then a blindfolded child was directed to draw one
from the pile, which became number one in the opening. The lucky person
whose oath was contained in such envelope was given the choice of all
the land thrown open for settlement. Then another envelope was drawn and
that person was given the second choice, and so on until they were all
drawn.

This system was an out and out lottery, but gave each and every
applicant an equal chance to draw a claim, but guaranteed none. Years
before, land openings were conducted in a different manner. The
applicants were held back of a line until a signal was given and then a
general rush was made for the locations and settlement rights on the
land. This worked fairly well at first but there grew to be more
applicants than land, and two or more persons often located on the same
piece of land and this brought about expensive litigation and annoying
disputes and sometimes even murder, over the settlement. This was
finally abolished in favor of the lottery system, which was at least
safer and more profitable to the railroads that were fortunate enough to
have a line to one or more of the registration points.

[Illustration: Became number one in the opening. (page 56.)]

At Johnstown, people from every part of the United States, of all ages
and descriptions, gathered in crowded masses, the greater part of them
being from Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, Kansas and
Nebraska. When I started for the registration I was under the impression
that only a few people would register, probably four or five thousand,
and as there were twenty-four hundred homesteads I had no other thought
than I would draw and later file on a quarter section. Imagine my
consternation when at the end of the first day the registration numbered
ten thousand. A colored farmer in Kansas had asked me to keep him posted
in regard to the opening. He also thought of coming up and registering
when he had completed his harvest. When the throngs of people began
pouring in from the three railroads into Johnstown (and there were two
other points of registration besides) I saw my chances of drawing a
claim dwindling, from one to two, to one to ten, fifteen and twenty and
maybe more. After three days in Johnstown I wrote my friend and told him
I believed there would be fully thirty thousand people apply for the
twenty-four hundred claims. The fifth day I wrote there would be fifty
thousand. After a week I wrote there would be seventy-five thousand
register, that it was useless to expect to draw and I was leaving for
Kansas to visit my parents. When the registration was over I read in a
Kansas City paper that one hundred and seven thousand persons had
registered, making the chance of drawing one to forty-four.

Received a card soon after from the Superintendent of the opening,
which read that my number was 6504, and as the number of claims was
approximately twenty-four hundred, my number was too high to be reached
before the land should all be taken. I think it was the same day I lost
fifty-five dollars out of my pocket. This, combined with my
disappointment in not drawing a piece of land, gave me a grouch and I
lit out for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis with the
intention of again getting into the P----n service for a time.

Ofttimes porters who had been discharged went to another city, changed
their names, furnished a different set of references and got back to
work for the same company. Now if they happened to be on a car that took
them into the district from which they were discharged, and before the
same officials, who of course recognized them, they were promptly
reported and again discharged. I pondered over the situation and came to
the conclusion that I would not attempt such deception, but avoid being
sent back to the Chicago Western District. I was at a greater
disadvantage than Johnson, Smith, Jackson, or a number of other common
names, by having the odd French name that had always to be spelled
slowly to a conductor, or any one else who had occasion to know me. Out
of curiosity I had once looked in a Chicago Directory. Of some two
million names there were just two others with the same name. But on the
other hand it was much easier to avoid the Chicago Western District, or
at least Mr. Miltzow's office and by keeping my own name, assume that I
had never been discharged, than it was to go into a half a dozen other
districts with a new name and avoid being recognized. Arriving at this
decision, I approached the St. Louis office, presented my references
which had been furnished by other M--pls business men, and was accepted.
After I had been sent out with a porter, who had been running three
months, to show me how to run a car, I was immediately put to work. I
learned in two trips, according to the report my tutor handed to the
chief clerk, and by chance fell into one of the best runs to New York on
one of the limited trains during the fair. There was not much knocking
down on this run, but the tips, including the salary were good for three
hundred dollars per month. I ran on this from September first to October
fourth and saved three hundred dollars. I had not given up getting a
Dakota Homestead, for while I was there during the summer I learned if I
did not draw a number I could buy a relinquishment.

This relates to the purchasing of a relinquishment:

An entryman has the right at any time to relinquish back to the United
States all his right, title, and interest to and in the land covered by
his filing. The land is then open to entry.

A claimholder who has filed on a quarter of land will have plenty of
opportunity to relinquish his claim, for a cash consideration, so that
another party may get a filing on it. This is called buying or selling a
relinquishment. The amount of the consideration varies with quality of
the land, and the eagerness of the buyer or seller, as the case may be.

Relinquishments are the largest stock in trade of all the real estate
dealers, in a new country. Besides, everybody from the bank president
down to the humble dish washer in the hotel, or the chore boy in the
livery, the ministers not omitted, would, with guarded secrecy, confide
in you of some choice relinquishment that could be had at a very low
figure compared with what it was really worth.



CHAPTER VII

ORISTOWN, THE "LITTLE CROW" RESERVATION


When I left St. Louis on the night of October fourth I headed for
Oristown to buy someone's relinquishment. I had two thousand, five
hundred dollars. From Omaha the journey was made on the C. & R.W.'s one
train a day that during these times was loaded from end to end, with
everybody discussing the Little Crow and the buying of relinquishments.
I was the only negro on the train and an object of many inquiries as to
where I was going. Some of those whom I told that I was going to buy a
relinquishment seemingly regarded it as a joke, judging from the meaning
glances cast at those nearest them.

An incident occurred when I arrived at Oristown which is yet considered
a good joke on a real estate man then located there, by the name of
Keeler, who was also the United States Commissioner. He could not only
sell me a relinquishment, but could also take my filing. I had a talk
with Keeler, but as he did not encourage me in my plan to make a
purchase I went to another firm, a young lawyer and a fellow by the name
of Slater, who ran a livery barn, around the corner. Watkins, the
lawyer, impressed me as having more ambition than practical business
qualities. However, Slater took the matter up and agreed to take me over
the reservation and show me some good claims. If I bought, the drive was
gratis, if not four dollars per day, and I accepted his proposition.

After we had driven a few miles he told me Keeler had said to him that
he was a fool to waste his time hauling a d---- nigger around over the
reservation; that I didn't have any money and was just "stalling." I
flushed angrily, and said "Show me what I want and I will produce the
money. What I want is something near the west end of the county. You say
the relinquishments are cheaper there and the soil is richer. I don't
want big hills or rocks nor anything I can't farm, but I want a nice
level or gently rolling quarter section of prairie near some town to be,
that has prospects of getting the railroad when it is extended west from
Oristown." By this time we had covered the three miles between Oristown
and the reservation line, and had entered the newly opened section which
stretched for thirty miles to the west. As we drove on I became
attracted by the long grass, now dead, which was of a brownish hue and
as I gazed over the miles of it lying like a mighty carpet I could seem
to feel the magnitude of the development and industry that would some
day replace this state of wildness. To the Northeast the Missouri River
wound its way, into which empties the Whetstone Creek, the breaks of
which resembled miniature mountains, falling abruptly, then rising to a
point where the dark shale sides glistened in the sunlight. It was my
longest drive in a buggy. We could go for perhaps three or four miles on
a table-like plateau, then drop suddenly into small canyon-like ditches
and rise abruptly to the other side. After driving about fifteen miles
we came to the town, as they called it, but I would have said village of
Hedrick--a collection of frame shacks with one or two houses, many
roughly constructed sod buildings, the long brown grass hanging from
between the sod, giving it a frizzled appearance. Here we listened to a
few boosters and mountebanks whose rustic eloquence was no doubt
intended to give the unwary the impression that they were on the site of
the coming metropolis of the west. A county-seat battle was to be fought
the next month and the few citizens of the sixty days declared they
would wrest it from Fairview, the present county seat situated in the
extreme east end of the county, if it cost them a million dollars, or
one-half of all they were worth. They boasted of Hedrick's prospects,
sweeping their arms around in eloquent gestures in alluding to the
territory tributary to the town, as though half the universe were
Hedrick territory.

Nine miles northwest, where the land was very sandy and full of pits,
into which the buggy wheels dropped with a grinding sound, and where
magnesia rock cropped out of the soil, was another budding town by the
name of Kirk. The few prospective citizens of this burg were not so
enthusiastic as those in Hedrick and when I asked one why they located
the town in such a sandy country he opened up with a snort about some
pinheaded engineer for the "guvment" who didn't know enough to jump
straight up "a locating the town in such an all fired sandy place"; but
he concluded with a compliment, that plenty of good water could be found
at from fifteen to fifty feet.

This sandy land continued some three miles west and we often found
springs along the streams. After ascending an unusually steep hill, we
came upon a plateau where the grass, the soil, and the lay of the land,
were entirely different from any we had as yet seen. I was struck by the
beauty of the scenery and it seemed to charm and bring me out of the
spirit of depression the sandy stretch brought upon me. Stretching for
miles to the northwest and to the south, the land would rise in a gentle
slope to a hog back, and as gently slope away to a draw, which drained
to the south. Here the small streams emptied into a larger one, winding
along like a snake's track, and thickly wooded with a growth of small
hardwood timber. It was beautiful. From each side the land rose gently
like huge wings, and spread away as far as the eye could reach. The
driver brought me back to earth, after a mile of such fascinating
observations, and pointing to the north, said: "There lays one of the
claims." I was carried away by the first sight of it. The land appeared
to slope from a point, or table, and to the north of that was a small
draw, with water. We rode along the south side and on coming upon a
slight raise, which he informed me was the highest part of the place, we
found a square white stone set equally distant from four small holes,
four or five feet apart. On one side of the stone was inscribed a row of
letters which ran like this, SWC, SWQ, Sec. 29-97-72 W. 5th P.M., and on
the other sides were some other letters similar to these. "What does all
that mean?" I asked. He said the letters were initials describing the
land and reading from the side next to the place we had come to see it,
read: "The southwest corner of the southwest quarter of section
twenty-nine, township ninety-seven, and range seventy-two, west of the
fifth principal meridian."

When we got back to Oristown I concluded I wanted the place and dreamed
of it that night. It had been drawn by a girl who lived with her parents
across the Missouri. To see her, we had to drive to their home, and here
a disagreement arose, which for a time threatened to cause a split. I
had been so enthusiastic over the place, that Slater figured on a
handsome commission, but I had been making inquiries in Oristown, and
found I could buy relinquishments much cheaper than I had anticipated. I
had expected the price to be about one thousand, eight hundred dollars
and came prepared to pay that much, but was advised to pay not over five
hundred dollars for land as far west as the town of Megory, which was
only four miles northwest of the place I was now dickering to buy. We
had agreed to give the girl three hundred and seventy-five dollars, and
I had partly agreed to give Slater two hundred dollars commission.
However, I decided this was too much, and told him I would give him only
seventy-five dollars. He was in for going right back to Oristown and
calling the deal off, but when he figured up that two and a half day's
driving would amount to only ten dollars, he offered to take one hundred
dollars. But I was obstinate and held out for seventy-five dollars,
finally giving him eighty dollars, and in due time became the proud
owner of a Little Crow homestead.

All this time I had been writing to Jessie. I had written first while I
was in Eaton, and she had answered in the same demure manner in which
she had received me at our first meeting, and had continued answering
the letters I had written from all parts of the continent, in much the
same way. For a time I had quit writing, for I felt that she was really
too young and not taking me seriously enough, but after a month, my
sister wrote me, asking why I did not write to Jessie; that she asked
about me every day. This inspired me with a new interest and I began
writing again.

I wrote her in glowing terms all about my advent in Dakota, and as she
was of a reserved disposition, I always asked her opinion as to whether
she thought it a sensible move. I wanted to hear her say something more
than: "I was at a cantata last evening and had a nice time", and so on.
Furthermore, I was skeptical. I knew that a great many colored people
considered farming a deprivation of all things essential to a good time.
In fact, to have a good time, was the first thing to be considered, and
everything else was secondary. Jessie, however, was not of this kind.
She wrote me a letter that surprised me, stating, among other things,
that she was seventeen and in her senior year high school. That she
thought I was grand and noble, as well as practical, and was sorry she
couldn't find words to tell me all she felt, but that which satisfied me
suited her also. I was delighted with her answer and wrote a cheerful
letter in return, saying I would come to see her, Christmas.



CHAPTER VIII

FAR DOWN THE PACIFIC--THE PROPOSAL


After the presidential election of that year I went to South America
with a special party, consisting mostly of New York capitalists and
millionaires. We traveled through the southwest, crossing the Rio Grand
at Eagle Pass, and on south by the way of Toreon, Zacatecas, Aguas
Calientes, Guadalajara, Puebla, Tehauntepec and to the southwest coast,
sailing from Salina Cruz down the Pacific to Valparaiso, Chile, going
inland to Santiago, thence over the Trans-Andean railway across the
Andes, and onward to the western plateau of Argentina.

Arriving at the new city of Mendoza, we visited the ruins of the ancient
city of the same name. Here, in the early part of the fifteenth century,
on a Sunday morning, when a large part of the people were at church, an
earthquake shook the city. When it passed, it left bitter ruin in its
wake, the only part that stood intact being one wall of the church. Of a
population of thirteen thousand, only sixteen hundred persons escaped
alive. The city was rebuilt later, and at the time we were there it was
a beautiful place of about twenty-five thousand population. At this
place a report of bubonic plague, in Brazil, reached us. The party
became frightened and beat it in post haste back to Valparaiso, setting
sail immediately for Salina Cruz, and spent the time that was scheduled
for a tour of Argentina, in snoopin' around the land of the Montezumas.
This is the American center of Catholic Churches; the home of many gaudy
Spanish women and begging peons; where the people, the laws, and the
customs, are two hundred years behind those of the United States. Still,
I thought Mexico very beautiful, as well as of historical interest.

One day we journeyed far into the highlands, where lay the ancient
Mexican city of Cuernavaca, the one time summer home of America's only
Emperor, Maximilian. From there we went to Puebla, where we saw the old
Cathedral which was begun in 1518, and which at that time was said to be
the second largest in the world. We saw San Louis Potosi, and Monterey,
and returned by the way of Loredo, Texas. I became well enough
acquainted with the liberal millionaires and so useful in serving their
families that I made five hundred and seventy-five dollars on the trip,
besides bringing back so many gifts and curiosities of all kinds that I
had enough to divide up with a good many of my friends.

Flushed with prosperity and success in my undertakings since leaving
Southern Illinois less than three years before, I went to M--boro to see
my sister and to see whether Miss Rooks had grown any. I was received as
a personage of much importance among the colored people of the town, who
were about the same kind that lived in M--pls; not very progressive,
excepting with their tongues when it came to curiosity and gossip. I
arrived in the evening too late to call on Miss Rooks and having become
quite anxious to see her again, the night dragged slowly away, and I
thought the conventional afternoon would never come again. Her father,
who was an important figure among the colored people, was a mail carrier
and brought the mail to the house that morning where I stopped. He
looked me over searchingly, and I tried to appear unaffected by his
scrutinizing glances.

By and by two o'clock finally arrived, and with my sister I went to make
my first call in three years. I had grown quite tall and rugged, and I
was anxious to see how she looked. We were received by her mother who
said: "Jessie saw you coming and will be out shortly." After a while she
entered and how she had changed. She, too, had grown much taller and was
a little stooped in the shoulders. She was neatly dressed and wore her
hair done up in a small knot, in keeping with the style of that time.
She came straight to me, extended her hand and seemed delighted to see
me after the years of separation.

After awhile her mother and my sister accommodatingly found an excuse to
go up town, and a few minutes later with her on the settee beside me, I
was telling of my big plans and the air castles I was building on the
great plains of the west. Finally, drawing her hand into mine and
finding that she offered no resistance, I put my arm around her waist,
drew her close and declared I loved her. Then I caught myself and dared
not go farther with so serious a subject when I recalled the wild,
rough, and lonely place out on the plains that I had selected as a home,
and finally asked that we defer anything further until the claim on the
Little Crow should develop into something more like an Illinois home.

"O, we don't know what will happen before that time," she spoke for the
first time, with a blush as I squeezed her hand.

"But nothing can happen," I defended, nonplused, "can there?"

"Well, no," she answered hesitatingly, leaning away.

"Then we will, won't we?" I urged.

"Well, yes", she answered, looking down and appearing a trifle doubtful.
I admired her the more. Love is something I had longed for more than
anything else, but my ambition to overcome the vagaries of my race by
accomplishing something worthy of note, hadn't given me much time to
seek love.

I went to my old occupation of the road for awhile and spent most of the
winter on a run to Florida, where the tipping was as good as it had been
on the run from St. Louis to New York. However, about a month before I
quit I was assigned to a run to Boston. By this time I had seen nearly
all the important cities in the United States and of them all none
interested me so much as Boston.

What always appeared odd to me, however, was the fact that the passenger
yards were right at the door of the fashionable Back Bay district on
Huntington Avenue, near the Hotel Nottingham, not three blocks from
where the intersection of Huntington Avenue and Boylston Street form an
acute angle in which stands the Public Library, and in the opposite
angle stands Trinity Church, so thickly purpled with aristocracy and the
memory big with the tradition of Philip Brooks, the last of that group
of mighty American pulpit orators, of whom I had read so much. A little
farther on stands the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The mornings I spent wandering around the city, visiting Faneuil Hall,
the old State House, Boston commons, Bunker Hill, and a thousand other
reminders of the early heroism, rugged courage, and far seeing greatness
of Boston's early citizens. Afternoons generally found me on Tremont or
Washington Street attending a matinee or hearing music. There once I
heard Caruso, Melba, and two or three other grand opera stars in the
popular Rigoletto Quartette, and another time I witnessed "Siberia" and
the gorgeous and blood-curdling reproduction of the Kishneff Massacre,
with two hundred people on the stage. On my last trip to Boston I saw
Chauncy Olcott in "Terrence the Coach Boy", a romance of old Ireland
with the scene laid in Valley Bay, which seemed to correspond to the
Back Bay a few blocks away.

Dear old Boston, when will I see you again, was my thought as the train
pulled out through the most fashionable part of America, so stately and
so grand. Even now I recall the last trip with a sigh. If the Little
Crow, with Oristown as its gateway, was a land of hope; through
Massachusetts; Worcester, with the Polytechnic Institute arising in the
back ground; Springfield, and Smith School for girls, Pittsfield,
Brookfield, and on to Albany on the Hudson, is a memory never to be
forgotten, which evolved in my mind many long years afterward, in my
shack on the homestead.



CHAPTER IX

THE RETURN--ERNEST NICHOLSON


I left St. Louis about April first with about three thousand dollars in
the bank and started again for Oristown, this time to stay. I had just
paid Jessie a visit and I felt a little lonely. With the grim reality of
the situation facing me, I now began to steel my nerves for a lot of new
experience which soon came thick and fast.

Slater met the train at Oristown, and as soon as he spied me he informed
me that I was a lucky man. That a town had been started ajoining my land
and was being promoted by his brother and the sons of a former Iowa
Governor, and gave every promise of making a good town, also, if I cared
to sell, he had a buyer who was willing to pay me a neat advance over
what I had paid. However, I had no idea of parting with the land, but I
was delighted over the news, and the next morning found me among Dad
Durpee's through stage coach passengers, for Calias, the new town
joining my homestead, via Hedrick and Kirk. As we passed through Hedrick
I noticed that several frame shacks had been put up and some better
buildings were under way. The ground had been frozen for five months, so
sod-house building had been temporarily abandoned.

It was a long ride, but I was beside myself with enthusiasm. Calias
finally loomed up, conspicuously perched on a hill, and could be seen
long before the stage arrived, and was the scene of much activity. It
had been reported that a colored man had a claim adjoining the town on
the north, so when I stepped from the stage before the postoffice, the
many knowing glances informed me that I was being looked for. A fellow
who had a claim near and whom I met in Oristown, introduced me to the
Postmaster whose name was Billinger, an individual with dry complexion
and thin, light hair. Then to the president of the Townsite Company,
second of three sons of the Iowa Governor.

My long experience with all classes of humanity had made me somewhat of
a student of human nature, and I could see at a glance that here was a
person of unusual agressiveness and great capacity for doing things. As
he looked at me his eyes seemed to bore clear through, and as he asked a
few questions his searching look would make a person tell the truth
whether he would or no. This was Ernest Nicholson, and in the following
years he had much to do with the development of the Little Crow.



CHAPTER X

THE OKLAHOMA GRAFTER


That evening at the hotel he asked me whether I wished to double my
money by selling my relinquishment. "No," I answered, "but I tell you
what I do want to do," I replied firmly. "I am not here to sell; I am
here to make good or die trying; I am here to grow up with this country
and prosper with the growth, if possible. I have a little coin back in
old 'Chi.'" (my money was still in the Chicago bank) "and when these
people begin to commute and want to sell, I am ready to buy another
place." I admired the fellow. He reminded me of "the richest man in the
world" in "The Lion and the Mouse," Otis Skinner as Colonel Phillippi
Bridau, an officer on the staff of Napoleon's Army in "The Honor of the
Family", and other characters in plays that I greatly admired, where
great courage, strength of character, and firm decision were displayed.
He seemed to have a commanding way that one found himself feeling
honored and willing to obey.

But getting back to the homestead. I looked over my claim and found it
just as I had left it the fall before, excepting that a prairie fire
during the winter had burned the grass. The next morning I returned to
Oristown and announced my intentions of buying a team. The same day I
drew a draft for five hundred dollars with which to start.

Now if there is anywhere an inexperienced man is sure to go wrong in
starting up on a homestead, it is in buying horses. Most prospective
homesteaders make the same mistake I did in buying horses, unless they
are experienced. The inefficient man reasons thus: "Well, I will start
off economically by buying a cheap team"--and he usually gets what he
thought he wanted, "a cheap team."

If I had gone into the country and bought a team of young mares for say
three hundred dollars, which would have been a very high price at that
time, I would have them yet, and the increase would have kept me fairly
well supplied with young horses, instead of scouting around town looking
for something cheaper, in the "skate" line, as I did. I looked at so
many teams around Oristown that all of them began to look alike. I am
sure I must have looked at five hundred different horses, more in an
effort to appear as a conservative buyer than to buy the best team.
Finally I ran onto an "Oklahoma" grafter by the name of Nunemaker.

He was a deceiving and unscrupulous rascal, but nevertheless possessed a
pleasing personality, which stood him in good in his schemes of
deception, and we became quite chummy. He professed to know all about
horses--no doubt he did, but he didn't put his knowledge at my disposal
in the way I thought he should, being a friend, as he claimed. He
finally persuaded me to buy a team of big plugs, one of which was so
awkward he looked as though he would fall down if he tried to trot. The
other was a powerful four-year-old gelding, that would have never been
for sale around Oristown if it hadn't been that he had two feet badly
wire cut. One was so very large that it must have been quite burdensome
for the horse to pick it up, swing it forward and put it down, as I look
back and see him now in my mind.

When I was paying the man for them I wondered why Nunemaker led him into
the private office of the bank, but I was not left long in doubt. When I
crossed the street one of the men who had tried to sell me a team jumped
me with: "Well, they got you, did they?" his voice mingled with sarcasm
and a sneer.

"Got who?" I returned question.

"Does a man have to knock you down to take a hint?" he went on in a tone
of disappointment and anger. "Don't you know that man Nunemaker is the
biggest grafter in Oristown? I would have sold you that team of mine for
twenty-five dollars less'n I offered 'em, if the gol-darn grafter hadn't
of come to me'n said, 'give me twenty-five dollars and I will see that
the coon buys the team.' I would have knocked him down with a club if
I'd had one, the low life bum." He finished with a snort and off he
went.

"Stung, by cracky," was all I could say, and feeling rather blue I went
to the barn where the team was, stroked them and hoped for the best.

I then bought lumber to build a small house and barn, an old wagon for
twenty dollars, one wheel of which the blacksmith had forgotten to
grease, worked hard all day getting loaded, and wearied, sick and
discouraged, I started at five o'clock P.M. to drive the thirty miles to
Calias. When I was out two miles the big old horse was wobbling along
like a broken-legged cow, hobbling, stumbling, and making such a
burdensome job of walking, that I felt like doing something desperate.
When I looked back the wheel that had not been greased was smoking like
a hot box on the Twentieth Century Limited.

The sun was nearly down and a cold east wind was whooping it up at about
sixty miles an hour, chilling me to the marrow. The fact that I was a
stranger in a strange land, inhabited wholly by people not my own race,
did not tend to cheer my gloomy spirits. I decided it might be all right
in July but never in April. I pulled my wagon to the side of the road,
got down and unhitched and jumped on the young horse, and such a
commotion as he did make. I am quite sure he would have bucked me off,
had it not for his big foot being so heavy, he couldn't raise it quick
enough to leap. Evidently he had never been ridden. When I got back to
Oristown and put the team in the barn and warmed up, I resolved to do
one thing and do it that night. I would sell the old horse, and I did,
for twenty-two-fifty. I considered myself lucky, too. I had paid one
hundred and ninety dollars for the team and harness the day before.

I sat down and wrote Jessie a long letter, telling her of my troubles
and that I was awfully, awfully, lonesome. There was only one other
colored person in the town, a barber who was married to a white woman,
and I didn't like him.

The next day I hired a horse, started early and arrived at Calias in
good time. At Hedrick I hired a sod mason, who was also a carpenter, at
three dollars a day and we soon put up a frame barn large enough for
three horses; a sod house sixteen by fourteen with a hip roof made of
two by fours for rafters, and plain boards with tar paper and sod with
the grass turned downward and laid side by side, the cracks being filled
with sand. The house had two small windows and one door, that was a
little short on account of my getting tired carrying sod. I ordered the
"contractor" to put the roof on as soon as I felt it was high enough to
be comfortable inside.

The fifth day I moved in. There was no floor, but the thick, short
buffalo grass made a neat carpet. In one corner I put the bed, while in
another I set the table, the one next the door I placed the stove, a
little two-hole burner gasoline, and in the other corner I made a bin
for the horses grain.



CHAPTER XI

DEALIN' IN MULES


It must have been about the twentieth of April when I finished building.
I started to "batch" and prepared to break out my claim. Having only one
horse, it became necessary to buy another team. I decided to buy mules
this time. I remembered that back on our farm in southern Illinois,
mules were thought to be capable of doing more work than horses and eat
less grain. So when some boys living west of me came one Sunday
afternoon, and said they could sell me a team of mules, I agreed to go
and see them the next day. I thought I was getting wise. As proof of
such wisdom I determined to view the mules in the field. I followed them
around the field a few times and although they were not fine looking,
they seemed to work very well. Another great advantage was, they were
cheap, only one hundred and thirty-five dollars for the team and a
fourteen-inch-rod breaking plow. This looked to me like a bargain. I
wrote him a check and took the mules home with me. Jack and Jenny were
their names, and I hadn't owned Jack two days before I began to hate
him. He was lazy, and when he went down hill, instead of holding his
head up and stepping his front feet out, he would lower the bean and
perform a sort of crow-hop. It was too exasperating for words and I used
to strike him viciously for it, but that didn't seem to help matters
any.

I shall not soon forget my first effort to break prairie. There are
different kinds of plows made for breaking the sod. Some kind that are
good for one kind of soil cannot be used in another. In the gummy soils
of the Dakotas, a long slant cut is the best. In fact, about the only
kind that can be used successfully, while in the more sandy lands found
in parts of Kansas and Nebraska, a kind is used which is called the
square cut. The share being almost at right angles with the beam instead
of slanting back from point to heel. Now in sandy soils this pulls much
easier for the grit scours off any roots, grass, or whatever else would
hang over the share. To attempt to use this kind in wet, sticky land,
such as was on my claim, would find the soil adhering to the plow share,
causing it to drag, gather roots and grass, until it is impossible to
keep the plow in the ground. When it is dry, this kind of plow can be
used with success in the gummy land; but it was not dry when I invaded
my homestead soil with my big horse, Jenny and Jack, that first day of
May, but very wet indeed.

To make matters worse, Doc, the big horse, believed in "speeding." Jenny
was fair but Jack, on the landside, was affected with "hook-worm
hustle," and believed in taking his time. I tried to help him along with
a yell that grew louder as I hopped, skipped, and jumped across the
prairie, and that plow began hitting and missing, mostly missing. It
would gouge into the soil up to the beam, and the big horse would get
down and make a mighty pull, while old Jack would swing back like the
heavy end of a ball bat when a player draws to strike, and out would
come the plow with a skip, skip, skip; the big horse nearly trotting and
dragging the two little mules, that looked like two goats beside an
elephant. Well, I sat down and gave up to a fit of the blues; for it
looked bad, mighty bad for me.

I had left St. Louis with two hundred dollars in cash, and had drawn a
draft for five hundred dollars more on the Chicago bank, where my money
was on deposit, and what did I have for it? One big horse, tall as a
giraffe; two little mules, one of which was a torment to me; a sod
house; and old wagon. As I faced the situation there seemed nothing to
do but to fight it out, and I turned wearily to another attempt, this
time with more success. Before I had started breaking I had invited
criticism. Now I was getting it on all sides. I was the only colored
homesteader on the reservation, and as an agriculturist it began to look
mighty bad for the colored race on the Little Crow.

Finally, with the assistance of dry weather, I got the plow so I could
go two or three rods without stopping, throw it out of the ground and
clear the share of roots and grass. Sometimes I managed to go farther,
but never over forty rods, the entire summer.

I took another course in horse trading or mule trading, which almost
came to be my undoing. I determined to get rid of Jack. I decided that I
would not be aggravated with his laziness and crow-hopping any longer
than it took me to find a trade. So on a Sunday, about two weeks after I
bought the team, a horse trader pulled into Calias, drew his prairie
schooner to a level spot, hobbled his horses--mostly old plugs of
diverse descriptions, and made preparation to stay awhile. He had only
one animal, according to my horse-sense (?), that was any good, and that
was a mule that he kept blanketed. His camp was so situated that I could
watch the mule, from my east window, and the more I looked at the mule,
the better he looked to me. It was Wednesday noon the following week and
old Jack had become almost unbearable. My continuing to watch a good
mule do nothing, while I continued to fret my life away trying to be
patient with a lazy brute, only added to my restlessness and eagerness
to trade. At noon I entered the barn and told old Jack I would get rid
of him. I would swap him to that horse trader for his good mule as soon
as I watered him. He was looking pretty thin and I thought it would be
to my advantage to fill him up.

During the three days the trader camped near my house he never
approached me with an offer to sell or trade, and it was with many
misgivings that I called out in a loud, breezy voice and David Harum
manner; "Hello, Governor, how will you trade mules?" "How'll I trade
mules? did you say how'll I trade mules? Huh, do you suppose I want your
old mule?" drawing up one side of his face and twisting his big red nose
until he resembled a German clown.

"O, my mule's fair", I defended weakly.

"Nothing but an old dead mule," he spit out, grabbing old Jack's tail
and giving him a yank that all but pulled him over. "Look at him, look
at him," he rattled away like an auctioneer. "Go on, Mr. Colored Man,
you can't work me that way." He continued stepping around old Jack,
making pretentions to hit him on the head. Jack may have been slow in
the field, but he was swift in dodging, and he didn't look where he
dodged either. I was standing at his side holding the reins, when the
fellow made one of his wild motions, and Jack nearly knocked my head off
as he dodged. "Naw sir, if I considered a trade, that is if I considered
a trade at all, I would have to have a lot of boot" he said with an
important air.

"How much?" I asked nervously.

"Well, sir", he spoke with slow decision; "I would have to have
twenty-five dollars."

"What!" I exclaimed, at which he seemed to weaken; but he didn't
understand that my exclamation was of surprise that he only wanted
twenty-five dollars, when I had expected to give him seventy-five
dollars. I grasped the situation, however, and leaning forward, said
hardly above a whisper, my heart was so near my throat: "I will give you
twenty," as I pulled out my roll and held a twenty before his eyes,
which he took as though afraid I would jerk it away; muttering something
about it not being enough, and that he had ought to have had
twenty-five. However, he got old Jack and the twenty, gathered his plugs
and left town immediately. I felt rather proud of my new possession, but
before I got through the field that afternoon I became suspicious.
Although I looked my new mule over and over often during the afternoon
while plowing, I could find nothing wrong. Still I had a chilly
premonition, fostered, no doubt, by past experience, that something
would show up soon, and in a few days it did show up. I learned
afterward the trader had come thirty-five miles to trade me that mule.

The mule I had traded was only lazy, while the one I had received in the
trade was not only lazy, but "ornery" and full of tricks that she took a
fiendish delight in exercising on me. One of her favorites was to watch
me out of her left eye, shirking the while, and crowding the furrow at
the same time, which would pull the plow out of the ground. I tried to
coax and cajole her into doing a decent mule's work, but it availed me
nothing. I bore up under the aggravation with patience and fortitude,
then determined to subdue the mule or become subdued myself. I would
lunge forward with my whip, and away she would rush out from under it,
brush the other horse and mule out of their places and throw things into
general confusion. Then as soon as I was again straightened out, she
would be back at her old tricks, and I am almost positive that she used
to wink at me impudently from her vantage point. Added to this, the
coloring matter with which the trader doped her head, faded, and she
turned grey headed in two weeks, leaving me with a mule of uncertain and
doubtful age, instead of one of seven going on eight as the trader
represented her to be.

I soon had the enviable reputation of being a horse trader. Whenever
anybody with horses to trade came to town, they were advised to go over
to the sod house north of town and see the colored man. He was fond of
trading horses, yes, he fairly doted on it. Nevertheless with all my
poor "horse-judgment" I continued to turn the sod over day after day and
completed ten or twelve acres each week.



CHAPTER XII

THE HOMESTEADERS


Of neighbors, I had many. There was Miss Carter from old Missouri whose
claim joined mine on the west, and another Missourian to the north of
her; a loud talking German north of him, and an English preacher to the
east of the German. A traveling man's family lived north of me; and a
big, fat, lazy barber who seemed to be taking the "rest cure," joined me
on the east. His name was Starks and he had drawn number 252. He had a
nice, level claim with only a few buffalo wallows to detract from its
value, and he held the distinction of being the most uncompromisingly
lazy man on the Little Crow. This, coupled with the unpardonable fault
of complaining about everything, made him nigh unbearable and he was
known as the "Beefer." He came from a small town, usually the home of
his ilk, in Iowa, where he had a small shop and owned three and a half
acres of garden and orchard ground on the outskirts of the town. He
would take a fiendish delight in relating and re-relating how the folks
in his house back in Iowa were having strawberries, new peas, green
beans, spring onions, and enjoying all the fruits of a tropical climate,
while he was holding down an "infernal no-account claim" on the Little
Crow, and eating out of a can.

A merchant was holding down a claim south of him, and a banker lived
south of the merchant. Thus it was a varied class of homesteaders
around Calias and Megory, the first summer on the Little Crow. Only
about one in every eight or ten was a farmer. They were of all vocations
in life and all nationalities, excepting negroes, and I controlled the
colored vote.

This was one place where being a colored man was an honorary
distinction. I remember how I once requested the stage driver to bring
me some meat from Megory, there being no meat shop in Calias, and it was
to be left at the post office. Apparently I had failed to give the stage
driver my name, for when I called for it, it was handed out to me, done
up in a neat package, and addressed "Colored Man, Calias." My neighbors
soon learned, however, that my given name was "Oscar," but it was some
time before they could all spell or pronounce the odd surname.

During the month of June it rained twenty-three days, but I was so
determined to break out one hundred and twenty acres, that after a few
days of the rainy weather I went out and worked in the rain. Starks used
to go up town about four o'clock for the mail, wearing a long, yellow
slicker, and when he saw me going around the half-mile land he remarked
to the bystanders: "Just look at that fool nigger a working in the
rain."

Being the first year of settlement in a new country, there naturally was
no hay to buy, so the settlers turned their stock out to graze, and many
valuable horses strayed away and were lost. When it rained so much and
the weather turned so warm, the mosquitoes filled the air and covered
the earth and attacked everything in their path. When I turned my
horses out after the day's work was done, they soon found their way to
town, where they stood in the shelter of some buildings and fought
mosquitoes. Their favorite place for this pastime was the post office,
where Billinger had a shed awning over the board walk, the framework
consisting of two-by-fours joined together and nailed lightly to the
building, and on top of this he had laid a few rough boards. Under this
crude shelter the homesteaders found relief from the broiling afternoon
sun, and swapped news concerning the latest offer for their claims. The
mosquitoes did not bother so much in even so slight an inclosure as
this, so every night Jenny Mule would walk on to the board walk, prick
up her ears and look in at the window. About this time the big horse
would come along and begin to scratch his neck on one of the
two-by-fours, and suddenly down would go Billinger's portable awning
with a loud crash which was augmented by Jenny Mule getting out from
under the falling boards. As the sound echoed through the slumbering
village the big horse would rush away to the middle of the street, with
a prolonged snort, and wonder what it was all about. This was the story
Billinger told when I came around the next morning to drive them home
from the storekeeper's oat bin where they had indulged in a midnight
lunch. The performance was repeated nightly and got brother Billinger
out of bed at all hours. He swore by all the Gods of Buddha and the
people of South Dakota, that he would put the beasts up and charge me a
dollar to get them.

Early one morning I came over and found that Billinger had remained true
to his oath, and the horse and mule were tied to a wagon belonging to
the storekeeper. Nearby on a pile of rock sat Billinger, nodding away,
sound asleep. I quietly untied the rope from the wagon and peaceably led
them home. Then Billinger was in a rage. He had a small, screechy
tremulo voice and it fairly sputtered as he tiraded: "If it don't beat
all; I never saw the like. I was up all last night chasing those darned
horses, caught them and tied them up; and along comes Devereaux while I
am asleep and takes horses, rope and all." The crowd roared and
Billinger decided the joke was on him.

Miss Carter, my neighbor on the west, had her trouble too. One day she
came by, distressed and almost on the verge of tears, and burst out:
"Oh, Oh, Oh, I hardly know what to do."

I could never bear seeing any one in such distress and I became touched
by her grief. Upon becoming more calm, she told me: "The banker says
that the man who is breaking prairie on my claim is ruining the ground."
She was simply heart-broken about it, and off she went into another
spasm of distress. I saw the fellow wasn't laying the sod over smoothly
because he had a sixteen-inch plow, and had it set to cut only about
eight inches, which caused the sod to push away and pile up on edges,
instead of turning and dropping into the furrow. I went with her and
explained to the fellow where the fault lay. The next day he was doing a
much better job.

Those who have always lived in the older settled parts of the country
sometimes have exaggerated ideas of life on the homestead, and the
following incident offers a partial explanation. Megory and Calias each
had a newspaper, and when they weren't roasting each other and claiming
their paper to be the only live and progressive organ in the country,
they were "building" railroads or printing romantic tales about the
brave homesteader girls. A little red-headed girl nicknamed "Jack" owned
a claim near Calias. One day it was reported that she killed a
rattlesnake in her house. The report of the great encounter reached
eastern dailies, and was published as a Sunday feature story in one of
the leading Omaha papers. It was accompanied by gorgeous pictures of the
girl in a leather skirt, riding boots, and cow-boy hat, entering a sod
house, and before her, coiled and poised to strike, lay a monster
rattlesnake. Turning on her heel and jerking the bridle from her horse's
head, she made a terrific swing at Mr. Rattlesnake, and he, of course,
"met his Waterloo." This, so the story read, was the eightieth
rattlesnake she had killed. She was described as "Rattlesnake Jack" and
thereafter went by that name. She was also credited with having spent
the previous winter alone on her claim and rather enjoyed the wintry
nights and snow blockade. Now as a matter of fact, she had spent most of
the previous winter enjoying the comforts of a front room at the Hotel
Calias, going to the claim occasionally on nice days. She had no horse,
and as to the eighty rattlesnakes, seventy-nine were myths, existing
only in the mind of a prolific feature story writer for the Sunday
edition of the great dailies. In fact she had killed one small young
rattler with a button.



CHAPTER XIII

IMAGINATIONS RUN AMUCK


I decided to utilize some of my spare time by doing a little freighting
from Oristown to Calias. Accordingly, one fair morning I started for the
former town. It began raining that evening, finally turning into a fine
snow, and by morning a genuine South Dakota blizzard was raging. How the
wind did screech across the prairie!

I was driving the big horse and Jenny Mule to a wagon loaded with two
tons of coal. They were not shod, and the hillsides had become slick and
treacherous with ice. At the foot of every hill Jenny Mule would lay her
ears back, draw herself up like a toad, when teased, and look up with a
groan, while the big horse trotted on up the next slope, pulling her
share of the load.

When the wind finally went down the mercury fell to 25° below zero and
my wrists, face, feet, and ears were frost bitten when I arrived at
Calias. As is always the case during such severe weather, the hotel was
filled, and laughing, story telling, and good cheer prevailed. The
Nicholson boys asked "how I made it" and I answered disgustedly that I'd
have made it all right if that Jennie Mule hadn't got faint hearted. The
remark was received as a good joke and my suffering and annoyances of
the trip slipped away into the past. That remark also had the further
effect of giving Jennie Mule immortality. She became the topic of
conversation and jest in hotel and postoffice lobbies, and even to this
day the story of the "faint hearted mule" often affords splendid
entertainment at festive boards and banquet halls of the Little Crow,
when told by a Nicholson.

While working in the rain, the perspiration and the rain water had
caused my body to become so badly galled, that I found considerable
difficulty in getting around. To add to this discomfiture Jenny Mule was
affected with a touch of "Maudism" at times, especially while engaged in
eating grain. One night when I had wandered thoughtlessly into the barn,
she gave me such a wallop on the right shin as to impair that member
until I could hardly walk without something to hold to. As it had taken
a fourteen-hundred-mile walk to follow the plow in breaking the one
hundred and twenty acres, I was about "all in" physically when it was
done.

As a means of recuperation I took a trip to Chicago. While there, the
"call of the road" affected me; I got reinstated and ran a couple of
months to the coast. Four months of free life on the plains, however,
had changed me. After one trip I came in and found a letter from Jessie,
saying she was sick, and although she never said "come and see me" I
took it as an excuse and quit that P----n Company for good--and here it
passes out of the story--went down state to M--boro, and spent the
happiest week of my life.

After I had returned to Dakota, however, I contracted an imagination
that worked me into a state of jealously, concerning an individual who
made his home in M--boro, and with whom I suspicioned the object of my
heart to be unduly friendly. I say, this is what I suspicioned. There
was no particular proof, and I have been inclined to think, in after
years, that it was more a case of an over-energetic imagination run
amuck. I contended in my mind and in my letters to her as well, that I
should not have thought anything of it, if the "man in the case" had a
little more promising future, but since his proficiency only earned him
the munificent sum of three dollars per week, I continued to fret and
fume, until I at last resolved to suspend all communication with her.

Now what I should have done when I reached this stage of imaginary
insanity, was to have sent Miss Rooks a ticket, some money, and she
would have come to Dakota and married me, and together we would have
"lived happy ever after." As I see it now, I was affected with an
"idealism." Of course I was not aware of it at the time--no young soul
is--until they have learned by bitter experience the folly of "they
should not do thus and so", and, of course, there is the old excuse,
"good intentions." Somewhere I read that the road to--not St. Peter--is
paved with good intentions. The result of my prolific imagination was
that I carried out my resolutions, quit writing, and emotionally lived
rather unhappily thereafter, for some time at least.



CHAPTER XIV

THE SURVEYORS


The entire Little Crow reservation consisted of about two million acres
of land, four-fifths of which was unopened and lay west of Megory
County. Of the two million acres, perhaps one million, five hundred
thousand ranged from fair to the richest of loam soil, underlaid with
clay. The climatic condition is such that all kinds of crops grown in
the central west, can be grown here. Two hundred miles north, corn will
not mature; two hundred miles south, spring wheat is not grown; two
hundred west, the altitude is too high to insure sufficient rainfall to
produce a crop; but the reservation lands are in such a position that
winter wheat, spring wheat, oats, rye, corn, flax, and barley do well.
Ever since the drouth of '94, all crops had thrived, the rainfall being
abundant, and continuing so during the first year of settlement.
Oristown and other towns on the route of the railroad had waited twenty
years for the extension, and now the citizens of Oristown estimated it
would be at least ten years before it extended its line through the
reservation; while the settlers, to the number of some eight thousand,
hoped they would get the road in five years. However, no sleep was lost
in anticipation. The nearest the reservation came to getting a railroad
that summer was by the way of a newspaper in Megory, whose editor spent
most of his time building roads into Megory from the north, south, and
the east. In reality, the C. & R.W. was the only road likely to run to
the reservation, and all the towns depended on its extension to overcome
the long, burdensome freighting with teams.

With all the country's local advantages, its geographical location was
such as to exclude roads from all directions except the one taken by the
C. & R.W. To the south lay nine million acres of worthless sand hills,
through which it would require an enormous sum of money to build a road.
Even then there would be miles of track which would practically pay no
interest on the investment. At that time there was no railroad extending
the full length of the state from east to west, most lines stopping at
or near the Missouri River. Since then two or three lines have been
built into the western part of the state; but they experienced much
difficulty in crossing the river, owing to the soft bottom, which in
many places would not support a modern steel bridge. For from one to two
months in the spring, floating ice gives a great deal of trouble and
wreaks disaster to the pontoon.

A bird's eye view of the Little Crow shows it to look something like a
bottle, the neck being the Missouri River, with the C. & R.W. tracks
creeping along its west bank. This is the only feasible route to the
Reservation and the directors of this road were fully aware of their
advantageous position. The freight rates from Omaha to Oristown (a
distance of two hundred and fifty miles) being as high as from Omaha to
Chicago, a distance of five hundred miles.

But getting back to the settlers around and in the little towns on the
Little Crow. The first thing to be considered in the extension was, that
the route it took would naturally determine the future of the towns.
Hedrick, Kirk, and Megory were government townsites, strung in a
northwesterly direction across the country, ranging from eight to
fifteen miles apart, the last being about five miles and a half east of
the west line of the county. Now the county on the west was expected to
be thrown open to settlement soon, would likely be opened under the
lottery system, as was Megory county. After matters had settled this
began to be discussed, particularly by the citizens of Megory, five and
one-half miles from the Tipp County line. This placed Megory in the same
position to handle the crowds coming into the next county, as Oristown
had for Megory County, excepting Megory would have an advantage, for
Tipp County was twice as large as Megory. When this was all considered,
the people of Megory began to boost the town on the prospects of a
future boom. The only uncertain feature of the matter then to be
considered was which way the road would extend. That was where the rub
came in, which way would the road go? This became a source of continual
worry and speculation on the part of the towns, and the men who felt
inclined to put money into the towns in the way of larger, better, and
more commodious buildings; but when they were encouraged to do so, there
was always the bogy "if." If the railroad should miss us, well, the man
owning the big buildings was "stung," that was all, while the man with
the shack could load it on two or four wagons, and with a few good
horses, land his building in the town the railroad struck or started.
This was, and is yet, one of the big reasons shacks are so numerous in a
town in a new country, which expects a road but knows not which way it
will come; and the officials of the C. & R.W. were no different from the
directors of any other road. They were "mum" as dummies. They wouldn't
tell whether the road would ever extend or not.

The Oristown citizens claimed it was at one time in the same uncertainty
as the towns to the west, and for some fifteen or twenty years it had
waited for the road. With the road stopping at Oristown, they argued, it
would be fully ten years before it left, and during this time it could
be seen, Oristown would grow into an important prairie city, as it
should. Everything must be hauled into Oristown, as well as out. So it
can be seen that Oristown would naturally boom. While nothing had been
raised to the west to ship out, as yet, still there was a growing
population on the reservation and thousands of carloads of freight and
express were being hauled into and from Oristown monthly, for the
settlers on the reservation; which filled the town with railroad men and
freighters. Crops had been good, and every thing was going along
smoothly for the citizens and property owners of Oristown. Not a cloud
on her sky of prosperity, and as the trite saying goes: "Everything was
lovely, and the goose hung high," during the first year of settlement on
the Little Crow.

And now lest we forget Calias. Calias was located one and one-half miles
east, and three miles south of Megory, and five miles straight west of
Kirk. If the C. & R.W. extending its line west, should strike all the
government townsites, as was claimed by people in these towns, who knew
nothing about it, and Calias, it would have run from Kirk to Megory in a
very unusual direction. Indeed, it would have been following the section
lines and it is common knowledge even to the most ignorant, that
railroads do not follow section lines unless the section lines are
directly in its path. If the railroad struck Kirk and Megory, it was a
cinch it would miss Calias. If it struck Calias, perched on the banks of
the Monca Creek, the route the Nicholsons, as promoters of the town,
claimed it would take; the road would miss all the towns but Calias.
This would have meant glory and a fortune for the promotors and lot
holders of the town. It would also have meant that my farm, or at least
a part of it, would in time be sold for town lots.

After I got so badly overreached in dealing in horses, for a time the
opinion was general that the solitary negro from the plush cushions of a
P----n would soon see that growing up with a new country was not to his
liking, and would be glad to sell at any old figure and "beat it" back
to more ease and comfort. This is largely the opinion of most of the
white people, regarding the negro, and they are not entirely wrong in
their opinion. I was quite well aware that such an opinion existed, but
contrary to expectations, I rather appreciated it. When I broke out one
hundred and twenty acres with such an outfit as I had, as against many
other real farmers who had not broken over forty acres, with good
horses and their knowledge of breaking prairie, acquired in states they
had come from, I began to be regarded in a different light. At first I
was regarded as an object of curiosity, which changed to appreciation,
and later admiration. I was not called a free-go-easy coon, but a
genuine booster for Calias and the Little Crow. I never spent a lonesome
day after that.

The Nicholson Brothers, however, gave the settlers no rest, and created
another sensation of railroad building by their new contention that the
railroad would not be extended from Oristown, but that it would be built
from a place on the Monca bottom two stations below Oristown, where the
track climbed a four per cent grade to Fairview, then on to Oristown.
They offered as proof of their contention that the C. & R.W. maintained
considerable yardage there, and it does yet. Why it did, people did not
know, and this kept everybody guessing. Some claimed it would go up the
Monca Valley, as Nicholson claimed. This much can be said in favor of
the Nicholsons, they were good boosters, or "big liars," as their rivals
called them, and if one listened long and diligently enough they would
have him imagine he could hear the exhaust of a big locomotive coming up
the Monca Valley. While the people in the government townsites persisted
loudly that the C. & R.W. had contracted with the government before the
towns were located, to strike these three towns, and that the government
had helped to locate them; that furthermore, the railroad would never
have left the Monca Valley, which it followed for some twenty miles
after leaving the banks of the Missouri. All of which sounded
reasonable enough, but the government and the railroad had entered into
no agreement whatever, and the people in the government towns knew it,
and were uneasy.

I had been on my claim just about a year, when one day Rattlesnake
Jack's father came from his home on the Jim River and sold me her
homestead for three thousand dollars. My dreams were at last realized,
and I had become the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of land;
but my money was now gone, when I had paid the one thousand, five
hundred dollars down on the Rattlesnake Jack place, giving her back a
mortgage for the remaining one thousand, five hundred at seven per cent
interest, and it was a good thing I did, too. I bought the place early
in April and in June the Interior Department rejected the proof she had
offered the November before, on account of lack of sufficient residence
and cultivation. The proof had been accepted by the local land office,
and a final receipt for the remaining installments of the purchase
price, amounting to four hundred and eighty dollars, was issued. A final
receipt is considered to be equivalent to a patent or deed, but when
Rattlesnake Jack's proof of residence got to the General Land Office in
Washington, in quest of a patent, the commissioner looked it over,
figured up the time she actually put in on the place, and rejected the
proof, with the statement that it only showed about six month's actual
residence. At that time eight month's residence was required, with six
months within which to establish residence; but no proof could be
accepted until after the claimant had shown eight month's actual and
continuous residence.

From the time the settlers began to commute or prove up on the Little
Crow, all proofs which did not show fully eight month's residence, were
rejected. This was done mostly by the Register and Receiver of the Local
Land Office, and many were sent back on their claims to stay longer.
Many proofs were also taken by local U.S. Commissioners, County Judges,
and Clerks of Courts, but these officers rarely rejected them, for by so
doing they also rejected a four dollar and twenty-five cent fee. About
one-third of the persons who offered proof at that time had them turned
down at the Local Land Office. This gave the local Commissioners, County
Judges, and Clerks of Courts, a chance to collect twice for the same
work. It may be interesting to know that a greater percentage of proofs
rejected were those offered by women. This was perhaps not due to the
fact that the ladies did not stay on their claims, so much as it was
conscientiousness. They could not make a forcible showing by saying that
they had been there every night, like the men would claim, but would say
instead that they had stayed all night with Miss So-and-So this time and
with another that time, and by including a few weeks' visit at home or
somewhere else, they would bungle their proofs, so they were compelled
to try again.

A short time after this and evidently because so many proofs had been
sent back, the Interior Department made it compulsory for the claimant
to put in fourteen months' actual residence on the claim, before he
could offer proof. With fourteen months, they were sure to stay a full
eight months at least. This system has been very successful.

When Rattlesnake Jack was ordered back, after selling me the place, she
wanted me to sign a quit claim deed to her and accept notes for the
money I had paid, which might have been satisfactory had it not been
that she thought I had stopped to look back and failed to see the rush
of progress the Little Crow was making; that the long anticipated news
had been spread, and was now raging like a veritable prairie fire, and
stirred the people of the Little Crow as much as an active stock market
stirs the bulls on the stock exchange. The report spread and stirred the
everyday routine of the settlers and the finality of humdrum and
inactivity was abrupt. It came one day in early April. The rain had kept
the farmers from the fields a week. It had been raining for nearly a
month, and we only got a clear day once in a while. This day it was
sloppy without, and many farmers were in from the country. We were all
listening to a funny story Ernest Nicholson was telling, and "good
fellows" were listening attentively. Dr. Salter, a physician, had just
been laid on a couch in the back room of the saloon, "soused to the
gills," when in the door John M. Keely, a sort of ne'er do well popular
drummer, whose proof had been rejected some time before, and who had
come back to stay "a while longer", stumbled into the door of the local
groggery. He was greeted with sallies and calls of welcome, and like
many of the others, he was "feeling good." He sort of leaned over, and
hiccoughing during the intervals, started "I've," the words were spoken
chokingly, "got news for you." He had by now got inside and was hanging
and swinging at the same time, to the bar. Then before finishing what he
started, called "Tom," to the bar tender, "give me a whiskey before I",
and here he leaned over and sang the words "tell the boys the news."
"For the love of Jesus Keel" exclaimed the crowd in chorus "tell us what
you know." He drained the glass at a gulp and finally spit it out. "The
surveyors are in Oristown."



CHAPTER XV

"WHICH TOWN WILL THE R.R. STRIKE?"


The drummer's information soon received corroboration from other
sources, and although it seemed almost unbelievable, it was discussed
incessantly and excitement ran high. These pioneers, who had braved the
hardships of homestead life had felt that without the railroad they were
indeed cut off from civilization. To them the advent of the surveyors in
Oristown could mean only one thing--that their dreams of enjoying the
many advantages of the railroad train, would soon materialize.

They fell to enumerating these advantages--the mail daily, instead of
only once or twice a week; the ease with which they could make necessary
trips to the neighboring towns; and most of all--the increase in the
value of the land. With this last subject they became so wrought up with
excitement and anxiety as to the truth of the report, that they could
stay away from the scene of action no longer. Accordingly, buggies and
vehicles of all descriptions began coming into Oristown from all
directions. I hitched Doc and my new horse, Boliver, for which I had
paid one hundred and forty dollars, to an old ramshackle buggy I had
bought for ten dollars, and joined the procession.

Three miles west of Oristown we came upon a crowd of circus-day
proportion, and in their midst were the surveyors.

In their lead rode the chief engineer--a slender, wiry man with a black
mustache and piercing eyes, that seemed to observe every feature of
surrounding prairie. Behind came a wagon loaded with stakes, accompanied
by several men, the leader of whom was setting these stakes according to
the signal of the engineer from behind the transit. Others, on either
side, were also driving stakes. They were not only running a straight
survey, but were cross-sectioning as they went.

Even though the presence of these surveyors was now an established fact,
these were days of grave uncertainties as to just what route the road
would take. The suspense was almost equal to that of the criminal, as he
awaits the verdict of the jury. The valleys and divides lay in such a
manner that it was possible the survey would extend along the Monca,
thus passing through Calias. On the other hand, it was probable that it
would continue to the Northwest through Kirk and Megory, thus missing
Calias altogether.

When the surveyors reached a point five miles west of Hedrick, they
swerved to the northwest and advanced directly toward Kirk. This looked
bad for Calias.

When Ernest Nicholson had learned that the surveyors were in Oristown,
he had left immediately for parts unknown and had not returned. He was
in reality the founder of Calias and many of the inhabitants looked to
him as their leader, and depended upon him for advice. Although he had
many enemies who heaped abuse and epithets upon him--calling him a liar,
braggard and "wind jammer" when boasting of their own independence and
self respect--now that a calamity was about to befall them, and their
fond hopes for this priceless mistress of prairie were about to be
wrecked upon the shoals of an imaginary railroad survey, they turned
toward him for comfort, as moths turn to a flame. It was Ernest here and
Ernest there. As the inevitable progress of the surveyors proceeded in a
direct line for Hedrick, Kirk and Megory, the consternation of the
Caliasites became more intense as time went on, and the anxiety for
Ernest to return almost resolved itself into mutiny. It became so
significant, that at one time it appeared that if Ernest had only
appeared, the railroad company would have voluntarily run its survey
directly to Calias, in order to avoid the humiliation of Ernest's
seizing them by the nape of the neck and marching them, survey, cars and
all, right into the little hamlet.

Now there was one thing everybody seemed to forget or to overlook, but
which occurred to me at the time, and caused me to become skeptical as
to the possibilities of the road striking Calias, and that was, if the
railroad was to be built up the Monca Valley, then why had the surveyors
come to Oristown, and why had they not gotten off at Anona, the last
station in the Monca Valley, where the tracks climb the grade to
Fairview.

Many of the Megory and Kirk boosters had taken advantage of Ernest's
absence, and through enthusiasm attending the advent of the railroad
survey, persuaded several of Calias' business men to go into fusion in
their respective towns. The remaining handful consoled each other by
prophecies of what Ernest would do when he returned, and plied each
other for expressions of theories, and ways and means of injecting
enthusiasm into the local situation. Thousands of theories were given
expression, consideration, and rejection, and the old one that all
railroads follow valleys and streams was finally adhered to. I was
singled out to give corroborative proof of this last, by reason of my
railroad experience.

I was suddenly seized with a short memory, much to my embarrassment, as
I felt all eyes turned upon me. However, the crowd were looking for
encouragement and spoke up in chorus: "Don't the railroads always follow
valleys?" It suddenly occurred to me, that with all the thousands of
miles of travel to my credit and the many different states I had
traveled through, with all their rough and smooth territory, I had not
observed whether the tracks followed the valleys or otherwise. However,
I intimated that I thought they did. "Of course they do", my remark was
answered in chorus.

Since then I have noticed that a railway does invariably follow a
valley, if it is a large one; and small rivers make excellent routes,
but never crooked little streams like the Monca. When it comes to such
creeks, and there is a table land above, as soon as the road can get
out, it usually stays out. This was the situation of the C. & R.W. It
came some twenty-five or thirty miles up the Monca, from where it
empties into the Missouri. There are fourteen bridges across in that
many miles, which were and still are, always going out during high
water.

It came this route because there was no other way to come, but when it
got to Anona, as has been said, it climbed a four per cent grade to get
out and it stayed out.



CHAPTER XVI

MEGORY'S DAY


The first day of May was a local holiday in Megory, held in honor of the
first anniversary of the day when all settlers had to be on their
claims; and it was raining. During the first years on the Little Crow we
were deluged with rainfall, but this day the inclement weather was
disregarded. It was Settler's Day and everybody for miles around had
journeyed thither to celebrate--not only Settler's Day, but also the
advent of the railroad. Only the day before, the surveyors had pitched
their tents on the outskirts of the town, and on this day they could be
seen calmly sighting their way across the south side of the embryo city.
Megory was the scene of a continuous round of revelry. Five saloons were
crowded to overflowing, and a score of bartenders served thousands of
thirsty throats; while on the side opposite from the bar, and in the
rear, gambling was in full blast. Professionals, "tin horns", and
"pikers", in their shirt sleeves worked away feverishly drawing in and
paying money to the crowd that surged around the Roulette, the
Chuck-luck, and the Faro-bank. It seemed as though everybody drank and
gambled. "This is Megory's Day", they called between drinks, and it
would echo with "have another," "watch Megory grow."

Written in big letters and hung all along the streets were huge signs
which read "Megory, the gateway to a million acres of the richest land
in the world." "Megory, the future metropolis of the Little Crow, Watch
her grow! Watch her grow!" The board walk four feet wide could not hold
the crowd. It was a day of frenzied celebration--a day when no one dared
mention Nicholson's name unless they wanted to hear them called liars,
wind jammers, and all a bluff.

Ernest was still in the East and no one seemed to know where he was, or
what he was doing. The surveyors had passed through Megory and extended
the survey to the county line, five miles west of the town. The
right-of-way man was following and had just arrived from Hedrick and
Kirk, where he had made the same offer he was now making Megory. "If" he
said, addressing the "town dads" and he seemed to want it clearly
understood, "the C. & R.W. builds to Megory, we want you to buy the
right-of-way three miles east and four miles west of the town."

Then Governor Reulback, known as the "Squatter Governor," acting as
spokesman for the citizens, arose from his seat on the rude platform,
and before accepting the proposition--needless to say it was
accepted--called on different individuals for short talks. Among others
he called on Ernest Nicholson; but Frank, the Junior member of the firm,
arose and answered that Ernest was away engaged in purchasing the C. &
R.W. railroad and that he, answering for Ernest, had nothing to say. A
hush fell on the crowd, but Governor Reulbach, who possessed a well
defined sense of humor, responded with a joke, saying, "Mr. Nicholson's
being away purchasing the C. & R.W. railroad reminds me of the Irishman
who played poker all night, and the next morning, yawning and stretching
himself, said, 'Oi lost nine hundred dollars last night and seven and
one-half of it was cash.'"

The backbone of the town was beginning to weaken, while there were many
who continued to insist that there was hope. Others contracted
rheumatism from vigils at the surveyor's camp, in vain hope of gaining
some information as to the proposed direction of the right-of-way. The
purchasing of the right-of-way and the unloading of carload after
carload of contracting material at Oristown did little to encourage the
belief that there was a ghost of a show for Calias.

In a few days corral tents were decorating the right-of-way at intervals
of two miles, all the way from Oristown to Megory. In the early morning,
as the sound of distant thunder, could be heard the dull thud of clods
and dirt dropping into the wagon from the elevator of the excavator;
also the familiar "jup" and the thud of the "skinner's" lines as they
struck the mules, in Calias one and one-half miles away.

A very much discouraged and weary crowd met Ernest when he returned, but
even in defeat this young man's personality was pleasing. He was frank
in telling the people that he had done all that he could. He had gone to
Omaha where his father in-law joined him, thence to Des Moines, where
his father maintained his office as president of an insurance company,
that made loans on Little Crow land. Together with two capitalists,
friends of his father, they had gone into Chicago and held a conference
with Marvin Hewitt, President of the C. & R.W. who had showed them the
blue prints, and, as he put it, any reasonable man could see it would be
utterly impossible to strike Calias in the route they desired to go. The
railroad wanted to strike the Government town sites, but the president
told them that if at any time he could do them a favor to call on him,
and he would gladly do so.

In a few days a man named John Nodgen came to Calias. Towns which had
failed to get a road looked upon him in the way a sick man would an
undertaker. He was a red-haired Irishman with teeth wide apart and
wildish blue eyes, who had the reputation of moving more towns than any
other one man. He brought horses and wagons, block and tackle, and
massive steel trucks. He swore like a stranded sailor, and declared they
would hold up any two buildings in Calias.

The saloon was the first building deserted. The stock had not been
removed when the house movers arrived, and in some way they got the door
open and helped themselves to the "booze," and when full enough to be
good and noisy, began jacking up the building that had been the pride of
the hopeful Caliasites. In a few weeks a large part of what had been
Calias was in Megory and a small part in Kirk.

It had stopped raining for a while, and several large buildings were
still on the move to Megory when the rain set in again. This was the
latter part of July and how it did rain, every day and night. One store
building one hundred feet long had been cut in two so as to facilitate
moving, and the rains caught it half way on the road to Megory. After
many days of sticking and floundering around in the mud, at a cost of
over fourteen hundred dollars for the moving alone, not counting the
goods spoiled, it arrived at its new home. The building in the beginning
had cost only twenty-three hundred dollars, out of which thirty cents
per hundred had been paid for local freighting from Oristown. The
merchant paid one thousand dollars for his lot in Megory, and received
ten dollars for the one he left in Calias.

This was the reason why Rattlesnake Jack's father and I could not get
together when he came out and showed me Rattlesnake Jack's papers. It
was bad and I readily agreed with him. I also agreed to sign a quit
claim deed, thereby clearing the place, so she could complete her proof.
Everything went along all right, until it came to signing up. Then I
suggested that as I had broken eighty acres of prairie, the railroad was
in course of construction, and land had materially increased in
valuation--having sold as high as five thousand dollars a quarter
section--I should have a guarantee that he would sell the place back to
me when the matter had been cleared up.

"I will see that you get the place back"--he pretended to reassure
me--"when she proves up again."

"Then we will draw up an agreement to that effect and make it one
thousand dollars over what I paid", I suggested.

[Illustration: Everybody for miles around had journeyed thither to
celebrate. (Page 108.)]

"I will do nothing of the kind," he roared, brandishing his arms as
though he wanted to fight, "and if you will not sign a quit claim
without such an agreement, I will have Jack blow the whole thing, that
is what I will do, do you hear?" He fairly yelled, leaning forward and
pointing his finger at me in a threatening manner.

"Then we will call it off for today," I replied with decision, and we
did. I confess however, I was rather frightened. In the beginning I had
not worried, as he held a first mortgage of one thousand, five hundred
dollars, I had felt safe and thought that they had to make good to me in
order to protect their own interests. But now as I thought the matter
over it began to look different. If he should have her relinquish, then
where would I be, and the one thousand, five hundred dollars I had paid
them?

I was very much disturbed and called on Ernest Nicholson and informed
him how the matter stood. He listened carefully and when I was through
he said:

"They gave you a warranty deed, did they not?"

"Yes, I replied, it is over at the bank of Calias."

"Then let it stay there. Tell him, or the old man rather, to have the
girl complete sufficient residence, then secure you for all the place is
worth at the time; then, and not before, sign a quit claim, and if they
want to sell you the place, well and good; if not, you will have enough
to buy another." And I followed his advice.

It was fourteen months, however, before the Scotch-Irish blood in him
would submit to it. But there was nothing he could do, for the girl had
given me a deed to something she did not have title to herself, and had
accepted one thousand, five hundred dollars in cash from me in return.
As the matter stood, I was an innocent party.

About this time I became imbued with a feeling that I would like "most
awfully well" to have a little help-mate to love and cheer me. How often
I longed for company to break the awful and monotonous lonesomeness that
occasionally enveloped me. At that time, as now, I thought a darling
little colored girl, to share all my trouble and grief, would be
interesting indeed. Often my thoughts had reverted to the little town in
Illinois, and I had pictured Jessie caring for the little sod house and
cheering me when I came from the fields. For a time, such blissful
thoughts sufficed the longing in my heart, but were soon banished when I
recalled her seeming preference for the three dollar a week menial,
another attack of the blues would follow, and my day dreams became as
mist before the sun.

About this time I began what developed into a flirtatious correspondence
with a St. Louis octoroon. She was a trained nurse; very attractive, and
wrote such charming and interesting letters, that for a time they
afforded me quite as much entertainment, perhaps more, than actual
company would have done. In fact I became so enamored with her that I
nearly lost my emotional mind, and almost succumbed to her encouragement
toward a marriage proposal. The death of three of my best horses that
fall diverted my interest; she ceased the epistolary courtship, and I
continued to batch.

Doc, my big horse, got stuck in the creek and was drowned. The loss of
Doc was hardest for me to bear, for he was a young horse, full of life,
and I had grown fond of him. Jenny mule would stand for hours every
night and whinny for him.

In November, Bolivar, his mate--the horse I had paid one hundred and
forty dollars for not nine months before--got into the wheat, became
foundered, and died.

While freighting from Oristown, in December, one of a team of dapple
grays fell and killed himself. So in three months I lost three horses
that had cost over four hundred dollars, and the last had not even been
paid for. I had only three left, the other dapple gray, Jenny mule, and
"Old Grayhead," the relic of my horse-trading days. I had put in a large
crop of wheat the spring before and had threshed only a small part of it
before the cold winter set in, and the snow made it quite impossible to
complete threshing before spring.

That was one of the cold winters which usually follow a wet summer, and
I nearly froze in my little old soddy, before the warm spring days set
in. Sod houses are warm as long as the mice, rats, and gophers do not
bore them full of holes, but as they had made a good job tunneling mine,
I was left to welcome the breezy atmosphere, and I did not think the
charming nurse would be very happy in such a mess "nohow." The thought
that I was not mean enough to ask her to marry me and bring her into it,
was consoling indeed.

Since I shall have much to relate farther along concerning the curious
and many sided relations that existed between Calias, Megory, and other
contending and jealous communities, let me drop this and return to the
removal of Calias to Megory.

The Nicholson Brothers had already installed an office in the
successful town, and offered to move their interests to that place and
combine with Megory in making the town a metropolis. But the town dads,
feeling they were entirely responsible for the road striking the town,
with the flush of victory and the sensation of empire builders,
disdained the offer.

In this Megory had made the most stupid mistake of her life, and which
later became almost monumental in its proportions. It will be seen how
in the flush of apparent victory she lost her head, and looked back to
stare and reflect at the retreating and temporary triumph of her youth;
and in that instant the banner of victory was snatched from her fingers
by those who offered to make her apparent victory real, and who ran
swiftly, skillfully, and successfully to a new and impregnable retreat
of their own.

The Megory town dads were fairly bursting with rustic pride, and were
being wined and dined like kings, by the citizens of the town--who had
contributed the wherewith to pay for the seven miles of right-of-way.
Besides, the dads were puffed young roosters just beginning to crow, and
were boastful as well. So Nicholson Brothers got the horse laugh, which
implied that Megory did not need them. "We have made Megory and now
watch her grow. Haw! Haw! Haw! Watch her grow," came the cry, when the
report spread that the town dads had turned Nicholson's offer down.

Megory was the big I am of the Little Crow. Then Ernest went away on
another long trip. It was cold weather, with the ground frozen, when he
returned.



CHAPTER XVII

ERNEST NICHOLSON'S RETURN--THE BUILDING WEST OF TOWN--"WHAT'S IT ALL
ABOUT"


The big hotel from Calias had not long since been unloaded and decorated
a corner lot in Megory. All that remained in Calias were the buildings
belonging to Nicholson Brothers, consisting of an old two-story frame
hotel, a two-story bank, the saloon, drug store, their own office and a
few smaller ones. It was a hard life for the Caliasites and the
Megoryites were not inclined to soften it. On the other hand, she was
growing like a mushroom. Everything tended to make it the prairie
metropolis; land was booming, and buyers were plentiful. Capital was
also finding its way to the town, and nothing to disturb the visible
prosperity.

But a shrewd person, at that very time, had control of machinery that
would cause a radical change in this community, and in a very short time
too. This man was Ernest Nicholson, and referring to his return, I was
at the depot in Oristown the day he arrived. There he boarded an auto
and went west to Megory. On his arrival there, he ordered John Nogden to
proceed to Calias, load the bank building, get all the horses
obtainable, and proceed at once to haul the building to--no, not to
Megory--this is what the Megoryites thought, when, with seventy-six head
of horses hitched to it, they saw the bank of Calias coming toward
Megory. But when it got to within half a mile of the south side,
swerved off to the west. About six that evening, when the sun went down,
the Bank of Calias was sitting on the side of a hill that sloped to the
north, near the end of the survey.

Now what did it mean? That was the question that everybody began asking
everybody else. What was up? Why was Ernest Nicholson moving the bank of
Calias five miles west of Megory and setting it down on or near the end
of the survey? There were so many questions being asked with no one to
answer, that it amused me. Then someone suggested that it might be the
same old game, and here would come a pause, then the question, "What old
game?" "Why, another Calias?"--some bait to make money. Then, "Oh, I
see," said the wise town dads, just a hoax. That answered the question,
just a snare to catch the unwary. Tell them that the railroad would
build to the Tipp County line. Sell them some lots, for that is what the
"bluff" meant. Get their good money and then, Oh, Ha! Ha! Ha! it was too
funny when one saw the joke, and Megoryites continued to laugh. Had not
Nicholson Brothers said a whole lot about getting the railroad; and that
it was sure coming up the Monca. It had come, had it not. Haw! Haw! Haw!
Ho! Ho! Ho! just another Nicholson stall, Haw! Haw! Haw! and Nicholsons
got the laugh again. The railroad is in Megory, and here it will stop
for ten years. One hundred thousand people will come to Megory to
register for Tipp County lands, and "Watch Megory grow" was all that
could be heard.

Ernest would come to Megory, have a pleasant chat, treat the boys, tell
a funny story, and be off. Nobody was mean enough or bold enough to tell
him to his face any of the things they told to his back.

Ernest was never known to say anything about it. His scheme simply kept
John Nogden moving buildings. He wrote checks in payment, that the bank
of Calias cashed, for it was open for business the next day after it had
been moved out on the prairie, five miles west of Megory.

The court record showed six quarter sections of land west of town had
recently been transferred; the name of the receiver was unknown to
anyone in Megory, but such prices, forty to fifty dollars per acre. The
people who had sold, brought the money to the Megory banks, and
deposited it. All they seemed to know was that someone drove up to their
house and asked if they wanted to sell. Some did not, while others said
they were only five miles from Megory, and if they sold they would have
to have a big price, because Megory was the "Town of the Little Crow"
and the gateway to acres of the finest land in the world, to be opened
soon. "What is your price?" he would ask, and whether it was forty,
forty-five or fifty per acre, he bought it.

This must have gone on for sixty days with everybody wondering "what it
was all about", until it got on the nerves of the Megoryites; and even
the town dads began to get a little fearful. When Ernest was approached
he would wink wisely, hand out a cigar or buy a drink, but he never made
anybody the wiser.

A lady came out from Des Moines, bought a lot, and let a contract for a
hotel building 24 × 140, and work was begun on it immediately. This was
getting ahead of Megory, where a hotel had just been completed 25 × 100
feet, said by the Megoryites to be the "best" west of a town of six
thousand population, one hundred fifty miles down the road. Whenever
anything like a real building goes up in a little town on the prairie,
with their collection of shacks, it is always called "the best building"
between there and somewhere else.

I shall not soon forget the anxiety with which the people watched the
building which continued to go up west of Megory, and still no one there
seemed willing to admit that Nicholson Brothers were "live," but spent
their argument in trying to convince someone that they were only wind
jammers and manipulators of knavish plots, to immesh the credulous.

What actually happened was this, and Ernest told me about it afterwards
in about the following words:

"Well, Oscar, after Megory turned our offer down, I knew there were just
two things to do, and that was, to either make good or leave the
country. Megory is full of a lot of fellows that have never known
anything but Keya Paha county, and when the road missed Calias, and
struck Megory, they took the credit for displaying a superior knowledge.
I knew we were going to be the big laughing stock of the reservation,
and since I did not intend to leave the country, I got to thinking. The
more I pondered the matter, the more determined I became that something
had to be done, and I finally made up my mind to do it." Ernest
Nicholson was not the kind of a man to make idle declarations. "I went
down to Omaha and saw some business friends of mine and suggested to
them just what I intended to do, thence to Des Moines and got father,
and again we went into Chicago and secured an appointment with Hewitt,
who listened attentively to all that we had to say, and the import of
this was that Megory, being over five miles east of the Tipp County
line, it was difficult to drive range cattle that distance through a
settled country. They are so unused to anything that resembles
civilization, that ranchers hate to drive even five miles through a
settled country, besides the annoyance it would habitually cause
contrary farmers, when it comes to accommodating the ranchers. But that
is not all. With sixty-six feet open between the wire fences, the range
cattle at any time are liable to start a stampede, go right through, and
a lot of damage follows. I showed him that most of the cattle men were
still driving their stock north and shipping over the C.P. & St. L. Now
knowing that the directors had ordered the extension of the line to get
the cattle business, Hewitt looked serious, finally arose from his
chair, and went over to a map that entirely covered the side of the wall
and showed all the lines of the C. & R.W. He meditated a few minutes and
then turned around and said: 'Go back and buy the land that has been
described.'" It all seemed simple enough when it was done.

By the time that the extension had been completed to Megory, the
building that had been moved west of town had company in the way of many
new ones, and by this time comprised quite a burg, and claimed the name
of New Calias. The new was to distinguish between its old site and its
present one. After Megory turned them down, Ernest had made a
declaration or defiance that he would build a town on the Little Crow
and its name would be Calias.



CHAPTER XVIII

COMES STANLEY, THE CHIEF ENGINEER


Megory was still on the boom, not quite as much as the summer before,
but more than it was some time later, for as yet New Calias was still
regarded as a joke, until one day Stanley, the same wiry-looking
individual with the black mustache and the piercing eyes, got off the
stage at Megory and began to do the same work he had started west of
Oristown the year before.

Oh, it was a shame to thus wreck the selfish dreams of these Megoryites
upon the rocks of their own shortsightedness. Stanley was followed a few
days later by a grade contractor, who had been to Megory the summer
before and who had became popular around town, and was known to be a
good spender. They had bidden him good-bye along in December, and
although nothing was said about it, the truth was, Megory did not wish
to see any more railroad contractors, for a while, not for five or ten
years anyway.

It is a peculiar thing that when a railroad stops at some little western
burg, that it is always going to stay ten or twenty years. This has
always been the case before, according to the towns at the end of the
line, and at this time Megory was of the same opinion as regarded the
extension to New Calias. So Oristown had been in regard to the extension
to Megory. But Trelway built the road to New Calias, and built it the
quickest I ever saw a road built. The first train came to Megory on a
Sunday in June--(Schedules always commence on Sunday) and September
found the same train in Calias, the "New" having been dropped.

Megoryites admitted very grudgingly, a short time before, that the train
would go on to Calias but would return to Megory to stay over night,
where it left at six o'clock the following morning. Now at Megory the
road had a "Y" that ran onto a pasture on a two years lease, while at
Calias coal chutes, a "Y", a turning table, a round house, and a large
freight depot were erected.

And then began one of the most bitter fights between towns that I ever
saw or even read about.

Five miles apart, with Calias perched on another hill, and like the old
site, could be seen from miles around. Now the terminus, it loomed
conspicuously. It was a foregone conclusion that when the reservation to
the west opened, Calias was in the right position to handle the crowds
that came to the territory to the west, instead of Megory. Megory
contended, however, that Calias, located on such a hill, could never
hope for an abundance of good water and therefore could not compete with
Megory, with her natural advantages, such as an abundance of good soft
water, which was obtainable anywhere in town.

There are certain things concrete in the future growth of a prairie
town; the first is, has it a railroad; the next is, is the agricultural
territory sufficient to support a good live town (a fair sized town in
either one of the Dakotas has from one thousand to three thousand
inhabitants); and last, are the business men of the town modern,
progressive, and up to date. In this respect Calias had the advantage
over Megory, as will be seen later.

Megory became my postoffice address after Calias had moved to its new
location, and about that time the first rural mail route was established
on the reservation. Megory boasted of this. The other things it boasted
of, was its great farming territory. For miles in every direction
tributary to the town, the land was ideal for farming purposes, and at
the beginning of the bitter rivalry between the two towns, Megory had
the big end of the farm trade. They could see nothing else but Megory,
which helped the town's business considerably.



CHAPTER XIX

IN THE VALLEY OF THE KEYA PAHA. THE RIVALS. THE VIGILANTS


Nothing is more essential to the upbuilding of the small western town,
than a good agricultural territory, and this was where Calias found its
first handicap. When it had moved to its new location, scores of
investors had flocked to the town, paying the highest prices that had
ever been paid for lots in a new country town, of its kind, in the
central west.

Twenty-five miles south of the two towns, where a sand stream known as
the Keya Paha wends its way, is a fertile valley. It had been settled
thirty years before by eastern people, who hauled their hogs and drove
their cattle and sheep fifty miles in a southerly direction, to a
railroad. Although the valley could not be surpassed in the production
of corn, wheat, oats, and alfalfa, the highlands on either side are
great mountains of sand, which produce nothing but a long reddish grass,
that stock will not eat after it reaches maturity, and which stands in
bunches, with the sand blown from around its roots, to such an extent
that riding or driving over it is very difficult.

These hills rise to heights until they resemble the Sierras, and near
the top, on the northwest slope of each, are cave-like holes where the
strong winds have blown a squeegee.

The wagon road to the railway on the south was sandy and made traveling
over it slow and hazardous by the many pits and dunes. Therefore, it is
to be seen, when the C. & R.W. pushed its line through Megory County,
everything that had been going to the road on the south began
immediately to come to the road on the north--where good hard roads made
the traveling much easier, and furthermore, it was only half the
distance.

Keya Paha County was about as lonely a place as I had ever seen. After
the sun went down, the coyotes from the adjacent sand hills, in a series
of mournful howls, filled the air with a noise which echoed and
re-echoed throughout the valley, like the music of so many far-away
steam calliopes and filled me with a cold, creepy feeling. For thirty
years these people had heard no other sound save the same monotonous
howls and saw only each other. The men went to Omaha occasionally with
cattle, but the women and children knew little else but Keya Paha
County.

During a trip into this valley the first winter I spent on the
homestead, in quest of seed wheat, I met and talked with families who
had children, in some instances twenty years of age, who had never seen
a colored man. Sometimes the little tads would run from me, screaming as
though they had met a lion or some other wild beast of the forest. At
one place where I stopped over night, a little girl about nine years of
age, looked at me with so much curiosity that I became amused, finally
coaxing her onto my knee. She continued to look hard at me, then meekly
reached up and touched my chin, looked into my eyes, and said: "Why
don't you wash your face?" When supper was ready went to the sink and
washed my face and hands; she watched me closely in the meanwhile, and
when I was through, appeared to be vexed and with an expression as if to
say: "He has cleaned it thoroughly, but it is dirty still."

About twenty years previous to this time, or about ten years after
settlement in this valley, the pioneers were continually robbed of much
of their young stock. Thieving outlaws kept up a continuous raid on the
young cattle and colts, driving them onto the reservation, where they
disappeared. This continued for years, and it was said many of the
county officials encouraged it, in a way, by delaying a trial, and
inasmuch as the law and its procedure was very inadequate, on account of
the county's remote location, the criminals were rarely punished.

After submitting to such until all reasonable patience had been
exhausted, the settlers formed "a vigilant committee," and meted out
punishment to the evil doers, who had become over-bold and were well
known. After hanging a few, as well as whipping many, the vigilanters
ridded the county of rustlers, and lived in peace thereafter.

At the time the railroad was built to Megory there was little activity
other than the common routine attending their existence. But with Megory
twenty-five miles to the north, and many of her former active and
prosperous citizens living there; and while board walks and "shack"
buildings still represented the Main Street, Megory was considered by
the people of the valley very much of a city, and a great place to pay a
visit. Many had never seen or ridden on a railroad train, so Megory
sounded in Keya Paha County as Chicago does to the down state people
of Illinois.

[Illustration: Made a declaration that he would build a town. (page
122.)]

The people of Keya Paha County had grown prosperous, however, and the
stock shipments comprised many train loads, during an active market.
Practically all this was coming to Megory when Calias began to loom
prominent as a model little city.

I could see two distinct classes, or personages, in the leaders of the
two towns. Beginning with Ernest Nicholson, the head of the firm of
Nicholson Brothers and called by Megoryites "chief," "high mogul," the
"big it" and "I am," in absolute control of Calias affairs; and the
former Keya Paha County sand rats--as they are sometimes called--running
Megory. The two contesting parties presented a contrast which interested
me.

The Nicholson Brothers were all college-bred boys, with a higher
conception of things in general; were modern, free and up-to-date. While
Megory's leaders were as modern as could be expected, but were simply
outclassed in the style and perfection that the Calias bunch presented.
Besides, the merchants and business men--in the "stock yards west of
Megory," as Calias was cartooned by a Megory editor, were much of the
same ilk. And referring to the cartoon, it pictured the editor of the
Calias News as a braying jackass in a stock pen, which brought a great
laugh from Megoryites, but who got it back, however, the next week by
being pictured as a stagnant pond, with two Megory editors as a couple
of big bull-frogs. This had the effect of causing the town to begin
grading the streets, putting in cement walks and gutters, for Megory
had located in the beginning in an extremely bad place. The town was
located in a low place, full of alkali spots, buffalo wallows underlaid
with hardpan, which caused the surface to hold water to such an extent,
that, when rain continued to fall any length of time, the cellars and
streets stood in water.

But Megory had the start, with the largest and best territory, which had
by this time been developed into improved farms; the real farmer was
fast replacing the homesteader. It had the biggest and best banks.
Regardless of all the efficiency of Calias, it appeared weak in its
banking. Now a farmer could go to Nicholson Brothers, and get the
largest farm loan because the boys' father was president of an insurance
company that made the loan, but the banks there were short in the supply
of time loans on stock security, but Calias' greatest disadvantage was,
that directly west in Tipp County the Indians had taken their allotments
within seven or eight miles of the town, and there was hardly a quarter
section to be homesteaded.

Now there was no doubt but that in the course of time the Indian
allotments would be bought, whenever the government felt disposed to
grant the Indian a patent; which under the laws is not supposed to be
issued until the expiration of twenty-five years. People, however, would
probably lease the land, break it up and farm it; but that would not
occur until some future date, and Calias needed it at the present time.

A western town, in most instances, gets its boom in the beginning, for
later a dry rot seems an inevitable condition, and is likely to
overtake it after the first excitement wears away. Resurrection is rare.
These were the conditions that faced the town on the Little Crow, at the
beginning of the third year of settlement.



CHAPTER XX

THE OUTLAW'S LAST STAND


After the vigilants had frightened the outlaws into abandoning their
operations in the valley, the thieves skulked across the reservation to
a strip of country some twenty-five miles northeast of where Megory now
stands. Here, on the east, the murky waters of the Missouri seek their
level; to the north the White River runs like a cow-path through the
foot hills--twisting and turning into innumerable bends, with its
lime-like waters lapping the sides, bringing tons of shale from the
gorgeous, dark banks, into its current; while on the south runs the
Whetstone, inclosed by many rough, ragged brown hills, and to the west
are the breaks of Landing Creek. In an angle between these creeks and
rivers, lies a perfect table land known as Yully Flats, which is the
most perfectly laying land and has the richest soil of any spot on the
Little Crow. It took its name from a famous outlaw and squaw-man, by the
name of Jack Yully. With him the thieves from the Keya Paha Valley found
co-operation, and together had, a few years previously operated as the
most notorious band of cattle rustlers the state had known. For a
hundred miles in every direction this band plundered, stole, and ran the
cattle and horses onto the flats, where they were protected by the
breaks of the creeks and rivers, referred to. Mixed with half, quarter,
eighth and sixteenth breeds, they knew every nook and crook of the
country. These operations had lasted until the year of the Little Crow
opening, and it was there that Jack Yully made his last stand.

[Illustration: Although the valley could not be surpassed in the
production of grain and alfalfa, the highlands on either side were great
mountains of sand. (Page 126.)]

He had for many years defied the laws of the county and state, and had
built a magnificent residence near a spring that pours its sparkling
waters into a small lake, where now stands a sanitarium. Yully had been
chief overseer, dictator, and arbitrator of the combined forces of
Little Crow and Keya Paha County outlaws and mixed bloods. The end came
when, on a bright day in June, a posse led by the United States Marshal
sneaked across the Whetstone and secreted themselves in a cache between
Yully's corral and the house. Yully was seen to enter the corral and
having laid a trap, a part of the men, came in from another direction
and made as if to advance when Yully made a run for his house, which
took him alongside the men hidden. Before he could change his course he
was halted and asked to surrender. He answered by dropping to the
opposite side of the horse and began firing. In the skirmish that
followed the horse was shot and fell on Yully, but in the shot's
exchange two of the posse and Yully were killed.



CHAPTER XXI

THE BOOM


This valuable tract of land comprising about fifty thousand acres had
been entered after the opening, by settlers, and lay about as near to
Kirk as it did to Megory, hence its trade was sought by both towns, but
with Kirk getting the larger part until Megory established a mill, which
paid two cents more for wheat, and the farmers took advantage by hauling
most of their produce to the former town. This included another strip of
rich territory to the north of Megory and west of Landing Creek, where
the soil is a rich gumbo, and the township thickly settled so it is
readily seen that Megory was advantageously situated to draw from all
directions. This soon brought such a volume of business into the town as
to make the most fastidious envy it, and the Megoryites were well aware
of their enviable position. The town continued to grow in a sound,
substantial way.

Nicholson Brothers began leading booster trade excursions to the north,
south, and east, with Ernest at the head in a big "Packard" making
clever speeches and inviting all the farmers to come to Calias, where a
meal at the best hotel was given free. A good, live, and effective
commercial club was organized, which guaranteed to pay all a hog, cow,
or calf would bring on the Omaha market, minus the freight and expenses.

Ernest would explain with deep sincerity which impressed the farmers of
the valley, as well as the settlers on the Little Crow, that Calias
wanted a share of their business, and was willing to sacrifice profit
for two years in order to have the farmers come to the town and get
acquainted, to see what the merchants, bankers and real estate dealers
had to offer. In making this offer the people of Calias had the
advantage over Megory, in that it derived profits from other sources,
chiefly from great numbers of transients who were beginning to fill the
hotels, restaurants, saloons, and boarding houses of the town. Being the
end of the road and the place where practically every settler coming to
Tipp County must stay at least one night, it stood to reason they could
make such an inducement and stick to it.

However, this was countered immediately by Megoryites who promptly
organized a commercial club and began the same kind of bid for trade.
Thus the small ranchmen of the valley found themselves an object of much
importance and began to awaken a little.

Now the land of the reservation had taken on a boom such as had never
been realized, or dreamed of. Land in the states of Iowa, Minnesota,
Illinois, and Nebraska had doubled in valuation in the previous ten
years, and was still on the increase in value. Crops had been good and
money was plentiful; with a number of years of unbroken prosperity, the
farmers had paid off mortgages and had a good surplus in the bank. Their
sons and daughters were looking for newer fields. Retired farmers with
their land to rent now, instead of the customary one-third delivered,
demanded and received from two-fifths to one-half, or cash, from three
to five and six dollars per acre. And with the prices in these states
ranging from ninety to one hundred and fifty dollars per acre, which
meant from fifteen to twenty-five thousand dollars to buy a quarter
section, which the renters felt was too high to ever be paid for by
farming it. Therefore, western lands held an attraction, where with a
few thousand dollars, some stock, and machinery a man could establish a
good home. As this land in southern South Dakota is in the Corn Belt,
the erstwhile investor and home-seeker found a haven.

There is always more or less gossip as regards insufficient moisture in
a new country. The only thing to kill this bogy is to have plenty of
rain, and plenty of rain had fallen on the Little Crow, too much at
times. Large crops of everything had been harvested, but if the first
three years had been wet, this fourth was one of almost continual
rainfall.

In the eastern states the corn crop had been badly drowned out on the
low lands, and rust had cut the yield of small grain considerably, while
on the rolling land of the Little Crow the season was just right and
everything grew so rank, thick and green that it gave the country, a raw
prairie until less than four years before, the appearance of an old
settled country. It looked good to the buyers and they bought. Farms
were sold as soon as they were listed. The price at the beginning of the
year had been from twenty-five to forty dollars per acre, some places
more, but after the first six months of the year it began to climb to
forty-five and then to fifty dollars per acre. Those who owned Little
Crow farms became objects of much importance. If they desired to sell
they had only to let it be known, and a buyer was soon on hand.

The atmosphere seemed charged with drunken enthusiasm. Everybody had it.
There was nothing to fear. Little Crow land was the best property to be
had, better, they would declare, than government bonds, for its value
was increasing in leaps and bounds. Choice farms close to town, if
bought at fifty dollars per acre, could be sold at a good profit in a
short time.

This was done, and good old eastern capital continued to be paid for the
land.

The spirit of unrest that seem to pervade the atmosphere of the
community was not altogether the desire to have and to hold, but more,
to buy and to sell. Homesteads were sold in Megory county and the
proceeds were immediately reinvested in Tipp, where considerable dead
Indian land could be purchased at half the price.

At about that time the auto fever began to infect the restless and
over-prosperous settlers, and business men alike. That was the day of
the many two-cylinder cars. They made a dreadful noise but they moved
and moved faster than horses. They sailed over the country, the exhaust
of the engine making a cracking noise. The motion, added to the speed,
seemed to thrill and enthuse the investor until he bought whether he
cared to or not.

In previous years, when capital was not so plentiful, and when land was
much cheaper and slower to sell, the agent drove the buyer over the land
from corner to corner, cross-wise and angling, and the buyer would get
out here and there and with a spade dig into the ground, and be
convinced as to the quality of the soil. He then pondered the matter
over for days, weeks, and sometimes months. Then maybe he would go back
and bring "the woman." The land dealers seriously object to buyers
bringing "the woman" along, especially if the farm he has to sell has
any serious drawbacks, such, for instance, as a lack of water. There
were numerous farms on the high lands of the Little Crow where water
could not be found, but they were invariably perfect in every other
respect. The perfection in the laying of the land and quality of the
soil was severely offset by the inability to get water. While on the
rougher and less desirable farms water can be easily obtained in the
draws and the hills. But the high lands were the more attractive and
were sold at higher prices and much quicker, regardless of the obvious
defects.

Now if "the woman" was brought to look it over one of the first inquires
she made would be, "Now is there plenty of water?" furthermore she was
liable to steal a march on the dealer by having her husband hire a
livery team, and with the eastern farmer and his wife drive out to the
place and look the farm over without the agent to steer them clear of
the bad places. They not only looked it over, but make inquiries of the
neighbors as to its merits. Now country people have the unpardonable
habit of gossip, and have complicated many deals of the real-estate men
by this weakness, even caused many to fall through, until, the land
sharks are usually careful to prevent a buyer from having a conversation
with "Si."

In my case, however, this was quite different. I was known as "a
booster", and since my land was located between the Monca and
Megory--this was considered the cream of the county as to location soil,
and other advantages--instead of being nervous over meeting me, the
dealers would drive into the yard or into the fields, and as I liked to
talk, introduce the prospective buyers to me and we would engage in a
long conversation at times. I might add that exaggerated tales were
current, which related how I had run as P----n porter, saved my money,
come to the Little Crow, bought a half section, and was getting rich.
The most of the buyers from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska were
unused to seeing colored farmers, and my presence all alone on the
former reserve added to their interest. In my favor was the fact that my
service in the employ of the P----n Company had taken me through nearly
every county in the central states and therefore, always given to
observation, I could talk with them concerning the counties they had
come from.

Land prices continued to soar. Higher and higher they went and to boost
them still higher, as well as to substantiate the values, the bogy
concerning insufficient moisture was drowned in the excessive rainfall.
From April until August it poured, and the effect on the growing crops
in the east became greater still in the way of drowned out corn-fields
and over-rank stems of small grain that grew to abnormal heights and
with the least winds lodged and then fell to the ground. The crops on
the reservation could not have been better and prices were high.



CHAPTER XXII

THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION


Coincident with the expectation came the president's proclamation
throwing four thousand claims in Tipp county open to settlement under
the lottery system at six dollars per acre. Among the towns designated
in the proclamation where the people could make application for a claim,
Megory and Calias were nearest to the land. These were the places where
the largest crowds were expected. Therefore, the citizens of these two
vigorous municipalities began extensive preparations to "entertain the
crowds." Megory, being more on the country order, made more homelike
preparations. Among the many "conveniences" prepared were a ladies' rest
room and information bureau, which were located in a large barn
previously used for storing hay.

Calias, under the criticism that as soon as the road extended farther
west it would be as dead as Oristown--now all but forgotten--prepared to
"get theirs" while the crowds were in town. And they did, but that is
ahead of the story.

The time for the opening approached. People seemingly from every part of
the universe, and from every vocation in life, drifted into the towns.
Among these were included the investors, who stated that in the event of
a failure to draw they would buy deeded land. Next in order were the
gamblers, from the "tin horn" and "piker" class to the "fat"
professionals. Although every precaution was taken to keep out the
characters of the city's underworld, who had characterized former
openings, both towns were fully represented with a large share of
pickpockets, con-men, lewd women and their consorts.

[Illustration: On the east the murky waters of the Missouri seek their
level. (page 132.)]

The many vacant lots on Main street of both the towns were decorated
with the typical scene at land openings. There were little tents with
notaries assisted by many beautiful girls to "prepare your application."
There were many hotels with three and four beds to a room, as well as
"rooms to let" over all the places of business containing two stories or
more. There were tents with five hundred cots, and "lest we forget",
there were the numerous "drinking fountains," with bars the length of
the building, behind which were scores of bartenders to serve the "how
dry I am", on one side. On the other, in tents, back rooms and overhead
could be heard the b-r-r-r-r of the little ivory marble as it spun a
circuit over the roulette wheel, and the luck cages, where the idle
sports turned them over for their own amusement, to pass away the time.
The faro-bank and numerous wheels of fortune also had a place. From the
rear came the strains of ragtime music. These were some of the many
attractions that met the trains carrying the first arrivals on the night
of October fifth.



CHAPTER XXIII

WHERE THE NEGRO FAILS


Long before I came west and during the years I had spent on the
homestead, my closest companion was the magazines. From the time Thomas
W. Lawson's "Frenzied Finance" had run as a serial article in a leading
periodical, to Ida M. Tarbell's "The History of the Standard Oil
Company," I fairly devoured special articles on subjects of timely
interest. I enjoyed reading anything that would give me a more complete
knowledge of what made up this great country in which we live and which
all Americans are given to boasting of as the "greatest country in the
world."

And this brings to my mind certain conditions which exist concerning the
ten odd millions of the black race in America; and more, this, in itself
had a tendency to open wider the gap between a certain class of the race
and myself.

There are two very distinct types or classes, among the American
negroes. I am inclined to feel that this is more prominent than most
people are aware. I have met and known those who are quick to think,
practical, conservative as well as progressive, while there are those
who are narrow in their sympathies and short-sighted in their views. Now
as a matter of argument, my experience has taught me there are more of
this class than most colored people have any idea.

The worst feature of this situation, however, is that a large number of
the latter class have commingled with the former in such a way as to
easily assume all the worthy proportions. They are a sort of dog in the
manger, and are not in accord with any principle that is practical and
essential to the elimination of friction and strife between the races.

Among the many faults of this class is, that they do not realize what it
takes to succeed, nor do they care, but spend their efforts loudly
claiming credit for the success of those who are honest in their
convictions and try to prove themselves indispensable citizens. Nothing
is more obvious and proves this more conclusively than to take notice,
as I have, of their own selection of reading matter.

Now, for instance, a few years ago a series of articles under the title
of "Following the Color Line" appeared in a certain periodical, the work
of a very well known writer whose specialty is writing on social
conditions, strikes, etc.

In justice to all concerned, the writer described the conditions which
his articles covered, just as he found them and in this, in my opinion,
he differed largely from many of the southern authors whose articles are
still inclined to treat the Ethiopians as a whole, as the old "time
worn" aunt and uncle. Not intending to digress, I want to put down here,
that negroes as a whole are changing to some extent, the same as the
whites and no liberty-loving colored man appreciates being regarded as
"aunt," or "uncle" even though some of these people were as honorable as
could be. This is a modern age.

Now getting back to the discussion that I seem to have for the moment
forgotten and as regards the article, while worthy in every respect, it
was no different in its way from any number of other articles published
at that time, as well as now, that deal on great and complex questions
of the day. Yet, this article caused thousands of colored people, who
never before bought a magazine or book, to subscribe for that magazine.
It was later published in book form and is conspicuous in the libraries
of many thousands of colored families.

What I have intended to put down in this lengthy discourse regarding my
race is, if they see or hear of an article concerning the race, they
will buy that magazine, to read the article spoken of and nothing more.

Since living in the state, as a recreation I was in the habit of taking
trips to Chicago once or twice a year, and as might be expected I would
talk of South Dakota. In the course of a conversation I have related a
story of some one's success there and would be listened to with unusual
attention. As I had found in them many who were poor listeners, at these
times when I found myself the object of so much undivided attention I
would warm up to the subject until it had evolved into a sort of
lecture, and remarks of, "my," "you don't say so," and "just think of
it" would interrupt me--"and a colored man." No, I would correct, the
least bit hesitant, a white man. Then, just like the sun disappearing
behind a cloud, all interest would vanish, furthermore, I have on
occasions of this kind had attention of a few minutes before turned to
remarks of criticism for taking up the time relating the success of a
white man. The idea is prevalent among this class that all white
people should be rich, and regardless of how ideal the success has been,
I learned that no white person could be accepted as an example for this
class to follow.

[Illustration: The real farmer was fast replacing the homesteader. (Page
130.)]

By reading nothing but discussions concerning the race, by all but
refusing to accept the success of the white race as an example and by
welcoming any racial disturbance as a conclusion that the entire white
race is bent in one great effort to hold him--the negro, down, he can
not very well feel the thrill of modern progress and is ignorant as to
public opinion. Therefore he is unable to cope with the trend of
conditions and has become so condensed in the idea that he has no
opportunity, that he is disinteresting to the public. One of the
greatest tasks of my life has been to convince a certain class of my
racial acquaintances that a colored man can be anything.

Now on the entire Little Crow reservation, less than eight hundred miles
from Chicago, I was the only colored man engaged in agriculture, and
moreover, from Megory to Omaha, a distance of three hundred miles. There
was only one other negro family engaged in the same industry.

Having lived in the cities, I therefore, was not a greenhorn, as some of
them would try to have me feel, when they referred to their clubs and
social affairs.

Among the many facts that confronted me as I meditated the situation,
one dated back to the time I had run on the road. The trains I ran on
carried thousands monthly into the interior of the northwest. Among
these were a great number of emigrants fresh from the old countries, but
there was seldom a colored person among them, and those few that I had
seen, with few exceptions, went on through to the Pacific coast cities
and engaged in the same occupation they had followed in the east.

During these trips I learned the greatest of all the failings were not
only among the ignorant class, but among the educated as well. Although
more agreeable to talk to, they lacked that great and mighty principle
which characterizes Americans, called "the initiative." Colored people
are possible in every way that is akin to becoming good citizens, which
has been thoroughly proven and is an existing fact. Yet they seem to
lack the "guts" to get into the northwest and "do things." In seven or
eight of the great agricultural states there were not enough colored
farmers to fill a township of thirty-six sections.

Another predominating inconsistency is that there is that "love of
luxury." They want street cars, cement walks, and electric lights to
greet them when they arrive. I well remember it was something near two
years before I saw a colored man on the reservation, until the road had
been extended. They had never come west of Oristown, but as the time for
the opening arrived, the kitchens and hotel dining-rooms of Megory and
Calias were filled with waiters and cooks.

During the preparation for the opening the commercial club of Megory had
lengthy circulars printed, with photographs of the surrounding country,
farms, homes, and the like, to accompany. These circulars described
briefly the progress the country had made in the four years it had been
opened to settlement, and the opportunities waiting. By giving the name
and address the club would send these to any address or person, with the
statement, "by the request" of whoever gave the name.

I gave the name of not less than one hundred persons, and sent them
personally to many as well. I wrote articles and sent them to different
newspapers edited by colored people, in the east and other places. I was
successful in getting one colored person to come and register--my oldest
brother.



CHAPTER XXIV

"AND THE CROWDS DID COME." THE PRAIRIE FIRE


The registration opened at twelve o'clock Monday morning. Seven trains
during the night before had brought something like seven thousand
people. Of this number about two thousand got off at Megory, and the
remainder went on through to Calias. The big opening was on, and the bid
for patronage made the relations between the towns more bitter than
ever.

After the first few days, however, the crowds, with the exception of a
few hundred, daily went on through to Calias and did not heed the cat
calls and uncomplimentary remarks from the railway platform at Megory.
Among these remarks flung at the crowded trains were: "Go on to Calias
and buy a drink of water", "Go on to Calias and pay a dime for the water
to wash your face"--water was one of Calias's scarcities, as will be
seen later. However, this failed to detract the crowd.

The C. & R.W. put on fifteen regular trains daily, and the little single
track, unballasted and squirmy, was very unsafe to ride over and the
crowded trains had to run very slowly on this account. Because of the
fact that it was difficult to find adequate side tracking, it took two
full days to make the trip from Omaha to Calias and return.

All the day and night the "toot, toot" of the locomotives could be heard
and the sound seemed to make the country seem very old indeed. Megory's
brass band--organized for the purpose--undaunted, continued to play
frantically at the depot to try to induce the crowded trains to unload a
greater share, but to no avail, although the cars were stuffed like
sandwiches.

Those times in Calias were long to be remembered. As the trains
disgorged the thousands daily it seemed impossible that the little city
could care for such crowds. The sidewalks were crowded from morn till
night. The registration booths and the saloons never closed and more
automobiles than I had ever seen in a country town up to that time,
roared, and with their clattering noise, took the people hurriedly
across the reservation to the west.

Along toward the close of the opening a prairie fire driven by a strong
west wind raced across Tipp county in a straight line for Calias.
Although fire guards sixty feet wide had been burned along the west side
of the town, it soon became apparent that the fire would leap them and
enter the town, unless some unusual effort on the part of the citizens
was made to stop it.

It was late in the afternoon and as seems always the case, a fire will
cause the wind to rise, and it rose until the blaze shut out the western
horizon. It seemed the entire world to the west was afire.

Ten thousand people, lost in sight-seeing, gambling and revelry, all of
a sudden became aware of the approaching danger, and began a rush for
safety. To the north, south, and east of the town the lands were under
cultivation, therefore, a safe place from the fire that now threatened
the town. All business was suspended, registration ceased, and the huge
cans containing more than one hundred thousand applications for lands,
were loaded on drays and taken into the country and deposited in the
center of a large plowed field, for safety. The gamblers put their gains
into sacks and joined the surging masses, and with grips got from the
numerous check rooms, all the people fled like stampeding cattle to a
position to the north of town which was protected by a corn field on the
west.

Ernest Nicholson, leading the business men and property owners, bravely
fought the oncoming disaster. The chemical engine and water hose were
rushed forward but were as pins under the drivers of a locomotive. The
water from the hose ran weakly for a few minutes and then with a blowing
as of an empty faucet, petered out from lack of water. The strong wind
blew the chemical into the air and it proved as useless. The fire
entered the city. One house, a magnificent residence, was soon enveloped
in flames, which spread to another, and still to another.

The thousands of people huddled on a bare spot, but safe, watched the
minature city of one year and the gate-way to the homesteads of the next
county, disappear in flames.

Megoryites, seeing the danger threatening her hated rival five miles
away, called for volunteers who readily responded and formed bucket
brigades, loaded barrels into wagons, filled them with water and burned
the roads in the hurry-up call to the apparently doomed city.

I could see the fire from where I was harvesting flax ten miles away,
and the cloud of smoke, with the little city lying silent before, it
reminded me of a picture of Pompeii before Vesuvius. It looked as if
Calias were lost. Then, like a miracle, the wind quieted down, changed,
and in less than twenty minutes was blowing a gale from the east,
starting the fire back over the ground over which it had burned. There
it sputtered, flickered, and with a few sparks went out, just as L.A.
Bell pulled onto the scene with lathered and bloody eyed mules drawing a
tank of Megory's water, and was told by the Nicholson Brothers--who were
said to resemble Mississippi steamboat roustabouts on a hot day--that
Calias didn't need their water.

Following the day of the high wind which brought the prairie fire that
so badly frightened the people of the town, the change of the wind to
the east brought rain, and about two hundred automobiles that had been
carrying people over Tipp county into the town. I remember the crowds
but have no idea now many people there were, but that it looked more
like the crowds on Broadway or State street on a busy day than Main
Street in a burg of the prairie. This was the afternoon of the drawing
and a woman drew number one, while here and there in the crowd that
filled the street before the registration, exclamations of surprise and
delight went up from different fortunates hearing their names called,
drawing a lucky number. I felt rather bewildered by so much excitement
and metropolitanism where hardly two years before I had hauled one of
the first loads of lumber on the ground to start the town. I could not
help but feel that the world moved swiftly, and that I was living, not
in a wilderness--as stated in some of the letters I had received from
colored friends in reply to my letter that informed them of the
opening--but in the midst of advancement and action.

When the drawing was over and the crowds had gone, it was found that the
greatest crowds had registered--not at Calias--but at a town just south,
in Nebraska, which received forty-five thousand while Calias came second
with forty-three thousand and Megory only received seven thousand,
something like one hundred fifteen thousand in all having applied.

The hotels in Calias had charged one dollar the person and some of the
large ones had made small fortunes, while the saloons were said to have
averaged over one thousand dollars a day.

After the opening, land sold like hot hamburger sandwiches had a few
weeks before.



CHAPTER XXV

THE SCOTCH GIRL


It had been just four years since I bought the relinquishment and seven
since leaving southern Illinois. I had been very successful in farming
although I had made some very poor deals in the beginning, and when my
crops were sold that season I found I had made three thousand, five
hundred dollars. Futhermore, I had in the beginning sought to secure the
best land in the best location and had succeeded. I had put two hundred
eighty acres under cultivation, with eight head of horses--I had done a
little better in my later horse deals--and had machinery, seed and feed
sufficient to farm it. My efforts in the seven years had resulted in the
ownership of land and stock to the value of twenty thousand dollars and
was only two thousand dollars in debt and still under twenty-five years
of age.

During the years I had spent on the Little Crow I had "kept batch" all
the while until that summer. A Scotch family had moved from Indiana that
spring consisting of the father, a widower, two sons and two daughters.
One of the boys worked for me and as it was much handier, I boarded with
them.

The older of the two girls was a beautiful blonde maiden of twenty
summers, who attended to the household duties, and considering the small
opportunities she had to secure an education, was an unusually
intelligent girl. She had composed some verses and songs but not knowing
where to send them, had never submitted them to a publisher. I secured
the name of a company that accepted some of her writings and paid her
fifty dollars for them. She was so anxious to improve her mind that I
took an interest in her and as I received much literature in the way of
newspapers and magazines and read lots of copy-right books, I gave them
to her. She seemed delighted and appreciated the gifts.

Before long, however, and without any intention of being other than
kind, I found myself being drawn to her in a way that threatened to
become serious. While custom frowns on even the discussion of the
amalgamation of races, it is only human to be kind, and it was only my
intention to encourage the desire to improve, which I could see in her,
but I found myself on the verge of falling in love with her. To make
matters more awkward, that love was being returned by the object of my
kindness. She, however, like myself, had no thought of being other than
kind and grateful. It placed me as well as her in an awkward
position--for before we realized it, we had learned to understand each
other to such an extent, that it became visible in every look and
action.

It reached a stage of embarrassment one day when we were reading a
volume of Shakespeare. She was sitting at the table and I was standing
over her. The volume was "Othello" and when we came to the climax where
Othello has murdered his wife, driven to it by the evil machinations of
Iago, as if by instinct she looked up and caught my eyes and when I came
to myself I had kissed her twice on the lips she held up.

After that, being near her caused me to feel awkwardly uncomfortable. We
could not even look into each other's eyes, without showing the feeling
that existed in the heart.

Now during the time I had lived among the white people, I had kept my
place as regards custom, and had been treated with every courtesy and
respect; had been referred to in the local papers in the most
complimentary terms, and was regarded as one of the Little Crow's best
citizens.

But when the reality of the situation dawned upon me, I became in a way
frightened, for I did not by any means want to fall in love with a white
girl. I had always disapproved of intermarriage, considering it as being
above all things, the very thing that a colored man could not even think
of. That we would become desperately in love, however, seemed
inevitable.

       *       *       *       *       *

Lived a man--the history of the American Negro shows--who had been the
foremost member of his race. He had acquitted himself of many honorable
deeds for more than a score of years, in the interest of his race. He
had filled a federal office but at the zenith of his career had brought
disappointment to his race and criticism from the white people who had
honored him, by marrying a white woman, a stenographer in his office.

They were no doubt in love with each other, which in all likelihood
overcame the fear of social ostracism, they must have known would follow
the marriage. I speak of love and presume that she loved him for in my
opinion a white woman, intelligent and respectable and knowing what it
means, who would marry a colored man, must love him and love him dearly.
To make that love stronger is the feeling that haunts the mind; the
knowledge that custom, tradition, and the dignity of both races are
against it. Like anything forbidden, however, it arouses the spirit of
opposition, causing the mind to battle with what is felt to be
oppression. The sole claim is the right to love.

These thoughts fell upon me like a clap of thunder and frightened me the
more. It was then too, that I realized how pleasant the summer just
passed had been, and that I had not been in the least lonesome, but
perfectly contented, aye, happy. And that was the reason.

During the summer when I had read a good story or had on mind to discuss
my hopes, she had listened attentively and I had found companionship. If
I was melancholy, I had been cheered in the same demure manner. Yet, on
the whole, I had been unaware of the affection growing silently; drawing
two lonesome hearts together. With the reality of it upon us, we were
unable to extricate ourselves from our own weak predicament. We tried
avoiding each other; tried everything to crush the weakness. God has
thus endowed. We found it hard.

I have felt, if a person could only order his mind as he does his limbs
and have it respond or submit to the will, how much easier life would
be. For it is that relentless thinking all the time until one's mind
becomes a slave to its own imaginations, that brings eternal misery,
where happiness might be had.

To love is life--love lives to seek reply--but I would contend with
myself as to whether or not it was right to fall in love with this poor
little white girl. I contended with myself that there were good girls in
my race and coincident with this I quit boarding with them and went to
batching again, to try to successfully combat my emotions. I continued
to send her papers and books to read--I could hardly restrain the
inclinations to be kind. Then one day I went to the house to settle with
her father for the boy's work and found her alone. I could see she had
been crying, and her very expression was one of unhappiness. Well, what
is a fellow going to do. What I did was to take her into my arms and in
spite of all the custom, loyalty, or the dignity of either Ethiopian or
the Caucasian race, loved her like a lover.

       *       *       *       *       *

It was during a street carnival at Megory sometime before the Tipp
county opening, when one afternoon in company with three or four white
men, I saw a nice looking colored man coming along the street. It was
very seldom any colored people came to those parts and when they did, it
was with a show troupe or a concert of some kind. Whenever any colored
people were in town, I had usually made myself acquainted and welcomed
them--if it was acceptable, and it usually was--so when I saw this young
man approaching I called the attention of my companions, saying, "There
is a nice-looking colored man." He was about five feet, eleven, of a
light brown complexion, and chestnut-like hair, neatly trimmed. He wore
glasses and was dressed in a well-fitting suit that matched his
complexion. He had the appearance of being intelligent and amiable.

I was in the act of starting to speak, when one of the fellows nudged me
and whispered in my ear, that it was one of the Woodrings from a town a
short distance away in Nebraska, who was known to be of mixed blood but
never admitted it.

According to what I had been told, the father of the three boys was
about half negro but had married a white woman, and this one was the
youngest son. Needless to say I did not speak but kept clear of him.

There is a difference in races that can be distinguished in the
features, in the eyes, and even if carefully noted, in the sound of the
voice.

It seemed the family claimed to be part Mexican, which would account for
the darkness of their complexion. But I had seen too many different
races, however, to mistake a streak of Ethiopian. Having been in Mexico,
I knew them to be almost entirely straight-haired (being a cross between
an Indian and a Spaniard). When I observed this young man, I readily
distinguished the negro features; the brown eyes, the curly hair, and
the set of the nose.

The father had come into the sand hills of Nebraska some thirty-five
years before, taken a homestead, but from where he came from no one
seemed to know. It was there he married his white wife, and to the union
was born the three sons, Frank, the eldest, Will, and Len, the youngest.

The father sold the homestead some twenty years before and moved to
another county, and had run a hotel since in the town of Pencer, where
they now live.

Unlike his younger brother, Frank, the eldest son, could easily have
passed for a white, that is, so long as no one looked for the streak.
But when the fellow whose timely information had kept me from
embarrassing myself, and perhaps from insulting the young man, a few
minutes later called out, "Hello, Frank!" to a tall man, one look
disclosed to my scrutiny the negro in his features. I was not mistaken.
It was Frank Woodring.

In view of the fact, that in some chapters of this story I dwell on the
negro, and on account of the insistence of many of them who declare they
are deprived of opportunities on account of their color, I take the
privilege of putting down here a sketch of this Frank Woodring's life.
And although these people deny a relation to the negro race, it was well
known by the public in that part of the country, that they were mixed,
for it had been told to me by every one who knew them, therefore the
instance cannot be regarded altogether as an exception.

Shortly after coming to Pencer, he went to work for an Iowa man on a
ranch near by, and later a prosperous squaw-man, who owned a bank, took
him in, where in time he became book-keeper and all round handy man,
later assistant cashier. The ranchman whom Woodring had worked for
previous to entering the bank, bought the squaw-man out, made Woodring
cashier, and sold to him a block of stock and took his note for the
amount. In time Woodring proved a good banker and his efficient
management of the institution, which had been a State bank with a
capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, had been incorporated
into a National bank and the capital increased to fifty thousand
dollars, and later on to one hundred thousand dollars. He dealt in
buying and selling land as well as feeding cattle, on the side, and had
prospered until he was soon well-to-do. Coincident with this prosperity
he had been made president of not only that bank--whose footing was near
a half-million dollars--but of some other three or four local banks in
Nebraska, also a Megory county bank at Fairview--which is the county
depository--and a large bank and trust company at the town of Megory,
with a capital stock of sixty thousand dollars. Today Frank Woodring is
one of the wealthiest men in northwest Nebraska.

The local ball team of their town was playing Megory that day, and a few
hours later out at the ball park, I was shouting for the home team with
all my breath, the batter struck a foul, and when I turned to look where
the ball went, there, standing on the bench above me, between two white
girls, and looking down at me with a look that betrayed his mind, was
Len Woodring. Our eyes met for only the fraction of a minute but I read
his thoughts. He looked away quickly, but I shall not soon forget that
moment of racial recognition.

[Illustration: Everything grew so rank, thick and green.]

And now when I found my affections in jeopardy regarding the love of the
Scotch girl, I thought long and seriously over the matter, and pictured
myself in the place of the Woodring family, successful, respected,
and efficient business men, but still members of the down-trodden race.
I pondered as to whether I could make the sacrifice. Maybe they were
happy, the boys had never known or associated with the race they denied,
and maybe were not so conscientious as myself, although the look of
Len's had betrayed what was on his mind.

I had learned that throughout these Dakotas and Nebraska, that other
lone colored men who had drifted from the haunts and homes of the race,
as I had--maybe discontented, as I had been--and had with time and
natural development, through the increase in the valuation of their
homesteads or other lands they had acquired, grown prosperous and had
finally, with hardly an exception, married into the white race. Even the
daughter of the only colored farmer between the Little Crow and Omaha
was only prevented from marrying a white man, at the altar, when it was
found the law of the state forbids it.

I could diagnose their condition by my own. Life in a new country is
always rough in the beginning. In the past it had taken ten and fifteen
years for a newly opened country to develop into a state of cultivation
and prosperity, that the Little Crow had in the four years.

At the time it had been opened to settlement, the reaction from the
effects of the dry years and hard times of 93-4 and 5 had set in and at
that time, with plenty of available capital, the early extension of the
railroad, and other advantages too numerous to mention, life had been
quite different for the settlers. Such advantages had not been the lot
of the homesteader twenty and thirty years before.

These people had no doubt been honorable and had intended to remain
loyal to their race, but long, hard years, lean crops, and the long,
lonesome days had changed them. It is easier to control the thoughts
than the emotions. The craving for love and understanding pervades the
very core of a human, and makes the mind reckless to even such a grave
matter as race loyalty. In most cases it had been years before these
people had the means and time to get away for a visit to their old
homes, while around them were the neighbors and friends of pioneer days,
and maybe, too, some girl had come into their lives--like this one had
into mine--who understood them and was kind and sympathetic. What
worried me most, however, even frightened me, was, that after marriage
and when their children had grown to manhood and womanhood, they, like
the Woodring family, had a terror of their race; disowning and denying
the blood that coursed through their veins; claiming to be of some
foreign descent; in fact, anything to hide or conceal the mixture of
Ethiopian. They looked on me with fear, sometimes contempt. Even the
mixed-blood Indians and negroes seemed to crave a marriage with the
whites.

The question uppermost in my mind became, "Would not I become like that,
would I too, deny my race?" The thought was a desperate one. I did not
feel that I could become that way, but what about those to come after
me, would they have to submit to the indignities I had seen some of
these referred to, do, in order that they may marry whites and try to
banish from memory the relation of a race that is hated, in many
instances, for no other reason than the coloring matter in their
pigment. Would my life, and the thought involved and occupied my mind
daily, innocent as my life now appeared, lead into such straits if I
married the Scotch girl. It became harder for me, for at that time, I
had not even a correspondence with a girl of my race. As I look back
upon it the condition was a complicated affair. I confess at the time,
however, that I was on the verge of making the sacrifice. This was due
to the sights that had met my gaze when I would go on trips to Chicago,
and such times I would return home feeling disgusted.



CHAPTER XXVI

THE BATTLE


Some time after the opening it was announced from Washington that the
Land Office, which was located in one of the larger towns of the state,
about one hundred and fifty miles from the Little Crow, would be moved
to one of the towns in the new territory. The Land Office is something
like a County Seat in bringing business to a town, and immediately every
town in Megory County began a contest for the office. However, it was
soon seen that it was the intention of the Interior Department to locate
it in either Megory or Calias. So the two familiar rivals engaged in
another battle. But in this Megory held the high card.

That was about the time the insurgents and stalwarts were in a struggle
to get control of the State's political machinery. It had waxed bitter
in the June primaries of that year and the insurgents had won. Calias
had supported the losing candidate, who had been overwhelmingly
defeated, and both senators and one representative in Congress from the
state were red-hot insurgents. The Nicholson Brothers, bowing to
tradition, were stand pats. Their father had been a stalwart before them
in Iowa, where Cummins had created so much commotion with his
insurgency.

Ernest, with his wife, had left for the Orient to spend the winter.
After leaving, the announcement came that the land office would be
moved. Even had he been in Calias the result would likely have been the
same, but I had a creepy feeling that had he been on the ground Megory
would have had to worked considerably harder at least.

After sending many men from each town down to the National Capital, the
towns fought it out. With, as I have stated, and which was to be
expected, with both Senators recommending Megory as having advantages
over Calias in the way of an abundant supply of water and a National
Bank with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, the Interior
Department decided in favor of Megory, and Calias lost.

Ernest, on hearing of the fight, hurriedly returned, went in to
Washington, secured an appointment with the Secretary and is said to
have made a worthy plea for Calias; but to no avail and the Megoryites
returned home the heroes of the day.

I was away at the time, but was told a good share of the men of Megory
were drunk the greater part of the week.

Some evidence of the rejoicing was visible on my return, in the loss of
an eye, by a little gambler who became too enthusiastic and run up
against a "snag." What amused me most however, was an article written
especially for one of the Megory papers by a keeper of a racket store
and a known shouter for the town. The article represented the contest as
being a big prize fight on the Little Crow and read something like
this.


     BIG PRIZE FIGHT ON THE LITTLE CROW

     PRINCIPALS

     MEGORY, THE METROPOLIS OF THE LITTLE CROW
     REPUTATION, THE SQUARE DEAL

     CALIAS BOASTER
     REPUTATION GRAFTING

     SCENE.--Little Crow Reservation.

     TIME.--A.D. 190-- Referee--Washington, D.C.

     SECONDS FOR MEGORY.--Flackler, of the Megory National.

     FRED CROFTON, POSTMASTER.

     FOR CALIAS, MAYOR ROSIE AND A HAS-BEEN, FORMERLY OF WASHINGTON.

     Round one. September. Principals enter the ring and refuse to shake
     hands, referee Washington, D.C. announces fight to be straight
     Marquis of Queensbury. No hitting in the clinches, and a clean
     break; a fight to the finish. They are off. Calias leads with a
     left to the face, Megory countering with a right to the ribs, they
     clinch. Referee breaks them, then they spar and as the gong sounded
     appeared evenly matched.

     Round two. October. They rush to the center of the ring and clinch,
     referee tells them to break. Just as this is done Calias lands a
     terrific left to Megory's jaw following with a right to the body,
     and Megory goes down for the count of nine, getting up with much
     confusion, only to be floored again with a right to the temple.
     Megory rises very groggy, when Calias lands a vicious left to the
     mouth, a right to the ear just as the gong sounded, saving her
     from a knock-out. They go to their corners with betting three to
     one on Calias and no takers. During the one minute's rest the crowd
     whooped it up for Calias, thousands coming her way. Megory looked
     serious, sitting in the corner thinking how she had fallen down on
     some well-laid plans.

     Round three. November. They rush to a clinch and spar. Referee
     cautions Calias for butting. They do some more sparring, and both
     seem cautious, with honors even at the end of the third round.

     Round four. December. They rush to the center of the ring and begin
     to spar, then like a flash, Megory lands a terrific swing on
     Calias' jaw, following it up with a right to the heart. Calias
     cries foul, but referee orders her to proceed, while Megory, with
     eyes flashing and distended nostrils, feints and then like the kick
     of a mule, lands a hard left to the mouth, following in quick
     succession with jolts, swings, jabs and upper cuts. Mayor Rosie
     wants to throw up the sponge, but the referee says fight. Megory,
     with a left to the face and right to the stomach, then rushing both
     hands in a blow to the solar plexus, Calias falls and is counted
     out with Megory winning the prize,--Great Land Office.



CHAPTER XXVII

THE SACRIFICE--RACE LOYALTY


Getting back to the affair of the Scotch girl, I hated to give up her
kindness and friendship. I would have given half my life to have had her
possess just a least bit of negro blood in her veins, but since she did
not and could not help it any more than I could help being a negro, I
tried to forget it, straightened out my business and took a trip east,
bent on finding a wife among my own.

As the early morning train carried me down the road from Megory, I hoped
with all the hope of early manhood, I would find a sensible girl and not
like many I knew in Chicago, who talked nothing but clothes, jewelry,
and a good time. I had no doubt there were many good colored girls in
the east, who, if they understood my life, ambition and morality, would
make a good wife and assist me in building a little empire on the Dakota
plains, not only as a profit to ourselves, but a credit to the negro
race as well. I wanted to succeed, but hold the respect and good will of
the community, and there are few communities that will sanction a
marriage with a white girl, hence, the sacrifice.

I spent about six weeks visiting in Chicago and New York, finally
returning west to southern Illinois to visit a family in C--dale, near
M--boro, who were the most prosperous colored people in the town. They
owned a farm near town, nine houses and lots in the city, and were
practical people who understood business and what it took to succeed.

They had a daughter whom I had known as a child back in the home town
M--plis, where she had cousins that she used to visit. She had by this
time grown into a woman of five and twenty. Her name was Daisy Hinshaw.
Now Miss Hinshaw was not very good-looking but had spent years in school
and in many ways was unlike the average colored girl. She was attentive
and did not have her mind full of cheap, showy ideals. I had written to
her at times from South Dakota and she had answered with many inviting
letters. Therefore, when I wrote her from New York that I intended
paying her a visit, she answered in a very inviting letter, but boldly
told me not to forget to bring her a nice present, that she would like a
large purse. I did not like such boldness. I should have preferred a
little more modesty, but I found the purse, however, a large seal one in
a Fifth Avenue shop, for six dollars, which Miss Hinshaw displayed with
much show when I came to town.

The town had a colored population of about one thousand and the many
girls who led in the local society looked enviously upon Miss Hinshaw's
catch--and the large seal purse--and I became the "Man of the Hour" in
C--dale.

The only marriageable man in the town who did not gamble, get drunk and
carouse in a way that made him ineligible to decent society, was the
professor of the colored school. He was a college graduate and received
sixty dollars a month. He had been spoiled by too much attention,
however, and was not an agreeable person.

Miss Hinshaw was dignified and desired to marry, and to marry somebody
that amounted to something, but she was so bold and selfish. She took a
delight in the reports, that were going the rounds, that we were
engaged, and I was going to have her come to South Dakota and file on a
Tipp County homestead relinquishment that I would buy, and we would then
get married.

The only objector to this plan was myself. I had not fallen in love with
Miss Hinshaw and did not feel that I could. Daisy was a nice girl,
however, a little odd in appearance, having a light brown complexion,
without color or blood visible in the cheeks; was small and bony; padded
with so many clothes that no idea of form could be drawn. I guessed her
weight at about ninety pounds. She had very good hair but grey eyes,
that gave her a cattish appearance.

She had me walking with her alone and permitted no one to interfere. She
would not introduce me to other girls while out, keeping me right by her
side and taking me home and into her parlor, with her and her alone, as
company.

One day I went up town and while there took a notion to go to the little
mining town, to see the relatives who had got me the job there seven
years before. But it was ten miles, with no train before the following
morning. Just then the colored caller called out a train to M--boro and
St. Louis, and all of a sudden it occurred to me that I had almost
forgotten Miss Rooks. Why not go to M--boro? I had not expected to pay
her a visit but suddenly decided that I would just run over quietly and
come back on the train to C--dale at five o'clock that afternoon. I
jumped aboard and as M--boro was only eight miles, I was soon in the
town, and inquiring where she lived.

I found their house presently--they were always moving--and just a
trifle nervously rang the bell. The door was opened in a few minutes and
before me stood Jessie. She had changed quite a bit in the three years
and now with long skirts and the eyes looked so tired and dream-like.
She was quite fascinating, this I took in at a glance. She stammered
out, "Oh! Oscar Devereaux", extending her hand timidly and looking into
my eyes as though afraid. She looked so lonely, and I had thought a
great deal of her a few years ago--and perhaps it was not all dead--and
the next moment she was in my arms and I was kissing her.

I did not go back to C--dale on the five nor on the eight o'clock--and I
did not want to on the last train that night. I was having the most
carefree time of my life. They were hours of sweetest bliss. With Jessie
snugly held in the angle of my left arm, we poured out the pent-up
feelings of the past years. I had a proposition to make, and had reasons
to feel it would be accepted.

The family had a hard time making ends meet. Her father had lost the
mail carrier's job and had run a restaurant later and then a saloon.
Failing in both he had gone to another town, starting another restaurant
and had there been assaulted by a former admirer of Jessie's, who had
struck him with a heavy stick, fracturing the skull and injuring him so
that for weeks he had not been able to remember anything. Although he
was then convalescing, he was unable to earn anything. Her mother had
always been helpless, and the support fell on her and a younger brother,
who acted as special delivery letter carrier and received twenty dollars
a month, while Jessie taught a country school a mile from town,
receiving twenty-five dollars per month. This she turned over to the
support of the household, and made what she earned sewing after school
hours, supply her own needs. It was a long and pitiful tale she related
as we walked together along a dark street, with her clinging to my arm
and speaking at times in a half sob. My heart went out to her, and I
wanted to help and said: "Why did you not write to me, didn't you know
that I would have done something?"

"Well," she answered slowly, "I started to several times, but was so
afraid that you would not understand." She seemed so weak and forlorn in
her distress. She had never been that way when I knew her before, and I
felt sure she had suffered, and I was a brute, not to have realized it.
Twelve o'clock found me as reluctant to go as five o'clock had, but as
we kissed lingeringly at the door, I promised when I left C--dale two
evenings later I would stop off at M--boro and we would discuss the
matter pro and con. This was Saturday night.

The next morning I called to see Daisy. I was unusually cheerful, and
taking her face in my hands, blew a kiss. She looked up at me with her
grey eyes alert and with an air of suspicion, said: "You've been kissing
somebody else since you left here." Then leading me into the parlor in
her commanding way, ordered me to sit down and to wait there until she
returned. She had just completed cleaning and dusting the parlor and it
was in perfect order. She seemed to me to be more forward than ever that
morning, and I felt a suspicion that I was going to get a curtain
lecture. However, I escaped the lecture but got stunned instead.

Daisy returned in about an hour, dressed in a rustling black silk dress,
with powdered face and her hair done up elegantly and without ceremony
or hesitation planted herself on the settee and requested, or rather
ordered me to take a seat beside her. She opened the conversation by
inquiring of South Dakota, and took my hand and pretended to pare my
finger nails. I answered in nonchalant tones but after a little she
turned her head a little slantingly, looked down, began just the least
hesitant, but firmly: "Now what arrangements do you wish me to make in
regard to my coming to South Dakota next fall?"

For the love of Jesus, I said to myself, if she hasn't proposed. Now one
advantage of a dark skin is that one does not show his inner feeling as
noticeably as those of the lighter shade, and I do not know whether Miss
Hinshaw noticed the look of embarrassment that overspread my
countenance. I finally found words to break the deadly suspense
following her bold action.

"Oh!" I stammered more than spoke, "I would really rather not make any
arrangements, Daisy."

"Well," she said, not in the least taken back, "a person likes to know
just how they stand."

"Yes, of course," I added hastily. "You see," I was just starting in on
a lengthy discourse trying to avoid the issue, when the door bell rang
and a relative of mine by the name of Menloe Robinson, who had attended
the university the same time Miss Hinshaw had, but had been expelled for
gambling and other bad habits, came in. He was a bore most of the time
with so much of his college talk, but I could have hugged him then, I
felt so relieved, but Miss Hinshaw put in before he got started to
talking, wickedly, that of course if I did not want her she could not
force it.

The next day at noon I left for St. Louis but did not mention that I was
scheduled to stop off at M--boro. Miss Hinshaw had grown sad in
appearance and looked so lonely I felt sorry for her and kissed her
good-bye at the station, which seemed to cheer her a little. She was
married to a classmate about a year later and I have not seen her since.

Jessie was glad to see me when I called that evening in M--boro, and we
went walking again and had another long talk. When we got back, I sang
the old story to which she answered with, "Do you really want me?"

"Sure, Jessie, why not." I looked into her eyes that seemed just about
to shed tears but she closed them and snuggled up closely, and
whispered, "I just wanted to hear you say you wanted me."



CHAPTER XXVIII

THE BREEDS


Here the story may have ended, that is, had I taken her to the minister,
but as everybody had gone land crazy in Dakota and I had determined to
own more land myself, I told her how I could buy a relinquishment and
she could file on it and then we would marry at once. Now when a young
man and a girl are in love and feel each other to be the world and all
that's in it, it is quite easy to plan, and Miss Rooks and I were no
exception. Had we been in South Dakota instead of Southern Illinois, and
had it been the month of October instead of January, nine months before,
we would have carried out our plans, but since it was January we
mutually agreed to wait until the nine months had elapsed, but something
happened during that time which will be told in due time.

I enjoyed feeling that I was at last engaged. It was positively
delightful, and when I left the next morning to visit my parents in
Kansas, I was a very happy person. While visiting there, shooting
jack-rabbits by day and boosting Dakota to the Jayhawkers half the
night, I'd write to Miss Rooks sometime during each twenty-four hours,
and for a time received a letter as often. Two sisters were to be
graduated from the high school the following June, and wanted to come to
Dakota in the fall and take up claims, but had no money to purchase
relinquishments. I agreed to mortgage my land and loan the money, but
when all was arranged it was found one of them would not be old enough
in time, so my grandmother, who had always possessed a roving spirit,
wanted to come and so it was settled.

When I got back to Dakota and jumped into my spring work it was with
unusual vigor and contemplation, and all went well for a while. Soon,
however, I failed to hear from Jessie and began to feel a bit uneasy.
When three weeks had passed and still no letter, I wrote again asking
why she did not answer my letters. In due time I heard from her stating
that she had been afraid I didn't love her and that she had been told I
was engaged to Daisy, and as Daisy would be the heir to the money and
property of her parents she felt sure my marriage to Miss Hinshaw would
be more agreeable to me than would a marriage with her, who had only a
kind heart and willing mind to offer, so she had on the first day of
April married one whom she felt was better suited to her impoverished
condition.

Now, what she had done was, in her effort to break off the prolonged
courtship of the little fellow referred to in the early part of this
story (and who was still working for three dollars a week), she had
commenced going with another--a cook forty-two years of age, and had
thought herself desperately in love with him at the time. I had not even
written to Miss Hinshaw and knew nothing whatever of any engagement. I
was much downcast for a time, and like some others who have been jilted,
I grew the least bit wicked in my thoughts, and felt she would not find
life all sunshine and roses with her forty-two-year-old groom. Lots
of excitement was on around Megory and Calias, and as I liked
excitement, I soon forgot the matter.

[Illustration: Had put 280 acres under cultivation. (Page 153.)]

With the location of the land office in Megory and its subsequent
removal from east of the Missouri, it was found there was only one
building in the town, outside of the banks, that contained a vault, and
a vault being necessary, it became expedient for the commercial club to
provide an office that contained one. Two prosperous real-estate
dealers, whose office contained a vault, readily turned over their
building to the register and receiver until the land office building,
then under construction, should be completed. A building twenty-five by
sixty feet was built in the street just in front of the office, to be
used as a temporary map room, and to be moved away as soon as the filing
was over.

The holders of lucky numbers had been requested to appear at a given
hour on a certain day to offer filings on Tipp county claims. By the
time the filing had commenced, the hotels of both towns were filled, and
tents covered all the vacant lots, while one hundred and fifty or more
autos, to be hired at twenty-five dollars per day, did a rushing
business. The settlers seemed to be possessed of abundant capital, and
deposits in the local banks increased out of all proportion to those of
previous times.

Besides the holders of numbers, hundreds of other settlers, who had
purchased land in Megory county, were moving in at the same time,
bringing stock, machinery, household goods and plenty of money. Those
were bountiful days for the locators and land sharks.

When Megory county opened for settlement a few years previous, it was
found that the Indians had taken practically all their allotments along
the streams, where wood and water were to be had. The most of these
allotments were on the Monca bottom below Old Calias. In fact, they had
taken the entire valley that far up. The timber along the creek was very
small, being stunted from many fires, and consisted mostly of
cottonwood, elm, box-elder, oak and ash. All but the oak and ash being
easily susceptible to dry rot, were unfit for posts or anything except
for shade and firewood. This made the valley lands cheaper than the
uplands.

The Indians were always selling and are yet, what is furnished them by
the government, for all they can get. When given the money spends it as
quickly as he possibly can, buying fine horses, buggies, whiskey, and
what-not. Their only idea being that it is to spend. The Sioux Indians,
in my opinion, are the wealthiest tribe. They owned at one time the
larger part of southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska, and own a
lot of it yet. Be it said, however, it is simply because the government
will not allow them to sell.

The breeds near Old Calias were easily flattered, and when the white
people invited them to anything they always came dressed in great
regalia, but after the settlers came there was not much inter-marrying,
such as there had been before. A family of mixed-bloods by the name of
Cutschall, owned all the land just south of Old Calias, in fact the
site where Calias had stood, was formerly the allotment of a deceased
son. The father, known as old Tom Cutschall, was for years a landmark on
the creek.

Now and then Nicholson Brothers had invited the Cutschalls to some of
their social doings, which made the Cutschalls feel exalted, and higher
still, when Ernest suggested he could get them a patent for their land
and then would buy it. This suited Cutschalls dandy. Ernest offered
seven thousand dollars for the section, and they accepted. At that time,
by recommending the Indian to be a competent citizen and able to care
for himself, a patent would be granted on proper recommendation, and
Nicholson Brothers attended to that and got Mrs. Cutschall the patent.
Tom, her husband, being a white man, could not be allotted, and she had
been given the section as the head of the family. It is said they spent
the seven thousand dollars in one year. The company of which the father
of the Nicholson Brothers was president made a loan of eight thousand
dollars on the land, and shortly afterward they sold it for twenty-three
thousand dollars. The lots had brought more than one hundred thousand
dollars in Calias and were still selling, so this placed the "Windy
Nicholsons," as they had been called by jealous Megoryites, in a
position of much importance, and they were by this time recognized as
men of no small ability.

Years before Megory county was opened to settlement, many white men had
drifted onto the reservation and had engaged in ranching, and had in
the meantime married squaws. This appears to have been done more by the
French than any other nationality, judging by the many French names
among the mixed-bloods. Among these were a family by the name of
Amoureaux, consisting of four boys and several girls. The girls had all
married white men, and the little while Old Calias was in existence, two
of the boys, William and George, used to go there often and were
entertained by the Nicholson Brothers with as much splendor as Calias
could afford. The Amoureaux were high moguls in Little Crow society
during the first two years and everybody took off their hats to them.
They were called the "rich mixed-bloods," and were engaged in ranching
and owned great herds in Tipp county. When they shipped it was by the
trainloads. The Amoureaux and the Colones, another family of wealthy
breeds, were married to white women, and the husbands, as heads of
families, held a section of land and the children each held one hundred
and sixty acres.

Before the Nicholson Brothers had left Old Calias and before they had
reached the position they now occupied, as I stated, they had shown the
Amoureaux a "good time." They did not have much Indian blood in their
veins, being what are called quarter-breeds, having a French father and
a half-blood Indian mother, and were all fine looking. George had seven
children and the family altogether had eleven quarter sections of land
and two thousand head of cattle, so there was no reason why he should
not have been the "big chief," but so much society and paid-for
notoriety had brought about a change to him and his brother. William,
who had always been a money-maker and a still bigger spender, with the
fine looks thrown in, had shown like a skyrocket before bursting.

A rich Indian is something worth associating with, but a poor one is of
small note. The Amoureaux spent so freely that in a few years they were
all in, down and out--had nothing but their allotments left, and these
the government would not give patents to, the Colones had done likewise,
and together they had all moved into Tipp county.

Now there was another Amoureaux, the oldest one of the boys, who like
the others had "blowed his roll," but happened to have an allotment in
the very picturesque valley of the Dog Ear, in Tipp county, near the
center of the county, and when a bunch of promoters decided to lay out a
town they made a deal with Oliver, taking him into the company, he
furnishing the land and they the brains. They laid out the site and
began the town, naming it "Amoureaux" in honor of the breed, which made
Oliver feel very big, indeed.



CHAPTER XXIX

IN THE VALLEY OF THE DOG EAR


The boom in Megory and Calias took such proportions that it made every
investor prosperous, a goodly number of whom sold out, settled in
Amoureaux, and the beautiful townsite soon became one of the most
popular trade centers in the new county. It was the only townsite where
trees stood, and the investors thought it a great thing that they would
not have to wait a score of years to grow them.

Among the money investors in the town was old Dad Durpee, the former
Oristown and Megory stage driver. When talking with him one day he told
me he had saved three thousand dollars while running the stage line and
had several good horses besides. "Dad," as he was familiarly called, had
invested a part of his bank account in a corner lot and put up a
two-story building, and soon became an Amoureaux booster. Old "Dad"
opened up a stage line between Calias and the new town, but this line
did not pay as well as the old one, for no one rode with him except when
the weather was bad, as the people were all riding now in automobiles.
In a short time every line of business was represented in Amoureaux and
when the settlers began to arrive, Amoureaux did a flourishing business.

In coming from Calias, the trail led over a monstrous hill, and from the
top "Amro," the name having been shortened, nestling in the valley
below, reminding me of Mexico City as it appeared from the highlands
near Cuernavaca. A party from Hedrick, by the name of Van Neter, built a
hotel fifty by one hundred feet, with forty rooms, and during the
opening and filing made a small fortune. The house was always full and
high prices were charged, and thus Amro prospered.

During the month of April the promoters succeeded in having the governor
call an election to organize the county, the election to be held in June
following. The filing had been made in April and May, and as conditions
were, no one could vote except cowboys, Indians and mixed-bloods. In the
election Amro won the county seat, and settlers moving into the county
were exceedingly mortified over the fact, having to be governed eighteen
months by an outlaw set who had deprived them of a voice in the
organization of the county. As Amro had won, it soon became the central
city and grew, as Calias had grown, and in a short time had a half-dozen
general stores, two garages, four hotels, four banks, and every other
line of business that goes to make up a western town. Its four livery
barns did all the business their capacity would permit, while the
saloons and gamblers feasted on the easy eastern cash that fell into
their pockets. In July the lot sales of the government towns were held,
but only one amounted to much, that town being farthest west and miles
from the eastern line of the county. This was Ritten, and under a ruling
of the Interior Department, a deposit of twenty-five dollars was
accepted on an option of sixty days, after which a payment of one-half
the price of the lot was required. Here it must be said that almost
every dollar invested on the Little Crow had been doubled in a short
time, and in many instances a hundred dollars soon grew to a thousand or
more.

Practically all the lowest number holders had filed around Ritten,
including numbers one and two. Ever since the opening of Oklahoma in
1901, when number one took a claim adjoining the city of Lawton, and the
owner is said to have received thirty thousand dollars for it, the
holder of number one in every opening of western land since has been a
very conspicuous figure, and this was not lost on the holder of number
one in Tipp county--who was a divorced woman. She took her claim
adjoining the town of Ritten, which fact brought the town considerable
attention. The lots in the town brought the highest price of any which
had been sold in any town on the Little Crow, up to that time, several
having sold for from one thousand, two hundred to one thousand, four
hundred dollars and one as high as two thousand and fifty dollars.

The town of Amro, being surrounded by Indian allotments, had few
settlers in its immediate vicinity. The Indians, profiting by their
experience in Megory county, where they learned that good location meant
increase in the value of their lands, had, in selecting allotments,
taken nearly all the land just west of Amro, as they had taken
practically all of the good land just west of Calias in the eastern part
of Tipp county. The good land all over the county had been picked over
and the Indians had selected much of the best, but Tipp county is a
large one, and several hundred thousand acres of good land were
available for homesteading, though much scattered as to location.

When July arrived and still no surveyors for the railroad company had
put in their appearance, it was feared that no extension work would be
commenced that year, but shortly after the lot sale at Ritten, the
surveyors arrived in the county and ran a survey west from Calias eleven
miles to a town named after the Colones, referred to, striking the town,
then proceeding northwest, missing Amro and crossing the Dog Ear about
two miles north of the town, then following a divide almost due west to
the county line on the west, running just south of a conspicuous range
of hills known as the "Red Hills," missing every town in the county
except Colone. This caused a temporary check in the excitement around
Amro, but as it had the county seat it felt secure, as a county seat
means much to a western village, and felt the railroad would eventually
go there. In fact the citizens of the town boasted that the road could
not afford to miss it, pointing with pride to the many teams to be seen
in her streets daily and the bee-like activity of the town in general. I
visited the town many times, but from the first time I saw the place I
felt sure the railroad would never go there as two miles to the north
was the natural divide, that the survey had followed all the way from
Colone to the Dog Ear and on to the west side of the county, which is a
natural right-of-way. When I argued with the people in the town, that
Amro would not get the railroad, I brought out a storm of protest.



CHAPTER XXX

ERNEST NICHOLSON TAKES A HAND


After completing the first survey, however, the surveyors returned, and
made another that struck Amro. This survey swerved off from the first
survey to the southwest between Colone and Amro and struck the valley of
a little stream known as Mud Creek, which empties into the Dog Ear at
Amro. But being a most illogical route, I felt confident the C. & R.W.
had no intention of following it, perhaps only making the survey out of
courtesy to the people in Amro, or possibly to show to the state
railroad commissioners, if they became insistent, why they could not
strike the town.

About this time Ernest Nicholson appeared on the scene, and purchased a
forty acre tract of land north of the town, for which he paid fifty-five
dollars an acre, later paying ten thousand dollars for a quarter,
joining the forty. Still later he purchased the entire section of
heirship land, belonging to a man named Jim Riggins, an Oristown city
justice, and a former squaw-man, whose deceased wife had owned the land.
For this section of land the Nicholsons paid thirty-five thousand
dollars. The price staggered the people of Amro, who declared Nicholson
had certainly gone crazy. They set up a terrible "howl." "What were the
d-- Nicholsons sticking their noses into Tipp county towns for? Were
they not satisfied with Calias, where they had grafted everybody out of
their money?" No, the trouble, they all agreed, was that Ernest wanted
to run the country and wanted to be the "big stick." But they consoled
themselves for awhile with the fact that Amro had the county seat and
was growing. The settlers were trading in Amro, for Amro had what they
needed. An indignation meeting was held, where with much feeling they
denounced the actions of Ernest Nicholson in buying land north of the
town and announcing that he would build a town such as the Little Crow
had never dreamed of, and that Amro should at once begin to move over to
the new townsite and save money; but they were hot. Old Dad Durpee, in
his shirt sleeves, corduroy and boots, his shaggy beard flowing,
declared that the low-down, stinking, lying cuss would not dare to ask
him to move to the town he had as yet not even named; but Ernest, at the
wheel of a big new sixty-horse power Packard, continued to buy land
along the railroad survey all the way to the west line of the county. In
fact he bought every piece of land that was purchasable.

I watched this fight from the beginning, with interest, for I had become
well enough acquainted with Ernest to feel that he knew what he was
about. When the surveyors had arrived in Calias, Ernest had gone to
Chicago. In declaring the road could not miss Amro the people were much
like inhabitants of Megory had been a few years before. While they
prattled and allowed their ego to rule, they should have been busy, and
when it was seen that the town might not get the railroad, they should
have gone to Chicago and seen Marvin Hewitt, putting the proposition
squarely before him, and requested that if he could not give them the
road, to give them a depot, if they moved to the line of the survey. By
that time it was a town with two solid blocks of business houses and
many good merchants and bankers. I often wondered how such men could be
so pinheaded, sitting back, declaring the great C. & R.W. railway could
not afford to miss a little burg like Amro, but from previous
observations and experience I felt sure they would wait until the last
dog was dead, before trying to see what they could do. And they did.

In the meantime the promoters, who were nearly all from Megory or
somewhere in Megory county, had learned that Ernest Nicholson was
nobody's fool. They hooted the Nicholsons, along with the rest of the
town, declaring Ernest to be anything but what he really was, until they
had roused enough excitement to make Amro seem like a "good thing." Then
they quietly sold their interest to the Amoureaux Brothers, who raked up
about all that was left of the fortune of a few years previous, and paid
six thousand, six hundred dollars for the interest of the promoters
which made the Amoureaux the sole owners of the townsite and placed them
in obvious control of the town's affairs, and again in the white society
they liked so well.

All the Calias lumber yards owned branch yards at Amro and everybody
continued to do a flourishing business. The Amroites paid little
attention to the platting of the townsite to the north, nor made a
single effort to ascertain which survey the railroad would follow, but
continued to boast that Amro would get the road. About this time Ernest
Nicholson called a meeting in Amro, inviting all the business men to be
present and hear a proposition that he had to make, stating he hoped the
citizens of the town and himself could get together without friction or
ill-feeling. The meeting was held in Durpee's hall and everybody
attended; some out of curiosity, some out of fear, and but few with any
expectation or intention of agreeing to move to the north townsite.
Ernest addressed the meeting, first thanking them for their presence,
then plunged headlong into the purpose of the meeting. He explained that
it was quite impossible for the road to go to Amro, this he had feared
before a survey was made, but that he had ascertained while in Chicago
that the road would not strike Amro. He then read a letter from Marvin
Hewitt, the "man of destiny," so far as the location of the railroad was
concerned, which stated that the road would be extended and the depot
would be located on section twenty, which was the section Ernest had
purchased. Then he brought up the matter of the distribution of lots
which was, that to every person who moved or began to move to the new
townsite within thirty days, one-half of the purchase price of the lot
would be refunded. The price of the business lots ranged from eight
hundred to two thousand dollars, while residence lots were from fifty to
three hundred. "Think it over," he said, in closing, and was gone.

Needless to say they paid little attention to the proposition. The Amro
Journal "roasted" and cartooned the Nicholson Brothers in the same way
Megory papers had done, on account of the town of Calias.

After thirty days had elapsed, the Nicholsons warned the people of Amro
that it was the last opportunity they would have to accept his
proposition, and when they paid no attention to his warning, he named
the new town. I shall not soon forget how the people outside of the town
of Amro laughed over the name applied to the new town, as its
application to the situation was so accurate and descriptive of later
events, that I regret I must substitute a name for the purposes of this
story, but which is the best I am able to find, "Victor."

Instead of moving to Victor, taking advantage of choice of location and
the purchase of a lot at half price, the Amroites began making
improvements in their town, putting down cement walks ten feet wide the
length of the two business blocks and walks on side streets as well. A
school election was called and as a result an eleven-thousand-dollar
school house was erected, a modern two-story building, with basement and
gymnasium. The building was large enough to hold all the population of
Amro if all the men, women and children were of school age, and still
have room for many more. This act brought a storm of criticism from the
settlers, and even many of the people of the town thought it quite a
needless extravagance; but Van Neter, who was strong for education and
for Amro, had put it through and figured he had won a point. He was the
county superintendent. Most of the people claimed the town would soon
grow large enough to require the building, and let it go at that.

People began drifting into Victor, buying lots and putting up good
buildings. Nicholsons announced a lot sale and preparations began for
much active boosting for the new town. In the election to be held a year
later, they hoped to wrest the county seat from Amro.

When Ernest Nicholson saw the improvements being made in Amro and no
sign of moving the town, he began to scheme, and I could see that if
Amro wasn't going to move peacefully he would help it along in some
other way. However, nothing was done before the lot sale, which was
advertised to take place in the lobby of the Nicholson Brothers' new
office building in Calias.

On the date advertised for the lot sale, crowds gathered and many who
had no intentions of investing, attended the sale out of curiosity. I
took a crowd to Calias from Megory, among whom was Joy Flackler, cashier
of the Megory National Bank, who stated that Frank Woodring had loaned
the Nicholsons fifty thousand dollars to buy the townsite. Megoryites
still held a grudge against the Nicholsons, and Flackler seemed to wish
they had asked the loan of him so he might have had the pleasure of
turning them down.

The second day of the lot sale, a bunch of bartenders, gamblers and
Amro's rougher class appeared on the scene and distributed handbills
which announced that Amro had contracted for a half section on the
survey north of the town and would move in a body if moving was
necessary. The crowd styled themselves "Amro knockers," whose purpose it
was to show prospective lot buyers that in purchasing Victor lots they
were buying "a pig in a poke." The knocking was done mostly in saloons,
where the knockers got drunk and were promptly arrested before the sale
started. The sale went along unhindered. The auctioneer, standing above
the crowds, waxed eloquent in pointing out the advantages, describing
Sioux City on the east and Deadwood and Lead on the west, and explaining
that eventually a city must spring up in that section of the country,
that would grow into a prairie metropolis of probably ten thousand
people, and whether the crowd before him took his eloquence seriously or
not, they at least had the chance at the choice of the lots and
locations, and eighty-four thousand dollars worth of lots were sold.

[Illustration: Bringing stock, household goods, and plenty of money.
(page 177.)]



CHAPTER XXXI

THE McCRALINES


As before mentioned, I was given largely to observation and to reading
and was fairly well posted on current events. I was always a lover of
success and nothing interested me more after a day's work in the field
than spending my evening hours in reading. What I liked best was some
good story with a moral. I enjoyed reading stories by Maude Radford
Warren, largely because her stories were so very practical and true to
life. Having traveled and seen much of the country, while running as a
porter for the P----n Company, I could follow much of her writings,
having been over the ground covered by the scenes of many of her
stories. Another feature of her writings which pleased me was the fact
that many of the characters, unlike the central figures in many stories,
who all become fabulously wealthy, were often only fairly successful and
gained only a measure of wealth and happiness, that did not reach
prohibitive proportions.

Perhaps I should not have become so set against stories whose heroes
invariably became multi-millionaires, had it not been for the fact that
many of the younger members of my race, with whom I had made
acquaintance in my trips to Chicago and other parts of the country,
always appeared to intimate in their conversation, that a person should
have riches thrust upon them if they sacrificed all their "good times,"
as they termed it, to go out west. Of course the easterner, in most
stories, conquers and becomes rich, that is, after so much sacrifice.
The truth is, in real life only about one in ten of the eastern people
make good at ranching or homesteading, and that one is usually well
supplied with capital in the beginning, though of course there are
exceptions. Colored people are much unlike the people of other races.
For instance, all around me in my home in Dakota were foreigners of
practically all nations, except Italians and Jews, among them being
Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Assyrians from Jerusalem, many Austrians,
some Hungarians, and lots of Germans and Irish, these last being mostly
American born, and also many Russians. The greater part of these people
are good farmers and were growing prosperous on the Little Crow, and
seeing this, I worked the harder to keep abreast of them, if not a
little ahead. This was my fifth year and still there had not been a
colored person on my land. Many more settlers had some and Tipp county
was filling up, but still no colored people. My white neighbors had many
visitors from their old homes and but few but had visitors at some time
to see them and see what they were doing.

During my visit to Kansas the spring previous, I had found many
prosperous colored families, most of whom had settled in Kansas in the
seventies and eighties and were mostly ex-slaves, but were not like the
people of southern Illinois, contented and happy to eke a living from
the farm they pretended to cultivate, but made their farms pay by
careful methods. The farms they owned had from a hundred and sixty
acres to six hundred and forty acres, and one colored man there at that
time owned eleven hundred acres with twelve thousand dollars in the
bank.

Wherever I had been, however, I had always found a certain class in
large and small towns alike whose object in life was obviously nothing,
but who dressed up and aped the white people.

After Miss Rooks had married I was again in the condition of the
previous year, but during the summer I had written to a young lady who
had been teaching in M--boro and whom I had met while visiting Miss
Rooks. Her name was Orlean McCraline, and her father was a minister and
had been the pastor of our church in M--pls when I was a baby, but for
the past seventeen years had been acting as presiding elder over the
southern Illinois district. Miss McCraline had answered my letters and
during the summer we had been very agreeable correspondents, and when in
September I contracted for three relinquishments of homestead filings, I
decided to ask her to marry me but to come and file on a Tipp county
claim first.

To get the money for the purchase of the relinquishments, I had
mortgaged my three hundred and twenty acres for seven thousand, six
hundred dollars, the relinquishments costing in the neighborhood of six
thousand, four hundred dollars. October was the time when the land would
be open to homestead filing, and Miss McCraline had written that she
would like to homestead. After sending my sister and grandmother the
money to come to Dakota, I went to Chicago, where I arrived one
Saturday morning. I had, since being in the west, stopped at the home of
a maiden lady about thirty-five years of age, and in talking with her I
had occasion to speak of the family. Evidently she did not know I had
come to see Orlean, or that I was even acquainted with the family. I
spoke of the Rev. McCraline and asked her if she knew him.

"Who, old N.J. McCraline?" she asked. "Humph," she went on with a
contemptuous snort. "Yes, I know him and know him to be the biggest old
rascal in the Methodist church. He's lower than a dog," she continued,
"and if it wasn't for his family they would have thrown him out of the
conference long ago, but he has a good family and for that reason they
let him stay on, but he has no principle and is mean to his wife, never
goes out with her nor does anything for her, but courts every woman on
his circuit who will notice him and has been doing it for years. When he
is in Chicago he spends his time visiting a woman on the west side. Her
name is Mrs. Ewis."

This recalled to my mind that during the spring I had come to Chicago I
had become acquainted with Mrs. Ewis' son and had been entertained at
their home on Vernon Avenue where at that time the two families,
McCraline and Ewis, rented a flat together, and although I had seen the
girls I had not become acquainted with any of the McCraline family then.
Orlean was the older of the two girls. What Miss Ankin had said about
her father did not sound very good for a minister, still I had known in
southern Illinois that the colored ministers didn't always bear the best
reputations, and some of the colored papers I received in Dakota were
continually making war on the immoral ministers, but since I had come to
see the girl it didn't discourage me when I learned her father had a bad
name although I would have preferred an opposite condition.

I went to the phone a few minutes after the conversation with Miss Ankin
and called up Miss McCraline, and when she learned I was in the city she
expressed her delight with many exclamations, saying she did not know I
would arrive in the city until the next day and inquired as to when I
would call.

"As nothing is so important as seeing you," I answered, "I will call at
two o'clock, if that is agreeable to you."

She assured me that it was and at the appointed hour I called at the
McCraline home and was pleasantly received. Miss McCraline called in her
mother, whom I thought a very pleasant lady. We passed a very agreeable
evening together, going over on State street to supper and then out to
Jackson Park. I found Miss McCraline a kind, simple, and sympathetic
person; in fact, agreeable in every way.

I had grown to feel that if I ever married I would simply have to
propose to some girl and if accepted, marry her and have it over with. I
was tired of living alone on the claim and wanted a wife and love, even
if she was a city girl. I felt that I hadn't the time to visit all over
the country to find a farmer's daughter. I had lived in the city and
thought if I married a city girl I would understand her, anyway. I
could not claim to be in love with this girl, nor with anyone else, but
had always had a feeling that if a man and woman met and found each
other pleasant and entertaining, there was no need of a long courtship,
and when we came in from a walk I stated the object of my trip.

Miss McCraline was acquainted with a part of the story for, as stated,
she had been teaching in M--boro at the time I went there to see Miss
Rooks, and had seen her take up with the cook and marry foolishly. She
had stated in her letters that she had been glad that I wrote to her and
that she thought Miss Rooks had acted foolishly, and when I explained my
circumstances and stated the proposition she seemed favorable to it. I
told her to think it over and I would return the next day and explain it
to her mother.

When I called the next morning and talked with her and her mother, they
both thought it all right that Orlean should go to Dakota and file on
the homestead, then we would marry and live together on the claim, but
her mother added somewhat nervously and apparently ill at ease, that I
had better talk with her husband. As the Reverend was then some three
hundred and seventy-five miles south of Chicago attending conference, I
couldn't see how we could get together, but we put in the Sunday
attending church and Sunday School, and that evening went to a downtown
theatre where we saw Lew Dokstader's minstrels with Neil O'Brien as
captain of the fire department, which was very funny and I laughed until
my head ached.

The next day was spent in trying to communicate with the Reverend over
the long distance but we did not succeed. Fortunately, at about five
o'clock Mrs. Ewis came over from the west side. I had known Mrs. Ewis to
be a smart woman with a deeper conviction than had Mrs. McCraline, whom
she did not like, but as Mrs. McCraline was in trouble and did not know
which way to turn, Mrs. Ewis was approached with the subject. Orlean was
an obedient girl and although she wanted to go with me, it was evident
that I must get the consent of her parents. She was nearly twenty-seven
years old and girls of that age usually wish to get married. Her younger
sister had just been married, which added to her feeling of loneliness.
The result of the consultation with Mrs. Ewis, as she afterward
explained to me, was that it was decided that it would not be proper for
Orlean to go alone with me but if I cared to pay her way she would
accompany us as chaperon. I was getting somewhat uneasy as I had paid
twelve hundred dollars into the bank at Megory for the relinquishment,
which I would lose if someone didn't file on the claim by the second of
October. It was then about September twenty-fifth and I readily
consented to incur the expense of her trip to Megory, where we soon
landed. While I had been absent my sister and grandmother had arrived.
On October first, all three were ready to file on their claims, and
Dakota's colored population would be increased by three, and four
hundred and eighty acres of land would be added to the wealth of the
colored race in the state. Hundreds of others had purchased
relinquishments and were waiting to file also. A ruling of the
department had made it impossible to file before October first, and when
it was seen that only a small number would be able to file on that day,
the register and receiver inaugurated a plan whereby all desiring to
file on Tipp county claims should form a line in front of the land
office door, and when the office opened, the line should file through
the office in the order in which they stood, and numbers would be issued
to them which would permit them to return to the land office and make
their filings in turn, thereby avoiding a rush and the necessity of
remaining in line until admitted to the land office.



CHAPTER XXXII

A LONG NIGHT


People began forming into line immediately after luncheon, on the
afternoon of the last day of September and continued throughout the
afternoon. When I saw such a crowd gathering, I got my folks into the
line. When it is taken into consideration that the land office would not
open until nine o'clock the next morning, this seemed like a foolish
proceeding. It was then four o'clock and the crowd would have to remain
in line all night to hold their places (to be exact, just seventeen
hours). Remaining in line all night was not pleasantly anticipated, and
nights in October in South Dakota are apt to get pretty chilly, but the
line continued to increase and by ten o'clock the street in front of the
land office was a surging mass of humanity, mostly purchasers of
relinquishments, waiting for the opening of the land office the next
morning and to be in readiness to protect the claim they had contracted
for. Hot coffee and sandwiches were sold and kept appetites supplied,
and drunks mixed here and there in the line kept the crowd wakeful, many
singing and telling stories to enliven the occasion. I held the place
for my fiancee through the night, and although I had become used to all
kinds of roughness, sitting up in the street all the long night was far
from pleasant.

About two o'clock in the morning, squatters, who had spent the early
part of the night on the prairie in order to be on their claims after
midnight, began to arrive and took their places at the foot of the line.
All land not filed on by the original number holders was to be open for
filing as soon as the land office opened, and squatters had from
midnight until the opening of the land office in which to beat the man
who waited to file, before locating on the land, a squatters right
holding first in such cases. Many had hired autos to bring them in from
the reservation immediately after midnight, or as soon after midnight as
they had made some crude improvements on the land. Many auto loads
arrived with a shout and claimants leaped from the tonneaus, falling
into line almost before the vehicles had stopped. The line wound back
and forth along the street like a snake and formed into a compact mass.
Until after sunrise the noisy autos kept a steady rush, dumping their
weary passengers into the street.

By the time the land office opened in the morning, the line filled the
street for half a block, and fully seventeen hundred persons were
waiting for a chance to enter the land office. An army of tired,
swollen-eyed and dusty creatures they appeared, some of whom commenced
dealing their positions in the line to late comers, having gotten into
line for speculation purposes only, and offered their places for from
ten to twenty-five dollars, and in a few instances places near the door
sold for as high as fifty dollars.

Under a ruling of the land officials, no filings were to be accepted
except from holders of original numbers until October first, and this
ruling made it expedient for holders of relinquishments of early numbers
to get into line early, as the six months allowed for establishing
residence expired for the first hundred original numbers on that day,
and in cases where residence had not been properly established, the land
would be open to contest as soon as this period had expired. Many
hundreds had purchased relinquishments, hence the value placed on the
positions nearest the land-office door. It was three o'clock by the time
the line had passed through the land office and received their numbers.
The land office closed at four o'clock for the day, which left but one
hour for the protection of those who must offer their filings that day
or face the chances of a contest.

Some had protected their claims by going into the land office before the
ruling was made and filing contests on the claims for which they held
relinquishments, but most of the buyers had not thought of such a thing,
and land grafters had complicated matters by filing contests on various
claims for which they knew relinquishments would be offered and then
withdrawing the contest, for a consideration. This practice met with
strong disapproval as most of the people had invested for the purpose of
making homes, and the laws made it impossible to change the
circumstances. These transactions had to be completed before the line
formed, however, as after the line formed no one could enter the land
office to offer either filing, relinquishment or contest, without a
number issued by the officials. The line was full of such grafters, and
as not more than one hundred filings could be taken in a day, it can
readily be seen that some of the relinquishment holders were in danger
of losing out through a contest offered before they had an opportunity
to file.

The crowds that flock to land openings, like other games of chance, are
made up in a measure of speculators, people who journey to one of the
registration points and make application for land, figuring that if they
should draw an early number (that is, in the first five hundred) they
would file, no thought of making a home, but simply to sell the
relinquishment for the largest possible price.

When the filings were made, about sixty had dropped out of the first
five hundred and even more out of the second five hundred, evidently
thinking they were not likely to get enough for the relinquishment to
pay them for their trouble and original investment, since it cost them a
first payment of two hundred and six dollars on the purchase price of
six dollars per acre and a locating fee of twenty-five dollars, and in
some cases the first expense reached three hundred dollars. If the
relinquishment was not sold before the six months allowed for
establishing residence expired, it was necessary to establish residence
making sufficient improvement for that purpose, or lose the money
invested.

Out of the first four thousand numbers some two thousand had filed, and
practically half of this number had contracted to sell their
relinquishments. The buyers had deposited the amount to be paid in some
bank to the credit of the claimant, to be turned over when the purchaser
had secured filing on the land, the bank acting as agent between the
parties to the transaction.

I shall long remember October 1, 190-- in Megory--called the "Magic
City," and claiming a population of three thousand, but probably not
exceeding one thousand, five hundred actual inhabitants, though filled
with transients from the beginning of the rush a year before, and had at
no time during this period less than two thousand, five hundred persons
in the town.

My bride-to-be and my grandmother had received numbers 138 and 139 which
would likely be called to file the second day, while my sister received
170. On the afternoon of the second, Orlean, and my grandmother, who had
raised a family in the days of slavery, and was then about seventy-seven
years of age, were called, and came out of the land office a few minutes
later with their blue papers, receipts for the two hundred six dollars,
first payment and fees, which I had given the agent before they entered
the land office. Their agent went into the land office with them to see
that they got a straight filing, which they received. My sister,
however, was not called that day and the next day being Sunday, she
would not be called until the following Monday.

The place my grandmother had filed on had been bought by a Megory school
teacher, who had paid one thousand, four hundred dollars to a real
estate dealer for the relinquishment of the same place. The claimant had
issued two relinquishments, which was easy enough to do, though the
relinquishment accompanied by his land office receipt was the only bona
fide one and we had the receipt. The teacher had stood in line the long
night through, behind my sister and then lost the place. The dealer who
sold her the relinquishment was very angry, as he was to get six hundred
dollars in the deal, giving the claimant only eight hundred. When I
learned this and that the teacher had lost out I was very sorry for her,
but it was a case of "first come first served," and many other mix-ups
between buyers and dealers had occurred. I went to the teacher and
apologized as best I could. She looked very pitiful as she told me how
she had taught so many years to save the money and her dreams had been
of nothing but securing a claim. Her eyes filled with tears and she bent
her head and began crying, and thus I left her.

The next morning I sent Miss McCraline and Mrs. Ewis back to Chicago and
proceeded to the claims of my sister and grandmother, which I found to
be good ones. I had whirled around them in an auto before I bought them,
and though being satisfied that they laid well I had not examined the
soil or walked across them.

In a week I had two frame houses, ten by ten, built on them and within
another week they had commenced living on them. Shortly after they moved
onto the claims came one of the biggest snowstorms I had ever seen. It
snowed for days and then came warm weather, thawing the snow, then more
snow. The corn in the fields had not been gathered nor was it all
gathered before the following April.

Most of the settlers in the new county were from twenty to fifty miles
from Calias and winter caught many of them without fuel, and the
suffering from cold was intense. The snow continued to fall until it was
about four feet deep on the level. Fortunately I had hauled enough coal
to last my folks through the winter, and they had only to get to
Ritten, a distance of eight miles, to get food. I had just gathered two
loads out of a ninety-acre field. Being snowbound, with nothing to do, I
watched the fight between Amro and Victor, with interest.



CHAPTER XXXIII

THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST


After the lot sale Amro still refused to move. It was then Ernest
Nicholson said the town had to be overcome somehow and he had to do it.
The business men of the town continued to hold meetings and pass
resolutions to stick together. They argued that all they had to do to
save the town was to stick together. This was the slogan of each
meeting. The county seat no doubt held them more than the meetings, but
it was not long before signs of weakening began to appear here and there
along the ranks.

Victor to the north, in the opinion of the people abroad, would get the
road; lots were being bought up and business people from elsewhere were
continuing to locate and erect substantial buildings in the new town,
and then it was reported that Geo. Roane, who had recently sold his
livery barn in Amro where he had made a bunch of money, had bought five
lots in Victor, paying fancy prices for them but getting a refund of
fifty per cent if he moved or started his residence hotel by January
first. This report could not be confirmed as Roane could not be found,
but soon conflicting reports filled the air and old Dad Durpee, who
loved his corner lot in Amro like a hog loves corn, made daily trips up
and down Main street, railing the boys. The more he talked the more
excited he became. "My good men!" he would shout, with his arms
stretched above his head like Billy Sunday after preaching awhile.
"Stick together! Stick together! We've got the best town in the best
county, in the best state in the best country in the world. What more do
you want?" He would fairly rave, with his old eyes stretched widely
open, and his shaggy beard flowing in the breeze. He continued this
until he bored the people and weakened the already weakening forces.

[Illustration: Were engaged in ranching and owned great herds in Tipp
county. (Page 180.)]

There were many good business men in Amro, among them young men of
sterling qualities, college-bred, ambitious and with dreams of great
success and of establishing themselves securely. Many of them had
sweethearts in the east, and desired to make a showing and profit as
well, and how were they to do this in a town in which even outsiders,
though they might not admire the Nicholsons, were predicting failure for
those who remained, and declaring they were foolish to stay. This young
blood was getting hard to control, and to hold them something more had
to be done than declaring Ernest Nicholson to be trying to wreck the
town and break up their homes. Poor fools--I would think, as I listened
to them, talking as though Ernest Nicholson had anything to do with the
railroad missing the town. It was simply the mistaken location.

It had been an easy matter for the promotors, whose capital was mostly
in the air, to locate Amro on the allotment of Oliver Amoureaux, because
they could do so without paying anything, and did not have to pay
fifty-five dollars an acre for deeded land as Nicholson had done. Being
centrally located and with enough buildings to encourage the building
of more, they induced the governor to organize the county when few but
illiterate Indians and thieving mixed-bloods could vote, fairly stealing
the county seat before the bona-fide settlers had any chance to express
themselves on the matter. They had doggedly invested more money in
cement walks and other improvements, when disinterested persons had
criticized their actions, loading the township with eleven thousand
dollars, seven per cent interest bearing bonds, that sold at a big
discount, to build a school house large enough for a town three times
the size of Amro. This angered the settlers and being dissatisfied
because they were disfranchised by the rascals who engineered the plan,
Amro began rapidly to lose outside sympathy.

Ernest Nicholson had a pleasing personality and forceful as well. He was
a king at reasoning and whenever a weak Amroite was in Calias he was
invited into the townsite company's office which was luxuriously
furnished, the walls profusely decorated with the pictures of prominent
capitalists and financiers of the middle west, some of whom were
financing the schemes of the fine looking young men who were trying to
show these struggling waifs of the prairie the inevitable result.

All that was needed was to break into the town in some way or other, for
it was essential that Amro be absorbed by Victor before the election,
ten months away. The town should be entirely broken up. If it still
existed, with or without the road, it had a good chance of holding the
county seat. A county seat is a very hard thing to move. In fact,
according to the records of western states, few county seats have ever
been moved.

Megory's county seat was located forty miles from Megory, in the extreme
east end of the county, where the county ran to a point and the river on
the north and the south boundary of the county formed an acute angle;
yet the county seat remains at Fairview and the voters keep it there,
where no one but a handful of farmers and the few hundred inhabitants of
the town reside. When trying to remove the county seat every town in the
county jumps into the race, persisting in the contention that their town
is the proper place for the county seat and when election comes, the
farmers who represent from sixty-five to ninety per cent of the vote in
states like Dakota, vote for the town nearest their farm, thinking only
of their own selfish interests and forgetting the county's welfare, as
the victor must have a majority of all votes cast. Another example of
this condition is near where this story is written, on the east bank of
the Missouri. It is a place called Keeler, the most God-forsaken place
in the world, with only three or four ramshackle buildings and a post
office, with little or no country trade, yet this is a county seat, the
capital of one of the leading counties of the state; while half a dozen
good towns along the line of the C.M. & St. L. road, cart their records
and hold court in Keeler, twenty miles from the railroad. Every four
years for thirty years the county seat has been elected to stay at
Keeler, as no town can get a majority of all votes cast against Keeler,
which doesn't even enter the race.

All of these facts had their bearing on Ernest Nicholson in his office
at Calias, and had helped to hold Amro together, until Van Neter was
called into Calias and into the private office of "King Ernest" as Amro
had named him. What passed in that office at this interview is a matter
of conjecture, but when Van Neter came out of the office he carried a
check for seven thousand, five hundred dollars and Ernest Nicholson
became the owner of the two-story, fifty by one hundred foot hotel and
lot, Amro's most popular corner. When this news reached Amro pandemonium
reigned, business men passed from one place of business to another
talking in low tones, and shaking their heads significantly, while old
Dad Durpee, nearer maniac than ever before, went the rounds of the town
shouting in a high staccato tone: "What do you think of it? What do you
think of the ornery, low-down rascal's selling out. Selling out to that
band of dirty thieves and town wreckers. By the living gods!" With his
arms folded like a tragedian, eyes rolled to the skies and his form
reared back until his knees stuck forward, then raising his hand he
solemnly swore: "I'll stay in Amro! I'll stay in Amro! I'll stay in
Amro," until his voice rose to a hoarse scream. "I'll stay in Amro until
the town is deserted to the last d--n building and the last dog is
dead." And he did, though I cannot say as to the last dog.

Nicholson had the hotel closed and although the snow was more than
knee-deep on the level, a force of carpenters at once began cutting the
building in two, preparatory to moving it to the new town. Old
Machalacy Finn, a one-armed, hatchet-faced Irishman, with a long sandy
mustache and pop-eyes, who had moved brick buildings in the windy city,
was sent to Amro and declared in Joe Cook's saloon that he'd put that
damned crackerbox in Victor in fifteen days, and armed with a force of
carpenters and laborers, the plaster was soon knocked off the walls of
the largest and best building in Amro and thrown into the streets; while
the new cement walks, only fifty feet in front and one hundred by eight
at the side, were broken into slabs and piled roughly aside, then huge
timbers twenty-four by thirty-two inches and sixty feet long, from the
redwood forests of Washington, followed the jack-screws and blocks under
the building. Two sixty-horse power mounted tractors, with double
boilers and horse power locomotive construction, low wheels and high
cabs, where the engineer perched like a bird, steamed into the town and
prepared to pull the structure from its foundations.

The crowd gathered to watch as the powerful engines began to cough and
roar, with an occasional short puff, like fast passenger engines on the
New York Central, the power being sufficient to tear the building to
splinters. Creaking in every joint, the hotel building began slowly
moving out into the street.

The telephone wires, which belonged to the Nicholsons, had been cut and
thrown aside and the town was temporarily without telephonic
communication. The powerful engines easily pulled the hotel between
banks of snow, which had been shoveled aside to make room for the
passing of the building across the grades and ditches and on toward
Victor. A block and tackle was used whenever the building became stuck
fast and in a few days the hotel was serving the public on a corner lot
in Victor, where it added materially to the appearance of the town.

Following in the footsteps of old Calias, the town, now being broken by
the removal of the hotel, the dark cellar over which it stood gaping
like an open grave, to be gazed into at every turn, became of small
consequence, and in Victor the price of corner lots had advanced from
one thousand, five hundred to two thousand and three thousand dollars,
while inside lots were being offered at from one thousand, two hundred
to one thousand, eight hundred dollars which had formerly priced from
eight hundred to one thousand, two hundred dollars. This did not
discourage those who wanted to move to the new town. All that was
desired by former rock-ribbed Amroites was to get to Victor. They talked
nothing but Victor. The name of Amro was almost forgotten.

Before the hotel building had fairly left the town, other traction
engines were brought to the town. The snow was a great hindrance and to
get coal hauled from Calias cost seventy-five cents a hundred. Labor and
board was high, and in fact all prices for everything were very high. It
was in the middle of one of the cold winters of the plains, but money
had been made in Amro and was offered freely in payment for moving to
the new town. It was bitter cold and the snow was light and drifting,
the ground frozen under the snow two feet deep, but the frozen ground
would hold up the buildings better than it would when the warm weather
came and started a thaw. The soil being underlaid with sand it would be
impossible to move buildings over it, if rain should come, as it would
be likely to do in the spring, and with the melted snow to hinder, it
would then be very difficult to move the buildings. It was small wonder
that they were anxious to get away from the disrupted town at this time,
and the road between Amro and Victor became a much used thoroughfare.

The traction engines pounding from early morning until late at night
filled the air with a noise as of railroad yards, while the happy faces
of the owners of the buildings arriving in Victor, and the anxious ones
waiting to be moved, gave material for interesting study of human
nature.

George Roane had built a new barn in Victor and was much pleased over
having sold the old one in Amro before the town went to pieces, thereby
saving the expense of removal and getting a refund of fifty per cent of
the purchase price of the lots he purchased in Victor. Many buildings
continued to arrive from Amro, and new ones being erected did credit to
the name of the new town by growing faster than any of the towns on the
reservation, including Calias or Megory.



CHAPTER XXXIV

EAST OF STATE STREET


I had in due time heard from Orlean saying she and Mrs. Ewis had arrived
safely home. She wrote: "When I came into the house mama grabbed me and
held me for a long time as though she was afraid I was not real. She had
been so worried while I was away and was so glad I had returned before
father came." They had received a telegram from her father saying that
he had again been appointed presiding elder of the Cairo district and
would be home within a few days.

I judged from what Mrs. Ewis had told me that the Reverend was not much
of a business man and a hard one to make understand a business
proposition or to reason with. He had only two children, and Orlean, as
Mrs. Ewis informed me, was his favorite. She had always been an obedient
girl, was graduated from the Chicago high school and spent two years at
a colored boarding school in Ohio that was kept up by the African M.E.
Church, had taught two years, but had not secured a school that year.

She had saved a hundred dollars out of the money she had earned teaching
school. The young man who married her sister worked for a trading-stamp
corporation and received thirteen dollars a week, while the Reverend was
supposed to receive about a thousand dollars a year as presiding elder.
There were some twelve or fifteen churches on his circuit, where
quarterly conference was held every three months, and each church was
expected to contribute a certain amount at that time. Each member was
supposed to give twenty-five cents, which they did not always do.

In a town like M--boro, for instance, where the church had one hundred
members, not over twenty-five are considered live members; that is, only
twenty-five could be depended upon to pay their quarterly dues
regularly, the others being spasmodic, contributing freely at times or
nothing at all for a long time.

Orlean often laughed as she told me some of the many ways her father had
of making the "dead ones" contribute, but with all the tricks and turns
the position was not a lucrative one, there being no certainty as to the
amount of the compensation. Mrs. Ewis told me the family had always been
poor and got along only by saving in every direction. I could see this
as Orlean seemed to have few clothes and had worn her sister's hat to
Dakota.

Her sister was said to be very mean and disagreeable, and if anyone in
the family had to do without anything it was never the sister. She was
quarrelsome and much disliked while Orlean was the opposite and would
cheerfully deprive herself of anything necessary. Her mother, Mrs. Ewis
went on to tell me, was a "devil, spiteful and mean and as helpless as a
baby." I believed a part of this but not all. I had listened to Mrs.
McCraline, and while I felt she was somewhat on the helpless order, I
did not believe she was mean, nor a "devil." Meanness and deviltry are
usually discernible in the eyes and I had seen none of it in the eyes
of either Mrs. McCraline or Orlean, but I did not like Ethel, and from
what little Miss Ankin told me about the Reverend I was inclined to
believe that he was likely to be the "devil," and Mrs. Ewis' information
regarding Mrs. McCraline was probably inspired by jealousy.

I remembered that back in M--pls the preachers' wives were timid
creatures, submissive to any order or condition their "elder" husbands
put upon them, submitting too much in order to keep peace, never raising
a row over the gossip that came to their ears from malicious "sisters"
and church workers. As long as I could remember the colored ministers
were accused of many ugly things concerning them and the "sisters,"
mostly women who worked in the church, but I had forgotten it until I
now began hearing the gossip concerning Rev. McCraline.

Orlean, her father and her brother-in-law had begun buying a home on
Vernon avenue for which they were to pay four thousand, five hundred
dollars. Of this amount three hundred dollars had been paid, one hundred
by each of them. It was a nice little place, with eight rooms and with a
stone front. Ethel had not paid anything, using her money in preparation
for her wedding, which had taken place in September. Claves and her
father had spent two hundred on it, which seemed very foolish, and were
pinched to the last cent when it was done.

Claves had borrowed five dollars from his brother when they went on the
wedding trip, to pay for a taxi to the depot. The wedding tour and
honeymoon lasted two weeks and was spent in Racine, Wisconsin, sixty
miles north of Chicago. They had just returned when I went to Chicago.
When I first called, Mrs. Claves did not come down but when we returned
to the house she condescended to come down and shake hands. She put on
enough airs to have been a king's daughter.

With the three hundred dollars already paid on the home, they figured
they should be able to pay for it in seven years in monthly installments
of thirty-five dollars, paying the interest upon the principal at the
same time, excepting two thousand which was in a first mortgage and drew
five per cent and payable semi-annually. The house was in a quiet
neighborhood much unlike the south end of Dearborn street and Armour
avenue where none but colored people live.

The better class of Chicago's colored population was making a strenuous
effort to get away from the rougher set, as well as to get out of the
black belt which is centered around Armour, Dearborn, State and
Thirty-first. Here the saloons, barbershops, restaurants and vaudeville
shows are run by colored people, also the clubs and dance houses. East
from State street to the lake, which is referred to by the colored
people of the city as "east of State," there is another and altogether
different class. Here for a long while colored people could hardly rent
or buy a place, then as the white population drifted farther south, to
Greenwood avenue, Hyde Park, Kenwood and other parts now fashionable
districts, some of the avenues including Wabash, Rhodes, Calumet, Vernon
and Indiana began renting to colored people and a few began buying.

Chicago is the Mecca for southern negroes. The better class continued to
desert Dearborn and Armour and paid exorbitant rent for flats east of
State street. Some lost what they had made on Armour avenue where rent
was sometimes less than one-half what was charged five blocks east, and
had to move back to Armour. As more colored people moved toward the lake
more white people moved farther south, rent began falling and real
estate dealers began offering former homes of rich families first for
rent then for sale, and many others began buying as Rev. McCraline had
done, making a small cash payment, and in this way otherwise unsalable
property was disposed of at from five to ten per cent more than it would
have brought at a cash sale.

The place they were buying could have been purchased for three thousand,
eight hundred dollars or four thousand dollars in cash. After moving
east of State street, these people formed into little sets which
represented the more elite, and later developed into a sort of local
aristocracy, which was not distinguished so much by wealth as by the
airs and conventionality of its members, who did not go to public dances
on State street and drink "can" beer. Here for a time they were secure
from the vulgar intrusion of the noisy "loud-mouths," as they called
them, of State street. The last time I was in Chicago State street, the
"dead line," had been crossed and a part of Wabash avenue is almost as
noisy and vulgar as Dearborn. Beer cans, rough clubs and dudes were
becoming as familiar sights as on Armour, and a large part of that part
of the east side is so filled up with colored people that it is only a
question of time until it will be a part of the black belt.

Orlean's brother-in-law had come to Chicago several years previous from
a stumpy farm in the backwoods of Tennessee. He was the son of a
jack-legged preacher and was very ignorant, but had been going with the
girl he married some six years and she had trained him out of much of it
and when he finally figured in the two hundred dollar wedding referred
to, he felt himself admitted into society and highly exalted. He thought
the Reverend a great man, Mrs. Ewis had told me, referring to him as a
Simian-headed negro who tried to walk and act like the Reverend. The
McCralines, especially Ethel, referred to themselves as the "best
people." I thought they were. They were not wicked, and I also guessed
that Ethel felt very "aristocratic," and I wondered whether I would like
the Reverend. He seemed to be regarded as a sort of monarch judging from
the way he was spoken of by the family, but I had a "hunch" that he and
I were not going to fall in love with each other. Still I hoped not to
be the one to start any unpleasantness and would at least wait until I
met him before forming an opinion. I received a letter from him when he
returned from the conference. He did not write a very brilliant letter
but was very reasonable, and tried to appear a little serious when he
referred to my having his daughter come to South Dakota and file on
land. He concluded by saying he thought it a good thing for colored
people to go west and take land.

I received another letter from Orlean about the same time telling me
how her father had scolded her about going to the theatre with me the
Sunday night I had taken her, and pretended, as he had to me, to be very
serious about the claim matter, but she wrote like this: "I know papa,
and I could see he was just pleased over it all that he just strutted
around like a rooster." She wanted to know when I was going to send the
ring, but as I had not thought about it I do not recall what answer I
made her, but do remember that my trip to get her and Mrs. Ewis and send
them home again, including my own expenses, amounted to one hundred
sixty dollars, besides the cost of the land, and having had to pay my
sister's and grandmother's way also and get them started on their
homesteads had taken all of the seven thousand, six hundred dollars I
had borrowed on my land; that I was snow-bound with my corn in the field
and my wheat still unthreshed. I began to write long letters trying to
reason this out with her. She was willing to listen to reason but seemed
so unhappy without the ring, and I imagined as I read her letters that I
could see tears. She said when a girl is engaged she feels lost without
a ring, "and, too," here she seemed to emphasize her words, "everybody
expects it." I was sure she was telling the truth, for with girls "east
of State street," and west as well, the most important thing in an
engagement is the ring, sometimes being more important than the man
himself.

When I lived in Chicago and since I had been living in Dakota and going
to Chicago once a year, I knew that Loftis Brothers had more mortgages
on the moral future and jobs of the young society men, for the diamonds
worn by their sweethearts or wives, than would appear comforting to the
credit man. It made no difference what kind of a job a man might have,
as all the way from a boot-black or a janitor to head waiters and
post-office clerks were included, and their women folks wore some size
of a diamond. I asked myself what I was to do. I could not hope to begin
changing customs, so I bought a forty dollar diamond set in a small
eighteen-karat ring which "just fit," as she wrote later in the sweetest
kind of a letter.

I had written I was sorry that I could not be there to put it on (such a
story!). I had never thought of diamond rings or going after my wife
after spending so much on preliminaries. What I had pictured was what I
had seen, while running to the Pacific coast, girls going west to marry
their pioneer sweethearts, who sent them the money or a ticket. They had
gone, lots of them, to marry their brawny beaux and lived happily "ever
after," but the beaux weren't negroes nor the girls colored. Still there
are lots of colored men who would be out west building an empire, and
plenty of nice colored girls who would journey thither and wed, if they
really understood the opportunities offered; but very few understand the
situation or realize the opportunities open to them in this western
country.

I had expected to get married Christmas but the snow had put a stop to
that plan. Besides, I was so far behind in my work and had no place to
bring my wife. I had abandoned my little "soddy" and was living in a
house on the old townsite, where I intended staying until spring. Then I
would build and move onto my wife's homestead in Tipp county. When
Christmas came grandma and sister came down from Ritten and stayed while
I went to Chicago. I could scarcely afford it but it had become a custom
for me to spend Christmas in Chicago and I wanted to know Orlean better
and I wanted to meet her father. I had written her that I wasn't coming
and when I arrived in the city and called at the house her mother was
surprised, but pleasantly. I thought she was such a kind little soul.
She promised not to tell Orlean I was in the city, (Orlean had secured a
position in a downtown store--ladies' furnishings--and received
five-fifty per week) but couldn't keep it and when I was gone she called
up Orlean and told her I was in the city. When I called in the evening,
instead of surprising Orlean, I was surprised myself. The Reverend
hadn't arrived from southern Illinois but was expected soon.

Orlean had worked long enough to buy herself a new waist and coat, and
Mrs. Ewis, who was a milliner, had given her a hat, and she was dressed
somewhat better than formerly. The family had wanted to give her a nice
wedding, like Ethel's, but found themselves unable to do so. The
semiannual interest on their two-thousand-dollar loan would be due in
January and a payment also, about one hundred and fifty dollars in all.
The high cost of living in Chicago did not leave much out of eighteen
dollars and fifty cents per week, and colored people in southern
Illinois are not very prompt in paying their church dues, especially in
mid-winter; in fact, many of them have a hard time keeping away from
the poorhouse or off the county, and when the Reverend came home he was
very short of money.

[Illustration: As the people were now all riding in autos. (Page 182.)]

I remember how he appeared the evening I called. He had arrived in town
that morning. He was a large man standing well over six feet and weighed
about two hundred pounds, small-boned and fleshy, which gave him a
round, plump appearance, and although he was then near sixty not a
wrinkle was visible in his face. He was very dark, with a medium
forehead and high-bridged nose, making it possible for him to wear
nose-glasses, the nose being very unlike the flat-nosed negro. The large
square upper-lip was partly hidden by a mustache sprinkled with gray,
and his nearly white hair, worn in a massive pompadour, contrasted
sharply with the dark skin and rounded features. His great height gave
him an unusually attractive appearance of which he, I later learned, was
well aware and made the most. In fact, his personal appearance was his
pride, but his eye was not the eye of an intelligent or deep thinking
man. They reminded me more of the eyes of a pig, full but
expressionless, and he could put on airs, such a drawing-up and
spreading-out, seeming to give the impression of being hard to approach.

When introduced to him I had another "hunch" we were not going to like
each other. I was always frank, forward and unafraid, and his
ceremonious manner did not affect me in the least. I went straight to
him, taking his hand in response to the introduction and saying a few
common-place things. They were very home-like for city people, inviting
me to supper and treating me with much respect. The head of the table
was occupied by the Reverend when he was at home and by Claves when the
Reverend was away. I could readily see where Ethel got her airs. It took
him about thirty minutes to get over his ceremonious manner, after which
we talked freely, or rather, I talked. He was a poor listener and,
although he never cut off my discourse in any way, he didn't listen as I
had been used to having people listen, apparently with encouragement in
their eyes, which makes talking a pleasure, so I soon ceased to talk.
This, however, seemed still more awkward and I grew to feel a trifle
displeased in his company.

On the following Sunday we went to morning service on Wabash avenue at a
big stone structure. It appeared to be a rule of the household that the
girls should go out together. This displeased me very much, as I had
grown to dislike Ethel and Claves did not interest me. Both talked of
society and "swell people" they wanted me to meet, putting it in such a
way as to have me feel I was meeting my betters, while the truth of the
matter was that I did not desire to meet any of their friends nor to
have them with us anywhere we went. When church services were over we
went to spend the time before Sunday School opened, with some friends of
theirs named Latimer, who lived on Wabash avenue near the church, and
who were so nearly white that they could easily have passed for white
people.

The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Latimer and Mr. Latimer's sister,
and were the most interesting people I had ever met on any of my trips
to Chicago. They inquired all about Dakota and whether there were many
colored settlers in the state, listening to every word with careful
attention and approving or disapproving with nods and smiles. While they
were so deeply interested, Claves, who had a reputation for "butting in"
and talking too much, interrupted the conversation, blurting out his
opinion, stopping me and embarrassing them, by stating that colored
people had been held in slavery for two hundred years and since they
were free they did not want to go out into the wilderness and sit on a
farm, but wanted to be where they could have freedom and convenience,
and this was sanctioned by a friend of Claves's who was still more
ignorant than he. This angered Orlean and when we were outside even
Ethel expressed her disgust at Claves' ignorance.

They told me that the Latimers were very well-to-do, owning considerable
property besides the three-story building where they lived. To me this
accounted for their careful attention, for it is my opinion that when
you find a colored man or woman who has succeeded in actually doing
something, and not merely pretending to, you will find an interesting
and reasonable person to converse with, and one who will listen to a
description of conditions and opportunities with marked intelligence.

Orlean and I attended a few shows at the downtown theatres during the
week, the first being a pathetic drama which our friends advised us to
see entitled "Madam X". I did not like it at all. The leading character
is the wife of a business man who has left her husband and remains away
from him two years, presumably discouraged over his lack of affection;
is very young and wants to be loved, as the "old story" goes, and the
husband is too busy to know that she is unhappy. She returns after two
years and asks forgiveness and love, but is turned away by the husband.
Twenty years later, in the closing act, a court scene decorates the
stage; a woman is on trial for killing the man she has lived with
unlawfully. She had been a woman of the street and lived with many
others before living with the one murdered. The young lawyer who has her
case, is her son, although he is not aware of this fact. He has just
been admitted to the bar and this is his first case, having been
appointed to the defense by the court. He takes the stand and delivers
an eloquent address on behalf of the woman, who appears to be so
saturated with liquor and cocaine as to be quite oblivious of her
surroundings. She expires from the effect of her dissipations, but just
before death she looks up and recognizes her son, she having been the
young wife who left her home twenty-two years before. The unhappy
father, who had suffered as only a deserted husband can and who had
prayed for many years for the return of the wife, is present in the
court room and together with the son, are at her side in death. As the
climax of the play is reached, suppressed sobs became audible in the
balcony, where we had seats. The scene was pathetic, indeed, and I had
hard work keeping back the tears while my betrothed was using her
handkerchief freely.

What I did not like about the play was the fact of her going away and
taking up an immoral life instead of remaining pure and returning later
to her husband. The husband, as the play goes, had not been a bad man
and was unhappy throughout the play, and I argued this with Orlean all
the way home. Why did she not remain good and when she returned he could
have gathered her into his arms and "lived happy ever after." Not only
my fiancee but most other women I have talked with about the play
contend that he could have taken her back when she returned and been
good to her. The man who wrote the play may have been a tragedian but
the management that put it on the road knew a money-maker and kept it
there as long as the people patronized the box office.

The next play we attended suited me better as, to my mind, it possessed
all that "Madam X" lacked and, instead of weakness and an unhappy
ending, this was one of strength of character and a happy finale. It was
"The Fourth Estate," by Joseph Medill Patterson, who served his
apprenticeship in writing on the Chicago Tribune. It was a newspaper
play and its interest centered around one Wheeler Brand, who, through
the purchase of a big city daily by a western man, with the bigness to
hand out the truth regardless of the threats of the big advertisers,
becomes managing editor. He relentlessly goes after one Judge Barteling
whose "rotten" decisions had but sufficed to help "big business" and
without regard to their effect upon the poor. The one really square
decision was recalled before it took effect. To complicate matters the
young editor loves the judge's daughter and while Brand holds a high
place in Miss Barteling's regard, he is made to feel that to retain it
he must stop the fight on her father. Brand pleads with her to see the
moral of it but is unable to change her views. One evening Brand secures
a flashlight photo and telephone witnesses of an interview with the
judge, the photo showing the judge in the act of handing him a
ten-thousand-dollar bribe. Late that night Brand has the article
exposing this transaction in type and ready for the press when the
proprietor, who has heretofore been so pleased with Brand's performance,
but whose wife has gained an entrance into society through the influence
of Judge Barteling, enters the office with the order to "kill the
story."

This was a hard blow to the coming newspaper man. The judge calls and
jokes him about being a smart boy but crazed with ideals, but is shocked
when he turns to find his daughter has entered the office and has heard
the conversation. He tells her to come along home with papa, but she
decides to remain with Brand. She has thought her father in the right
all along, but now that she has heard her father condone dishonesty she
can no longer think so. Wheeler disobeys orders and sends the paper to
press without "killing the story," and "all's well that ends well."

In a week or so I was back in Dakota where the thermometer registered
twenty-five below with plenty of snow for company. I received a letter
from the Reverend shortly after returning home saying they hoped to see
me in Chicago again soon. I did not know what that meant unless it was
that I was expected to return to be married, but as I had been to
Chicago twice in less than four months and had suggested to Orlean that
she come to Megory and be married there, I supposed that it was all
settled, but this was where I began to learn that the McCraline family
were very inconsiderate.

I had not claimed to be wealthy or to have unlimited amounts of money to
spend in going to and from Chicago, as though it were a matter of eighty
miles instead of eight hundred. I had explained to the Reverend that it
was a burden rather than a luxury to be possessed of a lot of raw land,
until it could be cultivated and made to yield a profit. I recalled that
while talking with the Reverend in regard to this he had nodded his head
in assent but with no facial expression to indicate that he understood
or cared. The more I knew him the more I disliked him, and was very
sorry that Orlean regarded his as a great man, although his immediate
family were the only ones who regarded him in that light. I had learned
to expect his ceremonious manner but was considerably tried by his
apparent dullness and lack of interest or encouragement of practical
ideas.

I put volumes into my letters to Orlean, trying to make clear why she
should condescend to come to Megory and be quietly married instead of
obliging me to return to Chicago. I had no more money, as it was
expensive to keep my grandmother and sister on their claims. They had no
money and I had no outside support, not even the moral support of my
people nor of Orlean's, who all seemed to take it for granted that I had
plenty of ready money. I had not taken a cent out of the crop I had
raised, the corn still standing in the field, with a heavy snow on the
ground and my small grain still unthreshed.

However, my letters were in vain. Miss McCraline could see no other way
than that if I cared for her I'd come and marry her at home, which she
contended was no more than right and would look much better. I sighed
wearily over it all and began to suspect I was "in the right church, but
in the wrong pew."



CHAPTER XXXV

AN UNCROWNED KING


Toward spring the snow melted and with gum boots I plunged into the
cold, wet corn field and began gathering the corn. It was nasty, cold
work. The damp earth sent cold chills up through my limbs and as a
result I was ill, and could do nothing for a week or more. In
desperation I wrote the Reverend and being a man, I hoped he'd
understand. I told him of my sickness and the circumstances, of Orlean's
claim and of my crops to be put in. It was then April and soon the oats,
wheat and barley should be seeded. It was a business letter altogether,
but I never heard from him, and later learned that he had read only a
part of the letter.

While in Chicago, one evening I had called at the house and found the
household in a ferment of excitement, with everyone saying nothing and
apparently trying to look as small and scarced as possible, while in
their midst, standing like a jungle king and in a plaided bathrobe, the
Reverend was pouring a storm of abuse upon his wife and shouting orders
while the wife was trotting to and fro like a frightened lamb,
protesting weakly. The way he was storming at her made me feel ashamed
but after listening to his tirade for some fifteen minutes I was angry
enough to knock him down then and there. He reminded me more of a brute
than a pious minister. When he had finally exhausted himself he turned
without speaking to me and strode up the stairs, head reared back and
carrying himself like a brave soldier returning from war. I wondered
then how long it would be before I would be commanded as she had been.
Shortly afterward I could hardly control the impulse to take her in my
arms and comfort her. She was crying quietly and looked so pitiful. I
was told she had been treated in a like manner off and on for thirty
years.

As stated, I did not hear from the Reverend and when I wrote to Orlean I
implied that I did not think her father much of a business man. Perhaps
this was wrong, at least when I received another letter from her it
contained the receipt for the payment on the claim, and the single sheet
of paper comprising the letter conveyed the intelligence that since she
thought it best not to marry me she was forwarding the receipt with
thanks for my kindness and hopes for future success. I received the
letter on Friday. Saturday night I went into Megory and took the early
Sunday morning train bound for Chicago and to marry her, and while I did
not think she had treated me just right I would not allow a matter of a
trip to Chicago to stand in the way of our marriage. I had an idea her
father was indirectly responsible. He and I were much unlike and
disagreed in our discussions concerning the so-called negro problem, and
in almost every other discussion in which we had engaged.

Arriving in Omaha I sent a telegram to Orlean asking her not to go to
work that day, as I would be in Chicago in the morning. At the depot I
called up the house and Claves answered the phone and was very
impertinent, but before he said much Orlean took the receiver and
without much welcome started to tell me about the criticisms of her
father in my letters.

"You are not taking it in the right way," I hurriedly told her. "I'll
come to the house and we'll talk it over. You will see me, won't you?"

"Yes," she answered hesitatingly, appearing to be a little frightened.
Then added, "I'll do you that honor."

The Reverend had returned to Southern Illinois, and when I entered the
house the rest of the family appeared to have been holding a
consultation in the kitchen, which they had, as Orlean informed me
later, with Orlean standing poutingly to one side. She commenced telling
me what she was not going to do, but I went directly to her, and
gathered her in my arms, with her making a slight resistance but soon
succumbing. I looked down at her still pouting face and remonstrated
teasingly.

Ethel broke in, her voice resembling a scream, protesting against such
boldness on my part, saying: "Orlean doesn't want you and she isn't
going to go onto your old farm". Here Orlean silenced her saying that
she would attend to that herself, and took me to the front part of the
house, with her mother tagging after us in a sort of half-stupor and
apparently not knowing what to do. We sat down on the davenport where
she began giving me a lecture and declaring what she was not going to
do. Her mother interposed something that angered me, though I do not now
recall what it was, and a look of dissatisfaction came into my face
which Orlean observed.

"Don't you scold mama," she finished. "Now, do you hear?"

"Yes, dear," I answered, meekly, with my arm around her waist and my
face hidden behind her shoulder. "Anything more?"

"Well, well." She appeared at a loss to know what further to say or how
to proceed.

Ethel remarked afterward to her mother that Orlean had not been near me
a half hour until she was listening to everything I said.

She finally succeeded in getting off to work after commanding me to free
her as she wanted to get away to think. Her mother bristled up with an,
"I'll talk to you." This was entirely to my liking. I loved her mother
as well as my own and had no fear that we would not soon agree, and we
did. She couldn't be serious with me very long. She persisted in saying,
however:

"I want my husband to know you are here and to know all about this. You
must not expect to run in and get his daughter just like something wild,
nor you just must not!"

"All right, mother," I assented. "But I must hurry back to Dakota, you
know, for I can't lose so much time this time of year."

"You're the worst man I ever saw for always being in a hurry.
I--I'll--well, I do declare!" And she bustled off to the kitchen with me
following and talking.

"Oh, can't I get away from you? This is just awful, Mr. Devereaux."

"Don't you like the name?" I put in winningly and cutting off her
discourse, and in spite of her attempt at seriousness she smiled.

"It is a beautiful name," she admitted, looking at me slyly out of her
small black eyes. She was part Indian, just a trifle, but sufficient to
give her black eyes instead of brown, as most colored people have, and
she had long black hair.

Before Orlean returned from the store her mother and I were like mother
and son and Orlean seemed pleased, while Ethel looked at Claves and
admitted that I would get Orlean, anyhow. The only thing necessary now
was to reach the elder, and the next morning we spent a couple of hours
trying to locate him by telephone. We finally succeeded, as I thought,
but he denied later he was the party, though I would have sworn to the
voice being his as I could hear him distinctly. In answer to my
statement that we were ready to marry he shouted in a frantic voice:

"I don't approve of it! I don't approve of it! I don't approve of it!"
and kept shouting it over and over until the operator called the time
was up.

A letter had been sent him by special delivery the day I arrived and the
following morning a reply was received stating that if Orlean married
me, without my convincing him that I was marrying her for love, and not
to hold down a Dakota claim, she would be doing so without his consent.
In discussing the matter later Ethel, who had become resigned to the
inevitable, said:

"If you want to get along with papa you must flatter him. Just make him
think he is a king."

"Ah," I thought. "Here is where I made my mistake."

I had started wrong. "Just make him think he is a king, His Majesty
Newton Jasper." The idea kept revolving in my mind as I realized the
reason I had not made good with him. I was too plain and sincere. I must
flatter him, make him think he was what he was not, and my failure to do
that was the reason for his listening to me in such an expressionless
manner.

Somewhere I had read that to be a king was to look wise and say nothing.
This is what he had done. Evidently he liked to feel great. I recalled
the name he was known by, "the Reverend N.J.," and I had heard him
spoken of jokingly as the "Great N.J." The N.J. was for Newton Jasper.
Ha! Ha! The more I thought of his greatness the more amused I became. I
might have settled the matter easily if I had no objection to flattering
him. He arrived home the next morning and was sitting in the parlor when
I called, trying to look serious, and surveying me as I entered, just as
a king might have done a disobedient subject. I had been so free and
without fear for so long that it was beyond my ability to shrivel up and
drop as he continued to look me over. I proceeded to tell him all that I
had written in my letter to him, the one he had not read, but did not
intimate that I knew he had not read it.

In the dining room where we gathered a few minutes later, with the
family assembled in mute attention, he asked Orlean whether she wanted
to marry me and live in Dakota and she admitted that she did. Then
turning to me he began a lengthy discourse with many ifs and if nots and
kept it up until I cut in with:

"My dear people, when I first came to see Orlean I didn't profess love.
Circumstances had not granted us the opportunity, but we entered a
mutual agreement that we would wait and see whether we could learn to
love each other or not." Hesitating a moment, I looked at Orlean and
gaining confidence as I met her soft glance, I went on: "I cannot
guarantee anything as to the future. We may be happy, and we may not,
but I hope for the best."

That seemed to satisfy him and he was very nice about it afterward.
Orlean and I had been to the court house the day previous and got the
license, and when her father told us we should go and get the license we
looked at each other rather sheepishly, and stammered out something, but
went down town and bought a pair of shoes instead. When we arrived home
preparations were being made for the wedding. The elder called up the
homes of two bishops who lived in the city, and when he found one sick
and the other out of town he was somewhat disappointed, as it had always
been his desire to have his daughters married by a bishop. He had failed
in the first instance and was compelled to accept the services of the
pastor of one of the three large African M.E. Churches of the city at
the wedding of Ethel, and had to call upon this pastor again but found
he also was out of the city. He finally secured the services of another
pastor, by whom we were married in the presence of some twenty or more
near friends of the family, Orlean wearing her sister's wedding dress
and veil. The dress was becoming and I thought her very beautiful. I
wore a Prince Albert coat and trousers to match which belonged to
Claves and were too small and tight, making me uncomfortable. I was not
long in getting out of them after undergoing the ordeal of being kissed
by all the ladies present. Mrs. Ewis invited us to spend the evening at
her home and the next day we left for South Dakota.

[Illustration: A beautiful townsite where trees stood. (page 182.)]



CHAPTER XXXVI

A SNAKE IN THE GRASS


Usually in the story of a man's life, or in fiction, when he gets the
girl's consent to marry, first admitting the love, the story ends; but
with mine it was much to the contrary. The story did not end there, nor
when we had married that afternoon at two o'clock. Instead, my marriage
brought the change in my life which was the indirect cause of my writing
this story. From that time adventures were numerous. We arrived in
Megory several hours late and remained over night at a hotel, going to
the farm the next morning and then to the house I had rented
temporarily.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I looked over the fields, and saw that
the boy I hired had done nicely with the work during my absence. The
next night about sixty of the white neighbors gave us a charivari and my
wife was much pleased to know there was no color prejudice among them.
We purchased about a hundred dollars worth of furniture in the town and
at once began housekeeping. My bride didn't know much about cooking, but
otherwise was a good housekeeper, and willing to learn all she could.
She was not a forceful person and could not be hurried, but was kind and
good as could be, and I soon became very fond of her and found marriage
much of an improvement over living alone.

In May we went up to her claim and put up a sod house and stayed there
awhile, later returning to Megory county to look after the crops. Our
first trouble occurred in about a month. I was still rather angry over
the Reverend's obliging me to spend the money to go to Chicago. This had
cost me a hundred dollars which I needed badly to pay the interest on my
loan. Letters began coming from the company holding the mortgages,
besides I had other obligations pending. I had only fifty dollars in the
bank when I started to Chicago and while there drew checks on it for
fifty more, making an overdraft of fifty dollars which it took me a
month to get paid after returning home. The furniture required for
housekeeping and improvements in connection with the homesteads took
more money, and my sister went home to attend the graduation of another
sister and I was required to pay the bills. My corn was gathered and I
now shelled it. As the price in Megory was only forty cents at the
elevators I hauled it to Victor, where I received seventy and sometimes
seventy-five cents for it, but as it was thirty-five miles, that took
time and the long drive was hard on the horses. Orlean's folks kept
writing letters telling her she must send money to buy something they
thought nice for her to have, and while no doubt not intending to cause
any trouble, they made it very hard for me. Money matters are usually a
source of trouble to the lives of newly-weds and business is so
cold-blooded that it contrasts severely with love's young dream.

My position was a trying one for the reason that all the relatives on
both sides seemed to take it for granted that I should have plenty of
money, and nothing I could say or do seemed to change matters. From his
circuit the Reverend wrote glowing letters to his "daughter and son," of
what all the people were saying. Everybody thought she had married so
well; Mr. Devereaux, or Oscar, as they put it, was of good family, a
successful young man, and was rich. I hadn't written to him and called
him "dear father." Perhaps this is what I should have done. In a way it
would have been easy enough to write, and since my marriage I had no
letters to spend hours in writing. Perhaps I should have written to him,
but when a man is in the position I faced, debts on one side and
relatives on the other, I thought it would not do to write as I felt,
and I could not write otherwise and play the hypocrite, as I had not
liked him from the beginning, and now disliked him still more because I
could find no way of letting him know how I felt. This was no doubt
foolish, but it was the way I felt about it at the time. My
father-in-law evidently thought me ungrateful, and wrote Orlean that I
should write him or the folks at home occasionally, but I remained
obdurate. I felt sure he expected me to feel flattered over the opinions
of which he had written in regard to my being considered rich, but I did
not want to be considered rich, for I was not. I had never been vain,
and hating flattery, I wanted to tell her people the truth. I wanted
them to understand, if they did not, what it took to make good in this
western country, and that I had a load and wanted their encouragement
and invited criticism, not empty praise and flattery.

Before I had any colored people to discourage me with their ignorance of
business or what is required for success, I was stimulated to effort by
the example of my white neighbors and friends who were doing what I
admired, building an empire; and to me that was the big idea. Their
parents before them knew something of business and this knowledge was a
goodly heritage. If they could not help their children with money they
at least gave their moral support and visited them and encouraged them
with kind words of hope and cheer. The people in a new country live
mostly on hopes for the first five or ten years. My parents and
grandparents had been slaves, honest, but ignorant. My father could
neither read nor write, had not succeeded in a large way, and had
nothing to give me as a start, not even practical knowledge. My wife's
parents were a little different, but it would have been better for me
had her father been other than "the big preacher" as he was referred to,
who in order to be at peace with, it was necessary to praise.

What I wanted in the circumstances I now faced was to be allowed to
mould my wife into a practical woman who would be a help in the work we
had before us, and some day, I assured her, we would be well to do, and
then we could have the better things of life.

"How long?" She would ask, weeping. She was always crying and so many
tears got on my nerves, especially when my creditors were pestering me
with duns, and it is Hades to be dunned, especially when you have not
been used to it.

"Oh!" I'd say. "Five or ten years."

And then she'd have another cry, and I would have to do a lot of petting
and persuading to keep her from telling her mother. This all had a
tendency to make me cross and I began to neglect kissing her as much as
I had been doing, but she was good and had been a nice girl when I
married her. She could only be made to stop crying when I would spend an
hour or two petting and assuring her I still loved her, and this when I
should have been in the fields. She would ask me a dozen times a day
whether I still loved her, or was I growing tired of her so soon. She
was a veritable clinging vine. This continued until we were both
decidedly unhappy and then began ugly little quarrels, but when she
would be away with my sister to her claim in Tipp county I would be so
lonesome without her, simple as I thought she was, and days seemed like
weeks.

One day she was late in bringing my dinner to the field where I was
plowing, and we had a quarrel which made us both so miserable and
unhappy that we were ashamed of ourselves. By some power for which we
were neither responsible, our disagreements came to an end and we never
quarreled again.

The first two weeks in June were hot and dry, and considerable damage
was done to the crops in Tipp county and in Megory county also. The
winds blew from the south and became so hot the young green plants began
to fire, but a big rain on the twenty-fourth saved the crops in Megory
county. About that time the Reverend wrote that he would come to see us
after conference, which was then three months away.

One day we were going to town after our little quarrels were over, and I
talked kindly with Orlean about her father and tried to overcome my
dislike of him, for her sake. I had learned by that time just how she
had been raised, and that was to to praise her father. She would say:

"You know, papa is such a big man," or "He is so great."

She had begun to call me her great and big husband, and I think that had
been the cause of part of our quarrels for I had discouraged it. I had a
horror of praise when I thought how silly her father was over it, and
she had about ceased and now talked more sensibly, weighing matters and
helping me a little mentally.

We talked of her father and his expected visit. She appeared so pleased
over the prospect and said:

"Won't he make a hit up here? Won't these white people be foolish over
his fine looks and that beautiful white hair?" And she raised her hands
and drew them back as I had seen her do in stroking her father's hair.

I agreed with her that he would attract some attention and changed the
subject. When we returned home she gave me the letter to read that she
had written to him. She was obedient and did try so hard to please me,
and when I read in the letter she had written that we had been to town
and had talked about him all the way and were anxious for him to visit
us; that we had agreed that he would make a great impression with the
people out here, I wanted very much to tell her not to send that letter
as it placed me in a false light, and would cause him to think the
people were going to be crazy about him and his distinguished
appearance; but she was watching me so closely that I could not be mean
enough to speak my mind and did not offer my usual criticism.

A short time before her father arrived, a contest was filed against
Orlean's claim on the ground that she had never established a residence.
We had established residence, but by staying much of the time in Megory
county had laid the claim liable to contest. The man who filed the
contest was a banker in Amro, this bank being one of the few buildings
left there. I knew we were in for a big expense and lots of trouble,
which I had feared, and had been working early and late to get through
my work in Megory county and get onto her claim permanently.

We did not receive the Reverend's letter stating when he would arrive so
I was not at the train to meet him, but happened to be in town on horse
back. In answer to my inquiries, a man who had come in on the train gave
me a description of a colored man who had arrived on the same train, and
I knew that my father-in-law was in town. I went to the hotel and found
he had left his baggage but had gone to the restaurant, where I found
him. He seemed pleased to be in Megory and after I explained that I had
not received his letter, I went to look up a German neighbor who was in
town in a buggy, thinking I would have the Reverend ride out with him.
When we got ready to go the German was so drunk and noisy that the
Reverend was frightened and remarked cautiously that he did not know
whether he wanted to ride out with a drunken man or not. The German
heard him and roared in a still louder tone:

"You don't have to ride with me. Naw! Naw! Naw!"

The elder became more frightened at this and hurriedly ducked into the
hotel, where he stayed. I hitched a team of young mules to the wagon the
next morning and sent Orlean to town after him.

The Reverend seemed to be carried away with our lives on the Little
Crow, and we got along fine until he and I got to arguing the race
question, which brought about friction. It was as I had feared but it
seemed impossible to avoid it. He had the most ancient and backward
ideas concerning race advancement I had ever heard. He was filled to
overflowing with condemnation of the white race and eulogy of the negro.
In his idea the negro had no fault, nor could he do any wrong or make
any mistake. Everything had been against him and according to the
Reverend's idea, was still. This he would declare very loudly. From the
race question we drifted to the discussion of mixed schools.

The Reverend had educated his girls with the intention of making
teachers of them and would speak of this fact with much pride, speaking
slowly and distinctly like one who has had years of oratory. He would
insist that the public schools of Chicago have not given them a chance.
"I am opposed to mixed schools," he would exclaim. "They are like
everything else the white people control. They are managed in a way to
keep the colored people down."

Here Orlean dissented, this being about the only time she did openly
disagree with him. She was firm in declaring there was no law or
management preventing the colored girls' teaching in Chicago if they
were competent.

"In the first place," she carefully continued, "the school we attended
in Ohio does not admit to teach in the city."

In order to teach in the city schools it is either necessary to be a
graduate of the normal, or have had a certain number of years'
experience elsewhere. I do not remember all the whys, but she was
emphatic and continued to insist that it was to some extent the fault of
the girls, who were not all as attentive to books as they should be;
spending too much time in society or with something else that kept them
from their studies, which impaired their chances when they attempted to
enter the city schools.

She held up instances where colored girls were teaching in Chicago
schools and had been for years, which knocked the foundation from his
argument.

There are very few colored people in a city or state which has mixed
schools, who desire to have them separated. The mixed schools give the
colored children a more equal opportunity and all the advantage of
efficient management. Separate schools lack this. Even in the large
cities, where separate schools are in force, the advantage is invariably
with the white schools.

Another advantage of mixed schools is, it helps to eliminate so much
prejudice. Many ignorant colored people, as well as many ignorant white
people, fill their children's minds with undue prejudice against each
race. If they are kept in separate schools this line becomes more
distinct, with one colored child filling the mind of other colored
children with bad ideas, and the white child doing likewise, which is
never helpful to the community. By nature, in the past at least, the
colored children were more ferocious and aggressive; too much so, which
is because they have not been out of heathenism many years. The mixed
school helps to eliminate this tendency.

With the Reverend it was a self-evident fact, that the only thing he
cared about was that it would be easier for the colored girls to teach,
if the schools were separate. I was becoming more and more convinced
that he belonged to the class of the negro race that desires ease,
privilege, freedom, position, and luxury without any great material
effort on their part to acquire it, and still held to the time-worn cry
of "no opportunity."

Following this disagreement came another. I had always approved of
Booker T. Washington, his life and his work in the uplift of the negro.
Before his name was mentioned I had decided just about how he would take
it, and I was not mistaken. He was bitterly opposed to the educator.



CHAPTER XXXVII

THE PROGRESSIVES AND THE REACTIONARIES


It is not commonly known by the white people at large that a great
number of colored people are against Mr. Washington. Being an educator
and philanthropist, it is hard to conceive any reason why they should be
opposed to him, but the fact remains that they are.

There are two distinct factions of the negro race, who might be classed
as Progressives and Reactionaries, somewhat like the politicians. The
Progressives, led by Booker T. Washington and with industrial education
as the material idea, are good, active citizens; while the other class
distinctly reactionary in every way, contend for more equal rights,
privileges, and protection, which is all very logical, indeed, but they
do not substantiate their demands with any concrete policies; depending
largely on loud demands, and are too much given to the condemnation of
the entire white race for the depredations of a few.

It is true, very true indeed, that the American negro does not receive
all he is entitled to under the constitution. Volumes could be filled
with the many injustices he has to suffer, and which are not right
before God and man; yet, when it is considered that other races in other
countries, are persecuted even more than the negro is in parts of the
United States, there should be no reason why the American negro allow
obvious prejudice to prevent his taking advantage of opportunities that
surround him.

I have been called a "radical," perhaps I am, but for years I have felt
constrained to deplore the negligence of the colored race in America, in
not seizing the opportunity for monopolizing more of the many million
acres of rich farm lands in the great northwest, where immigrants from
the old world own many of acres of rich farm lands; while the millions
of blacks, only a few hundred miles away, are as oblivious to it all as
the heathen of Africa are to civilization.

In Iowa, for instance, where the number of farms total around two
hundred and ten thousand, and include the richest land in the world,
only thirty-seven are owned and operated by negroes, while South Dakota,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota have many less. I would quote
these facts to my father-in-law until I was darker in the face than I
naturally am. He could offer no counter argument to them, but continued
to vituperate the sins of the white people. He was a member in good
standing of the reactionary faction of the negro race, the larger part
of which are African M.E. ministers.

Since Booker T. Washington came into prominence they have held back and
done what they could to impede and criticize his work, and cast little
stones in his path of progress, while most of the younger members of the
ministry are heart and soul in accord with him and are helping all they
can. The older members are almost to a unit, with some exceptions, of
course, against him and his industrial educational ideas.

A few years ago a professor in a colored university in Georgia wrote a
book which had a tremendous sale. He claimed in his book that the public
had become so over-enthused regarding Booker T. and industrial
education, that the colored schools for literary training were almost
forgotten, and, of course, were severely handicapped by a lack of funds.
His was not criticism, but was intended to call attention of the public
to the number of colored schools in dire need of funds, which on account
of race prejudice in the south, must teach classics. This was true,
although industrial education was the first means of lifting the
ignorant masses into a state of good citizenship. Immediately following
the publication of the volume referred to, thousands of anti-Booker T.'s
proceeded to place the writer as representing their cause and formed all
kinds of clubs in his honor, or gave their clubs his name. They
pretended to feel and to have everyone else feel, that they had at last
found a man who would lead them against Booker T. and industrial
education.

They made a lot of noise for a while, which soon died out, however, as
the author of the book was far too broad minded and intelligent in every
way, to be a party to such a theory, much less, to lead a lot of
reckless people, who never had and never would do anything for the
uplifting of their race.

The Reverend and I could not in any way agree. He was so bitter against
industrial education and the educator's name, that he lost all composure
in trying to dodge the issue in our argument, and found himself up
against a brick wall in attempting to belittle Mr. Washington's work.
Most of the trouble with the elder was, that he was not an intelligent
man, never read anything but negro papers, and was interested only in
negro questions. He was born in Arkansas, but maintained false ideas
about himself. He never admitted to having been born a slave, but he was
nearly sixty years of age, and sixty years ago a negro born in Arkansas
would have been born in slavery, unless his parents had purchased
themselves. If this had been the case, as vain as he was, I felt sure he
would have had much to say about it. He must have been born a slave, but
of course had been young when freed. He had lived in Springfield,
Missouri, after leaving Arkansas, and later moving to Iowa, where, at
the age of twenty-seven years, he was ordained a minister and started to
preach, which he had continued for thirty years or more. He never had
any theological training. This was told me by my wife, and she added
despairingly:

"Poor papa! He is just ignorant and hard-headed, and all his life has
been associated with hard-headed negro preachers. He reads nothing but
radical negro papers and wants everybody to regard him as being a
brilliant man, and you might as well try to reason with two trees, or a
brick wall, as to try to reason with him or Ethel. I'm so sorry papa is
so ignorant. Mama has always tried to get him to study, but he would
never do it. That's all."

We went up to the claims, taking the elder along. My sister had married
and her husband was making hay on the claims.

I might have been more patient with the Reverend, if he had not been so
full of pretense, when being plain and truthful would have been so much
better and easier. I had quit talking to him about anything serious or
anything that interested me, but would sit and listen to him talk of the
big preachers, and the bishops, and the great negroes who had died years
before. He seemed fond of talking of what they had done in the past and
what more could be done in the future, if the white people were not so
strongly banded against them. After this, his conversation would turn to
pure gossip, such as women might indulge in. He talked about the women
belonging to the churches of his district, whether they were living
right or wrong, and could tell very funny stories about them.

In Dakota, like most parts of the west, people who have any money at
all, carry no cash in the pocket, but bank their money and use checks.
The people of the east and south, that is, the common people, seldom
have a checking account, and, with the masses of the negroes, no account
at all. During the summer Orlean had sent her father my checks with
which to make purchases. The Reverend told me he checked altogether, but
my wife had told me her father's ambition had always been to have a
checking account, but had not been able to do so. I had to laugh over
this, for it was no distinction whatever. We discussed the banking
business and the elder tried to tell me that if a national bank went
broke, the government paid all the depositors, while if it was a state
bank, the depositors lost. As this was so far from correct, I explained
the laws that governed national banks and state banks alike, as regards
the depositors, in the event of insolvency. I did not mean to bring out
such a storm but he flew into an accusation, exclaiming excitedly:

"That's just the way you are! You must have everything your way! I never
saw such a contrary man! You won't believe anything!"

"But, Reverend," I remonstrated. "I have no 'way' in this. What I have
quoted you is simply the law, the law governing national and state bank
deposits, that you can read up on yourself, just the same as I have
done. If I am wrong, I very humbly beg your pardon."

The poor old man was so chagrined he seemed hardly to know what to do,
though this was but one of many awkward situations due to his ignorance
of the most simple business matters. Another time he was trying to
listen intelligently to a conversation relating to the development of
the northwest, when I had occasion to speak of Jim Hill. Seeing he did
not look enlightened, I repeated, this time referring to him as James J.
Hill, of the Great Northern, and inquired if he had not heard of the
pioneer builder.

"No, I never heard of him," he answered.

"Never heard of James J. Hill?" I exclaimed, in surprise.

"Why should I have heard of him," he said, answering my exclamation
calmly.

"O, no reason at all," I concluded, and remained silent, but my face
must have expressed my disgust at his ignorance, and he a public man for
thirty years.

[Illustration: Ernest Nicholson takes a hand. (Page 186.)]

After this conversation I forced myself to remain quiet and listen to
common gossip. Instead of being pleased to see us happy and Orlean
contented, he would, whenever alone with her, discourage her in every
way he could, sighing for sympathy, praising Claves and telling her how
much he was doing for Ethel, and how much she, Orlean, was sacrificing
for me.

The contest trial occurred while he was with us, and cost, to start
with, an attorney's fee of fifty dollars, in addition to witnesses'
expenses. I had bought a house in Megory and we moved it onto Orlean's
claim. The Reverend helped with the moving, but he was so discouraging
to have around. He dug up all the skeletons I left buried in M--pls and
bared them to view, in deceitful ways.

We had decided not to visit Chicago that winter. The crop was fair, but
prices were low on oats and corn, and my crops consisted mostly of those
cereals. I tried to explain this to the Reverend when he talked of what
we would have, Christmas, in Chicago.

"Now, don't let that worry you, my boy," he would say breezily. "I'll
attend to that! I'll attend to that!"

"Attend to what?" I asked.

"Why, I'll send both of you a ticket."

"O, really, Reverend, I thank you ever so much, but I could not think of
accepting it, and you must not urge it. We are not coming to Chicago,
and I wish you would not talk of it so much with Orlean," I would almost
plead with him. "She is a good girl and we are happy together. She wants
to help me, but she's only a weak woman, and being so far away from
colored people, she will naturally feel lonesome and want to visit
home."

He paid no more attention to me than if I had never spoken. In fact, he
talked more about Chicago than ever, saying a dozen times a day:

"Yes, children, I'll send you the money."

I finally became angry and told him I would not, under any circumstances
whatever, accept such charity, and that what my money was invested in,
represented a value of more than thirty thousand dollars, and how could
I be expected to condescend to accept charity from him.

He had told me once that he never had as much as two hundred dollars at
one time in his life. I did not want a row, but as far as I was
concerned, I did not want anything from him, for I felt that he would
throw it up to me the rest of his life. I was convinced that he was a
vain creature, out for a show, and I fairly despised him for it.

At last he went home and Orlean and I got down to business, moving more
of our goods onto the claim, and spending about one-third of the time
there. We intended moving everything as soon as the corn was gathered.
As Christmas drew near, her folks wrote they were looking for her to
come home, the Reverend having told them that she was coming, and that
he was going to send her the money for her to come. Her mother wrote
about it in letter, saying she didn't think it was right. Just before
Christmas, she wrote that maybe if she wrote Cousin Sam he would send
her the money. Cousin Sam was a porter in a down town saloon. I felt so
mortified that I swore I would never again have anything to do with her
family. They never regarded my feelings nor our relations in the least,
but wrote a letter every few days about who was coming to the house to
see Orlean Christmas, of who was going to have her at their homes for
dinner when she came home, until the poor girl, with a child on the way,
was as helpless as a baby, trying to be honest with all concerned. It
had never been her lot to take the defensive.

My sister came down from her claim and took Orlean home with her. While
she was in Tipp county a letter came from her father for her, and
thinking it might be a matter needing immediate attention, I opened it
and found a money order for eighteen dollars, sent from Cairo, with
instructions when to start, and he would be home to meet her when she
arrived, suggesting that I could come later.

I was about the maddest man in Megory when I was through reading the
letter, fairly flying to the post office, enclosing the money order and
all, with a curt little note telling what I had done; that Orlean was
out on her claim and would be home in a few days, but that we were not
coming to Chicago. I would have liked to tell him that I was running my
own house, but did not do so. I was hauling shelled corn to a feeder in
town, when Orlean came. She was driving a black horse, hitched to a
little buggy I had purchased for her, and I met her on the road. I got
out and kissed her fondly, then told what I had done. My love for her
had been growing. She had been gone a week and I was so glad to see her
and have her back with me. I took the corn on into town and when I
returned home she had cleaned up the house, prepared a nice supper and
had killed a chicken for the next day, which was Christmas. She then
confessed that she had written her father that he could send the money.

"Now, dear," she said, as though a little frightened, "I'm so sorry, for
I know papa's going to make a big row."

And he did, fairly burned the mail with scorching letters denouncing my
action and threatening what he was liable to do about it, which was to
come out and attend to me. I judged he did not get much sympathy,
however, for a little while after Orlean had written him he cooled down
and wrote that whatever Orlean and I agreed on was all right with him,
though I knew nothing of what her letter contained.

The holidays passed without further event, excepting a letter from Mrs.
Ewis, to my wife, in which she said she was glad that she had stayed in
Dakota and stuck by her husband. The letter seemed a little strange,
though I thought nothing of it at the time. A few months later I was to
know what it meant, which was more than I could then have dreamed of. We
were a lone colored couple, in a country miles from any of our kind,
honest, hopeful and happy; we had no warning, nor if we had, would we
have believed. Why, indeed, should any young couple feel that some
person, especially one near and dear, should be planning to put asunder
what God had joined together?

It was now the last of February and we expected our first-born in
March. My wife had grown exceedingly fretful. Grandma was with us,
having made proof on her homestead. Orlean kept worrying and wanting to
go to her claim, talking so much about it, that I finally talked with
some neighbor friends and they advised that it would be better to take
her to the homestead, for if she continued to fret so much over wanting
to be there, when the child was born, it might be injured in some way.
When the weather became favorable, I wrapped her and grandma up
comfortably, and sent them to the claim in the spring wagon, while I
followed with a load of furniture, making the trip in a day and a half.
We had close neighbors who said they would look after her while I went
back after the stock. A lumber yard was selling out in Kirk, and I
bought the coal shed, which was strongly built, being good for barns and
granaries. Cutting it into two parts, I loaded one part onto two wagons
and started the sixty miles to the claim. A thaw set in about the time I
had the building as far as my homestead south of Megory. I decided to
leave it there and tear down my old buildings and move them, instead. I
received a letter from Orlean saying they were getting along nicely,
excepting that the stove smoked considerably; and for me to be very
careful with Red and not let him kick me. Red was a mule I had bought
the summer before and was a holy terror for kicking.

My sister arrived that night from a visit to Kansas, and on hearing from
Orlean that she was all right, I sent my sister on to her claim, and
hiring more men, moved the balance of the building onto the old farm,
tore down the old buildings, loaded them onto wagons, and finally got
started again for Tipp county. That was on Saturday. The wind blew a
gale, making me feel lonely and far from home. Sunday morning I started
early out of Colone planning to get home that night, but the front axle
broke and by the time we got another it was growing late. We started
again and traveled about two miles, when the tongue broke, and by the
time that was mended it was late in the afternoon. About six o'clock we
pulled into Victor, tired and weary. The next day, when about five miles
from home, we met one of the neighbors, who informed me that he had
tried to get me over the phone all along the way; that my wife had been
awfully sick and that the baby had been born, dead. It struck me like a
hammer, and noting my frightened look, he spoke up quickly:

"But she's all right now. She had two doctors and didn't lack for
attention."

On the way home I was so nervous that I could hardly wait for the horses
to get there. I would not have been away at this time for anything in
the world. I knew Orlean would forgive me, but we had not told her
father. Orlean had told her mother and thought she would tell him. He
made so much ado about everything, we hoped to avoid the tire of his
burdensome letters, but now, with the baby born during my absence, and
it dead, when we had so many plans for its future. It was to have been
the first colored child born on the Little Crow, and we thought we were
going to make history.

When I got to the claim I was weak in every way. My wife seemed none the
worse, but my emotions were intense when I saw the little dead boy. Poor
little fellow! As he lay stiff and cold I could see the image of myself
in his features. My wife noticed my look and said:

"It is just like you, dear!"

That night we buried the baby on the west side of the draw. It should
have been on the east, where the only trees in the township, four
spreading willows, cast their shadows.

"Well, dear, we have each other," I comforted her as she cried.

Between sobs she tried to tell me how she had prayed for it to live, and
since it had looked so much like me, she thought her heart would break.

When the child was born they had sent a telegram to her father which
read:

"Baby born dead. Am well."

This was his first knowledge of it. We received a telegram that night
that he was on the way and the next day he arrived, bringing Ethel with
him. When he got out of the livery rig that brought them I could see
Satan in his face. A chance had come to him at last. It seemed to say:

"Oh, now I'll fix you. Away when the child was born, eh?"

His very expression seemed jubilant. He had longed for some chance to
get me and now it had arrived. He did not speak to me, but bounded into
the room where my wife was, and she must have read the same thing in his
expression, for, as he talked about it later, I learned the first thing
she said was:

"Now, papa. You must not abuse Oscar. He loves me and is kind and doing
the best he can, but he is all tied up with debt."

He would tell this every few hours but I could see the evil of his heart
in the expression of his eyes, leering at me, with hatred and malice in
every look. He and Ethel turned loose in about an hour. From that time
on, it was the same as being in the house with two human devils. They
nearly raised the roof with their quarreling. Of the two, the Reverend
was the worst, for he was cunning and deceitful, pretending in one
sentence to love, and in the next taking a thrust at my emotions and
home. I shall never forget his evil eyes.

Ethel would cry out in her ringing voice:

"You're practical! You're practical! You and your Booker T. Washington
ideas!"

Then she would tear into a string of abusive words. One day, after the
doctor had been to the house, he called me aside and said:

"Oscar, your wife is physically well enough, but is mentally sick.
Something should be done so that she may be more quiet."

"Is she quite out of danger?" I asked.

He replied that she was. That night I told my wife of our conversation
and the next day I left for Megory county.



CHAPTER XXXVIII

SANCTIMONIOUS HYPOCRISY


I was preparing to seed the biggest crop I had ever sown. With Orlean
helping me, by bringing the dinner to the field and doing some chores,
during the fall we had put the farm into winter wheat and I had rented
the other Megory county farm. I hired a steam rig, to break two hundred
acres of prairie on the Tipp county homesteads, for which I was to pay
three dollars an acre and haul the coal from Colone, a distance of
thirty-five miles, the track having been laid to that point on the
extension west from Calias.

I intended to break one hundred acres with my horses and put it into
flax. I had figured, that with a good crop, it would go a long way
toward helping me get out of debt. I worked away feverishly, for I had
gotten deeper into debt by helping my folks get the land in Tipp county.

After putting in fifteen acres of spring wheat, I hauled farm machinery
to my sister's claim, and then began hauling coal from Colone. It was on
Friday. I was driving two horses and two mules abreast, hitched to a
wagon loaded with fifty hundred pounds of coal, and trailing another
with thirty hundred pounds, when one of the mules got unruly, going down
a hill, swerved to one side, and in less time than it takes to tell it,
both wagons had turned turtle over a fifteen-foot embankment and I was
under eight thousand pounds of coal, with both wagons upside down and
the hind wagonbox splintered almost to kindling. That I was not hurt was
due to the fact that the grade had been built but a few days previously,
had not settled and the loose dirt had prevented a crash. I attempted to
jump when I saw the oncoming disaster, but caught my foot in the brake
rope which pulled me under the loads.

A day and a half was lost in getting the wreck cleared so I could
proceed to my sister's claim, from where I had intended going home to my
wife, fifteen miles away. I had left the Reverend in charge after he and
Ethel had said about all the evil things words could express, and he,
finding that I was inclined to be peaceful, had shown his hatred of me
in every conceivable manner, until Orlean, who could never bear noise or
quarreling, decided it would be better that I go away and perhaps he
would quit. I did not get home that trip on account of the delay caused
by the wreck, but sent my sister with a letter, stating that I would
come home the next trip, and describing the accident.

I went back to Colone, and while eating supper someone told me three
colored people were in Colone, and one of them was a sick woman. I could
hardly believe what I heard. My appetite vanished and I arose from the
table, paid the cashier and left the place, going to the hotel around
the corner, and there sat my wife. I went to her side and whispered:

"Orlean, what in heaven's name are you doing here? And why did you come
out in such weather."

She was still very sick and wheezed when she answered, trembling at the
same time:

"You said I could go home until I got well."

"Yes, I know," I answered, controlling my excitement. "But to leave home
in such weather is foolhardy."

It had been snowing all day and was slippery and cold outside.

"And, besides," I argued, "you should never have left home until I
returned. Didn't you get my letter?" I inquired, looking at her with a
puzzled expression.

"No," she replied, appearing bewildered. "But I saw Ollie hand something
to papa."

I then recalled that I had addressed the letter to him.

"But," I went on, "I wrote you a letter last week that you should have
received not later than Saturday."

"I--I--I never received it," she answered, and seemed frightened.

I could not understand what had taken place. I had left my wife two
weeks before, feeling that I held her affections, and had thought only
of the time we'd be settled at last, with her well again.

The Reverend had said so much about her going home that I had consented,
but had stipulated that I would wait until she was better and would then
see whether we could afford it or not.

Suddenly a horrible suspicion struck me with such force as almost to
stagger me, but calming myself, I decided to talk to the elder. He came
in about that time and looked very peculiar when he saw me.

The town was full of people that night and he had some difficulty in
getting a room, but had finally succeeded in getting one in a small
rooming house, and to it we now helped Orlean, who was anything but
well.

As we carried her, I could hardly suppress the words that came to my
lips, to say to him when we got into the room, but thought it best not
to say anything. Ethel, who was sitting there when we entered, never
deigned to speak to me, but her eyes conveyed the enmity within. The
Reverend was saying many kind words, but I was convinced they were all
pretense and that he was up to some dirty trick. I was further convinced
that he not only was an arrant hypocrite, but an enemy of humanity as
well, and utterly heartless. When he and Ethel had entered our home
three weeks before, neither shed a tear nor showed any emotion whatever,
and had not even referred to the death of the baby, but set up a quarrel
that never ceased after I went away.

"Reverend," I said. "Will you and Ethel kindly leave the room for a few
minutes? I would like to speak with Orlean alone."

They never deigned to move an inch, but finally the Reverend said:

"We'll not leave unless Orlean says so."

In that moment he appeared the most contemptible person I ever knew. My
wife began crying and said she wanted to see her mother, that she was
sick, and wanted to go home until she got well. I was angry all over and
turned on the preacher, exclaiming hotly:

"Rev. McCraline, I left you in charge of my wife out of respect for you
as her father, but," here I thundered in a terrible voice, "you have
been up to some low-lived trick and if I thought you were trying to
alienate my wife's affections, or had done so, I would stop this thing
right here and sue you, if you were worth anything."

At this he flushed up and answered angrily:

"I'm worth as much as you."

He was a poor hand at anything but quarreling, but knowing we'd make a
scene, I said no more. It was a long night, Orlean was restless, and
wheezed and coughed all through the night.

I have wondered since why I did not take the bull by the horns and
settle the matter then, but guess it was for the sake of peace, that
I've accepted the situation and remained quiet. I decided it would be
best to let her go home without a big row, and when she had recovered,
she could come home, and all would be well.

My wife had informed me that Claves kept up the house, paid for the
groceries and half of the installments, while her father paid for the
other half, but never bought anything to eat, nor sent any money home,
only bringing eggs, butter, and chickens when he came into the city
three or four times a year. But Claves' name was not on the contract for
the home, only her father's name appearing. Her father was extremely
vain and I had not pleased him because I was independent, and he did not
like independent people. She also told me that her father always kept up
a row when he was at home, but always charged it to everybody else.

The next morning, just before we started for the depot, I said:

"I'll step into the bank and get a check cashed and give Orlean some
money. I haven't much, but I want her to have her own money."

"Never mind, my son, just never mind. I can get along," said the
Reverend, keeping his head turned and appearing ill at ease, though I
thought nothing of that at the time.

"I wouldn't think of such a thing!" I answered, protesting that he was
not able to pay her way. "I wouldn't think of allowing her to accept
it."

"Now! Now! Why do you go on so? Haven't I told you I have enough?" he
answered in a tenor voice, trying to appear winsome.

Feeling that I knew his disposition, I said no more, but as we were
passing the bank, I started to enter, saying to my wife:

"I am going to get you some money."

She caught me by the sleeve and cried excitedly: "No! No! No! Don't,
because I have money." Hesitating a moment and repeating, "I have
money."

"You have money?" I repeated, appearing to misunderstand her statement.
"How did you get money?"

"Had a check cashed," she answered nervously.

"O, I see!" I said. "How much?"

"Fifty dollars," she answered, clinging to my arm.

"Good gracious, Orlean!" I exclaimed, near to fright. "We haven't got
that much in the bank."

"Oh! Oh! I didn't want to," and then called to her father, who was just
coming with the baggage: "Papa! Papa! You give Oscar back that money.
He hasn't got it. Oh! Oh! I didn't want to do this, but you said it
would be all right, and that the cashier at the bank, where you got it
cashed, called up the bank in Calias and said the check was all right.
Oh! Oh!" she went on, beside herself with excitement, and holding her
arms out tremblingly and repeating: "I didn't want to do this."

I can see the look in his face to this day. All the hypocrisy and
pretense vanished, leaving him a weak, shame-faced creature, and looking
from one side to the other stammered out:

"I didn't do it! I didn't do it! You--You--You know, you told her she
should write a check for any money she needed and she did it, she did
it."

Here again my desire for peace over-ruled my good judgment. Instead of
stopping the matter then and there, I spoke up gravely, saying:

"I don't mind Orlean's going home. In fact, I want her to go home and to
have anything to help her get well and please her, but I haven't the
money to spare. Her sickness, with a doctor coming into the country
twice daily, has been very expensive, and we just have not the money,
that is all."

When he saw I was not going to put a stop to it, he took courage and
spoke sneakingly:

"Well, the man in the bank at Carlin called up the bank of Calias, and
they said the money was there."

"O," I said, "as far as that goes, I had five hundred dollars there last
week, it has all been checked out, but some of the checks likely are
still out."

I took twenty-five dollars of the money and gave Orlean twenty-five
dollars. Her ticket was eighteen dollars. I went with them as far as
Calias, to see how my account stood. I kissed Orlean good-bye before
leaving the train at Calias, then I went directly to the bank and
deposited the twenty-five dollars. The checks I had given had come in
that morning, and even after depositing the twenty-five, I found my
account was still overdrawn thirty dollars.



CHAPTER XXXIX

BEGINNING OF THE END


I waited to hear from my wife in Chicago but at the end of two weeks I
had not heard from her, although I had written three letters, and a week
later I journeyed to Colone and took a train for Chicago. When I called
at the house the next day her mother admitted me, but did not offer to
shake hands. She informed me Orlean was out, but that it was the first
time she had been out, as she had been very sick since coming home. When
I asked her why Orlean had not written, she said:

"I understand you have mistreated my child."

"Mistreated Orlean!" I exclaimed. Then, looking into her eyes, I asked
slowly, "Did Orlean tell you that?"

"No," she answered, looking away, "but my husband did."

Gradually, I learned from her, that the Reverend had circulated a report
that Orlean was at death's door when he came to her bedside; if he had
not arrived when he did, she would have died, and when she was well
enough to travel, he brought her home.

It was at last clear to me, as I sat with bowed head and feeling
bewildered and unable to speak. I recalled the words of Miss Ankin
eighteen months before, "the biggest rascal in the Methodist church." I
remembered the time I had called and saw him driving his wife, who was
now sitting before me, and the rest of it. I saw all that he had done.
He had abused this woman for thirty years, and here and now, out of
spite and personal malice, because I had criticized the action of
certain members of the race, and eulogized the work of Booker T.
Washington, whom the elder, along with many of the older members of the
ministry, hated and would not allow his name mentioned in his home, I
was to lose my wife, to pay the penalty.

He had disliked me from the beginning, but there had been no way he
could get even. He was "getting even," spiting me, securing my wife by
coercion, and now spreading a report that I was mistreating her, in
order to justify his action.

"Mrs. McCraline," I said, speaking in a firm tone, "Do you believe
this?"

Evading the direct question, she answered:

"You should never have placed yourself or Orlean in such a position."
And then I understood. When Orlean had written her mother of the coming
of the child, Mrs. McCraline had not written or told the Reverend about
it.

I now understood, further, that she never told him anything, and never
gave him any information if she could avoid it. What my wife had told me
was proving itself, that is, that they got along with her father by
avoiding any friction. He could not be reasoned with, but I could not
believe any man would be mean enough to deliberately break up a home,
and that the home of his daughter, for so petty a reason. It became
clear to me that he ruled by making himself so disagreeable, that
everyone near gave in to him, to have peace.

He had only that morning gone to his work. On hearing me, Ethel came
downstairs and called up Claves. A few minutes later her mother called
me, saying Claves wanted to talk to me. When I took the receiver and
called "hello," he answered like a crazy man. I said:

"What is the matter? I do not understand what you are talking about."

"What are you doing in my house, after what you said about me?" he
shouted excitedly.

"Said about you?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied, "I hear you treated my wife like a dog, after I sent
her out there to attend to your wife, called me all kinds of bad names,
and said I was only a fifteen-cent jockey."

"Treated your wife ugly, and called you a jockey," here I came to and
said to myself that here was some more of the elder's work, but I
answered Claves: "I haven't the faintest idea of what you are talking
about. I treated your wife with the utmost courtesy while she was in
Dakota, I never mentioned your name in any such terms as you refer to,
and I am wholly at a loss to understand the condition of affairs I find
here. I am confused over it all."

"Well," he answered, "suppose you come down to where I work and we will
talk it over."

"I'll do that," I answered, and went down town where he worked on Wabash
avenue.

One thing I had noticed about him was, that while he was ignorant, he
was at least an honest, hard-working fellow, but was kept in fear by his
wife and the elder. I saw after talking to him, that he, like Mrs.
McCraline, did not believe a word of what the Reverend had told about
my mistreating his daughter, and that he submitted to the elder, as the
rest of the family did, for the sake of peace. But they were all trained
and avoided saying anything about the elder.

During the conversation with Claves he told me he kept up the house,
paid all the grocery bills, and half the payments. He had been advanced
to a salary of eighteen dollars a week and seemed to be well liked by
the management.

I went to a hotel run by colored people, and at about seven-thirty that
evening, called up the house to see if Orlean had returned. She came to
the phone but before we had said much, were accidentally cut off.
Hearing her voice excited me, and I wanted to see her, so hung up the
receiver and hurried to the house, some ten or twelve blocks away. When
I rang the bell, Claves came to the door. Before he could let me enter,
Ethel came running down the stairs, screaming as loudly as she could:

"Don't let him in! Don't let him in! You know what papa said! Don't you
let him in," and continued screaming as loud as possible.

I heard my wife crying in the back room. Claves had his hat on and came
outside, saying:

"For God's sake, Ethel, hush up! You'll have all the neighborhood out."

She continued to scream, and to stop her, he closed the door. We went
together on State street and I took a few Scotch highballs and cocktails
to try to forget it.

The next day being Sunday, Claves said he would try to get Ethel off to
church and then I could slip in and see Orlean, but she refused to go
and when I called up, about the time I thought she would be gone, she
was on guard. My wife was at the phone and told me to come over and she
would try to slip out, but when I called, Ethel had made her go to bed.
It seemed that she ran the house and all in it, when the elder was away.
Mrs. McCraline came outside, took me by the arm and led me over to
Groveland park, near the lake. Here she unfolded a plan whereby I should
find a room nearby, and she would slip Orlean over to it, but this
proved as unsuccessful as the other attempt, to steal a march on Ethel.
She held the fort and I did not get to see my wife but one hour during
the four days I was in Chicago. That was on Tuesday following, after
Claves had tried every trick and failed to get Ethel away. This time he
succeeded by telling her I had left town, but when I had been in the
house an hour, Ethel came and started screaming. I had to get out before
she would stop.

The next day I called up and suggested to Orlean that I bring a doctor
and leave her in his charge for I must return to Dakota. She consented
and I went to a young negro doctor on State street and took him to the
house, but when we arrived, Ethel would not admit us. The doctor and I
had roomed together before I left Chicago, while he was attending the
Northwestern Medical School, and we had always been good friends. He had
been enthusiastic over my success in the west and it made me feel
dreadfully embarrassed when we were refused admittance. When I called up
the house later Ethel came to the phone, and said:

"How dare you bring a 'nigger doctor' to our house? Why, papa has never
had a negro doctor in his house. Dr. Bryant is our doctor."

Dr. Bryant, a white doctor, is said to have the biggest practice among
colored people, of any physician. That recalled to my mind some of the
elder's declarations of a short time before. He had said on more than
one occasion:

"I am sacrificing my life for this race," and would appear much
affected.

After I returned home, my wife began writing nice letters, and so did
Claves, who had done all a hen-pecked husband could do to help my wife
and me. He wrote letters from the heart, declaring his intention to be
more than a friend. He would be a brother. I received a letter from him,
which read:


     Chicago, Ill., May 30, 19--.

     DEAR FRIEND DEVEREAUX:

     Your kind and welcome letter was received a few days ago and the
     reason you did not receive my last letter sooner was because I left
     it for Ethel to mail, and she didn't do so. I am glad to hear you
     are getting your flax in good shape, and the prospects are fair for
     a good crop, and now I will tell you about Orlean. She seems
     happier of late than she has been at any time since she came home.
     Now, I don't know how you will feel, but I know it relieves my
     conscience, when I say that your wife loves you, and talks of
     you--to me--all the time.

     Those papers, and pamphlets you sent telling all about the display
     Nicholson brothers had on at the Omaha land show. She had opened it
     and when I came home she told me she could not wait because she was
     so anxious to hear about the Little Crow. She told me that
     Nicholson brothers were your best friends. I imagine they must be
     smart fellows for every paper in the batch you sent me had
     something about them in it. She took the money you sent her and
     bought some shoes and had some pictures made, so as to send you
     one. Mrs. Warner was over the next day, and said; "Where did you
     get the shoes?" and she answered, "My husband sent them to me."

     Now, I hope you will not worry because she told me as soon as she
     was well enough she was going back to Dakota, and as for me, I
     intend to be more than a friend to you. I'm going to be a brother.

     From your dear friend,

     E.M. CLAVES.


My wife had written at the same time and used many "we" and "ours" in
her letter, and I felt the trouble would soon be over and she would be
at home.

That was the last letter I received from Claves, and when I heard from
my wife again, it was altogether different. Instead of an endearing
epistle, it was one of accusation, downright abusive. I made no
complaint, nor did I write to Claves to inquire why he had ceased
writing. I had always judged people by their convictions and in this I
knew the cause.



CHAPTER XL

THE MENNONITES


During the first half of the sixteenth century, Menno Simons founded a
denomination of Christians in Friesland, a province of the Netherlands.
Many of these Mennonites settled in Northern Germany. This religious
belief was opposed to military service and about the close of the
American Revolution the Mennonites began emigrating, until more than
fifty thousand of their number had found homes west of the Dneiper, near
the Black Sea, in Southern Russia, around Odessa. These people were
fanatical in their belief, rejected infant baptism and original sin,
believing in baptism only on profession of faith, and were opposed to
theological training.

In Russia, as in Germany, they led lives of great simplicity, both
secularly and religiously and lived in separate communities.

The gently rolling lands, with a rich soil, responded readily to
cultivation, and history proves the Germans always to have been good
farmers. The Mennonites found peace and prosperity in southern Russia,
until the Crimean war. Being opposed to military service, when Russia
began levying heavy taxes on their lands and heavier toll from their
families, by taking the strong young men to carry on the war, the
Mennonites became dissatisfied under the Russian government, and left
the country in great numbers, removing to America, and settling along
the Jim river in South Dakota.

Among these settlers was a family by the name of Wesinberger, who had
grown prosperous, their forefathers having gone to Russia among the
first, although they were not Mennonites. Christopher the youngest son,
was among those drawn to go to the war, but the Wesinbergers were
prosperous, and paid the examining physician twelve hundred and fifty
rubles (about one thousand dollars) to have Christopher "made sick" and
pronounced unfit for service. With the approach of the Russian-Japanese
War, when it was seen that Russia would be forced into war with Japan,
the boys having married, and with sons of their own, who would have to
"draw," the Wesinberger brothers sold their land and set sail for
America. At the time the war broke out, John and Jacob were living on
homesteads, in the county adjoining Tipp county on the north,
Christopher having settled in western Canada.

It was while they were breaking prairie near my sister's homestead, that
I became acquainted with the former, who, at that time owned a hundred
and fifty head of cattle, seventy-five head of horses, hogs, and all
kinds of farm machinery, besides a steam prairie breaking outfit and
fifteen hundred acres of land between them.

During rainy days along in April, to pass the time away, I would visit
them, and while sitting by the camp fire was told of what I have written
above, but where they interested me most was when they discussed
astronomy and meteorology. They could give the most complete description
of the zodiacal heavens and the different constellations. It seems that
astronomy had interested their ancestors before leaving Germany nearly
one hundred and thirty years before, and it had been taught to each
succeeding generation. They seemed to know the position of each planet,
and on several occasions when the nights were clear, with a powerful
telescope, they would try to show them to me, but as I knew little or
nothing of astronomy, I understood but little of their discussions
concerning the heliocentric longitude of all the planets, or the points
at which they would appear if seen from the sun.

Before many months rolled around I had good reason to believe at least a
part of what they tried to explain to me, and that was, that according
to the planets we were nearing a certain Jupiter disturbance.

"And what does that mean?" I asked.

"That means," they explained, "It will be dry."

"Jupiter" said John, as he leisurely rolled a cigarette,
"circumnavigates the sun once while the earth goes around it twelve
times. In Russia Jupiter's position got between the sun and the
constellation Pisces, Aries, Taurus and Gemini, it was invariably wet
and cool and small grain crops were good, but as it passed on and got
between the sun and the constellations Libra and Scorpio it was always
followed by a minimum of rainfall and a maximum heat, which caused a
severe drouth."

They had hoped it would be different in America, but explained further
that when they had lived in Russia it commenced to get dry around St.
Petersburg, Warsaw and all northern Russia a year or so before it did in
southern Russia.

They had relatives living around Menno, in Hutchinson County, South
Dakota, who had witnessed the disastrous drouth during Cleveland's
administration. Jupiter was nearing the position it had then occupied
and would, in sixty days, be at the same position it had been at that
time.

While few people pay any attention to weather "dopsters," I did a little
thinking and remembered it had been dry in southern Illinois at that
time, and I began to feel somewhat uneasy. According to their knowledge,
if the same in southern America as it had been in southern Russia, it
would begin to get dry about a year before the worst drouth, then a very
dry year, the third year would begin to improve, and after the fourth
year conditions would again become normal, but the concensus of their
opinion was there would be a drouth.



CHAPTER XLI

THE DROUTH


A cloudy and threatening day in May, there came an inch of rainfall. I
had completed sowing two hundred and fifty acres of flax a few days
before, and soon everything looked beautiful and green. I felt extremely
hopeful.

During the six years I had been farming in Dakota, I had raised from
fair to good crops every year. The seasons had been favorable, and if a
good crop had not been raised, it was not the fault of the soil or from
lack of rainfall. The previous year had not been as wet as others, but I
had raised a fair crop, and at this time had four hundred and ten acres
in crop and one hundred and ten acres rented out, from which I was to
receive one third of the crop. I had come west with hopes of bettering
my financial condition and had succeeded fairly well.

Around me at this time others had grown prosperous, land had advanced
until some land adjoining Megory had brought one hundred dollars per
acre, and land a few miles from town sold for fifty to eighty dollars
per acre.

Before settling in the west I had read in real estate advertisements all
about the wheat land that could be bought from ten to twenty-five
dollars per acre, that would raise from twenty-five to forty bushels of
wheat to the acre. While all this was quite possible I had never raised
over twenty-five bushels per acre, and mostly harvested from ten to
twenty. I had wondered, before I left Chicago, how, at a yield of thirty
bushels per acre (and for the last seven or eight years prices had
ranged from seventy cents to one dollar per bushel for wheat) the
farmers could spend all the money. Of course, I had learned, in six
years, that twenty-five to forty or fifty bushels per acre, while
possible, was far from probable, and considerably above the average.

The average yield for all wheat raised in the United States is about
fourteen bushels per acre, but crops had averaged from fair to good all
over the northwest for some fifteen or sixteen years, with some
exceptions, and the question I had heard asked years before, "Will the
drouth come again," was about forgotten.

During the three years previous to this time, poor people from the east,
and around Megory and Calias as well, who were not able to pay the
prices demanded for relinquishments and deeded lands in Megory, Tipp
county, or the eastern states, had flocked by thousands to the western
part of the state and taken free homesteads. At the beginning of this,
my seventh season in Dakota, the agricultural report showed an
exceedingly large number of acres had been seeded, and the same report
which was issued June eighth, reported the condition of all growing
crops to be up to the ten-year average and some above.

It was on Sunday. I had quit breaking prairie on account of the ground
being too dry, and while going along the road, I noticed a field of
spelt that looked peculiar. Going into the field, I dug my fingers into
the soil, and found it dry. I could not understand how it had dried out
so quickly; but thinking it would rain again in a few days, it had been
but ten days since the rain, I thought no more about it. The following
week, although it clouded up and appeared very threatening, the clouds
passed and no rain fell. On Saturday I drove into Ritten, and on the way
again noticed the peculiar appearance of the growing plants. It was the
topic of discussion in the town, but no one seemed willing to admit that
it was from the lack of moisture. The weather had been very hot all week
and the wind seemed to blow continually from the south.

In past years, after about two days of south winds, we were almost sure
to have rain. The fact that the wind had blown from the south for nearly
two weeks and no rain had fallen caused everybody to be anxious. That
night was cloudy, the thunder and lightning lasted for nearly two hours,
but when I went to the door, I could see the stars, and the next day the
heat was most intense.

The Wesinbergers had said the heavens would be ablaze with lightning and
resound with peals of thunder but that they were only solstice storms,
coming up in unusual directions, and that such storms were
characteristic of a dry season. Furthermore, that heavy, abnormal rains
would occur in scattered localities, at the same time, but they would be
few and far apart.

June fifteenth I took my sister to Victor to make proof on her
homestead, and from there drove to Megory, stopping in Calias to send my
wife a telegram to the effect that I felt I was going to be sick and
for her to draw a draft on the Bank of Calias, and come home. The
telegram was not answered.

Next morning my sister left for Kansas, and that afternoon a heavy
downpour of rain fell all over Megory county and as far west as Victor,
but north of Ritten, where I had my flax crop, there was scarcely
sufficient rain to lay the dust. On that day the hot winds set in and
lasted for seven weeks, the wind blowing steadily from the south all the
while.

I had never before, during the seven years, suffered to any extent from
the heat, but during that time I could not find a cool place. The wind
never ceased during the night, but sounded its mournful tune without a
pause. Then came a day when the small grain in Tipp county was beyond
redemption, and rattled as leaves in November. The atmosphere became
stifling, and the scent of burning plants sickening.

My flax on the sod, which was too small to be hurt at the beginning of
the drouth, began to need rain, and reports in all daily papers told
that the great heat wave and the drouth in many places were worse than
in Tipp county. All over the western and northern part of the state,
were localities where it had not rained that season. Potatoes, wheat,
oats, flax, and corn, in the western part of the state, had not
sprouted, and, it was said, in a part of Butte county, where seed had
been sown four inches deep the year before, there had not been enough
rain since to make it sprout.

The government had spent several million dollars damming the Belle
Fourche river for the purpose of irrigation, and the previous autumn,
when it had been completed, the water in it had been run onto the land,
to see how it would work, and since had been dry. No snow had fallen in
the mountains during the winter, and all the rivers were as dry as the
roads; while all the way from the gulf, to Canada, the now protracted
drouth was burning everything in its wake.

At Kansas City, where the treacherous Kaw empties its waters into the
Missouri, and had for years wrought disaster with its notorious floods,
drowning out two and sometimes three crops in a single spring, was
nearly dry, and the crops were drying up throughout its valley.

I spent the Fourth of July in Victor, where the people shook their heads
gravely and said, "Tipp county will never raise a crop." The crops had
dried up in Tipp county the year before. I read that the railroad men
who run from Kansas City to Dodge City reported that the pastures
through Kansas were so dry along the route, that a louse could be seen
crawling a half mile away. In parts of Iowa the farmers commenced to put
their stock in pens and fed them hay from about the middle of June,
there being no feed in the pastures. Through eastern Nebraska, western
Iowa and southern Minnesota, the grasshoppers began to appear by the
millions, and proceeded to head the small grain. To save it, the farmers
cut and fed it to stock, in pens.

[Illustration: The crops began to wither. (page 289.)]

The markets were being over-run with thin cattle from the western
ranges, where the grass had never started on account of lack of
moisture. I watched my flax crop and early in July noticed it
beginning to wilt, then millions of army worms began cutting it down.
On the eleventh I left for Megory county, with my stock, to harvest the
winter wheat there. It had been partially saved by the rain in June. The
two hundred and eighty-five acres of flax was a brown, sickly-looking
mess, and I was badly discouraged, for outside of my family trouble, I
had borrowed my limit at the bank, and the flax seed, breaking, and
other expenses, had amounted to eleven hundred dollars.

About this time the settlers all over the western highlands began to
desert their claims. Newspapers reported Oklahoma burned to a crisp, and
Kansas scorched, from Kansas City to the Colorado line. Homesteaders to
the north and west of us began passing through the county, and their
appearance presented a contrast to that of a few years before. Fine
horses that marched bravely to the land of promise, drawing a prairie
schooner, were returning east with heads hanging low from long, stringy
necks, while their alkalied hoofs beat a slow tattoo, as they wearily
dragged along, drawing, in many cases, a dilapidated wagon over which
was stretched a tattered tarpaulin; while others drew rickety hacks or
spring wagons, with dirty bedding and filthy looking utensils. These
people had not made a dollar in the two years spent on their homesteads.
At Pierre, it was said, seven hundred crossed the the Missouri in a
single day, headed east; while in the settlements they had left, the few
remaining settlers went from one truck patch to another, digging up the
potatoes that had been planted in the spring, for food.

One day I crossed the White river and went to visit the Wisenbergers,
who lived seventeen miles to the north. On the way, out of forty-seven
houses I passed, only one had an occupant. The land in that county is
underlaid with a hardpan about four inches from the surface, and had not
raised a crop for two years. The settlers had left the country to keep
from starving. As I drove along the dusty road and gazed into the empty
houses through the front doors that banged to and fro with a monotonous
tone, from the force of the hot south winds, I felt lonely and faraway;
the only living thing in sight being an occasional dog that had not left
with his master, or had returned, but on seeing me, ran, with tucked
tail, like a frightened coyote.

Merchants were being pressed by the wholesale houses. The recent years
had been prosperous, and it is said prosperity breeds contempt and
recklessness. The townspeople and many farmers had indulged lavishly in
chug-chug cars. Bankers and wholesale houses, who had always criticised
so much automobilism, were now making some wish they had never heard the
exhaust of a motor. In addition to this the speculators were loaded to
the guards, with lands carrying as heavy mortgage as could be had--which
was large--for prosperity had caused loan companies to increase the
amount of their loans. No one wanted to buy. Every one wanted to sell.
The echo of the drouth seventeen years before and the disaster which
followed, rang through the country and had the effect of causing prices
to slump from five to fifteen dollars per acre less than a year before.

Now what made it worse for Tipp county was, that it had been opened when
prosperity was at its zenith. The people were money mad. Reckless from
the prosperity which had caused them to dispense with caution and good
judgment, they were brought suddenly to a realization of a changed
condition. The new settlers, all from eastern points, came into Tipp
county, seeing Tipp county claims worth, not six dollars per acre, the
price charged by the Government, but finding ready sales at prices
ranging from twenty-five to forty-five dollars, and even fifty dollars
per acre. They had spent money accordingly. And now, when the parched
fields frowned, and old Jupiter Pluvius refused to speak, the community
faced a genuine panic.

       *       *       *       *       *

Came a day, sultry and stifling with excessive heat, when I drove back
to the claims. Everywhere along the way were visible the effects of the
drouth. Vegetation had withered, and the trails gave forth clouds of
dust.

Late in the afternoon clouds appeared in the northwest and the earth
trembled with the resounding peals of thunder. The lightning played
dangerously near, and then, like the artillery of a mighty battle, the
storm broke loose and the rain fell in torrents, filling the draws and
ravines, and overflowing the creeks, which ran for days after. All over
the north country the drouth was broken and plant life began anew.

My wheat threshed about eight hundred bushels, and when marketed, the
money received was not sufficient to pay current expenses. Therefore, I
could not afford the outlay of another trip to Chicago, but wrote many
letters to Orlean, imploring her to return, but all in vain.

During the summer I had received many letters from people in Chicago and
southern Illinois, denouncing the action of the Elder, in preventing my
wife from returning home. The contents of these letters referred to the
matter as an infamous outrage, and sympathized with me, by hoping my
wife would have courage to stand up for the right. I rather anticipated,
that with so much criticism of his action by the people belonging to the
churches in his circuit, he would relent and let her return home; but he
remained obstinate, the months continued to roll by, and my wife stayed
on.

I had not written her concerning the drouth, which had so badly impaired
crops. I knew her people read all the letters she received, and felt
that with the knowledge in their possession that my crop had been cut
short, along with the rest, would not help my standing. They would be
sure to say to her, "I told you so." The last letter that I received
from my wife, that year, was written early in the fall, in answer to a
letter that I wrote her, and in which I had sent her some money, with
which to buy some things for my grandmother. When Orlean had been in
Dakota, she had been very fond of my grandmother, and had asked about
her in every letter, whether the letter was kind or abusive, as regarded
me. My wife's letter, stated that she had received the money, and
thanked me also stated that she would get the things for "Grandma" that
day. Neither grandmother or I received the things.

I was so wrought up over it all, yet saw no place where I could get
justice. In order to show the Reverend that he was being criticized by
friends of the family, I gathered up some half dozen or more letters,
including the last one from Claves and one from Mrs. Ewis, and sent them
to him. The one from Mrs. Ewis related how he had written to her, just
before he took my wife away, saying that she was in dire need, and
wanted to borrow twenty-five dollars to bring her home. Needless to say,
she had not sent it, nor assisted him in any other way, in helping to
break up the home. As a result, she said, he had not spoken to her
since.

I learned later that the letters I had sent had made him terribly angry.
I received a letter from him, the contents of which were about the same
as his conversation had been, excepting, that he did not profess any
love for me, which at least was a relief; but, from the contents, I
derived that he had expected his act to give him immortality, and
expressed surprise that he should be criticized for coming to Dakota and
saving the life of his child--as he put it--from the heartless man, that
was killing her in his efforts to get rich.

He seemed to forget to mention any of the facts which had occurred
during his last trip, namely; his many declarations of undying love for
us; of how glad he was that we were doing so much toward the development
of the great west; and his remarks that if he was twenty-five years
younger it was where he would be. He also suggested that he would try to
be transferred to the Omaha District, so that he might be nearer us.



CHAPTER XLII

A YEAR OF COINCIDENCES


Although the drouth had been broken all over the north, it lingered on,
to the south. My parents wrote me from Kansas, that thousands of acres
of wheat, sown early in the fall, had failed to sprout. It had been so
dry. The ground was as dry as powder, and the winds were blowing the
grain out of the sandy soil, which was drifting in great piles along the
fences and in the road.

The government's final estimated yield of all crops was the smallest it
had been for ten years. As a result, loan companies who had allowed
interest to accumulate for one and two years, in the hope that the
farmers and other investors would be able to sell, such having been the
conditions of the past, now began to threaten foreclosure and money
became hard to get.

From the south came reports that many counties in Oklahoma, that were
loaded with debt, had defaulted for two years on the interest, and
County warrants, that had always brought a premium, sold at a discount.

The rain that had followed the drouth, in the north, as the winter
months set in, began to move south, and about Christmas came the
heaviest snows the south had known for years. With the snows came low
temperatures that lasted for weeks. As far south as Oklahoma city, zero
weather gripped the country, and to the west the cattle left on the
ranges froze to death by the thousands. A large part of those that
lived--few were fit for the market, they were so thin--were sold to
eastern speculators at gift prices, due to the fact that rough feed was
not to be had.

The heavy snows that covered the entire country, from the Rocky
Mountains to the Atlantic, and the bitter cold weather that followed,
made shipping hazardous. Therefore, the rural districts suffered in
every way. Snow continued to fall and the cold weather held forth, until
it was to be seen, when warm weather arrived, the change would be
sudden, and floods would result, such was the case.

It was a year of coincidences; the greatest drouth known for years,
followed by the coldest winter and the heaviest snows, and these in turn
by disastrous floods, will live long in memory.

To me the days were long, and the nights lonely. The late fall rains
kept my flax growing until winter had set in, and snow fell before it
was all harvested. All I could see of my crop was little white
elevations over the field. There was no chance to get it threshed. My
capital had all been exhausted, and it was a dismal prospect indeed. I
used to sit there in my wife's lonely claim-house, with nothing else to
occupy my mind but to live over the happy events connected with our
courtship and marriage, and the sad events following her departure.

During my life on the Little Crow, I had looked forward joyfully to the
time when I should be a husband and father, with a wife to love, and a
home of my own. This had been so dominant in my mind, that when I
thought it over, I could not clearly realize the present situation. I
lived in a sort of stupor and my very existence seemed to be a dreadful
nightmare. I would at times rouse myself, pinch the flesh, and move
about, to see if it was my real self; and would try to shake off the
loneliness which completely enveloped me. My head ached and my heart was
wrung with agony.

I read a strange story, but its contents seemed so true to life. It
related the incident of a criminal who had made an escape from a
prison--not for freedom, but to get away for only an hour, that he might
find a cat, or a dog, or something, that he could love.

It seems he had been an author, and by chance came upon a woman--during
the time of his escape--who permitted him to love her, and during the
short recess, to her he recited a poem entitled, "The right to love."
The words of that poem burned in my mind.

    "Love is only where is reply,
     I speak, you answer; There am I,
     And that is life everlasting."

    "Love lives, to seek reply.
     I speak, no answer; Then I die,
     To seek reincarnation."

As the cold days and long nights passed slowly by, and I cared for the
stock and held down my wife's claim, the title of that story evolved in
my mind, and I would repeat it until it seemed to drive me near
insanity. I sought consolation in hope, and the winter days passed at
last; but I continued to hope until I had grown to feel that when I saw
my wife and called to her name, she would hear me and see the longing in
my heart and soul; then would come the day of redemption.



CHAPTER XLIII

"AND SATAN CAME ALSO."


Came a day when the snow had disappeared; my threshing was done; I had
money again, and to Chicago I journeyed.

During the winter I had planned a way to get to see my wife, and took
the first step toward carrying it out, immediately following my arrival
in the city.

I went to a telephone and called up Mrs. Ewis. She recognized my voice
and knew what I had come for. She said: "I am so glad I was near the
phone when you called up, because your father-in-law is in the house
this very minute." On hearing this I was taken aback, for it had not
occurred to me that he might be in the city. As the realization that he
was, became clear to me, I felt ill at ease, and asked how he came to be
in the city at that time.

"Well," and from her tone I could see that she was also disturbed--"you
see tomorrow is election and yesterday was Easter, so he came home to
vote, and be here Easter, at the same time. Now, let me think a moment,"
she said nervously. Finally she called: "Oscar, I tell you what I will
do, P.H. is sick and the Reverend has been here every day to see him."
Here she paused again, then went on: "I will try to get him to go home,
but he stays late. However, you call up in about an hour, and if he is
still here, I'll say 'this is the wrong number, see?'"

"Yes," I said gratefully, and hung up the receiver.

I had by this time become so nervous that I trembled, and then went down
into Custom House place--I had talked from the Polk Street station--and
took a couple of drinks to try to get steady.

In an hour and a half I called up again and it was the "wrong number,"
so I went out south and called on a young railroad man and his wife, by
the name of Lilis, who were friends of Orlean's and mine.

After expressing themselves as being puzzled as to why the Reverend
should want to separate us, Mrs. Lilis told me of her. During the
conversation Mrs. Lilis said: "After you left last year, I went over to
see Orlean, and spoke at length of you, of how broken hearted you
appeared to be, and that she should be in Dakota. Mrs. McCraline looked
uncomfortable and tried to change the subject, but I said my mind, and
watched Orlean. In the meantime I thought she would faint right there,
she looked so miserable and unhappy. She has grown so fat, you know she
was always so peaked before you married her. Everybody is wondering how
her father can be so mean, and continue to keep her from returning home
to you, but Mrs. Ewis can and will help you get her because she can do
more with that family than anyone else. She and the Elder have been such
close friends for the last fifteen years, and she should be able to
manage him."

Then her mother said: "Oscar, I have known you all your life; I was
raised up with your parents; knew all of your uncles; and know your
family to have always been highly respected; but I cannot for my life
see, why, if Orlean loves you, she lets her father keep her away from
you. Now here is my Millie," she went on, turning her eyes to her
daughter, "and Belle too, why, I could no more separate them from their
husbands than I could fly--even if I was mean enough to want to."

"But why does he do it, Mama? The Reverend wants to break up the home of
Orlean and Oscar," Mrs. Lilis put in, anxiously.

"Bless me, my child," her mother replied, "I have known N.J. McCraline
for thirty years and he has been a rascal all the while. I am not
surprised at anything that he would do."

"Well," said Mrs. Lilis, with a sigh of resignation, "it puzzles me."

I then told them about calling up Mrs. Ewis and what I had planned on
doing. It was then about nine-thirty. As they had a phone, I called Mrs.
Ewis again.

While talking, I had forgotten the signal, and remembered it only when I
heard Mrs. Ewis calling frantically, from the other end of the wire,
"This is the wrong number, Mister, this is the wrong number." With an
exclamation, I hung up the receiver with a jerk.

Mrs. Ankin lived about two blocks east, so I went to her house from Mrs.
Lilis'. On the street, the effect of what had passed, began to weaken
me. I was almost overcome, but finally arrived at Mrs. Ankins'. Just
before retiring, at eleven o'clock, I again called up Mrs. Ewis, and it
was still the "wrong number." I went to bed and spent a restless night.

I awakened about five-thirty from a troubled sleep, jumped up, dressed,
then went out and caught a car for the west side. I felt sure the Elder
would go home during the night.

It is always very slow getting from the south to the west side in
Chicago, on a surface car, and it was after seven o'clock when I arrived
at the address, an apartment building, where Mrs. Ewis' husband held the
position as janitor, and where they made their home, in the basement.

She was just coming from the grocery and greeted me with a cheerful
"Good Morning," and "Do you know that rascal stayed here until twelve
o'clock last night," she laughed. She called him "rascal" as a nickname.
She took me into their quarters, invited me to a chair, sat down, and
began to talk in a serious tone. "Now Oscar, I understand your
circumstances thoroughly, and am going to help you and Orlean in every
way I can. You understand Rev. McCraline has always been hard-headed,
and the class of ministers he associates with, are more hard-headed
still. The Elder has never liked you because of your independence, and
from the fact that you would not let him rule your house and submit to
his ruling, as Claves does. Now Oscar, let me give you some advice.
Maybe you are not acquainted with the circumstances, for if you had
been, in the beginning, you might have avoided this trouble. What I am
telling you is from experience, and I know it to be true. Don't ever
criticize the preachers, to their faces, especially the older ones. They
know their views and practices, in many instances, to be out of keeping
with good morals, but they are not going to welcome any criticism of
their acts. In fact, they will crucify criticism, and persecute those
who have criticized them. Furthermore, you are fond of Booker T.
Washington, and his ideas, and Rev. McCraline, like many other negro
preachers, especially the older ones, hates him and everybody that
openly approves of his ideas. His family admire the educator, and so do
I, but we don't let on to him. Now I have a plan in mind, which I feel a
most plausible one, and which I believe will work out best for you,
Orlean, and and myself. Before I mention it, I want to speak concerning
the incident of last fall. When you sent him that bunch of letters, with
mine in it, he fairly raised cain; as a result, the family quit speaking
to me, and Orlean has not been over here for six months, until she and
Ethel came a few days before Easter, to get the hats I have always given
them. Now, she went on, seeming to become excited, if I should invite
Orlean over, the Elder would come along," which I knew to be true. "When
you wrote me last summer in regard to taking her to a summer resort, so
you could come and get her, I told Mary Arling about it. Now to be
candid, Mrs. Arling and I are not the best of friends. You know she
drinks a little too much, and I don't like that, but Mary Arling is a
friend of yours, and a smart woman."

"Is that so?" I asked, showing interest, for I admired Mrs. Arling and
her husband.

"Yes," Mrs. Ewis reassured me, "she is a friend of yours and you know
all the McCraline family admire the Arlings, and Orlean goes there
often." "Well, as I was saying", she went on, "last summer out at a
picnic, Mrs. Arling got tipsy enough to speak her mind and she simply
laid the family out about you. She told the Reverend right to his teeth
that he was a dirty rascal, and knew it; always had been, and that it
was a shame before God and man the way he was treating you. Yes, she
said it," she reassured me when I appeared to doubt a little. "And she
told me she wished you had asked her to take Orlean away; that she would
not only have taken her away from Chicago, but would have carried her on
back to Dakota where she wanted to be, instead of worrying her life away
in Chicago, in fear of her father's wrath. So now, my plan is that you
go over to her house, see? You know the address."

I knew the house. "Well," and she put it down on a piece of paper, "you
go over there, and she will help you; and Oscar, for God's sake, she
implored, with tears in her eyes, do be careful. I know Orlean loves you
and you do her, but the Reverend has it in for you, and if he learned
you were in the city, Orlean would not be allowed to leave the house.
Now, she added, I will get him over here as soon as I can and you do
your part. Good-bye."

I took a roundabout way in getting back to the south side, keeping out
of the colored neighborhood as long as possible, by taking a Halsted
street car south, got a transfer, and took a Thirty-fifth street car.

I was careful to avoid meeting anyone who might know me, but who might
not be aware of my predicament, and who might thoughtlessly inform the
McCralines.

I arrived at Mrs. Arlings without meeting anyone who knew me, however.
They owned and occupied an elaborate flat at an address in the
Thirty-seventh block on Wabash avenue. I rang the bell, which was
answered by a young lady unknown to me, but who, I surmised, roomed at
the house. She inquired the name, and when I had told her she let out an
"O!" and invited me into the parlor. She hurried away to tell Mrs.
Arling, who came immediately, and holding both hands out to me, said, "I
am so glad you came at last, Oscar, I am so glad."

After we had said a few words concerning the weather, etc., I said in a
serious tone, "Mrs. Arling, I am being persecuted on account of my
ideas."

"I know it, Oscar, I know it," she repeated, nodding her head
vigorously, and appeared eager.

I then related briefly the events of the past year, including the
Reverend's trip to Dakota.

Raising her arms in a gesture, she said: "If you remember the day after
you were married, when we had the family and you over to dinner, and you
and Richard (her husband), talked on race matters, that the Elder never
joined. Well, when you had gone Richard said: 'Oscar and the Elder are
not going to be friends long, for their views are too far apart.' When
he brought Orlean home last year I said to Richard, 'Rev. McCraline is
up to some trick.'" Continuing, she went on to tell me, "You are aware
how bitter most of the colored preachers are in regard to Booker T.
Washington." "Yes," I assented. "Mrs. Ewis and I talked the matter over
and she said the Reverend had it in for you from the beginning, that is,
he wanted to crush your theories, and have you submissive, like Ethel's
husband. He was more anxious to have you look up to him because you had
something; but after he found out you were not going to, well, this is
the result."

"Now, Oscar, whatever you suggest, if it is in my power to do so, I will
carry it out, because I am sure Orlean loves you. She always seems so
glad when I talk with her about you. She comes over often," she went on,
"and we get to talking of you. Now before I tell you more, you must not
feel that she does not care for you, because she allows her father to
keep her away from you. Orlean is just simple, babylike and is easy to
rule. She gets that from her mother, for you know Mary Ann is helpless."
I nodded, and she continued. "As for the Reverend, he has raised them to
obey him, and they do, to the letter; the family, with Claves thrown in,
fear him, but as I was going to say: Orlean told me when I asked her why
she did not go on back to you, 'Well, I don't know.' You know how she
drags her speech. 'Oscar loves me, and we never had a quarrel. In fact,
there is nothing wrong between us and Oscar would do anything to please
me. The only thing I did not like, was, that Oscar thought more of his
land and money than he did of me, and I wanted to be first.'"

"Isn't that deplorable," I put in, shaking my head sadly.

"Of course it is," she replied with a shrug, "why, that could be settled
in fifteen minutes, if it were not for that old preacher. She always
likes to talk of you and it seems to do her good."

"Now, my plan is," I started, with a determined expression, "to have you
call her up, see?"

"Yes, yes," she answered anxiously.

[Illustration: The cold days and long nights passed slowly by, and I
cared for the stock. (Page 296.)]

"And invite her over on pretense of accompanying you to a matinee."

"Yes, yes," and then, her face seemed to brighten with an idea, and she
said: "Why not go to a matinee?"

"Why yes," I assented. "I had not thought of that," then, "Why sure,
fine and dandy. We will all go, yes, indeed," I replied, with good
cheer.

She went to the phone and called up the number. In a few minutes she
returned, wearing a jubilant expression, and cried: "I've fixed it, she
is coming over and we will all go to a matinee. Won't it be fine?" she
continued, jumping up and down, and clapping her hands joyfully, beside
herself, with enthusiasm, and I joined her.

Two hours later, Mrs. Hite--the young lady that answered the door when I
came that morning--called from the look-out, where she had been watching
while Mrs. Arling was dressing, and I, too nervous to sit still, was
walking to and fro across the room--that Orlean was coming. We had been
uneasy for fear the Elder might hear of my being in the city, before
Orlean got away. I rushed to the window and saw my wife coming leisurely
along the walk, entirely ignorant of the anxious eyes watching her from
the second-story window. I could see, at the first glance, she had grown
fleshy; she had begun before she left South Dakota. It was a bay window
and we watched her until she had come up the steps and pulled the bell.

Mrs. Arling had told me my wife did not have any gentleman company. I
had not felt she had, for, in the first place, she was not that kind of
a woman, and if her father, by his ways, discouraged any men in coming
to see her while she was single, he was sure to discourage any
afterward. But Mrs. Arling had added: "I told her I was going to get her
a beau, so you get behind the door, and when she comes in I will tell
her that I have found the beau."

I obeyed, and after a little Orlean walked into the room, smiling and
catching her breath, from the exertion of coming up the steps. I stepped
behind her and covered her eyes with my hands. Mrs. Arling chirped,
"That is your beau, so you see I have kept my word, and there he is." I
withdrew my hands and my wife turned and exclaimed "Oh!" and sank weakly
into a chair.

We had returned from the theatre, where we witnessed a character play
with a moral, A Romance of the Under World. We had tickets for an
evening performance to see Robert Mantell in Richelieu. Mrs. Arling
ushered us into her sitting room, closed the door, and left us to
ourselves.

I took my wife by the hand; led her to a rocker; sat down and drew her
down on my knee, and began with: "Now, dear, let us talk it over."

I knew about what to expect, and was not mistaken. She began to tell me
of the "wrongs" I had done her, and the like. I calculated this would
last about an hour, then she would begin to relent, and she did. After I
had listened so patiently without interrupting her, but before I felt
quite satisfied, she wanted to go to the phone and call up the house to
tell the folks that I was in town.

"Don't do that, dear," I implored. "I don't want them to know, that is,
just yet." The reason I was uneasy and wanted her to wait awhile was,
that I felt her father would go to call on Mrs. Ewis about eight o'clock
and it was now only seven. But she seemed restless and ill at ease, and
persisted that she should call up mother, and let her know, so I
consented, reluctantly. Then as she was on the way to the phone I called
her and said: "Now, Orlean there are two things a woman cannot be at the
same time, and that is, a wife to her husband and a daughter to her
father. She must sacrifice one or the other."

"I know it," she replied, and appeared to be confused and hesitant, but
knowing she would never be at ease until she had called up, I said "Go
ahead," and she did.

I shall not soon forget the expression on her face, then the look of
weak appeal that she turned on me, when her father's deep voice rang
through the phone in answer to her "Hello." The next instant she
appeared to sway and then leaned against the wall trembling as she
answered, "Oh! Pa-pa, ah," and seeming to have no control of her voice.
She now appeared frightened, while Mrs. Arling and Mrs. Hite stood near,
holding their breath and looked discouraged. She finally managed to get
it out, but hardly above a whisper, "Oscar is here."

"Well," he answered, and his voice could be heard distinctly by those
standing near. "Well," he seemed to roar in a commanding way, "Why don't
you bring him to the house?"

What passed after that I do not clearly remember, but I have read lots
of instances of where people lost their heads, where, if they would have
had presence of mind, they might have saved their army, won some great
victory or done something else as notorious, but in this I may be
classed as one of the unfortunates who simply lost his head. That is how
it was described later, but speaking for myself, when I heard the voice
of the man who had secured my wife by coercion and kept her away from me
a year; which had caused me to suffer, and turned my existence into a
veritable nightmare, the things that passed through my mind during the
few moments thereafter are sad to describe.

I heard his voice say again, "Why don't you bring him to the house?" But
I could only seem to see her being torn from me, while he, a massive
brute, stood over lecturing me, for what he termed, "my sins," but what
were merely the ideas of a free American citizen. How could I listen to
a lecture from a person with his reputation. This formed in my mind and
added to the increasing but suppressed anger. I could see other years
passing with nothing to remember my wife by, but the little songs she
had sung so often while we were together in Dakota.

    "Roses, roses, roses bring memory of you, dear,
     Roses so sweet and endearing,
     Roses with dew of the morn;
     You were fresh for a day then you faded away.
     Red roses bring memories of you."

The next moment I had taken the receiver from her hand, and called,
"Hello, Rev. McCraline," "Hello, Rev. McCraline," in a savage tone. When
he had answered, I continued in a more savage voice, "You ask my wife
why she did not bring me to the house?"

"Yes," he answered. His voice had changed from the commanding tone, and
now appeared a little solicitous. "Yes, why don't you come to the
house?" I seemed to hear it as an insult. I did not seem to understand
what he meant, although I understood the words clearly. They seemed,
however, to say; "Come to the house, and I will take your wife, and then
kick you into the street."

I answered, with anger burning my voice; "I don't want to come to your
house, because the last time I was there, I was kicked out. Do you hear?
Kicked out."

"Well, I did not do it." Now, I had looked for him to say that very
thing. I felt sure that he had put Ethel up to the evil doing of a year
before, and now claimed to know nothing about it, which was like him. It
made me, already crazed with anger, more furious, and I screamed over
the phone "I know you didn't, and I knew that was what you would say,
but I know you left orders for it to be done."

"Where is Orlean?" he put in, his voice returning to authoritative tone.

"She is here with me," I yelled, and hung the receiver up viciously.

It was only then I realized that Mrs. Arling and Mrs. Hite had hold of
each arm and had been shouting in my ears all this while, "Oscar, Mr.
Devereaux, Oscar, don't! don't! don't!" and in the meantime fear seemed
to have set my wife in a state of terror. She now turned on me, in
tones that did not appear natural. The words I cannot, to this day,
believe, but I had become calm and now plead with her, on my knees, and
with tears; but her eyes saw me not, and her ears seemed deaf to
entreaty. She raved like a crazy woman and declared she hated me. Of a
sudden, some one rang the bell viciously, and Mrs. Arling commanded me
to go up the stairs. I retreated against my will. She opened the door,
and in walked the Reverend.

Orlean ran to him and fell into his arms and cried: "Papa, I do not know
what I would do if it were not for you," and kissed him--she had not
kissed me. After a pause, I went up to him. As I approached he turned
and looked at me, with a dreadful sneer in his face, which seemed to
say, "So I have caught you. Tried to steal a march on me, eh?" And the
eyes, they were the same, the eyes of a pig, expressionless.

Feeling strange, but composed, I advanced to where he stood, laid my
hands upon his shoulder, looked into his face and said slowly, "Rev.
McCraline, don't take my wife"--paused, then went on, "why could you not
leave us for a day. We were happy, not an hour ago." Here my stare must
have burned, my look into his face was so intense, and he looked away,
but without emotion. "And now I ask you, for the sake of humanity, and
in justice to mankind, don't take my wife."

Not answering me, he said to my wife: "Do you want your papa?"

"Yes, yes," she said and leaned on him. Then she looked into his face
and said: "He insulted you."

"Yes yes, dear," he answered. "He has done that right along, but you
step outside and Papa will tend to him."

She still clung to him and said: "He has made you suffer."

He bowed his head, and feigned to suffer. I stood looking on
mechanically. He repeated, "Run outside, dear," and he stood holding,
the door open, then, realization seemed to come to her, she turned and
threw herself into Mrs. Arling's arms, weakly, and broke into mournful
sobs. Her father drew her gently from the embrace and with her face in
her hands, and still sobbing, she passed out. He followed and through
the open door I caught a glimpse of Clavis on the sidewalk below, the
man who had written--not a year before, "I am going to be a brother, and
help you."

The next moment the door closed softly behind them. That was the last
time I saw my wife.


THE END



TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:

Illustrations have been moved to the nearest paragraph break, but
otherwise reflect the location where they are placed in the original
publication.

Obvious typos and printer errors have been corrected without comment.

With the exception of obvious printer errors, inconsistencies in the
author's spelling, punctuation, and use of hyphens have been retained as
in the original book. Examples of such inconsistencies include, but are
not limited to:

  far-away/ faraway
  batch/ bach
  Governor Reulbach/ Governor Reulback

Unconventional spelling has been retained in words such as (but not
limited to) the following:

  physicological: page 35
  monoply: page 50
  minature: page 150
  futhermore: page 153
  concensus: page 283





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Conquest - The Story of a Negro Pioneer" ***

Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.