Evening Star Newspaper, December 3, 1922, Page 73

Part 4—38 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C, MAGAZINE SECTION SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 3, 1922. BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M. D.. Major, Medical Corps, U. S. Army. URGICAL treatment at the pres- .’ ent time has arrived at a stage of refinement and a certainty of perfect and favorable results | {* that are truly wonderful. This ap- | Plies to the vast majority of diseases and fnjuries so treated. Within a few years of half a century ago, when I graduated in medicine, the omcome} of cases was, at that day, too, very good, for the different methods in | antiseptic treatment, the dressing of wounds and the treatment of frac-| . full, and, moreover, you are in no tures and gunshot by modern me(h-|m“qun to go In, as several of the ods had all come to be estremely per- | [ cases will not stand for the row you'll fect in their way, as had the scientific care of surgical cases and diseases in | the wards of hospitals. All these practives e a part of me, extent that 1 firmly beliey raise.” At this decision he reached back or his gun and yelled at the top of his {voice: “Th’ ‘ell I can't.” As quick as thought, | zuardians twisted his gun out of his had essentially and to such 1 to treated a surgical case in OtheT | 14nd and placed it beyond his reach. way would simply spell failure or | .yoy ain't a-goin’ to take me In, something wo ¢h? Then the boneyard will take you In a few months after my gradu- in." And out he whipped a big bowie ation T passed the Army board eX- 1 iirc and made a desperate effort to amination and became a first lieuten- | oo ch me. “nt in the Medical Corps of our AtmY. | v steward (Henly) was behind the and only a few months after that I found invself sometimes at a post, | sometimes in the fleld, sometimes out with scouting parties after Indians. The field of operations was Wyoming the department, depart- A few cattle- y come into it, while at the posts one was sure to find a | few gamblers. more adventurers and a scattering of bad men as a flavoring. The stage ran from Cheyenne to Echetah, passing throush Fort Lara- mie, where ut one time I was post spensary counter when I sald, Steward, pass me that largest bot- tle of nitric acid,” and it was in my right hand at once. I was getting mad then, and I said: “You drop that knife or I will burst this bottle of acid on the bridge of vour nose and you'll be blind for life in one second.” The knife struck the floor and one of his men kicked it out of his reach. They pulled him out into the snow and the three got on their ponies and started down to the trader's store, surgeon. They drove & hor: but not before Blue-eved Harry, breakneck rate and rels evers shaking his fist at me, said in words teen miles. It was constantly held Up ‘1o the effect that I'd be in the post by the “road agents” for it the gold and silver down from hills to the railroad at Cheyenne. T got the wounded from two to three times a week, often only a few hours after the shooting. The dead went to the little military cemetery | on the hill. T had the experience once in that stage—at Hutton's ranch, on the Chuwater—and did not care about a reptition of it. P HE winters out there were brought morgue before 10 a.m. the breakfast, after which I put 'on my overcoat, which was responsible for my being called “Red Coat” all over that part of the country. pale blue soldier’s overcoat, of splen- with heavy and deep cuffs and collar of elegant beaver fur. The coat was d with a searlet flannel lining, so when it blew open I could be rec- ognized at a long distance. My wife ex tremely severe, and men were not saw me buckle on my Colt's .45, an only frozen 1o dea but often | expensive revolver of the best type. brought in with frozen limbs, ears.|Nothing was said, but she knew that and so on. High wind, deep snows there was danger somewhere In the and tha thermometer dropping to 65 | wind. and 70 degrees below zero are not| casy things to face. ‘ I remember once. while surgeon at | Fort Fette T had a Young man, a Mexican, brought in with his feet badly frozen. and gangrene had set in. * Xk ¥ X HE officers’ clubroom, the men's ! clubroom ahd the trader's store ' |were all under ome roof, a | building some thousand yards from ! my quarters. I was pretty cold Wh!n This demanded a double amputation. || resehed it, and, once inside, T warm. As the officers there had absolutely | o1 meself up with & swallow of rye HALinE A8 Lat the buffet. Only one officer was in iutdrs {the room. Lieut. Crittendon, and he | was dmusing himself knocking the ! { billiara balls around on the table. The room communicated with the trader’s store by a very narrow,| | rather dark passage about thirty feet Y e in length. It came out behind a coun- wa3 seated. On this cccasion the |t 'in the store, and one had to climb anesthetic was administered by tWo | ,var that to get into the middle ares infantry offivers, Licuts. Merriam and | of the room. There was a w0od stove Roberts. both of the 4th Infantry. I|tnare that one could see from the nsed a Wier's spray apparatus, “M‘hu)fficers clubroom and some »f the had a lamp In it that caused a gen- | crocof® T VOO O erous carbolized spray to envelop the | ""ac T Joosened up a bit T sald: “Crit. s of the patient and those standing |, oo you seen Blue-eved Harry ext to him. An enlisted man held | 3oy To which he replied: “Yes; this (Bisby). Mr. Nichols, the post|peq now sitting by the trader’s stove | trader, stood in an open doorway. It | 07 \Ceoe saying that he means to as 30 degrees below zero outslde |drop you the minute he lays eyes on with = few fnches of snow on the |yro.. Eround: I looked down the aforesald pas- Several officers sat around in a eir- | . 00"y SO0 ot T the stove cle, tncluding the post commander, | hiain view, with his legs straight- Ma). William H. Powell, who wassub- | 7 B &0 ¥ 00 B o e tn Ject to severe attacks of eplleptic fita. | C “Lr e Do from him, as As the wrapping the man had used | po paq recovered both his knife and to cover his feet was removed several |1 o0 of iy toes came away with it and | = p¢ier hriefly telling Crittenden what the air of the room was in a moment | 2 0 T T ot At T fearfully fouled. The effect on the pag to kill him just where he sat or EHanc sv as) romatiahle. | he'd kill me on sight when I was not Mr. Nichols fainted and fell back- | 100k ing, and I drew my revolver with ward into the snow outside; the en- | po 08 00 & e B e e i ‘Isted man with the spray likewise | ‘ht temple, that side was tow: fainted and, pitching forward, set fire | no = oD o 33 towand 10 the bedding upon which the patient | rested; the commanding officer went off in a profound fit and fell heavily to the floor. With the ald of another enlisted | inte and It so happened tation of the feet on fell on a clinic day. The operating room was very small and a bit crowded when every one that the ampu- this Mexican e. Crittenden said he did not care to be a witness, and I lowered the pistol. I took off my overcoat and, with gun in hand, I ran down the little passage, enl ihatiatesd nersid scon rlzmed;fl“"d the counter in the room in a jump and lit right alongside h things and successtully performed the | gou P, =10 FELL S ONERCE, tm, double amputation. It was a most - interesting clinic! The man made an | wh;“r:v:o: s:l;‘f?:l:dah:dk'n:wdlro:o:;’; excellent recovery, but it shook up|uraie Harry's gun and knife here, the preconceived Ideas I had gained somebody, and somebody did. “Now," on antiseptic surgery from my {a- |y .,i3 wwhat's the matter with you?” structors at the medical college 10| gy "goc 1 was pltched off my Washington. R Ty { pony when I was drunk and landed on * X E % [Breeerrrrrrnrrrrernrere one of his, 1 went to my quarters and had, It was a did quality, that came to my ankles, | ' |a hole in the ground of a depth equal- i T T 'HERE were some great characters around old Fort Fetterman In those days, such as old-time cowboys, gamblers, rough frontiersmen and a few “bad men.” One fellow, known as “Blue-eyed Harry,” on account of his plercing blue eyes, was the type of the first class mentioned. No “bucking bronco” could unhorse him; he was lightning with a Colt's .45; a dead shot under any circumstances; fearless and loyal to a degres to his friends and a terror to his enemles; and he would, semi-occasionally, get drunk, and when in that condition he was dangerous. One morning, when the thermometer stood 30 degrees below zero, with a foot of snow down, I was coming out of our small and primitive log hos- pital, having attended “sick call” at 7, when there was trouble in the hall- way just outside the dispensary door, accompanied with threats, curses and the rest. As I opened the door three cowboys staggered in—one on each side of Blue-eyed Harry, who was as drunk as you pleass, and raising a disturbance because his guardians would not release him. They plunged inté the room, which was very small, and made still smaller by having the post surgeon’'s the dispensary prescrip- r and a couple of chairs. of the latter “Harry" threw ‘while one of his guardians im down at either side. He at me with sort of a mixed n on his face of pain, suppli- and defense. He blurted out at roar: “Doo, I've busted my d—d chest in and I want to go info hospital. “But” T eald, “Harry, T can't take you into hospital, for the beds are jthe front of my chest om a rock and it pains lke hell" There was a little log hotel on the reservation where cowboys often put jup, so I said: “Come with me over to the hotel and I will look out for you.” He came along as gentle as a lamb and, on examination, I found several broken ribs, a sprained ankle and some minor bumps. A month or so afterward, when he was plumb sober, I never saw & man any more grateful than he was. When I left Fetterman to go east Blue-eyed Harry saved my life on the road. But that's another atory I've a long time ago told else- where, and the military novelist, Gen. Charles King, has worked it into one of his famous novels. * ok % EXT day or 0 I had a Mexican cowboy on thd operating table, and he was not only drunk, but roar- ed at such a pitch that one could almost hear him a mile away. He had divided the tendo achilles in his right ankle with an adze, and I got union in it—only. the fourth or fifth successful case in the United States. Once, at the post, a big, powerful, six-foot stage driver came in with both his legs frozen above the knees. 1 drove the frost down to his feet, but they were hopeless. I told him that a double amputation was in order be- yond either arch. He said: “Doc, I've not & friend or a relative in the world. T'm not married, and $15 is the ex- tent of my possessions, and I'm going to die.” In spite of all I could do, he died from lockjaw on the fifth day following the operation, with the feet healing beautifully. He'd just made up his mind to dle, and that was all there was to it. Once in a while T had some inter- esti Indian cases. One young Sloux Army Surgeon in Frontier Days Saved Lives While Facing Death 'fii%%%%a%%%%%?%%%%%%%a3%%%%.%.%%%%—l%—%*fl%%%%%fl%%%%%*‘fi%%%%a%%%%’fi%%%%%%%%%’9%%%%’#’&—3%%%%.’?*%\%3%%%%%%%%%5%%%%2%\%' | French, and I still have the docu- | | ! i | | | | 1 large | T had that had been bitten By 3| beaver, nearly severing his 'left| thumb from his hand. I carefully |dressed it and put in thres or four | stitches to hold the parts together | Next morning he appearsd a: sicl |call with all the stitches and cress- |ing removed and replaced by soms curious looking leaves held in place | by buckskin strings. He made an ex- cellent recovery. These Indians had a remarkable | way of setting fractures of the leg— that is, between the knee and the | |ankle. If it was n simple f1asture of !one or both the bones, they would dig ing the length of the leg. Then they would place the patfent on his back. | put the fractured limb in the holeand ipack the earth or clay firmly all around his foot. They would then | put their hands under the lower side | of the thigh and pull the leg up until the fractured ends of the broken bone ior bones were normally approxi- mated. Another Indian would then |All all around the limb with the dirt, BY RUTH WATERBURY. ! HERE came back from Flor-| ence & week ago a Washing- tonfan of the fairer sex wear- ing e smart gown, clever in {1ine and radiant with vari-hued Rus-| slan embroldery. It was a romantic looking little frock, which was only | natural, for it had been made, stitch by stitch, by a countess of the old Romanoft regime. There are, alas! scores of these | Russian noblewomen eking out in various capitals a precarious living, by sewing, by flower making, by wood carving, by any task that will earn a ibit of money. It Is, unfortunately, not novel. But the poignancy of this particular gown's creation lay in the fact that it had been made in its en- itirety by the little fingers of that Countess of Mystery, Marguerite de Cassini. Do you remember her—that vibrant little beauty, filece of a Russian am- bassador, countess by the grace of Alexander III, spoiled chatelaine of Washington embasaies twenty years ago? Yet today, so the report runs, she has been for months one of the many Russian refugees in Florence, sewing for whomsoever would hire her, from | thrifty middle class Italian house- wives to tourists and visitors. She came into prominence at the age of eight, and there begins her story. * * X ¥ JUNT DE CASSINI had been or- dered by the Russian government to the embassy at Peking. In his household resided one Mme. Shell, and the count had a niece, Marguerite, a tiny child who must be tutored. Mme. Shell had an unusual education, and she went to Peking to tutor Mar- rite de Cassini. A few years there and some one began asking how it was that Mar- guerite was the niece of the am bassador since the ambassador seem- ed to have neither brother nor sister. The gentleman resented such ques- tions and he forthwith took a trip to St. Petersburg. When he returned it @eveloped that Marguerite had been made a countess by the then ruling “MOVE A MUSCLE AND TLL DROP YOU!" packing it down hard with a to insure keeping the leg In place. When all was done to their satis- faotion, a shelter or “tepee” was built | over him with branches bearing leaves, and he remained In that pos! tion until complete union had taken place, the Indians attending to all of his wants in the meanwhile. sat up during the day and lay on his back at night. The results of his| treatment were admirable. In being delivered of their children they sit up Turk fashion. The first my small ribs. At first I thought that she had stabbed me, and, at any rate, I did not laugh any more. It was before the bruise paled entirely out. They treated their terrible facial He | Dites and bites of the limbs from bears or mountain lons very successfully ‘x have been with them in the moun- tains and over the plains when they | hay collected the various leaves, seeds | and roots of plants they treating their cases of all kinds, but I could gather little of interest about1t. * % % * !J7OR some time in the seventies I was post surgeon at old Fort | Laramte, Wyo., and while there some of my cases well {llustrate the nature !of what a military surgeon might {cace of the kind I attended—a squaw 'meet with in his practice in lhose‘ ! of fiftty—TI laughed rather audibly as long-ago days on the frontier. |1 passed near her on the bed where | | she was. My back was turned, when, | named Lou Smith came in from some- i sick call on hand and the hospital | much to my amazement, she delivered | where and got into the draw poker ward cases at 10 o'clock. At this he | me & swinging blow with her crooked | games with the soldiers. jarm that landed her knuckles under | sick call every morning at 7 On pay day a notorious gambler 1 amnded o'clock, {the hospital being some lhouuud | yards from my quarters, and In going |to it there was a place where I passed rison, were for a little distance cut | out of sight. Comes Back From Florence, Where She Has Been Living Among Russian Refugees—Stories of Sensational Ca- reer of Madcap Niece of Former Russian Am]:assador. used in | czar, Alexander III. It was no ordl- nary title, for Marguerite was privi- leged to hand it on to her children she is reported to have owned twenty wolfhounds and to have kept them all at the embassy. She started a and her husband when they should {class in fencing. She refused practi- materialize. {cally every unmarried attache in the Count de Cassinl remained for fl\'e|capllzl She was one of the first years In Peking, then returned to St.| women on the golf links in the days Petersburg, and when Marguerite was seventeen he was appointed to the embassy at Washington. Natural- 1y, he brought that amazing person- age along with him and upset all order in our stald capital by placing | the countess at the head of his house- hold. Mme. Shell, who had disappeared from the scene by this time, must have been a good Instructress, for Marguerite was conversant in eight languages, she understood diplomatic procedure and she had great audacity The McKinleys were supreme, and Mrs. McKinley had a truly difficult time with the youthful redhead of the Russian embassy. Count de Cassini, upon the death of Lord Pauncefote, the British ambas- sador, became the dean of the diplo- matic corps in Washington. That placed Marguerite, who was unmar- ried (a terrible Btate of affairs for any woman in the official Washington of those days), as first lady "of that group. It was ordained that no woman who was still single could take precedence over a married mem- ber of the corps, which considerably muddled every reception given at the ‘White House during her regime. There was also the fact that the average ambassadress is neither slender nor youthful nor radiant, and there was that pseudo-royal person less than twenty and more than beautiful. She went in for dogs. At one time ? when ladies were instructed not to play their game so that it would necessitate their raising their arms above thelr shoulders. | Marguerite made friends wherever she wished. She went to Paris for | gowns and returned with thirty-tour trunks full of them She was barbaric in her fondness for jewels and wore astounding gems close to her brilliant eyes, deflant in her exquisiteness. * %k x ER greatest ‘power came, how- ever, with the advent of’ the Roosevelts. She chose Alice Roose- velt for her bosom companion. To- gether they led a serles of adven- | tures that affected official ritual like the ague. Marguerite bought an automobile— jpractically the first in Washington— 1and drove it herself. Seeing she could not conquer the dowagers, she en- ticed the vounger generation and i they followed her'lead as though she were a Pled Piper. In 1911 came the report of her mam- riage to Alexander Lojowsky of the Russian embassy at Paris, and then silence until & little handmade gown came out of Italy. What is the real story? Has she been greatly misrepresented and mis- understood? Who were her people? 1s & child of royal blood or is she a commoner? One cannot belleve that she will Stories of Stlrrmg Times Among Rougll Characters Told by One Who Survived Some Encounters in Which Escape Seemed Impossible—A Clinic Which Produced Many Casualtles—Gettmg the Bead on Blue-eyed Harry—An Unusual Feat in Surgery—The Stage Driver Who Insisted on Dying—Successful Work by Indlans—Attendmg a Patient While Under Sentence of Death Unless Success Is Achieved. , £n one occasion Lou Smith walted | for me at this point and accosted me /asT came up to it. He had on a flar- ing red flannel shirt and a general rig of the typlcal cowboy of the time, including a very handsome revolver. He explained that he had had, a long |time ago, an accident with his arm | that resulted in its becoming perma- nently bent at a right angle. It seri- ously interfered with his card play- ing and, if possible, he desired to have it remedied. Ho wanted the operation right | away, and I informed him that I could \nat undertake it right away, as I had made a movement of his hand toward pulling his gun. Naturally, I was in uniform and unarmed, and I sald: “Smith, that gun is not going to put the time any nearer by a single min- | over six weeks before I got all m,memnd the trader's store and the|ute, and, moreover, if you kill me, ! pain out of the place, and still longer | buildings, with the rest of the gar-|that will knock out all chances of |your arm being repair, and, | you, you'll hang for it in the bar- Countess Cassini, Who Once Fascinated Washington, Makes Living as Seamstress ‘!letfls down into commonplaceness, | this Marguerite de Cassini, countess of . mystery. After all, she is still beautiful and only forty. It seems highly probable that she still has a coup d’etat hidden up her little, self- manufactured sleeves. i Land of the Sausage. WESTPHALIA. in Prussia, is the home of the sausage—that is, the sausage in all its glory, since no 'other country than Germany shows {50 many and so bewlildering a variety of this product. In Westphalia, so It is said, a trader will name no fewer than 400 different kinds of sausage. Many substances enter into their com- position. There was a sausage exhibition in Germany when no less than 1,000 va- rietles of sausage were shown. facetious American has observed that a good many Germans would rather invent a new sausage than anything else. In this relation thers is told the story of a young Prussian who, though he had recelved an expensive training as a chemist, shut himself up in his laboratory and, instead of de- vising a new dye, safety match, motor engine, explosive, airplane or photo- graphic lens, took port, veal, olive: pepper, fennel, old wine, cheese, ap- ples, cinnamon and herrings’ roes and from them evolved & wonderful and totally original “wurst,” the best of its kind. He has amassed a consider- able fortung from its sale. Tidal Transportation. - SOME of the finest grindstones in the world come. from the bottom of the Bay of Fundy. The stone- cutters there have a simple method of moving them to the shore. Work- men quarry the stones from the solid rock when the tide Is out and fasten them to a large flat-bottomed boat. The tides in the Bay of Fundy are the highest in the world. They rise from fifty to seventy feet and rush in with great swiftness. The tide 1ifts the flat boat with the stones at- tached. The workmien bring the boat ashore and remove the stones at their leisure when the tide is out. | erful, 3 cevveres cud {gain. Now,” said I, | the hospital at 11 o'clock I'll see what | can be done with your crooked arm. At this he cooled down and said he would be there. There were two hos- pital stewards on duty there at the time—one a somewhat timid man (Theo. Brown), and the other a pow- big, jovial Irishman (Tommie Michel). T got Smith on a hospital bunk, directing the first steward ‘named to administer the anesthetic, while the other held his feet down. On one side, on a small table, in easy 1 “if you'll be at home for himself. reach of my right hand, there was an | open general operating case. 1 had unbuckled Smith's revolver | country, as well as “bad men.” belt and put his gun out of reach.' Then, removing the shoe from my left foot, I put the latter in his arm pit, and, taking him by the wrist of the same side, begun a powerful exten- sion in order to break up the adhe- sions at his elbow. He had fairly commenced to come under the anes- | thetic when, to my syrprise, he reach- | ed back and whipped out an elegant bowie knife of the largest sort, and, reaching up, seized Steward Brown by the throat. He placed the point of his knife over his jugular vein, re- {marking as he did so: “You green- | striped . take that stufr i blade through your nec Brown turned as white as snow and instinctively lifted the cone from Smith's nostrils, while I, reaching to the operating case at my side, had away from my face or I'll run this | | goes. in a flash a long hip amputating knife | in my rieht hand, and bending for- ward, set®d Smith by the hair. ting my Mce pretty close to his, I shook himk and said: “Smith, do you know mef After repeating it a sec- ond time, 3 saw that he did. “Do you see the knife I've got at your throat?" He rolled his eyes toward it. “Now, drop the one you have In your hand ment {n my possession. Two months after that I saved his life on the operat- ing table. * x % % NE more case, and I will complete my picture of what a millitary | surgeon was called upon to exper! ence in his frontier practice back i the seventies. This, too, is a Fort Laramie case. About forty miles from the post a well-to-do ranchman named Johnson hxd settled and built an excellent One morning he dropped into my office and informed me that up on the Elkhorn there lived, nine miles above his range, a very desperate and dangerous char- acter—a man by the name of Dennis, who ran a whisky still there in the mountains. Dennis had a young wife who was desperately ill, and he de- sired the post surgeon to see the case. This T agreed to do. The ambulance took me up to Johnson's ranch next day—a dan- gerous ride, for there were many hoe- tile Indians in that section of the Next morning Johnson had a light buggy ready for me, with & very spirited team of horses, and to my surprise T was soon informed that Mrs. John- son was to take me over the nine miles to Dennis’ mountain hut. T soon found that my companion was the very essence of nerve and grit. an exceptionally flne shot with a Winchester and with a heavy pistol. After we had driven at a rapid pace for about five miles over a road en- tirely new to me we came to a place that seemed to be the edge of the world. The road cut a level, straight line against the sky, and nothing could be seen bevond it. Without turning, Mrs. Johnson asked. *“How are vou off for nerve?’ to which T simply replied, “Try it when you like” “Well,” she retorted, “here She speeded the team a bit, and over the top sae went, the other , side of the sky line was broken and Put- | we had a sharp decline of a clay bank to the mountain torrent below. She managed admirably. The team actually slic down that bank at a breakneck pace, and into the | stream they went. and we were soon i | on the opposite bank. “You'll do,” said she. “Do vou want or I'll run this one through your to try it again?” neck.” He dropped it and it fell where I could knock 1t on to the floor and where he could not possibly re- \ gain it asked to be discharged from the serv- him. * x % x N those early days out there, “Big | Bat,” a government guide, was well | known by the entire military con- | stituency of the department. I'd been in the fleld with him and was fa- miliar with his wonderful use of the revolver, his fearlessness and his en- | tire lack of bluff. He was one of the { bravest men I ever knew, as I real- | ized on meveral occasions through per- sonal observation. In garrisch he, once in a while, got pretty heavily under liquor, and when In that state became very ugly and more or less dangerous. About two miles or more up the Laramle river there was a most dis- reputable place kept by an unprinci- pled fellow, where the men somstimes officers) went to break the | tiresome routine of post duties. There was a bar there, with billiards, a | varied assortment of female inhabi- tants, and the rest. Whisky was $1 | ia drink and cigars 50 cents each, with | all else in proportion. The whisky was a brand of firewater that would { melt diamonds in less time than it | takes to mention the fact. present when some of the flying lead found its mark. Big Bat had some very unpleasant experiences there— which I will describe some other time. Under peculiar circumstances went there on a stormy, dark da 1 me for a certain purpose. Capt. Col- lier of the 4th Infantry, a man of tremendous physical strength, was one of them. When I came into the barroom, a dark and gloomy Dplace. there were two sets of men playing poker “for the drinks.”” The tables were short boards on the tops of two barrels. 1 was invited to join them, a sort of an invitation the { | j close together. ! i { (and | 1on a little table, he said: I was often called there, and was | | | {and two other officets were to meet | “Oh, yes,” said 7T, that sort of thing.” The second performance didn’t come |off, and we soon pulled up at the “it you enjoy Steward Brown all but fainted, and | Dennis hut—a log cabin with two as soon as the operation was over =mall rooms. | | big. lce—a matter I promptly arranged for | headed Irishman that used very few I found him to be a powerful. pock-marked, red- words and put them wonderfully He wore a pair of | very handsome .45 revolvers, a red I shirt, a loose necktie and otherwiss a general attire of the men found | in that part of the country. An informal introduction followed, and T was at once ushered into the next room to sce the patient. Dennis had been drinking. Mrs. Johnson desired to speak with me, and she said: “I have put off until now what ¥ou must know. You will find the room, as you doubtiess have already noticed, divided by a thin pine par- tition. T have my gun on, and I'll be behind that partition ‘on the listen’ My husband will bs here at 2 o'clock sharp with two men. Look out If you hear me gently tapping on the par- titlon. That's all.” * * HE patient was a young woman, nervy to a degree. with snappr black eves and black hai 1 was about to make the examination when Dennis strode into the room with a revolver in his hand, and, piacing it Now, by God, you save that woman or I'll blow | your d—d head off.™ There came a gentle tapping on the partition. I was not armed. The patient had advanced pyaemia from a retained placenta. Thres times I failed to extract it, and my hand was playing out. They had de- stroved the chlld. Dennis took a cou- ple of big drinks. Finally T succeed- ed. and, making the woman as com- fortable as possible, passed into the other room. When my back was turned Dennis had put his revolver back into 1 holster at his hip. Tt was twenty minutes of 2. “Well,” said Dennis, “what do I owe you?" There was a cautious rap en m. partition In the next room. “Oh." said, “I must calculate the rnllugn |and T tell you in & minute or so." surgeon was Invariably expected to accept, and T did on this occasion. Big Bat was in the set I sat down with, and it fell to me to pay for “the next drinks.” I saw Bat was a bit hit, as he stood next to me. He j took me to task for giving orders at the post not to have the hospital Iser\‘lce free until he was re-enlisted as a guide. He claimed he was enti- Itled to the service, enlistment or no enlistment, and for a second time I informed him that he was not. At this he desired to know whether I meant he was a liar, and I let him know that he could construe it that way if he wanted to. Pushing himself away from the bar, he grabbed me by the shoulder and, whipping out his gun in a second, he cocked it and shoved the end of the barrel under my chin. I glanced down and saw that it was loaded all around. I was unarmed. “Take that back or your brains go up to the roof.” I repeated my statement and said further, “If you say yoy aie now en- titled to hospital service you are not only a llar, but a lar.” ‘The two officers had arrived and stood close to him, behind. Capt. Col- lier, as quick as a flash, reached for- ward and, seizing Bat by his shoul- der, gave him a fierce jerk to one side. Off went his gun directly in my face, the ball just missing me by a hair. Over he went on the floor, and 1 kicked his pistol out of his hand, took another with the new ar- rivals and returned to the garrison. “Close call,” said Capt. Collier. “Yes, thanking you very much,” I replied. Next day Bat wrote me an apology in a remarkable brand of Canadian Then he got ugly and, with an oath, sajd: “Tell me now, or your friendx may have to use the fee for your funeral expenses.” However, T found there was no putting him off any longer. so I =a: down at a table in the room and he sat opposite to me. I said, *“Well, Dennis, what do you say to $300 cash?” A curious leer spread over his face as he reached back to his rear pocket and pulled out a roll of bills ghat apparently contained some thousand to fifteen hundred dollars. Wetting the ball of his thumb with his tongue, he peeled off $300 and shoved it across the. table to me. “Take it, tenderfoot. You'll laugh some day. I guess you don't know what I value that woman in there at.” There was a clatter of horses’ boofs outside, coming on the trot, and in less than half a minute more John- son and two men were in the room. They were armed. After a few pre- liminaries and some of Dennis’ “best,” Johnson managed to get round near me. “Has e pald yov vet?” *“Ves." “How much?” “Three hundred.” 1 replied. “Oh, h—I1” retorted Johnson, “ant me here with two men to make him pay $1.500! Doc, you must hold your life cheap!” I never felt the way I did then, again in my entire frontier experi- ence, for thereafter I charged the expected fees. “Well,” sald Johnson, “let's get out' @fter a deer and forget it" So Mrs. Johnson @rove home alone. i kY - 4