Chapter I: Preface

Having passed the half century mark in life's journey, and yielding to persistent requests of many old and valued friends of the past and present, I have decided to write the record of slave, cowboy and pullman porter will prove of interest to the reading public generally and particularly to those who prefer facts to fiction, (and in this case again facts will prove stranger than fiction). I assure my readers that every event chronicled in this history is based on facts, and my personal experiences, of more than fifty years of an unusually adventurous life.

While many things contained in this record happened many years ago, they are as fresh in my memory as if they happened but yesterday. I have tried to record events simply as they are, without attempting to varnish over the bad spots or draw on my imagination to fill out a chapter at the cost of the truth. It has been my aim to record things just as they happened, believing they will prove of greater interest thereby; and if I am able to add to the interest and enjoyment of a single reader I will consider myself well repaid for the time and labor of preparing this history.

To my playmates of my boyhood, who may chance to read this I send greetings and wish them well. To the few friends, who assisted myself and widowed mother in our early struggles, I tender my sincerest thanks, and hope they have prospered as they deserve. For those who proved our enemies, I have no word of censure. They have reaped their reward.

To that noble but ever decreasing band of men under whose blue and buckskin shirts there lives a soul as great and beats a heart as true as ever human breast contained--to the cowboys, rangers, scouts, hunters and trappers and cattle-men of the "GREAT WESTERN PLAINS," I extend the hand of greeting acknowledging the FATHER-HOOD of GOD and the BROTHERHOOD of men; and to my mother's Sainted name this book is reverently dedicated.

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

Slavery Days; the Old Plantation; My Early Foraging; the Stolen
Demijohn; My First Drunk. 7

CHAPTER II.

The War; the Rebels and the Yankees; I Raise a Regiment; Difficulty
in Finding an Enemy; Ash Cake; Freedom. 14

CHAPTER III.

Raising Tobacco; Our First Year of Freedom; More Privations;
Father Dies; "It Never Rains but It Pours;" I Become the
Head of the Family; I Start to Work at One Dollar and Fifty
Cents a Month. 19

CHAPTER IV.

Boyhood Sports; More Devilment; the Rock Battles; I Hunt
Rabbits in My Shirt Tail; My First Experience in Rough Riding;
a Question of Breaking the Horse or Breaking My Neck. 29

CHAPTER V.

Home Life; Picking Berries; the Pigs Commit Larceny; Nutting;
We Go to Market; My First Desire to See the World; I win a
Horse in a Raffle; the Last of Home. 36

CHAPTER VI.

The World is Before Me; I Join the Texas Cowboys; Red River
Dick; My First Outfit; My First Indian Fight; I Learn to
Use My Gun. 40

CHAPTER VII.

I Learn to Speak Spanish; I Am Made Chief Brand Reader; the
Big Round-up; the 7-Y-L Steer; Long Rides; Hunting Strays. 46

CHAPTER VIII.

On the Trail; a Texas Storm; Battle with the Elements; After
Business Comes Pleasure. 52

CHAPTER IX.

Enroute to Wyoming; the Indians Demand Toll; the Fight; a
Buffalo Stampede; Tragic Death of Cal Surcey; An Eventful
Trip. 58

CHAPTER X.

We Make a Trip to Nebraska; the "Hole in the Wall Country;"
a Little Shooting Scrape; Cattle on the Trail and the Way to
Handle Them; a Bit of Moralization. 66

CHAPTER XI

A Buffalo Hunt; I Lose My Lariat and Saddle; I Order a Drink for
Myself and My Horse; a Close Place in Old Mexico. 72

CHAPTER XII.

A Big Mustang Hunt; We Tire Them Out; the Indians Capture
Mess Wagon and Cook; Our Bill of Fare Buffalo Meat without
Salt. 82

CHAPTER XIII

On the Trail with Three Thousand Head of Texas Steers; Rumors
of Trouble with the Indians; at Deadwood, S. D.; the Roping
Contest; I Win the Name of "Deadwood Dick;" the Shooting
Match; the Custer Massacre; We View the Battlefield; Government
Scouts; at Home Again. 88

CHAPTER XIV.

Riding the Range; the Fight with Yellow Dog's Tribe; I am Captured
by the Indians and Adopted into the Tribe; My Escape;
I ride a Hundred Miles in Twelve Hours without a Saddle;
My Indian Pony; "Yellow Dog Chief;" the Boys Present Me
with a New Outfit; in the Saddle and on the Trail Again. 98

CHAPTER XV.

On a Trip to Dodge City, Kan.; I Rope One of Uncle Sam's
Cannon; Captured by the Soldiers; Bat Masterson to My
Rescue; Lost on the Prairie; the Buffalo Hunter Cater; My
Horse Gets Away and Leaves Me Alone on the Prairie; the
Blizzard; Frozen Stiff. 106