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Show Stories of Great Scouts By ELMO SCOTT WATSON i ). I :il . Wrsifi n Neivspn per LTnton. ) UNCLE DICK WOOTTON, "KEEPER "KEEP-ER OF THE GATE IN . MOUNTAINS" Uirlii'iis Lury Wooiion his parents Ut Viryinin luinuHl him ul his birth. In lMii; Vnuu Uit-k Wouiuui his com-(titnion-s in CVr;m Si. Vniin's trading omlii led hint in 1830 when he ju:m'il ilu-ni on ilw Saiuu Fe trail as u tt-anistfi; luit as Unele Diok Woot; tui. the "kefpfr o the gale iu the inoumains," ho was best known to evtry i nipper, fur iraik'i and hulhtn lighu.'i' in the West. Wuotron's inuxpeiience made liim tlie butt of ninny a joke among St. ruin's veterans, aud one incident did not add t'lvally to liis reputatiwn among tliem. One night when the I rain had been ,m ralled as usual in a circle, ymiug Wool ton w its posted as a guard, Willi orders to tire ut any moving mov-ing object oulside the corral. After some hours he saw a form moving about nearby, and promptly opened fire. The traders, awakened by his shot, rushed out, to find thai young Dick had killed one of their mules which had wandered nut uf the corral. cor-ral. Dick soon lived down his blunder, blun-der, however, by his courage in a fight with a band of Comnnches a few days later. Here Wort ton killed his first Indian. Wnuttun became a trapper and trader, trad-er, and bad many a hard battle with the Ind'ans in his wanderings. He won the undying friendship of (he Arupnhoes, however, by saving the life of an Arapabo woman who was lost in a hii.zard. They called him "Cut Hand." because he had lost two tinkers tin-kers from one hr.nd in a boyhood accident. ac-cident. During the Mexican war Wootton erved as a scout for Col. William Doniphan, and once was asked to carry car-ry dispatches hark to Synta Fe through a country swarming with hos-'He hos-'He Indians and enemy troops. He i as offered nn escort, but refused 1t, ivin he could make it better alone. He accomplished (lie perilous task, and received the highest praise from Doniphan for his feat. In his later years Uncle Dick Woot-'on. Woot-'on. as he now was called, settled In Ivalon pass, on the border line -of Colorado Col-orado and New Mexico. When the Santa Fe railroad built lis line through Katon pass, one of ihe biggest locomotives was named "Uncle Dick" in honor of Wootton, and the old scout always watched for its appearance and smiled proudly as it thundered lo the top of the pass with its heavy load. TEN TO ONE WILD BILL'S GREATEST FIGHT When the Overland stage route to the Colorado gold fields was estah-Jished estah-Jished shoitly before the Civil war, one of the bravest drivers in its employ em-ploy was a young man from Illinois named James H. Hickok. In 1801 Hickok was taken off the stages and put In charge of Ihe Kock Creek station, sta-tion, west of Topeka, Kan., in a region tilled with gangs of outlaws and highway high-way robbers. One of these, known us the McCandlass gang, invited Hickok (o join them aud, upon his refusal, threatened to visit him some day aud imiV' him regret his defiance. '"You'll find me here any time you come," was Hickok's reply. A few iays biter t he McCandlass f:ang did find him there. They attacked at-tacked him in his dug-out, haltered down the door aud .Ihn McCandlass, Ihe leader, sprang into Ihe room. He was killed by a bullet from Hickok's r'rle. Three more of ihe gang were t hot down wit Ii a pistol before the oilier six drew th,'ir howle knives and rushed upon him. "Then I went wild," said Hickok in telling of the light afterwards. Desperately Des-perately wounded but terrible In his berserker rae, he came to grips with the outlaws, ami when the right was over eight of the ten were dead uud the other two tied for their lives. Kver afterward Kb-kok was known as "Wild Kill." Later Wild I'.lll enlisted i. ihe Union army as a scout. He served wit It general gen-eral Cart's in Arkansas and repeatedly entered ihe Confederate lines us a py. More than once he was discovered discov-ered and forced to liee. and more than once the fleet ne.-s and intelligence of his favorite horse, "P.bick .Veil." saved bis life. He hii" a sluirpshooter at the Untile of I 'e.i Kidge, where he distinguished dis-tinguished himself by killing ihe Confederate Con-federate gcnet iil. Mcf "ul lough. After the war Fill returned to Kansas Kan-sas and beca me a scon I fur ( k-ncral C.istcr. who set a high value n hi services ;ind who once said: "Whether 1o..t or m horseback, Wild I'.itl wus one nf the moM perfect typ.-s of I h sjca I ma ulii'od I ha ve ever seen." Kmm IVi'.T t 1 7" Hickok served ;,s marshal of I Ia s City and Abilene, Kan. II bkrik's ad vent ii rous rcer c;i trie lo an end in (lie I'.Iark Hills of Soiiih Dakota. He bad gone there with the first gold rnh and In some way had incurred the enmity of .lack M'-Caij, n grnnl.lcr. On August 'l, ITtl. Mc-Call Mc-Call t reacher'aily shot him in t he beck as he sat playing card-! with some of his friends. |