I remember a rather amusing thing happened to him. He was running for
Senator one year and was having a pretty hard race and it was known he
was spending plenty money to get votes. There was a precinct about fifty
miles from the railroad on the Teton River where there was about fifty
votes—mostly half breed Indians. There was a half breed lived there and
claimed he had great influence among his people. So he looked up T. C.
Powers and told him for one hundred dollars he could swing every vote in
his precinct. Powers gave him the hundred. When the votes were counted
in that precinct, Powers had not got one vote. Some time after he met
this big politician. Powers said, “What was the matter in that precinct
of yours? I didn’t get a vote out there.” The breed said, “I just
couldn’t get them to vote for you, Mr. Powers.” He said, “Why?” and the
names he called him wouldn’t look good in print, “You didn’t vote for me
yourself!” He said, “I dassent, Mr. Powers, they would have kill me out
there if I do.” Evidently Powers wasn’t very popular in that precinct.
When I got to this ranch I found a man there alone in bed and very sick.
The outfit had left a few days before on the fall roundup, and as he was
not feeling well at the time he figured to stay at the ranch a few days
and when he got better would follow up, but he got worse. I stayed with
him a couple of days and still he got worse. At night the only way he
could rest was to prop him up in bed, then I would put my back against
his and my feet against the wall, and move to any angle that suited him.
I would have to change his position every few minutes and his back was
becoming hot, as he had a high fever and wanted water very often. So he
finally wore me out and I decided to go for a doctor, who was twenty
miles away. At this time it was about nine o’clock at night. There was a
good-looking horse in the barn, so I saddled him and started. It was
very dark and for the first few miles he bucked several times (if anyone
reads this that has rode a bucking horse in the dark he will know what
the sensation is). I didn’t know where I was half the time—whether I was
in the air or in the saddle. But after I got him going, I didn’t give
him any time to buck anymore until I got to the doctor.
Well, when I found the doctor he would not come to the ranch that night,
as he had been up with a sick woman for a day and a night and was very
tired. After describing the symptoms of my patient, he gave me a bottle
of quinine and a bottle of morphine with directions. I went back to the
ranch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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