Biography; Frontier and pioneer life -- Dakota Territory; Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
He had an older brother named Darius who was famous as "the champion
beer-drinker of the West," having the engaging gift of being able to
consume untold quantities without ever becoming drunk. In their way
they were a notable family.
Gregor Lang, with the fortunes of his employer at heart, watched
Frank's activities as storekeeper with interest. During the military
regime, Frank had been post-trader, a berth which was an eminent
article of barter on the shelves of congressional politicians and for
which fitness seemed to consist in the ability to fill lonely soldiers
with untold quantities of bad whiskey. Frank's "fitness," as the term
was understood, was above question, but his bookkeeping, Lang found,
was largely in his mind. When he received a shipment of goods he set
the selling-price by multiplying the cost by two and adding the
freight; which saved much calculating. Frank's notions of "mine" and
"thine," Lang discovered, moreover, were elastic. His depredations
were particularly heavy against a certain shipment of patent medicine
called "Tolu Tonic," which he ordered in huge quantities at the
company's expense and drank up himself. The secret was that Frank, who
had inherited his father's proclivities, did not like the "Forty-Mile
Red Eye" brand which Bill Williams concocted of sulphuric acid and
cigar stumps mixed with evil gin and worse rum; and had found that
"Tolu Tonic" was eighty per cent alcohol.
Seeing these matters, and other matters for which the term
"irregularity" would have been only mildly descriptive, Gregor Lang
sent Sir John a report which was not favorable to Frank Vine's regime.
Sir John withdrew from the syndicate in disgust and ordered Lang to
start a separate ranch for him; and Gorringe himself began to
investigate the interesting ways of his superintendent. Why Lang was
not murdered, he himself was unable to say.
Lang had made it his business to acquire all the information he could
secure on every phase of the cattle industry, for Sir John was avid of
statistics. Roosevelt asked question after question. The Scotchman
answered them. Joe Ferris, Lincoln, and a bony Scotch Highlander named
MacRossie, who lived with the Langs, had been asleep and snoring for
three hours before Gregor Lang and his guest finally sought their
bunks.
It was raining when they awoke next morning. Joe Ferris, who was
willing to suffer discomfort in a good cause, but saw no reason for
unnecessarily courting misery, suggested to Roosevelt that they wait
until the weather cleared. Roosevelt insisted that they start the
hunt. Joe recognized that he was dealing with a man who meant
business, and made no further protest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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