“One time there was two old men lived up Magnetic Holler, right close to
a little branch they call Mystic Spring nowadays. One of these fellows
was Uncle Adam, and he had a wife. The other one was knowed as Uncle
Dick, and he didn’t have no wife, but he had two cows. They got to
trading jackknives and shotguns, and finally Uncle Adam swapped his wife
for one of Uncle Dick’s cows. Folks used to trade wives pretty free in
them days, and nobody said much about it. Lots of them wasn’t really
married anyhow, so there wasn’t no great harm done.
“But it wasn’t long ’till word got around that Uncle Adam’s woman had up
and left him, and moved her stuff over to Uncle Dick’s cabin. The next
time Uncle Adam came into town, somebody asked him if Uncle Dick had
stole his wife. ‘Hell no,’ says Uncle Adam, ‘it was a fair swap, all
open and above board. Dick give me his best cow for the old woman, and
two dollars to boot.’
“Folks got to laughing about it, and one day the sheriff stopped Uncle
Adam in the street. ‘This here trading wives is against the law
nowadays,’ says he, ‘And everybody knows a woman is worth more than a
cow, anyhow.’ Uncle Adam laughed right in the sheriff’s face. ‘Don’t you
believe it, Sheriff,’ he says, ‘Don’t you believe it! Why, that there
cow of mine is three-fourths Jersey!’”
[Illustration: That there cow is three-fourths Jersey!]
XIV
THE CAPTURE OF BILL DOOLIN
It was during the winter of 1895-96. Bill Doolin, the Oklahoma outlaw
was spending his “vacation” in Eureka Springs, taking the baths and
hiding out from the law. He had allegedly killed three marshals at
Ingalls, Okla., a short time before and committed other crimes over a
period of several years of outlawry, and the law was hot on his trail
when he disappeared at the first of the year, 1896.
Bill Tilghman, United States marshal, knew Doolin personally and set out
to capture him. At a boarding house in Ingalls he learned that the
outlaw had gone to some resort in Arkansas for his health and safety.
The marshal selected Eureka Springs as the most likely place for
Doolin’s hideout.
Tilghman arrived in Eureka Springs disguised as a preacher, wearing a
Prince Albert coat and a derby hat. He registered at a hotel and left
his baggage. He then walked to a little park in the center of town. A
man was stooped over the spring, filling a jug with water. When he
raised up the marshal saw that it was Doolin.
Tilghman knew the outlaw was quick on the draw and did not attempt to
arrest him. Instead, he dropped into a nearby shop and watched him
through the window. Doolin walked across the park, crossed a bridge that
spanned a little stream, and ascended a flight of steps leading to a
hotel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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