morning, while I was there, an Apache prisoner drove around the post 

 with a wagon load of canteloups which he sold for five cents each; 

 they were the best I have ever eaten. Old Geronimo himself I saw but 

 once, when he was engaged in a 'coon hunt; he seemed a very mild and 

 harmless old gentleman, but his looks belied him. Though prisoners 

 of war, the Apaches needed no guard; they were credited with 2,500 

 murders in their years of warfare and knew very well that only on a 

 military reservation would they be safe from the vengeance of the 

 whites. 



That autumn, every one's mind was filled with the excitement of 

 the presidential election. I did not relish the idea of voting for McKinley, 

 but it was utterly impossible to vote for Bryan. During the summer, I 

 had made quite extensive journeys in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, 

 Kansas and Oklahoma, and had everywhere listened to the political 

 talk going on around me, in trains, waiting rooms and hotels. The 

 impression that I gained from all this was that the current in the West- 

 ern states was running strongly to Bryan and I am incUned to believe 

 that, had the election been held in July or August, Bryan might have 

 won. But the spectacular rise in wheat, and the clear demonstration 

 that the price of wheat was determined by the law of supply and de- 

 mand and not by the price of silver, cut the ground from under Bryan's 

 feet. Some of his followers seriously threatened to repeal the law of 

 supply and demand, but they never got the chance. 



C2263 



