CHAPTER XII 



HOW I BEGAN A REGULAR TRAMP EXISTENCE 



I went from El Reno to Chickasha, then in 

 Indian Territory, and "worked" every town on 

 the Rock Island road from there to Henrietta, 

 Texas, and on the new railroad through Wichita 

 Falls to Abilene, Texas. 



And a great experience it was, indeed. Chick- 

 asha I found to be the toughest town I ever was 

 in excepting Pocatello, Idaho. I had not yet 

 seen Pocatello, Idaho, so Chickasha stood first in 

 the list of hard places with me then. Up to that 

 time I had never seen a greater aggregation of 

 "tough-mugs" than there in Chickasha. I 

 earned one dollar there between trains, a period 

 of a few hours. There was more work "in sight" 

 but I did not care to stay over night in a cheap 

 hotel in that town then. Apologies to Chickasha 

 if it has improved since that time, as it no doubt 

 has. In the other towns between there and the 

 Texas line, I picked up enough money to pay my 

 expenses. My first move in getting off the train 

 in these towns was to look up the livery stables. 

 Here I could usually get a mouth to fix or a case 

 of lameness to prescribe for. This done, I usually 

 looked up the horseshoers; these fellows could 

 usually put me on the trail of a cripple or two 

 and as soon as I had five or six dollars made, I 

 would make a move for the next town. In this 

 way, although I was a tramp veterinarian, I 



83 



