62 CAMPING WITH THE PRESIDENT 



accused of horse stealing, he had loaned two hundred 

 dollars to pay counsel on his trial, and, to his surprise, 

 in due time the money came back. The Ex-Rough 

 wrote that his trial never came off. " We elected our 

 district attorney;" and the laughter again sounded, 

 and drowned the noise of the brook near by. 



On another occasion we asked the President if he 

 was ever molested by any of the " bad men " of the 

 frontier, with whom he had often come in contact. 

 "Only once," he said. The cowboys had always 

 treated him with the utmost courtesy, both on the 

 round-up and in camp ; " and the few real desperadoes 

 I have seen were also perfectly polite." Once only 

 was he maliciously shot at, and then not by a cowboy 

 nor a bona fide " bad man," but by a " broad-hatted 

 ruffian of a cheap and commonplace type." He had 

 been compelled to pass the night at a little frontier 

 hotel where the bar-room occupied the whole lower 

 floor, and was, in consequence, the only place where 

 the guests of the hotel, whether drunk or sober, could 

 sit. As he entered the room, he saw that every man 

 there was being terrorized by a half-drunken ruffian 

 who stood in the middle of the floor with a revolver 

 in each hand, compelling different ones to treat. 



"I went and sat down behind the stove," said the 

 President, " as far from him as I could get ; and hoped 

 to escape his notice. The fact that I wore glasses, 

 together with my evident desire to avoid a fight, 

 apparently gave him the impression that I could be 

 imposed upon with impunity. He very soon ap- 

 proached me, flourishing his two guns, and ordered 

 me to treat. I made no reply for some moments, when 

 the fellow became so threatening that I saw something 



