Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/288

271 BOB SEWEIiL.. AI» IJU1>-TIMB DRIVER. 271 were urged to their topmost speed, and every once iu a While Bob dropped an Indian, and at the time an ac- count of the attempted hold-up had it, that he killed three and wounded ten; but although Bob SeweU lived in the same town, yet when questioned &,bont this episode would laugh it off, and if he ever did give a personal account of the affray it is unknown. But perhaps because of his reticence to brag, for Bob was no blow-hard, was the motive, or more likely his good judgment impelled his silence. To show the pecular make-up of this man, here is what took place November 4, 1880, this being the eve- ning before the State election at which the voters were to say whether the sale of intoxicating Mquors should be prohibited in Kansas: Bob was addressing a num- ber of young men on the measure, stating that al- though he was addicted to drink, yet he realized the curse it had been to him; in truth, he delivered as fine a temperance lecture as was ever uttered, winding up with the assertion that he would vote for the meas- ure, but notwithstanding that he then took a bottle from his pocket and wound up by averring, "Yet I'll take a drink right now!'" But we are stopping too long at this road. One would think there was a half-way house where liquors could be obtained; not so in 1541: so up the beautiful vaUey our party proceeds, and no finer farming coun- try can be found out-doors, and the troop is beginning to reach where the Nemaha is large enough to use canoes if desired; but the evening's goal is soon to bo reached, and now we are crossing the 40th parallel. The line just crossed is about eighteen miles north of