Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/469

 culture of Cornell University was a great thing. General Crook became prominently identified with the Omaha Gun Club, which included in its membership such crack shots as the late Major T. T. Thornburgh (afterwards killed by the Utes), Messrs. Barriger, Collins, Coffman, Parmlee, Patrick, Petty, and others. In all their hunts General Crook participated, as well as in the fishing expeditions organized by such inveterate anglers as T. L. Kimball, Frank Moores and the late Judge Carter, of Wyoming, whose home at Fort Bridger offered every comfort to his friends that could be found in a great city.

Carter was a man of means and the most hospitable, generous instincts. He was never content unless his house was filled with guests, for whom nothing was too good, provided they humored his whimsical notion that a certain patent medicine, called "The Balm of Life," was a panacea for every ill. Judge Carter had entered the far western country near Fort Bridger with the expedition sent out to Utah under General Albert Sydney Johnston, although I am not absolutely sure as to the exact time, and had remained and accumulated means, principally from the increase of his herds, which might truly have been styled the cattle upon a thousand hills. The last time I saw this grand-looking old patriarch was at a very substantial breakfast, served in his own princely style, where the venison, mountain mutton, and broiled trout would have evoked praise from Lucullus, but after which—much as the Egyptians introduced images of mummies at their banquets—Ludington, Bisbee, Stanton, McEldree, and I had to face the ordeal of being dosed with the "Balm of Life," which came near being the Balm of Death for some of us.

In the great riots of 1877, and again in 1882, Crook's energies were severely taxed for the protection of the Government property along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, but he performed the duty to the satisfaction of all classes. The handsome, stately, soldierly figure of the late General John H. King, Colonel of the Ninth Infantry, rises up in my memory in this connection. He rendered most valuable and efficient service during the periods in question. Similarly, in running down and scattering the robber bands of Doctor Middleton, and other horse-thieves in the Loup country, in northwestern Nebraska, the intelligent work performed by General Crook, Captain Munson,