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Salted Undershirt

March 1, 1892, Daily Herald, El Paso, Texas – Five years ago I was suffering with a very severe throat trouble, so much so that I did not expect to live. An acquaintance told me that he could give me a remedy that would cure it and , as I had tried all of the doctors in my town without receiving any benefit, I decided to try the remedy suggested. I tried it, was permanently cured of my cough, and besides I discovered that I was not subject to colds.
I was conductor, running in the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama. I was of course subjected to very hot cars in winter, and of necessity had constantly to get out in the cold at all hours of the night. In all that time I have never had a cold or the grip. You will be astonished at the remedy. It is simply to wear a salted undershirt.

Take a summer undershirt and soak it in brine made with, a half pint of ordinary salt to about a quarter of water, and put out to dry. Wear this shirt next to the body. It is not unpleasant to wear and will, I am sure, keep off grip and bad colds, and, I firmly believe, consumption. If I were to live to be eighty years old, I have so much faith in the salted shirts that I would never cease to wear them. My reason for preferring the thin gauze shirt is because the salt makes a heavy shirt too stiff and hard. Wear the heavy shirt over the salted shirt

NOTE: This article written in 1892. It was the latest in medical news back then, but not necessarily now.

February 20, 2022 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »

Sequoyah

Sequohah, born in 1760 in Tennessee, grew up among his mother’s people, the Cherokee. He became a metal craftsman, making beautiful silver jewelry. As a young man he joined the Cherokee volunteers who joined Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. While with the American soldiers, he became intrigued with what he called “talking leaves,” or words on paper that somehow recorded human speech. Although Sequohah had no formal education, he somehow comprehended the basic nature of the symbolic representation of sounds.

In 1809 he began working on a Cherokee language. At first he tried picture symbols, but soon found them to be impractical. Then he started looking at English, Greek and Hebrew. He finally developed 86 characters that would express the various sounds in the Cherokee language. It was so simple in its concept that it could be mastered in less than a week.

In 1821 he submitted his new written language to the Cherokee leaders. As a demonstration Sequohah wrote a message to his six-year-old daughter. She read the message and responded in kind. The tribal council immediately adopted the system. And Cherokee of all ages started learning the written language.

The Cherokee were divided into two groups, Sequohah’s in Georgia and Tennessee, and the western Cherokee in Oklahoma. In 1822 Sequohah went to Oklahoma, and taught the alphabet to the Cherokee there.

Finally, on February 21, 1828 the first printing press with Cherokee type arrived in Georgia. Within months, the first Indian language newspaper appeared. It was called the Cherokee Phoenix.

Sequohah later went to Mexico to teach Cherokee there the language. While in Mexico he became ill with dysentery, and died. Great monuments to the man who developed the Cherokee alphabet stand today along the northern California coast. They are the giant redwood trees called the Sequoia.

February 2, 2022 | Categories: Old West History | Leave A Comment »

Bat Masterson – Gunfighter

I find Bat Masterson one of the more intriguing men of the Old West. He is known as a gunfighter, but he was in very few gun fights.

The last gunfight he was in took place on this day back in 1881. It was to help out his brother Jim. Jim owned a business in Dodge City and was having trouble with Al Updegraff, a business partner. It had even involved gunfire.

I don’t know if Jim actually said the words, “I going to get my big brother and he’ll beat you up,” but Bat, in Tombstone at the time, heard about the conflict and jumped on a train to Dodge City.

Not a man to mince words, Bat immediately spotted Updegraff and brother-in-law Peacock and said, “I have come over a thousand miles to settle this. I know you are heeled, now fight!” All three men immediately drew their guns.

In the fracas Updegraff took a bullet in his right lung. The mayor and sheriff arrived with shotguns and stopped the shooting. No one was mortally injured in the shooting, and in accordance with Old West standards, the gunfight was fought fairly. So Masterson was fined $8. He paid the fine and took the next train out of Dodge City.

As an aside, had Bat not left Tombstone to help his brother, the chances are excellent he would have been around to help his friend Wyatt Earp in another gunfight…The one that took place at the OK Corral.

January 12, 2022 | Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off on Bat Masterson – Gunfighter

Robert Leroy Parker – We Know Him as Butch Cassidy

Back in 1866 Robert Leroy Parker was born in Beaver, Utah Territory. But we know him as Butch Cassidy.

Supposedly, he picked up the name “Butch” from the short period of time he worked in a Rock Springs, Wyoming butcher shop. The last name came from a minor criminal mentor by the name of Mike Cassidy…I also suspect he didn’t want to bring shame on his strict Mormon family by using Parker.

Although Butch’s organizational skills and personality were probably suited more for a legitimate business life, he assembled a group of ruffians known as the “wild bunch.” Even though they could be considered misfits, Butch was able to meld them into a sophisticated criminal operation.

By the 1900’s the wild days of the West were fading and law enforcement was becoming more effective. So Butch, The Sundance Kid and Etta place fled to Argentina.

Here’s where legend and fact get blurry. Some say Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed by Bolivian troops. However members of his family maintain Butch came back to the United States and died of old age under another name.

Just as an aside. There are more than a dozen Old West outlaws, including Billy the Kid, who were supposedly not really killed, and they lived a long life under an alias. Sometimes I wonder if any Old West outlaw was ever killed.

January 1, 2022 | Categories: Old West Myth & Fact | Comments Off on Robert Leroy Parker – We Know Him as Butch Cassidy

Pearl Hart and the Wild Old West

Just when everyone thought the wild Old West was gone, in 1899 a small slight woman by the name of Pearl Hart and her boyfriend held up a stagecoach in the Florence, Arizona area.

Their take was a little over $400. But they weren’t able to spend it, because in a short time they were captured and jailed.

Shortly afterward, with the help of some men, Pearl escaped. But, because of her fame, she was recognized and returned to jail.

Pearl and her boyfriend were tried and convicted. The boyfriend got 30 years and Pearl got 5.

Pearl’s life after she got out of jail is surrounded in myth. Some say she became “The Arizona Bandit” with Buffalo Bill and in vaudeville. Others say she married a Calvin Bywater and settled down to a life of domestic bliss.

Whichever one it was, Pearl never got crosswise with the law again.

December 23, 2021 | Categories: Old West History | Comments Off on Pearl Hart and the Wild Old West