Field in a saloon. He had been playing the piano and singing to a frecklefaced youth in chaps and a deer hide shirt. Vince hadn't heard the songs before and he liked the way Field sang them. He told him so and the upshot was the three went to Maggie Murphy's Beanery. While they were eating Vince learned that Field was the assistant editor of the Denver Tribune and wrote poetry. "Romantic verse to woo the heart," he called it. but Vince thought otherwise. I told Kate about it. She laughed then went. me one better. She described a range boy who was sexy looking and had a way with men. Field met him wandering along Laramie Street, his high heel boots beating a mournful tattoo on the wooden sidewalk. He was hungry but he was afraid to go into a restaurant as he had never been in one, so he said. Would Field take him in? Field did and saw he got filled up and after talking with him decided he needed someone to look after him in the big city, and he knew the right person, Francisco Martinez, president of The Rocky Mountain Bank. Martinez was a kindly soul whenever attractive young men needed assistance and no sooner had he met the range boy than he suggested they go for a ride in his buggy. It was a shiny new one and the black nags hitched to it unusually spirited. This was in the evening. Somehow Martinez lost control of the horses and they tore along Cherry Creek and into an unfinished

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barn, splintering the buggy and wrenching Martinez' back. The range boy suffered only minor bruises but Martinez, out of the goodness of his heart, gave him $50. This, however, was not the last of the range boy. Kate went on to describe the reception Tabor arranged for Oscar in The Windsor after the lecture. On the committee to welcome him was Martinez, a fashion plate in a glossy stovepipe hat, a broadcloth cutaway, ascot tie and a gold headed cane. No sooner had he arrived than in walked the president of The Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe with the range boy, handsome in a new suit, a white dress shirt and a high celluloid collar. Martinez suffered a heart attack and had to leave before Oscar arrived.

"What a terrific flop that blow-out was," Kate said with a shake of her head. “Emma and I had charge of the umbrellas and spittoons. One of the old bags threw a big feed before the lecture and gave the crowd everything from rainbow trout to venison. They at like a pack of hogs. Something she served them must have been spoiled. They couldn't get to the spittoons fast enough. Oscar came in while a couple were heavin'. One gassy old gal was trying to loosen her corset. She had to do it in the lobby, there wasn't room in the privy. Oscar went straight to his room. He hadn't time for supper when he got off the train and he was hungry. He asked the desk clerk to send some food to his room. The damn fool sent him a hunk of roast mutton-yes, mutton. Oscar took one smell of it and threw it out the window. Emma saw it land in the snow. She told me about it. I went up to his rooms and asked him if I could fry him some ham and eggs with spuds and onions. He said the sooner the better. He ate two helpings and a half a pan of corn dodger I'd made.”

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