Adventure Magazine Cover, February 3, 1921 — page 184: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

178 haid. You've heard tell of ordeals by fire and wa “T have.” “Mike, the Daily Dove is my hobby, but she’s a paying hobby as you must know by now, for she covers all this end of west Texas. Now I always reckoned if I got the right young fellow to run her they wa'n’t no limit to the influence he could swing, and they wa’n’t no limit to what he could be in west Texas with me and the Dove behind him. You made a likely start in this yere town from the very first, and when you ease off a few more of Pritchard’s breed, you’ll be the little white-haired boy of west Texas.” “A few more! Lord, judge, I never aimed: to kill the one I did.” “Well, if you hadn’t killed Wes this time you’d had to kill him all over the next. It mought be nobody will ever tackle you after this, but you want to be prepared. But now, you divarted me from my rat- killing. We’ve sent Mesquite Brush to Congress for the last two-three terms, and Mesquite, he sends back pamphlets on tomato-canning clubs when there ain’t ary tomato in Cayote County. He makes Adventure long-winded speeches about child-labor in mills and a minimum wage for wimmin, and franks back copies to the district, when what we want is some government help with the foot and mouth disease and the Texas tick, and what we really need is an irrigation project for the Little Pecos.” “Then I should have rocked Mesquite to sleep instead of Pritchard?” “No, you got the right man sure ’nough— Mike, when you told me your family pedigree I says to myself, “The boy knows law, the Irish can argue, the Winthrops were statesmen three hundred years ago, and no man ever got the paving contracts in any city that wa’n’t a natural politician.’ I made Mesquite Brush, but he’s had his day.” An excited group of men surged through the door discussing Pritchard’s death and the unique method thereof with keen ap- preciation. Benjamin Goode sprang te his feet and pounded on the bar. “Gentlemen,” he orated, “let me pre- sent Michael Winthrop Connolly, the man that Val Verde is going to send to Congress next year to make law for west of the Pecos.” COUNTING COUP BY FRANK H.HUSTON TE word as used by whites was given by the Canadian French but bears no relation whatever to the meaning in that language. With most tribes, the first who strikes, or even touches the body of an enemy in a fight is credited with the killing; with others the act is even more meritorious than the actual killing; more so during the days of bows.and arrows alone, when the greatest achievement was to strike an enemy first (count coup) and then kill him, this being considered the acme of bravery. A long, ‘slender stick is carried for the purpose, and in charging the village, if one strikes a teepee with it, the tent and con- tents belong to him, the same rule applying to ponies, women, etc., captured, but it should not be forgotten that the counting or striking a coup must be done in the heat of battle: A whip, club, or any kind of’stick may be used and some were accustomed to notch the same as an aid to remembrance of the coups struck—custom probably borrowed by white gunmen who “notched” their guns for each killing—and as a wounded Indian settled to his deadliest aim, mortal wounds only intensifying the desire to kill, it may be seen that he who counts coup runs the greatest danger. The Cheyennes claim “the old woman in the cave” told some of their medicine-men in the “long ago” how to make a medicine coup-stick, and by carrying it when going to war an enemy could not hit them. By riding close to an enemy, shaking the sticksand making a peculiar noises, the enemy ‘became paralyzed with fear and of course was at their mercy. A coup-stick being a valuable testimony of the owner’s prowess, was carefully treasured and~ inherited from father to son. COPMICLOOOkKS (C@)