wanted
Blaine, the "Plumed Knight"; and the convention got Blaine.

Roosevelt raged, but refused to follow Curtis and Schurz, who hinted
darkly at "bolting the ticket." He took the first train to Dakota,
sick at heart, to think things over.

V

He wears a big hat and big spurs and all that,
And leggins of fancy fringed leather;
He takes pride in his boots and the pistol he shoots
And he's happy in all kinds of weather;
He's fond of his horse, it's a broncho, of course,
For oh, he can ride like the devil;
He is old for his years and he always appears
Like a fellow who's lived on the level;
He can sing, he can cook, yet his eyes have the look
Of a man that to fear is a stranger;
Yes, his cool, quiet nerve will always subserve
For his wild life of duty and danger.
He gets little to eat, and he guys tenderfeet,
And for fashion, oh well! he's not in it;
But he'll rope a gay steer when he gets on its ear
At the rate of two-forty a minute.

_Cowboy song_

Blaine was nominated on June 7th. On the 8th Roosevelt was already in
St. Paul, on his way to the Bad Lands. A reporter of the _Pioneer
Press_ interviewed him and has left this description of him as he
appeared fresh from the battle at Chicago:

He is short and slight and with rather an ordinary
appearance, although his frame is wiry and his flashing eyes
and rapid, nervous gestures betoken a hidden strength. He is
not at all an ideal Harvard alumnus, for he lacks that
ingrained conceit and grace of manner that a residence at
Cambridge insures. Although of the old Knickerbocker stock,
his manner and carriage is awkward and not at all
impressive.

He arrived in Medora on the evening of the 9th. The Ferrises and
Merrifield were at the "depot" to meet him. They all adjourned to
Packard's printing-office, since that was the only place in town of a
semi-public character which was not at that hour in possession of a
noisy aggregation of Medora's thirstiest citizens.

The office of the _Bad Lands Cowboy_, which stood under a gnarled
cottonwood-tree north of the Marquis's store, was a one-room frame
building which served as the editor's parlor, bedroom, and bath, as
well as his printing-office and his editorial sanctum. It was built of
perpendicular boards which let in the wintry blasts in spite of the
two-inch strips which covered t