And some of them bid fair to hold him off for many years to come.

1 1 [STORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

VIGI] WTFS II \XG REED AT SIDNEY -- THE GREAT BULLION ROBBERY WHISPERING SMITH GETS TWO

The cowman's period of taming the wilderness also included the period of Black Hills gold discoveries, which had a tendency of concentrating rough elements at the terminals of the trails to and from the gold fields. Thus Sidney became a storm center of deadly activity in the Panhandle of Nebraska.

In 1879, Sidney was a pretty rough f render town. The gold excitement had run for about three years, and this landing place for those who had been successful and were returning east, attracted a lot of good business men who supplied the prosperous miner with new outfits suitable for the old home back east. Merchantmen also outfitted those who were going into the hills.

There was another class that sought by all sorts of intrigue to separate the miner from his money, and then, they presumed that the loss of fortune would send the men back to dig more gold. Gamblers and saloon men of the time always justified any act necessary to get the money, with the following philosophy : "These men are naturally spenders, booze fighter.-, and otherwise dissolute. When they have money, they lay around the towns, drink, and make themselves generally disgusting and disagreeable. Therefore take the money from them as quickly as any device can be arranged. It stops their ruinous notions and sends them into the healthy life of the open, to be 'producers.' "