He knew Smith very well, and regarded him more as an outlaw.

Whispering Smith was a dead shot ; a man of nerve ; cold-blooded, calculating and fearless ; and a man who would cunningly and tauntingly provoke an enemy to commit the first overt act, thus giving Smith ground for self-defense. That was Smith's game. Such is Colonel Persinger's iconoclastic estimate of the hero of Spearman's novel, in which the "great bullion robbery" is not even remotely referred to.

Julius Thoelecke, who resided at Sidney at the time, does not share with Colonel Persinger in his high esteem of agent Allen.

Mr. Persinger and his "Hardscabble Ranch" are both interesting. His is a personality and his ranch a landmark on Lodgepole creek, near the town of Lodgepole. He established the ranch about 1878, or ten years after the coming of the Union Pacific.

OBERFELDERS DEMONSTRATE HOG AND ALFALFA COMBINATION -- LATER

RANCHERS N I '.AROSHKOSH -- POOR'S RANCH, WHERE SHELDON HIT

Tlllv WEST -- COWBOYS MARKING GRAVES -- THE MIDNIGHT

RIDE OF WILD HORSE HARRIS

\ great many people passing along that valley, on the < )verland trains, or the Lincoln 1 lighway, have admired a green oasis near the pretty village of Lodgepole, which is the Oberfelder ranch. < >berfelder Brothers are pioneer merchants al Sidney, and this ranch was a side issue. I [ere was where a demonstration of what hogs would do, if properly handled in alfalfa fields, proved of great value to the owners, a- well as to western Nebraska at large. id "Bob" l >berfelder have done splendidly their part in western development.