"RED" FRANK WHEELER.

 

            WHERE were two prominent Wheelers in Nevada, one was dark and swarthy with intensely black eyes and hair; the other was light with reddish brown hair and blue eyes. Being in the same town, they were soon designated "Red Frank" and "Black Frank."

            'Red" Frank, when I met him first, had a saloon and eating house combined in Hamilton, Nevada. Moreover, it was a central station for business men, prominent miners and strangers to congregate.

            It was natural, too, for "Red" Frank Wheeler was both a genius and master spirit among men. He kept an eating house and saloon because he was not very rich, but many a duller man has been given high places and earned for himself high honors. But "Red" Frank did not care for honors. His theory was that a man should get all the good he could out of life every day, for there was no certainty for the morrow.

            That winter of 1868-69 was a tough one in Hamilton; there were many poor men there ; many in want. Hon. P. C. Hyman was mayor, and he had an understanding with Wheeler that his orders for meals would be honored at half price, and the poor were fed.

            Then the smallpox broke out and became epidemic ; more- over, there was a great deal of pneumonia, and men do not last long with pneumonia at an altitude of 8,500 feet above the sea. The calls for help were incessant, but they were promptly met. In this work "Red" Frank led.

            One night about 10 p. m., just as the mayor was about to retire, there was a knock on the door. He opened the door and there stood "Red" Frank.

            "What is it, Frank?" asked the mayor.

            "A fine mayor you are," was the reply. : 'Fine care you are taking of the city, and the reputation of your friends."

            "What's the matter with you?" asked the mayor.

            "You had better ask," said Frank. 'You know there are

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some boxes piled outside my place. Well, next door a man died of smallpox this evening; his friends stole enough of my boxes to make a coffin, then returned the boxes in the form of a coffin and piled them on the other boxes."

            "Well, what have I to do with that?" asked the mayor.

            "Oh, yes;" said Frank, "of course you are innocent, but have you not the care of the smallpox patients ?'

            "Suppose I have, how am I concerned if men steal your boxes?" asked the mayor.

            "But they have brought back the boxes," said Frank.

            "Very well, what is your growl now?" asked the mayor.

            "Why, of course, nothing," said Frank, "only the man who was a smallpox patient this afternoon is in the box and my customers swear that it is no good sign for a first-class hostlery.

            "But what could I clo, at this time of night ?' : asked the mayor.

            "You can come and help me!" was Frank's answer. "Everybody is panicky. You and myself must see to this funeral.' 

            The mayor put on his hat and coat. They two took the coffin and carried it down to near the Big Smoky mill, when they met a man with a team. They told him what they wanted, but when he learned of what the man had died, whipped up his horses and drove away.

            "Red" Frank looked as he disappeared and then said : "Mr. Mayor, that man ought to start a dairy !"

            "I give it up," said the mayor, "what's the joke?'

            "Why, is not his breast running over with the milk of human kindness ?" was Frank's answer.

            They picked up the rude casket and carried it a little way, when they met another team. They told the driver ; he swung his team around and said : "Put the box on the sled and jump on yourselves !" He drove them to the cemetery. There they found picks and spades, shoveled the snow away, and dug a grave. The ground was frozen more than two feet deep, but they persevered, finished the grave, dropped the box into it and filled it up, and as they returned to town the east was

148 AS I REMEMBER THEM.

beginning to shoot up the first signals of approaching dawn.

            As they were about to separate, Frank said : : 'Mr. Mayor, if you won't say anything about this I won't; you have done so many mean things that no one will believe you if you do tell ; but, honest, I did not want that sign out on my boxes when morning came."

            Frank was careless about taking care of his money, and one night, to scare him into more careful habits, some friends went to his bed, woke him up and told him the safe had been robbed.

            He looked very grave for a minute, then turning to his clerk- -who had just come on watch, asked how much money belonging to outside people was in the safe. The clerk replied, ''Between fifteen and sixteen thousand dollars."

            Then Frank's face relaxed and he said : "Never mind, I have enough to make that good." He was not thinking of his own loss, but of those who had deposited money in his safe.

            Before going to Hamilton, Frank had lived long in Austin, Nevada, and knew everyone in eastern Nevada.

            So, when J. P. Jones became a candidate for senator in 1872, Frank went to Gold Hill to look after his campaign.

            In a brief time the candidate became wonderfully attached to Frank, and when elected senator still kept him in his employ.

            Frank went as a delegate to the Republican national convention at Cincinnati, which nominated Hayes and Wheeler. Frank originally was an Ohio man and knew Cincinnati as well as he did Virginia City. He happened to stop at the same hotel that the candidate for vice president did. At night after the nominations, a brass band came around to serenade the candidate. The two gentlemen had rooms on different streets and the serenading party got on Frank's side and played 'Hail to the Chief." Frank had not retired, and while the band was playing some instinct told him that it was a mistake, so when the crowd began to shout "Wheeler, Wheeler!" he stepped out upon the balcony and was greeted by a storm of cheers. Then a sudden silence fell and Frank, knowing what was expected, rose to the occasion with :

            "Gentlemen and fellow citizens ! I thank you sincerely for

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this great honor, but I hold it as not intended for me, but for the great office for which the convention today named me.

            "But the nomination already has brought a burden upon me, not that I fear defeat, for when I run for office I am always elected. But the whisper is already in my ear : "Can you fill the expectations of your countrymen when elected."

            "Your visit tonight encourages me, for what American can fail when his arms are upheld by the confidence and support of his fellow-countrymen ?

            "Our country has been torn by a terrible war, and since its thunders died away it has been tossed as is a great ship when, in the midst of furious seas, the winds are suddenly laid, and the ship loses steerage way and rolls and wallows in the confused waste of waves. But, gentlemen, I have a happy premonition that when the great soldier statesman named today for president is elected an era of peace will follow. I need not tell you that if I shall be elected vice president, I shall so preside over the senate that I hope the entire senate will agree that in whatever else I may fail, I have known no north, no south, no east, no west, in my rulings.

            "Thanking you once more for this high compliment and with a prayer that the wounds of our country may soon be all healed, I bid you a happy good night."

            Returning to Nevada, Frank was asked about his speech when he replied : "It was a great speech under the circumstances, but the newspaper cut out nearly all the telling points that I made, and the landlord of the hotel doubled my bill after he read it."

            When asked if it was true that the band played a funeral march as they retired, he answered : 'You cannot tell what those Dutch in Cincinnati are going to do until they do it."

            After a while Frank's health began to fail. He had been burning life's candle at both ends for many years.

            At last he called upon two eminent physicians in San Francisco and asked them to look him over. They did so, and then asked him about his habits of life for the previous ten or fifteen years. He answered them frankly, keeping back nothing.

150 AS I REMEMBER THEM.

            Then one of them said : 'If that is true we can save you some suffering, but we cannot long keep you alive."

            "I knew it," said Frank. : T knew it when I came to see you. I was only curious to see if you gentlemen were well up in your profession."

            A little later he could no longer leave his bed. Then he sent for his great friend, "Red" Davis, and said to him : : 'Did we not make a compact once in Austin?" Davis answered "Yes." "What was it?" asked Frank. Davis replied. "That whichever of us was called first, the other should see that he had a gentleman's funeral, even if he had to beg, borrow or steal the money.

            "Correct," said Frank, "I shall need your services sooner than you think."

            "Oh, you will be all right in a few days, do not talk about quitting," said Davis.

            Then Frank said : 'You don't know much, old friend. "My constitution was gone years ago. Since then I have been living on the by-laws, and they are beyond amendment now."

            A few days later he died. An hour before his death Davis called to see him. He was conscious, but could not articulate. He made a feeble motion which the nurse could not understand, but Davis did, and said to the nurse : 'He wants a toddy."

            The nurse made the toddy and held it to his lips, but Frank feebly shook his head, looking at Davis. Then Davis said : 'He wants me to have one."

            The nurse made a second one and gave it to Davis, then held the first one to Frank's lips. With the ghost of a smile he drank, and a few minutes later ceased to live.

            He was careless of himself. He might have made a great name, but he was indifferent to all that. He worked hard, his whole life's pathway was lined with good deeds and he died as he had lived, without reproach, without fear.