THE LATE MAJOR BELL
become contraband, anathema and taboo. In the winter following the re-
bellion he was in Chicago with Colonel (now General) Otter, of rebellion
fame. Early in the evening he went to the hotel desk and inquired for the
Colonel. He was not in. A very gentlemanly looking fellow was stand-
ing by, who said, "Colonel Otter is over at my place. If you like we will
walk over." The chap's manner and appearance were perfect and the
Major hadn't a grain of suspicion. It was on Clark Street. The Major
had on a valuable fur coat. In his pockets were a three hundred dollar
watch and $900 worth of money. They came to a big business block of
stores in the bottom, offices above, and entered. Everything was very quiet;
they proceeded upstairs. It was a four-story block and there were no
elevators in those days. It seemed a long way up, and a queer place for
the Colonel to be, but Bell had no suspicion, until they entered a room,
when the Major saw at a glance that he was in trouble. Let him tell his
own story. "I saw, instantly, that I was in a trap. At the far end of
the room two men were sitting at a table playing cards. They were seated
on heavy oak stools. 'Why, where's the Colonel?' said my man. 'Oh, he
just stepped out to bring over a friend. He said he'd be back in a few
minutes.' I was thinking pretty hard by this time how I was to get out
of there, but I didn't let on but what I thought things were quite 0. K.
The man said he would take a hand while we were waiting, and sat in,
while I stood watching, and occasionally making an innocent observation
or two. I didn't sit down. My fur coat I had thrown down by the door
as I was warm climbing the stairs. Luck seemed to be with my friend
for very soon he had won thirty dollars and he invited me to sit in at the
game. I said I had quit playing, but I liked to watch a game. The game
proceeded, and I could see no way out. The man who came with me was
an ordinary man and the man next me was a little man with a brilliantly
bald head. I could have taken a chance with them but the third man I
was afraid of, a great big powerful determined looking chap. Suddenly
I got an idea from the little man's bald head. I took him by the collar,
grabbed the stool by one leg from under him, swung it aloft over the bald
head and said, 'If you stir a finger I'll crack his (descriptive adjective)
head like (another adjective) an egg shell.' And while they sat motion-
less and speechless I dragged the little man across the floor to the door.
Then I threw him back into the room, grabbed my fur coat and ran down
those stairs like hell."
After the failure of the Bell Farm enterprise Major Bell had a pictur-
esque and varied career. The story goes that in the Bermudas he found
an island bearing magnificent timber. He was in the lumber trade in the
east and this timber aroused his old time lumber instincts. He secured
the rights and cleaned up a lot of money. Then we heard of him in Ireland,
where he again struck it rich by making a very happy second marriage
with a charming lady. He returned to the Territories, where among other
things he introduced a new type of galvanized iron granary. His health
failed, and long before the allotted span he died in Winnipeg. Of indomit-
able courage, unfailing cheerfulness and resource, with an engaging per-
Bibliography follows:
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