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diff --git a/40497-0.txt b/40497-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8954e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/40497-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2659 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40497 *** + + The Prairie Schooner + + By William Francis Hooker + + Copyright, 1918 + By SAUL BROTHERS + Chicago + + + To My Wife + MAMIE TARBELL HOOKER + A Pioneer of the + Jim River (Dakota) Valley + + + + +[Illustration: Illustration and Patent Color Process by J. D. Johnsen] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + Page + + Introduction 11 + + I. Letters Pass Between Old Pards 15 + + II. Trains That Run Without Rails 27 + + III. Hunton and Clay--Bull-Train Magnates 43 + + IV. Guarding an Overland Freight Outfit 57 + + V. Rattlesnakes and Redskins 67 + + VI. Belated Grace for a Christmas Dinner 75 + + VII. The Fate of One-Eyed Ed. 85 + + VIII. Track-Layers Fought Redskins 99 + + IX. "Bill" Hickok, City Marshal 105 + + X. When Cheyenne Was Young 113 + + XI. The Lost Indian at Bedtick Creek 119 + + XII. A She-Bear and Her Cub 129 + + XIII. A Kick From a Playful Bullock--and a Joke 135 + + XIV. The Indian and the Trousers 143 + + XV. There's a Reason; This Is It! Conclusion 149 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +When the Union Pacific Railroad was completed from Omaha, Nebraska, to +Ogden, Utah, it passed through a territory about as barren of business +as one can imagine. It apparently was a great Sahara, and in fact some +of the territory now growing bumper crops of alfalfa, grains and fruits, +was set down in school text-books in the 70's as the "Great American +Desert." + +Its inhabitants were, outside of the stations on the railroad, largely +roaming bands of Indians, a few hundred soldiers at military posts, some +buffalo and other hunters, trappers, a few freighters, and many outlawed +white men. + +The railroad had no short line feeders, and there was, in the period of +which I write, no need for them sufficient to warrant their +construction. There were military posts scattered along the North +Platte, and other rivers to the north, and the government had begun, as +part of its effort to reconcile the Red Man to the march of civilization +started by the Iron Horse, to establish agencies for the distribution of +food in payment to the tribes for lands upon which they claimed +sovereignty. These oases in the then great desert had to be reached with +thousands of tons of flour, bacon, sugar, etc., consequently large +private concerns were formed and contracts taken for the hauling by +ox-teams of the provisions sent to the soldiers as well as the Indians. + +The ox was the most available and suitable power for this traffic for +the reason that he required the transportation of no subsistence in the +way of food, and was thoroughly acclimated. Usually he was a Texan--a +long horn--or a Mexican short horn with short stocky legs, although the +Texan was most generally used, and was fleet-footed and built almost on +the plan of a shad. + +Both breeds were accustomed to no food other than the grasses of the +country, upon which they flourished. These included the succulent bunch +grass. + +Oxen were used in teams of five, six and seven yokes and hauled large +canvas-covered wagons built for the purpose in Missouri, Wisconsin, +Illinois and Indiana. In the larger transportation outfits each team +hauled two wagons, a lead and a trailer, and frequently were loaded with +from 6,500 to 8,000 pounds of freight. These teams were driven by men +who were as tough and sturdy as the oxen. + +Most of the freighting was done in the spring, summer and fall, although +several disastrous attempts were made to continue through the midwinter +season to relieve food shortages at the army posts. + +It may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true, that Indians +frequently attacked the very wagon trains that were hauling food to +them, in Wyoming and Western Nebraska. Perhaps they were the original +anarchists; anyway, they often tried--seldom successfully--to destroy +the goose that laid the golden egg, but the course of civilization's +stream never was seriously turned, for it flowed rapidly onward, and +between 1870 and 1885, the country was quite thoroughly transformed from +a wild and uninhabited territory to one of civilization and great +commercial productivity. + +Cattle ranches with their great herds came first, then sheep, and by +degrees the better portions of the lands, where the sweet grasses grew, +and even on the almost bare uplands when water was made available by +irrigation projects, were tilled. Settlements followed quickly--towns +with schools and churches; then branch railroads, the development of the +mines of gold, silver, coal, etc., all came in natural order. And +finally, at a comparatively recent date, rich fields of oil were +discovered and made to yield millions of gallons for the world's market +and millions in wealth. + +It is difficult to realize that the now great territory was, in the day +of men still active, regarded as of little or no value--the home of +murderous, wandering tribes of savages in a climate and soil unfitted +for agriculture and containing little else of commercial value. + +But science and enterprising men and governments have wrought almost a +miracle. + +Go back with me to the days of the prairie schooner before the Wild West +was really discovered, and let me try to entertain you with just a +glimpse of things that are in such wonderful contrast to those of today. + +The freight trains with ox-team power have vanished, never to return, +and with them most of the men who handled them. + +The "color" of what follows is real, gathered when the Wild West _was_ +wild; and I make no excuse for its lack of what an Enos R. Mills or a +Walter Pritchard Eaton would put in it, for they are naturalists while I +am merely a survivor of a period in the development and upbuilding of a +great section of the golden west. + +In relating incidents to develop certain phases of pioneer life real +names of persons and localities have not always been used; and in some +of the narratives several incidents have been merged. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +LETTERS PASS BETWEEN OLD PARDS. + + +_My Dear Friend_: + +Can you put me in correspondence with any of the old boys we met when +the country was new, out in Wyoming? * * * Of the Medicine Bow range, or +Whipple, the man I gave the copper specimens to? * * * + +Have you forgotten the importance you felt while walking up and down the +long line of bovines, swinging your "gad" and cursing like a mate on a +river boat? You looked bigger to me than a railroad president when you +secured that job, as you used to say, breaking on a bull-train. I should +say you were an engineer, but I suppose you know best. Those were happy +days. When I recall the fool things we did to satisfy a boy's desire for +adventure, I wonder that we are alive. How we avoided the scalping +knife; escaped having our necks broken, or being trampled to death under +the feet of herds of buffalo is a mystery to me. * * * + +When the building of the Union Pacific road checked the buffaloes in +their passage from summer to winter feeding grounds, and they were +banked up along the line near Julesburg in thousands, I recall the +delight we took in watching them "get up and get." What clouds of dust +they would kick up when they got down to business! And such dust as the +Chalk Bluff would make never entered the eyes or lungs of man elsewhere. +Weren't we whales when we could divide or turn a herd? And how we would +turn tail-to, "spur and quirt" for our lives if the bunch did not show +signs of swerving from their course. How a cow-pony can carry a man +safely over such treacherous ground as the dog-towns is almost a +miracle. + +O! to have my fill of antelope steak or buffalo "hump" broiled on a cone +of buffalo chips! Nothing better ever entered my mouth on the plains. +The soothing song of the lone night-herder of the bull-train as he +circles and beds his stock is not more conducive to sweeter slumbers +than we enjoyed by the rippling streams in the hills of Wyoming. + +The difficulty we had in boiling beans until done in so high an +altitude; our hunt for a gun at old Dale Creek where "Shorty" Higgins +died suddenly; the fool act on my part when, afoot and alone, I +recovered the horse the Comanches had stolen from us. I wish we might +corral some of our old-time friends and go over the past before we leave +this land, "for when we die we will be a long time dead." + +The wild horse that roamed the West, among which was the stallion who so +valiantly guarded his harem on the Laramie Plains, was a model for a +Landseer. The great herds of buffalo that looked like shadows cast on +the plains by clouds passing the sun and the myriads of passenger +pigeons, are among the things that man will never see again, and as read +from the chronicles of history a few years hence, will be classed with +the Jonah and the Whale story. + +Old Man, when convenient, write me a long letter recalling some of the +old days, for-- + + "I'm growing fonder of my staff, + I'm growing dimmer in my eyes, + I'm growing fainter in my laugh, + I'm growing deeper in my sighs; + I'm growing careless in my dress, + I'm growing frugal with my gold, + I'm growing wise--I'm growing--yes, + I'm growing old." + + Sincerely yours, + _VAN_. + + * * * * * + +The reply: + +_My Dear Old Pard_: + +Your note concerning the events of long ago out on the Laramie Plains +and the Harney flats shoots across my vision events in the Cache de La +Poudre (the Poodre), the Chugwater country, old Cheyenne, Sherman, Fort +Laramie, Fetterman, Camp Carlin, both Plattes, the Medicine Bow waters +and range, Allen's "Gold Room," McDaniel's hurdy-gurdy, the +dust-stirring, dust-laden buffalo east of Chalk Bluffs, the deer and +antelope of the whole Wyoming territory, the sage-hens, and I don't know +what not. + +It makes me stop and lope back into the sagebrush. It makes me climb the +mountain sides and urge the bulls to fill their piñon yokes, tighten the +chains, and hurry along the four or five tons of bacon or flour or +shelled corn in gunny-sacks that Uncle Sam wants delivered somewhere +over the range, across the desert sweeps, through cactus-grown, prickly +pear sprinkled wastes, on through the dog-towns, in the heavy sand +sifting through the spokes, and falling off in a spiral fount from the +slow-turning hub. + +Ah, yes, old pard, and as I whack my bulls in the train that runs +without rails to the top of a long divide, I look for three things: +water, smoke and Indians. + +There were no railroads north of Cheyenne--nothing but the +"bull-trains." There away on the edge of the horizon, over the yellow +bunch grass, cured by the sun, is a strip of green. It is box-elder, and +underbrush. Standing out here and there like grim sentinels on guard are +the big, always dead and leafless cottonwoods, white as graveyard +ghosts, day or night. It seems to be only a flat surface haul to this +refreshing looking strip of green, and, as I have stopped the whole +wagon-train by making this observation, and the wagon boss is moving my +way on a big mule, I tap the off leader, who is thirty odd feet away, +with my long lash and yell: + +"Whoa, haw, Brownie," but not too loud at first; just an encouraging +word or two, and then string 'em out. My leaders are light of feet and +built like running horses. The pointers--or middle yokes--come in +reluctantly, but I attend to that, and with the butt end of my stock, +jab the near wheeler in the ribs, and away we go. + +But, old pard, inside of three minutes my strip of green is gone! In its +place is the quivering, broiling sun over the yellow bunch-grass; the +ashen stalks of the sage seem never to have had a drop of sap in +them--everything is dead. Even the jack-rabbit that stops for a look +seems bedraggled and forlorn, but I whistle, pick up a moss agate, throw +it in my jockey box, and jog along, for the surface is now hard as a +stone, though off ahead there I will unwind my lash and send its +stinging thongs to the backs of my noble beasts, touching only selected +spots where the hair has been worn away until the surface looks like the +head of the drum in a village band. + +Yes, I know they used to think us bullwhackers were brutes, but they (an +occasional tenderfoot) only saw the surface. They had never been +initiated; they didn't know the secrets. It was only when the load just +had to be yanked to the top without doubling teams or dropping trailers, +that we used the undercut which sent the long V-shaped popper upon the +tender spots of the belly, and then, Pard, the thing looked worse +because the Comanche-like language we hurled with it was so unusual to +ears that had been trained east of the Missouri River. It sure was +picturesque language! + +But we were all day reaching that green belt strung like a ribbon across +the face of central Wyoming, and from the time we first hove in sight of +it, until we pulled the pins from the steamy yokes, and dropped the +hickory bows at our feet, it appeared and disappeared so often that I +wonder that both man and beast did not go mad. However, inasmuch as this +was a daily programme for me for several years, I know that man can +stand a whole lot of hardship, if he only thinks so. + +And then ring in the change from the desert heat of midsummer to trifles +like thirty below in winter along the same landscape, when you see the +ghostly cottonwoods and anticipate your arrival among them some hours +later. Won't there be a roaring fire? And beans? And bacon? And pones of +bread for everyone? Wet stockings piled on inverted yokes or held on +pieces of brush, are drying, we are nursing our chilblains and +discussing the incidents of the day's drive, and not a weakling in the +outfit. Every man has been frozen or soaked all day, but he's as happy +as a lark. Sleep? You bet! You know it; but if you and I tell our +friends around our comfortable firesides now or in the lobby of an +onyx-walled Waldorf-Astoria, Belmont or Biltmore, that we just kicked a +hole in the snow, rolled into our blankets and dreamed of being roasted +to death, they would look at your well-shaven face, my biled shirt, and +then at your highly polished shoes, then at my black derby, and, dammit, +I believe they might be justified in forming the opinion that neither +one of us had ever been deprived of breakfast food, or bath tubs, or a +manicure artist's services.* * * + +You want to know if I can locate any of the old gang. Sure! Some sleep +in the sidehills along the swift-flowing waters of the North Platte, one +or two are parts of gravel beds down on the wild meadows--or what were +the wild meadows of hundreds of square miles between the North Platte +and the Poudre; but not a few, like you and I, stalk abroad on the face +of the earth--cheating first, as we did, tribes of Sioux, Arapahoe, +Cheyenne and the Comanches who swept up across Kansas and Nebraska; +escaping the blizzards, periods of starvation, cold, heat, fire, water, +whisky, and finally the surgeon's knife. I tell you, the world only +thinks it knows a thing or two about how the human body is made, and how +much it can stand. But to answer your questions: + +Jim Bansom, the last time I knew of him, in 1875, was headed east with a +fine span of hosses and a fair-to-middlin' wagon. + +Don't know where he went and don't know what he did with the hosses or +the wagon! 'Taint none o' my bizness, neither! In those days it wasn't +customary to be too gol-darned inquisitive about such things, unless +you owned the hosses or the wagon, or a bit, or a halter, or something +of that sort you happened to loan to the outfit; and then, of course, +you could take the trail if you wanted to. + + * * * * * + +Sam Smith, old U. P. conductor, walked into my office a while ago, and, +as he closed the door behind him, I said, "Hello, Sam; haven't seen you +since 1875, but you're the same Sam!" Then I told him my name. + +And then Sam gasped and acted like maybe he might pull a gun, thinking +me an impostor; because when Sam saw me the last time, stretched out in +his caboose on the old mountain division of the U. P., and the train +sailing down the toboggan that slid us into Laramie City, past Tie +Siding and old Fort Saunders, my hair was black, and I had a different +look. + +Maybe I looked bad. I guess I did, for I carried a gun and a belt of +forty rounds, and a butcher knife in a scabbard, just as we all did, for +it was the custom of the country; and I had long hair, too, and it was +matted and dirty, mixed with pitch that came from camp-fires in the +hills. No doubt I looked wretched, but, old Pard, I didn't even feel +that way. I felt good, and I was as harmless as a pigeon. + +But I said something about a hatband of rattlers' rattles that I gave +his little girl at Cheyenne, as I rode up to his door aboard a cayuse, +and that settled it. We talked about snow-sheds, the Sherman hill, once +the highest railroad point in the world, and of old times in general. + +But what's the use? When you come to New York, I'll meet you at the +Waldorf and we'll talk about it all night, and wish the buffalo were +still there, and the sagebrush, and the bull-trains, and the other +things undisturbed by civilization. So long.... + +_BILL._ + +New York, August, 1917. + + [NOTE--The above letters are from the author's files. "Van" is a + multi-millionaire manufacturer living in a middle-western state. + For several years his pastime was buffalo hunting and "roughing it" + in the wild and woolly west. + + The author, when a boy of 16, was developing a case of tuberculosis + of the lungs, and to escape the fate that had overtaken other + members of his family, took Horace Greeley's advice, went west, and + grew up with the country. He had been a clerk in a railroad office, + and still is in the railroad business in New York City, more than + forty years after the events related in the following chapters. He + is the only survivor of a family of fourteen, including all of his + own children, eight in number.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +TRAINS THAT RAN WITHOUT RAILS. + + +Before railroads were built in the country west of the Missouri River +there was, nevertheless, considerable doing in the transportation line. +And even after the Union Pacific was built from Omaha to Ogden to +connect with the Central Pacific, which carried the rails to the Golden +Gate, most of the transportation of the then great Wild West, in the +mountains, on the plains and the "Great American Desert," was done by +ox-teams. These were run in trains of from ten to fifty or sixty teams, +the teams consisting usually of from five to seven yokes of oxen and +lead and trail wagons built for the purpose. + +These wagons were called prairie schooners, because they were supplied +with canvas coverings. The first of these, made in St. Louis, were +called "Murphys," and were provided with iron axles. Later many of them +were made in Indianapolis, Chicago, and Kenosha, Wis., the latter known +as the Bain. The Schuttler and the Bain wagons were almost as big and +substantial as a box car and were well painted and put together to stand +hard knocks on mountain "breaknecks" or in Bad Land sands. + +The lead wagon would carry an average of 6,500 pounds, while the +trailer--fastened to the lead by a short tongue--had a capacity of +perhaps two tons. In a sandy place or on a mountain road, the +bullwhacker (teamster) would slacken his team, pull a coupling pin from +an iron half-circle arrangement on the axle of his lead wagon, drop his +trailer to one side of the road and proceed to the top of the hill, if +in the mountains, or to an "island" of hard ground in the desert, unhook +his wheelers and go back for the trailer. Sometimes a "bull outfit" +would spend a whole day doing this. Lead wagons were parked one at a +time and the trailers brought on later and hooked up. These parkings +were in the shape of an oval, called a corral, a narrow opening being +left only at each end. + +Inside this corral, when it came time to yoke up, the cattle were driven +in by the herders, if the camp had been for over night or a long mid-day +stop. Then the bullwhackers, carrying the heavy piñon yokes over their +left shoulders, hickory bows in their right hands and iron or wooden +pins with leather strip fastened to them in their mouths, would seek out +their teams, yoking them together and leading them to their wagons. + +When a "whacker" had his "wheelers," or pole oxen, in place, he would +bring on his "pointers," and the rest, including the leaders. The +wheelers were always the heavyweights, old and trained, and able to hold +back the load or their unruly teammates until the whackers could throw +on a brake or "rough lock," the last named a log chain fastened at one +end to the wagon, thrown through the wheel spokes in such a way as to be +between the ground and the wheel on the "near rear hind wheel" of the +lead wagon. + +New cattle just being trained to yoke were always put in the center of +the team, where they were easily managed with the assistance of the +"leaders," which were always light weights and most always long-horns +from Texas--long horns, long legs and bodies, thin as a razorback hog. +These leaders were always the best broken oxen, and would respond to the +low-spoken word of "haw" or "gee," especially if the word were uttered +in the peculiar musical tone of the whacker which cannot be described in +print, not only because it is impossible to convey sound in that manner +but because the language that goes with the music--the request to gee or +haw--would not be pleasant reading. Alone, the leaders would trot like +horses. + +The average person outside of Texas and the southwest and some of the +western states has a mental picture, perhaps, of the Texas steer of the +long-horn variety. Those who lived thirty or forty years ago, even in +the East, remember him as a member of the quadruped family consisting +largely of horn, for it was not an infrequent thing to see him in a +cattle car on a sidetrack. He was, as a matter of fact, also entitled to +a reputation for his legs, for they were unusually long. His body, too, +was slim, and he never was fat for the reason that while free to roam +the ranges at will he devoted most of his time to using his horns in +goring his mates and neglected to eat. He raced about from place to +place, whereas, if he had no horns he would have been a peaceful animal +and consequently much more valuable for the market. + +The old-time Texas steer often was as fleet-footed as a Kentucky +racehorse of the thoroughbred variety, and it took a good horse to catch +him when he made up his mind to run. + +Nevertheless, thousands of these Texas steers were broken to yoke, and +used in overland transportation; and once broken they were good workers, +even though their horns were always in the way, and the cause of a great +deal of trouble in a herd. + +While I have no authority for the statement, I believe practical +dehorning began with the bullwhackers of the plains, for they frequently +bored holes in the horns which in a few weeks caused the horns to drop +off. Then it was noted that if the dehorned cattle were kept separate +from those with horns, the dehorned ones, even when working hard every +day, took on flesh and were better workers. Finally nearly all the +work-oxen were dehorned, and they were as meek and quiet as lambs. + +The whacker always began his orders to his bulls in a low tone, +increasing it as the necessity for action presented itself, and ending +in a string of oaths that would make an old-time Mississippi steamboat +mate ashamed of his reputation. Frequently teams were stalled on a high +hill or in the sand, when it would be necessary to gee the team of seven +yokes at an almost right angle, with chains between each yoke slackened +and with "wheelers" filling their yokes. Then the whacker would walk out +half way to his leaders and soothingly coax them to come haw--toward +him--on a trot, until all the chains between the other yokes were +tightened. By this time, however, Mr. Whacker was back to his wheelers, +perhaps punching the near one in the ribs, and then throwing his +eighteen or twenty foot lash over the backs of any of the yokes that +were not clawing the sand properly. In this way the men often worked for +days at a time, making sometimes only a few rods by each repetition of +the operation. Then again, the wagon boss would order a doubling-up +process and two whackers and fourteen yokes of oxen would work on one +pair of wagons, taking them along perhaps a mile, and then returning, +repeat the process until the bad road was left behind. + +This was transportation in the old days, and "trains" of this kind first +hauled the heavy traffic from Leavenworth and Nebraska City to the +Pacific and intermediate settlements in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. +After the Union Pacific was built this bullwhacker transportation +increased, especially in the country between Utah and the Missouri +River, in both directions away from the railroad, for the government had +a line of forts on the North Platte River and Indian Agencies were +established in Western Nebraska, Wyoming and what is now South Dakota. + +Two of these agencies, Red Cloud, on White River, and Spotted Tail, +forty miles to the north, were big traffic points. Train loads of bacon, +flour, sugar and other things were hauled to these agencies on +government contract, the provisions being in payment to the Sioux and +other tribes for the land they occupied near the North Platte River. +Along the Platte there were forts--two famous in their day--Fort Laramie +at the junction of the Platte and Laramie Rivers, and Fort Fetterman, +one hundred miles west of Fort Laramie, on the Platte at Lapariel Creek. +Soldiers here depended upon the "bull outfits" for their provisions, +nearly all being hauled in over mountain range and plain by contractors. + +Those were wild and woolly days, and the man who lived the life of +out-of-doors was a rugged, devil-may-care, hungry, healthy, happy +fellow. He knew how to face a freezing blizzard, or a baking sun without +flinching; he knew how to take care of himself with a minimum of +discomfort under the most adverse circumstances. He was afraid of +nothing. It wouldn't do otherwise. He was there, usually beyond the arm +of any law other than ordinances made and provided by himself and +companions and enforced by the same law-givers. Stealing was a worse +crime than life-taking. There never was an excuse for the first, but +nearly always one could be trumped up for the latter. To take a man's +horse was worse than cold-blooded murder; to rob him of his gun or his +blankets was equally as bad a crime. But if he had been cheated in a +game of "freeze out," or called a name that reflected upon his origin it +was not uncommon for him to become judge and executioner then and there. + +So men who engaged in this early day transportation of food and fodder +for soldiers and their mounts and for the followers of Sitting Bull, Old +Red Cloud and other chiefs, were careful in their social intercourse, +and when the harsh word was passed, as frequently was the case, it was +no uncommon thing for men to settle their score with pistols; and the +winner in these duels seldom, if ever, was punished. But a cold-blooded +murder--a wanton killing--was never tolerated. In a fight with pistols +it was always considered that the man who did the killing was justified. + +Unlike the present day fliers, bull trains did not run on schedules, +although there was a pretense of regularity about the day's routine, and +it was about as follows: + +At break of day the night herder who had been out with the bulls all +night--it is always daybreak to him whether three o'clock or +five--drives his herd into the corral, usually singing some refrain of +his own composition, but always having for its motive the same that +animates the pestiferous alarm clock set by a master to disturb the +slumber of a tired servant. However, a half hour before the herder +appears the cook and his helper, both bullwhackers, doing their turn of +a week, have been on the job with the coffee and bacon, and as soon as +the herder sounds his first note, the cook takes up the song, which is +perhaps: + + Bacon in the pan, + Coffee in the pot; + Get up and get it-- + Get it while it's hot. + +And then, and it is always so, some of the lively stock, as it +approaches the corral, takes the notion that there is some nice sweet +buffalo bunch grass to the rear that looks better than a day's work, and +there is a bolt often approaching a stampede. Curses? You never heard +the like, for the wagon boss and an assistant are already in their +saddles helping the herder. If you tried to sleep just a minute longer +it would be impossible, therefore you roll out from your bed on the +ground, fold up your blankets, tie them with a strap and throw them on +your trail wagon. + +Coffee and bacon are swallowed in haste, and if you are like the +majority, you grab a piece of bacon and a chunk of bread, bang them +together into a huge sandwich and put them in the jockey box of your +wagon for a lunch at eight or nine o'clock. + +Yoking and stringing out the oxen is the next operation, and a short +one in a well regulated outfit. Twenty minutes, usually, from the time +the bulls are driven in, the lead team is moving, and when the "outfit," +as every train is called, is well under way, the lead wagon is perhaps a +half mile from the last one, which is the mess wagon, containing the +provisions, cooking utensils, levers for raising a load of four or five +tons, the iron jacks, extra tires, coils of rope, pulleys, wheels, extra +spokes, bars of iron, and almost always a small forge--a regular +wrecking outfit. + +In hot summer weather on fair roads a bull train would make four or five +miles before the sun was high enough to burn--usually nine o'clock. +Then, if the camp was to be a "wet" one--at a creek, river or +spring--there would be a "layover" until four o'clock in the afternoon, +during which time the boys could sleep under a wagon, wash their +clothes, or if in a creek or river bottom, shoulder a gun and look for +moccasin, lodge pole or bear tracks. + +All day long, however, the men who were on the cook trick would make +bread in Dutch ovens. And let me tell you, no bull outfit ever stopped +for a long mid-day rest without putting on a huge kettle of beans, for +the army or white bean was the staple food in those days; and there was +always, on these long mid-day stops, plenty of soup. + +Perhaps one of the boys in his meanderings up or down the creek would +bag a deer. If he wandered out upon the plain he was sure of an +antelope, if he was a good shot. The deer kept to the trees along the +rivers and the hills, while the antelopes' territory was the open plain, +hard to get at unless the plain were rolling, and the hunter could be in +the right place as regards the wind. + +Sometimes there were poker games, usually freeze-out, which the men +played with plug tobacco cut up into small cubes. Others would spend +their time braiding whips or mending clothing. + +The bullwhacker's whip not only made a tenderfoot open his eyes with +wonder, but it usually shocked him. It was something he had never seen +before, and if he had been told that a man of ordinary strength would be +able to wield it he would have been decidedly incredulous. + +Differing from a cowboy's or herder's whip, the bullwhip lash was +attached to a stalk of hickory or white ash three feet long upon which +the whacker could firmly plant both hands. The lash at the butt, which +was attached to the stick by a soft strip of buckskin, formed in a loop +or swivel, frequently was more than an inch thick. These lashes were +from eighteen to more than twenty feet long and were graduated in +thickness from this great bulk to the tip, which was the thickness of a +lead pencil. The number of strands in a bullwhip were also graduated. At +the butt there were as many strands as the maker--usually the +bullwhacker--could weave, often fourteen. At the tip, this number was +reduced to six. The top, and down to six or eight feet from the end, the +whip was made of leather, often old boot tops. The rest was of tough +buckskin or elkskin. But on the very tip of the whip--the business +end--was a "popper" of buckskin cut in the shape of a long V, the bottom +end of the V running into a strand which was braided into the tip. + +The bullwhacker, when using this instrument, first threw it out before +him upon the ground; then by the use of all his strength he swung it in +over his head, to the right, often whirling it several times before he +let it go upon the back of the bull he wanted to reach. + +To the man who never saw this operation before, there was a shock, for +as the whip landed on the bull the popper made a roar like the report of +a cannon. + +As a matter of fact the bull was uninjured, unless the bullwhacker was +careless and allowed his popper to strike a tender spot, the nose, an +eye or the belly. + +It was almost a crime for a bullwhacker to cut a bull and draw the +blood, and he seldom did it unless his popper had been wet and then +dried. The spot usually aimed for was the hip, and bulls that had been +in service any length of time had a spot on the rump that was hairless, +resembling the head of a drum. But the spot was tough. The noise of the +popper, however, was what startled the team and caused it to "dig in." + +Frequently in the summer the afternoon drive lasted until ten or eleven +o'clock, especially if there was a moon. You cannot imagine a more +impressive, weird, wild sight. The shadows, the rattle of the wagons, +perhaps the scream of a night bird or a wild cat--maybe the zip of an +arrow from a redskin's bow, or the report of a gun, all calculated to +keep even the hardened bullwhacker on his mettle. And for this the +bullwhacker got $75 to $100 a month and "grub." He usually spent his +money at the end of his trip much after the habit of the sailor who +rounds the Horn. + +In the cold weather the hardships were many. There were, remember, no +bridges and the roads crossed numerous streams, all of which had to be +forded; and there was but one way to cross, and that was to wade and +guide a team. + +Usually the heavy freighting was done before December, but often it was +necessary to fight through blizzards and zero weather. It was this kind +of work that tried the soul of even the hardy bullwhacker, and not +infrequently his hands, feet, ears or face were frozen. It was hard on +the cattle, too, although it was almost always possible to find plenty +of good feeding ground of buffalo grass, which grew in heavy bunches and +was very sweet in its dry state, for the wind usually kept places bare. +If not, the bulls would nose it out from under several inches of snow +and manage to get something approaching a meal. Otherwise, they went +hungry, for no feed of any kind was ever carried for them. + +Indians, usually, were too lazy to hunt the white man in winter, so +there was seldom any trouble from this source after the first snowfall. +But when the grass was green it was different, especially in the +mountains or foothills. Redskins seldom fought a real battle in the +open. To the bullwhacker he was nearly always an invisible foe, shooting +his arrows or his gun from behind a rock, or from the top of a bluff, +well out of range himself. When the Indians were known to be following +an outfit it was common practice to keep a couple of horsemen outriders +on each side of the train where possible. Frequently bull trains were +obliged to corral and put up a fight, and usually the Indian lost. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +HUNTON AND CLAY, BULL-TRAIN MAGNATES. + + +Among the bull-train magnates of the early 70's were Charley Clay, said +to be a relative of the famous statesman, and Jack Hunton. They were +pioneers of Wyoming who have no doubt been quite forgotten, though in +their day none in the then sparsely settled frontier territory was +better known. They were not only pioneer freighters, but among the very +first of the daring frontiersmen to go beyond the limits of +civilization, and into the stamping grounds of the warlike tribes of +Indians to establish homes. Both built ranches in the Chugwater country +along the trail leading from Cheyenne to Fort Laramie. Clay's log house +was directly under one of the famous landmarks of the territory--chimney +rock--a chalky butte formed, geologists say, by erosion. Hunton built +his ranch on the northwest end of the Chugwater at a point near Goshen's +Hole, a great basin, where the Laramie trail wheeled directly north to +Eagle's Nest, another butte. At Hunton's a trail less used branched off +to the northwest, across what was then considered a desert and reaching +Fort Fetterman, perhaps 125 miles away on the North Platte river at +Lapariel creek. This part of Wyoming is now, I understand, a vast +wheatfield. To a bullwhacker of the early 70's this is almost a miracle. + +Both Hunton and Clay used their ranches to range their work cattle in +off seasons, although both had beef herds and lots of horses. These +ranch houses were protected from Indians by less than a dozen men at any +time; but these men were fighters and were known to be such by the +chiefs of the tribes that frequently roamed the territory south of the +Platte, although in a treaty with the Federal government they had +promised to stay north of the famous stream, the consideration being, on +the part of Uncle Sam, a contribution of hundreds of tons of flour, +bacon, tobacco and other things. Strictly speaking, this food was in +payment for land south of the Platte. + +Both Hunton and Clay had a knack of dealing with these roaming bands, +however, that prevented any serious raids, although at one time, when +Clay had closed a contract with the government and found himself in +Cheyenne with his big bull outfit, consisting of a couple of hundred +head of oxen and thirty or forty men, word was brought to him that on +his return trip to his Chugwater quarters, a band of Sioux would attack +him. So he left Cheyenne one night, and taking a course almost due east +avoided the Laramie trail, and by a circuitous route reached the +Chugwater without having traveled a mile on a trail. + +Hunton's and Clay's ranch houses were loaded with firearms, looked like +armories, and at the height of the shoulder in the log walls were fort +holes through which guns could be fired. These were used several times, +but none of the skirmishes approached in any degree the present-day +pictures one sees in the movies, and I doubt if they ever did, in the +West. In the first place, while the Sioux, Cheyenne and other redskins +were considered especially bloodthirsty, none of them was fond of +exposing his worthless carcass to a shower of bullets, even though +outnumbering the whites 100 to 1. The Indian of that day--of the day +that history was making on the frontier--was a most miserable coward +when dealing with frontiersmen of the Hunton or Clay calibre. + +Of course, there were open battles with United States troops, but even +then only when, as in the case of Custer and his Seventh Cavalry, the +troops were outnumbered and trapped. Even Sitting Bull's band, which has +wrongly been represented by some historians as brave, were entitled to +no credit of that kind. Custer was trapped in a big bowl and his 300-odd +fighters surrounded on all sides by several thousand well mounted and +well-armed young bucks. The Custer and the earlier so-called Indian +battles both at old Fort Phil Kearney and earlier in Minnesota, were not +battles at all--simply massacres. There is no record of an even fight +between redskins and whites in the settlement of the country between the +Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. The Modocs fought for months in +the lava beds, but seldom did a soldier see a Modoc. So it was with old +Geronomo and his Apache followers. They fought from cover, never in the +open unless overtaken and surrounded. + +Nevertheless, the raiding bands of Ogalala Sioux that slipped over the +Platte in the season of good grass were a problem for these pioneer +ranchmen and transportation outfits, and it was not an uncommon thing +for a bullet or an arrow to reach a vital spot in a bullwhacker from +some hiding place just in range of the road. When this happened it was +the common practice for members of the outfit to mount their saddle +horses, with which every bull-train was well supplied, and give chase +unless the lead of the Indians was too great, and usually it was. + +Once in a while, however, the Indian made a miscalculation, and the +bullwhacker would return to the temporarily corralled outfit with a +scrubby Indian pony, a few rawhide thongs, and an Indian's ear freshly +amputated for use as evidence at the first camp of bullwhackers or army +post that one more "Good Indian" had been put on the list. + +This cutting off of ears was reprisal, for the Indians scalped their +white victims and mutilated their bodies when they had a chance. Hunton +and Clay hauled with their big outfits, at one time, about everything +that was sent to the northern line of forts by Uncle Sam. Clay's +contracts were largely confined to Port Laramie, although Hunton hauled +a good deal of the provisions to that post. Hunton and others supplied +Fort Fetterman, the principal route being from Medicine Bow station on +the Union Pacific across the mountain range of the same name. + +It took several days to load the prairie schooners from the freight cars +on a sidetrack that was laid upon the sod; and while this work was going +on there was sometimes a good deal of drinking and many gun fights. + +It was while a bull outfit was loading for one of the fall trips to +Fetterman that the first billiard table came to Medicine Bow. I think it +was the only one in the territory outside of Cheyenne and Laramie City, +both division points on the Union Pacific. There were no women in +Medicine Bow, good or bad, at the time and not more than 100 regular +residents, yet the town had a saloon because the bull outfits, Hunton's +and others, in their occasional trips, and a few adventurers who were +prospecting south and west of the "Bow," furnished ample patronage to +make the enterprise profitable. It was this saloonkeeper who conceived +the idea of importing a billiard table, and also a back bar and mirror. + +The bullwhackers watched the installation of the new furniture, and that +night informed the saloonkeeper that as there were no women in the camp +it had been decided to have a stag dance in the saloon. He protested, +but it did no good. A few drinks in a dozen leaders was followed by a +deliberately aimed shot which shattered the mirror, after which the +operation of removing the billiard table began. It was a rough job, and +would have given a Brunswick-Balke man a chill. The table went out onto +the prairie in sections, and the sections were not always separated at +the regulation point. The green cover was ruined. + +Then the dance began. The German saloonkeeper smiled his protests, but +when he became too much concerned about what was going on, someone would +snuff a light or plug a barrel of whisky with a bullet. So the night's +debauch continued, and it did not end until daybreak. The place was a +wreck, and the saloonkeeper was in despair when the wagon boss came +along with a roll of money as big around as a ship's cable, saying: + +"What's the damage, Fritz?" + +"Ach," he replied, "the table cost me $500; a barrel of whisky and +cigars, beer, my fine mirror--everything is gone?" + +"Yes, I see, the whole bizness," said the boss. + +"Well," said Fritz, "the boys spent $600 mit me, so I make it $600 more; +maybe I can repair the table." + +So the bill was paid, the wagons were loaded, and the outfit sallied +forth across the plains, the bridgeless rivers, and the mountain passes +to Fetterman where there was a pay-day. Deductions pro-rata were made +from every man's wage to even up the score with Fritz, and every +bullwhacker paid his share willingly, saying it was cheap sport for the +price. There was no feeling against Fritz because Fritz had not shown +fight. If he had--well, most of the men in the outfit were wild and +woolly, and rough, but not killers. Still one or two could not be +trusted. + +Hunton put up a log house, a forge and a charcoal kiln just outside the +south limit of the Fort Fetterman government reserve, a section five +miles square south of the Platte. Just before this plant was erected a +series of Indian depredations began; several men engaged in cord wood +chopping for a government contractor were murdered by small bands of +Sioux, and many saddle horses stolen. There were also several raids in +the Lapariel bottoms; and one day a small band of Sioux, well mounted, +forded the Platte almost in sight of the fort, stampeded a herd of mules +and drove them far into the Indian country before a company of soldiers +took up the chase. + +A military telegraph line ran from Fort Fetterman to Fort D. A. Russell +at Cheyenne, and the northwestern end of the line was down most of the +time, the Indians taking the wire away to use in ear and nose rings and +for other purposes, although the line was destroyed many times, no +doubt, for pure cussedness. One time I traveled for fifty miles on +horseback along this telegraph line, and in places the wires were +connected with insulators which were mounted on buffalo horns. In many +places the wire was on the ground. + +It was said at the time of the running off of the mules that the Fort +Fetterman commandant was unable to follow the Indians without orders +from Washington via Fort Russell. However, this was not confirmed. +Anyway, on this and many other occasions the army moved slowly and was +past understanding on the part of the few citizens in the country. +Nevertheless, the soldiers of those days, whenever in conflict with the +redskins, usually gave a good account of themselves. + +Things got so warm one spring in the vicinity of Fort Fetterman that the +thirty or forty citizens camping outside the military reservation +organized a secret society known as the Buckskin Militia, and determined +to avenge the deaths of several men, Jesse Hammond, a woodchopper, and +others, if opportunity should present itself. The only qualification for +membership in the Buckskins was a willingness to take the oath, which +was as follows: + + I, John Smith, do solemnly swear that I will shoot on sight any + male Indian, no matter whether he is attacking me or other white + men, stealing or attempting to steal my property or the property of + others, or whether he is approaching or moving from me. + Furthermore, I will answer any call from another member of this + band or any other good white citizen, for assistance in the + destruction of any male Indian found on the south side of the North + Platte river; and will join in any raid upon an Indian camp when + called upon by the Chief Buckskin. So help me God. + +This oath was taken while standing on the stump of a cottonwood tree in +the Lapariel bottoms, the candidate being loaded down with as many log +chains as he could hold, and the ceremony, usually taken on a moonlight +night, was as weird a sight as one can imagine. + +The raids from the north continued nearly all summer. Several more white +men were killed, one a lone prospector who thought there was mineral in +the hills southwest of Fort Fetterman and near old Fort Caspar. + +[Illustration: "Whistled to Give His Quarry the Chance He Would Give a +Mad Dog, and No More."] + +One of the Buckskins hunting antelope one day in the vicinity of La +Bonte Creek crossed the trail of a single tepee or family, and three +ponies. This he knew from the lodge pole tracks made by a horse dragging +the poles over the ground. The Buckskin took the trail, keeping well out +of sight, but finally cut off a lone Indian who had dismounted to drink +from a spring, allowing his young buck sons to go on. Buckskin whistled +to give his quarry the chance he would give a mad dog--and no more. Then +he put a bullet in his head. He remained on the spot from which he +fired, waiting to hear from the rest of the tepee, which he did in a few +minutes, although the young bucks kept out of sight. They fired a few +shots before Buckskin decided to make a dash, and when he did it was a +race of ten miles to a ford in the Platte. The young bucks escaped. +Buckskin returned to his "Good Indian," removed a lock of his hair, took +his gun and ammunition and a greasy card from the folds of his blanket +upon which some white man had written: + + This is Cut Nose, a "Good" + Sioux Indian; but he is a + Murderer and Thief. + +There was a big session of the Buckskin Militia a few nights later, and +great rejoicing. Cut Nose was a whole tribe of Indians in himself, and +many dark crimes had been laid at his door by the white men who were +engaged in freighting food to the Indian agencies and army posts. + +It must be understood that there were no settlers or settlements or +families in this section of Wyoming at this time, therefore there were +never any of those horrible affairs common farther East a hundred years +or more ago. There were no women and children for these red devils to +kill, and year in and year out the fight was between bullwhackers, a few +ranchmen, not more than half a dozen, government woodchoppers, and a few +prospectors. + +The professional hunters usually "stood in" with the red man, being +possessed of some kind of magic that was never fully explained. In those +days beaver, bear, buffalo, deer, antelope and other game abounded. The +hunter usually had a hut or "dug-out" near a beaver dam, and it usually +was well supplied with food and sometimes a squaw was the hunter's +companion. Her relatives were sure of good treatment, and I presume for +that reason the relatives were able to give the "squaw man" hunter +protection. Still hunters were murdered, but not often. + +Finally, along in July, after the grass had lost its sap and turned +brown, one of the Buckskins saddled up his pinto horse one day, strapped +a blanket, a pone of bread and a piece of bacon to his saddle, and +giving free play to his Rowell spur, waved his hat and yelled as he +dashed away: + +"Good-bye, boys; see you again in a few days. I'm goin' to put an end to +these raids." + +His brother Buckskins thought he was crazy--some of them did. But one or +two winked and looked wise; and about sixty hours later, when some of +the "militia" had almost forgotten him, Buckskin rode up, unsaddled his +pinto, pitched him in the ribs and said: "There now, old boy, go up the +creek and enjoy yourself. Eat yourself to death, and I'll know where to +find you when I want you. No Indian will get you." + +When the boys crowded around him he vouchsafed this much information: + +"From a point twenty miles east of this spot to a spot twenty miles west +of Fort Laramie--on the north side of the Platte--as far as the eye can +reach in a northerly direction, and you know that's considerable +distance, there is just one charred mass--every blade of grass has been +burned." + +There was no more trouble that season. No feed for the Indian ponies +within a hundred miles of the fort to the north of the river. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +GUARDING AN OVERLAND FREIGHT OUTFIT. + + +Driving seven yoke of oxen hauling two wagons attached by a short rig +similar to that used in coupling cars, along a desert road, is enough to +keep an able-bodied ox-train brakeman busy. But when, in addition to +keeping his wild "leaders" in the road and his "wheelers" filling their +yokes, he has to keep an eye on a distant bad land bluff or a roll in +the surface, he has his hands more than full. + +This was the situation when the bull outfit, from Cheyenne to Spotted +Tail, was slowly moving along north of the Platte river in August, +1875--a time when Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies were nearly +deserted, and all the young bucks were chasing antelope and incidentally +collecting scalps of white men when they could find a white man alone +and unprepared to defend himself; or when they could outnumber a bull +outfit one hundred or two hundred to one and get its members in a +"pocket," which was not often. + +At this particular time a young man who, a couple of years previous, had +never known anything less comfortable than a feather bed, or a job +harder than writing railroad way-bills, was one of two in the +cross-country freighter crew who had been assigned by Wagon-boss Watson +to mount a "pinto" pony and ride all day at least 1,000 yards away from +the trail and keep to the high places where he could see what was going +on, if anything, in the vicinity. He had been told to dismount and +examine any signs of life on the ground where it was bare, or in the +grass, and when found to fire one shot from his revolver to let the +bullwhackers know that they had "company" not far off; and if he saw one +Indian or a hundred to shoot not once but three times in rapid +succession and then gallop to the wagon train with details. + +The movement across the desert-like country this day began at four a. +m., and continued until ten a. m. The featherbed youngster was well +equipped with an army Springfield of large calibre, forty rounds in his +belt, two Remington revolvers and a butcher knife with a five-inch blade +for the possibility of close quarters. He had a bottle of spring water +and a saddlebag full of sandwiches of bread and fried sowbelly and +plenty of chewing and smoking tobacco. + +Maybe you think this youngster thought of his soft bed at home or a pot +shot from ambush that would leave his skeleton bleaching in a sandy +desert sun after it had been stripped of its flesh by wolves; or that he +wished someone else had been chosen to guard one side of the overland +train of flour, bacon, corn and sugar and its custodians, but that is +not so. It was one of the proudest days of his life and I know he will +never forget it. He was highly honored by Watson and he appreciated it, +for the reason that only two years before he had come to Wyoming a green +city boy and was then known in the parlance of the plains as a +"tenderfoot," which was a truthful description of any man or boy when he +first entered upon the life of the bullwhacker, the then popular master +of transportation between civilization and its outposts. He never +dreamed of death when he got his orders, because he was young and +foolish. Sometimes it is called bravery, but that isn't the right word. +It can't be described unless it is called blind or reckless +indifference. Perhaps that isn't it; anyway the youngster, as he mounted +and galloped away and waited on a neighboring knoll for the outfit to +string out along the sandy trail, hoped he wouldn't be disappointed. He +wanted an eventful day and he fairly prayed for it. "I hope," he +ruminated to himself half aloud, "that I cross a tepee trail, at least, +even if I don't get my eye on an Indian." + +It wasn't long until he began to wonder, for it was still barely +daylight, if it wouldn't be possible for a buck of good aim to pick him +off, especially if the buck practiced the usual tactics of concealing +himself behind a sand-dune or a butte. He wasn't afraid--he didn't know +the word--but he wondered. For this reason he kept his pony moving, +reasoning that it is easier to hit a stationary target than a swiftly +whirling one. But the pony appeared to be a dead one even when a spur +was roughly rubbed upon his belly, until, as the train had gotten well +out of camp and the teams strung along for a mile, he found his pony to +be interested in something, for he insisted on frequent stops and moved +his ears back and forward and snorted lightly. + +Finally it seemed next to impossible to get him to move, and Featherbed +was sure the pony had been owned by Indians at some time and was of the +trick variety, being trained to a brand of treachery that meant delivery +of his mount into the hands of the reds. + +And while these things were passing through the youngster's brain his +only concern was that the train was leaving him, and that he was not +guarding it. He heard a coyote's mournful note, but that was a common +occurrence, although he wondered if it couldn't be possible that an +Indian was doing the howling. It sounded like an imitation. + +The pony snorted some more, and then Featherbed, finding his blunt +pointed spurs were not getting him anywhere, unsheathed his +butcher-knife and pricked his cayuse on the back. He tried to buck, but +he wore a double cinch--one fore and one aft--and it kept him on all +fours. + +Things were getting worse and the voices of the bullwhackers yelling at +their teams grew fainter and fainter as the outfit slowly but surely put +distance between Featherbed and his companion, when there was a sound +that resembled the dropping of a stick in the water preceded by a +distinct swish as if it had been thrown through the air like a +boomerang. + +Then the pinto got busy. It was an arrow! + +There were several more, and one of them clipped the pommel of the +saddle before Featherbed thought of his orders to fire once on sight of +disturbed grass or a moccasin track on bare ground; or, upon sighting an +Indian, to fire three times. + +Then he let go with his Springfield in the supposed direction of the +enemy, and headed for the trail, which he readily found, and soon caught +up with the mess-wagon which always formed the rear guard with one +whacker, the night herder inside, and the extra herd horses tied behind. +Featherbed met Watson galloping toward the rear. + +"What is it, boy?" he shouted. + +"They got a piece of my Texas pommel," he replied, "but I don't know +where the arrow came from. I'll go back and see." + +He wheeled his pony to go and would have been off to take up his station +a thousand yards from the trail had not Watson said, laughingly: + +"You're crazy--wait a minute till I send word up ahead to corral." + +"You (to the mess wagon driver) untie them hosses, saddle 'em up and +wait for Blucher Brown and Archer; they'll be back in a minute." + +Featherbed, as the sun peeped over a rise in the land, waited +impatiently. So did the pony, for the miserable Indian-bred cuss had a +good nose that was keen to the smoky smell of an Indian, or to the odor +of another horse, especially of his own breed, and he was all animation +and ready to go. + +When the party finally got away Watson, turning to Featherbed as they +galloped side by side along the high spots near the back trail, said: + +"If yer not afraid, pull out ahead with that pony and lead the way." + +Featherbed pressed the Rowell spur to the pony's side and he responded +like a real cow-pony, much to Featherbed's surprise, and before Watson +could gather his breath to call the youngster back he led them by 200 +yards. Finally he did manage to yell between his laughter: + +"Hold on, you danged idiot--I didn't mean--" + +But he didn't finish the sentence, although he continued yelling, this +time expressing himself to the effect: + +"My hoss has been creased in the neck--dismount, give me your hoss and +lead mine back to the outfit; we'll take care of these galoots." + +Featherbed protested, but it was no use, and he returned and joined the +whackers who had corralled and gathered the bulls inside the wagons, +forming two half circles on a high spot near the trail. There were +several other horses in the outfit, so Featherbed quickly slipped the +boss' fine $200 rig on the back of a buckskin of the cow-puncher variety +and sped back to the scene of action. + +But it was all over. The sneaking Indians had disappeared, and the only +evidence of their presence was a spot of crumpled grass behind a knoll +where several of them had lain in complete safety while they tried to +send Featherbed to the Happy Hunting Ground. + +The sun was too high for the Indians, so they disappeared, skulking at +safe distance to wait for darkness and perhaps other prey. + +Featherbed, after another shift of mounts and saddles and bridles, again +took his post 1,000 yards from the trail, smoked his pipe, munched his +sandwiches and drank the spring water. + +At ten o'clock camp was struck for the mid-day stop close to a creek of +sweet cold water that ran through some small hills covered with stunted +pines, a few miles from a range of black mountains out of the bad lands +and sand. + +Featherbed was here promoted to the position of assistant wagon boss, +presented with a big sorrel horse called "America" (because he was not +Indian-bred) and given the lead team to drive in the outfit. This meant +that, in co-operation with the "big boss," he would help select the +camps, govern the speed of the "train," look after the manifests, act +as check clerk in loading and unloading, and besides wear a red sash to +designate his official position. + +Featherbed took his honors modestly, in fact he was surprised and +couldn't understand it until someone told him the "old man" was pleased +when he (Featherbed) took the wounded horse back to the train, saddled +up another and returned to help find where the arrows came from. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RATTLESNAKES AND REDSKINS. + + +The night-herder's song awoke me at four a. m.--the first streak of +day--and I didn't have time to pull on my boots before the bulls were +inside the corral; so, in bare feet, I yoked my fourteen head and then +proceeded to pull on the cowhides, roll up my blankets and throw them on +my trail wagon. Due to the haste--for nearly everyone else in the outfit +was ready to "pull out" in response to the assistant wagon boss' +order--I proceeded to pull on the left boot without the usual +precautions. My fingers were in the straps as I sat on the ground,[1] +and in another minute my toes would have been in the boot. But the +rattler that had spent the night in it stuck out his head. I shook him +out, first calling my pard to come with his whip. + +[Footnote 1: This was in the center of a prairie dog town covering +perhaps twenty acres; and the "town" was inhabited not only by these +marmots but rabbits, owls and rattlesnakes, apparently living in perfect +peace and harmony in the same burrows.] + + * * * * * + +After the rattler was dead I plucked off eleven beautifully graduated +white rattles and a black button, later on adding them to a hatband of +several hundred which I had sewn together, using silk thread and a +cambric needle. The other boot was tenantless. + +The blankets, in a neat roll secured by a heavy leather strap, were +thrown on top of the freight in the trailer, and away we went for a dry +camp in the bad lands, where we spent six hours of the middle of the day +hiding under our wagons to escape the hot rays of the sun. + +A late afternoon start ended at nine p. m., in a moonlit camp on a creek +that ran swiftly through chalk-like bluffs--perhaps the headwaters of +the Niobrara river. In those days none but a geographer or a government +surveyor knew the names of many of the waterways, if they had names. It +had been a hard drive through deep sand most of the way, and after the +bulls had been relieved of their yokes and the chains that held the +teams together, all hands raced for the water, both for internal and +external purposes. + +Our night camp was on a flat between the bluffs and a few yards from the +stream in a most inviting spot, the edge of the crooked channel being +lined with stunted and gnarled box-elder, while farther back were a few +dozen dead and gaunt cottonwoods. Some small bushes grew in clumps here +and there, but our camp commanded a good view, even in the night, of the +country for a mile in at least two directions--north and south. + +Though tired, it was too nice a night even in this wilderness to go to +bed; for a youngster who had acquired two revolvers, a Winchester +rifle, a butcher knife and other weapons believed the crumpled grass he +had seen at the edge of the creek indicated the presence not far away of +others of the human family, and he intended to find out about it. He had +confided this suspicion to one other youth of the outfit, and as the +supper camp-fire died down to a bed of coals and a cool wind began to +fan the hot earth these boys stole out of camp, waded the creek, and +carefully examined the earth up and down its margin until they came upon +a distinct moccasin, pony and lodge pole trail. They followed it along +the bottoms for two miles to a jutting bluff where around the corner +they saw six tepees, near which were picketed several ponies. + +All was silent as the boys, concealed in a safe spot, viewed the scene. +Then there was a sound, low at first, like the crooning of a mother to a +babe, which grew louder and louder, until finally there emerged from one +of the tepees a big buck who stood silently for a full minute, +listening. He wore nothing but a breech-clout, and over his shoulder +hung a buckskin strap upon which was attached the arrows for the big bow +held in his hand. He did wear a bonnet and it consisted principally of +feathers that looked exactly like some of the creations worn by women of +the present day. + +When he had located the sound he moved toward the hiding boys but +stopped at the nearest tepee. The crooning grew to a lamentation. Then +other tepees showed signs of life, and in a few moments bucks, squaws +and papooses were running hither and thither in a bewildering way. But +the boys remained silent, for there was no sign of a movement of camp +and not an indication that there was an outside alarm. Then what could +it be? What was all this fuss about? The lamentations became louder and +louder and the excitement apparently greater. + +Finally a number of squaws who had gone to the creek bottom appeared in +the center of the little camp. They carried bundles of green willows, +dozens of large hard-head boulders and rawhide receptacles filled with +water; also a bundle of dry faggots. + +After the stones had been piled in a neat heap a fire was built upon +them which was allowed to burn briskly for half an hour. Then the coals +and ashes were brushed off and a tent-like covering put over a quickly +woven basket-like structure that had been built over the stones. Then +the water was dashed upon the stones and the steam began to ascend. + +Presently out from a tepee came a squaw with a bundle which she gently +shoved under the elkskin covered cauldron of steam. + +"Say," said one of the boys, "are you on?" + +"Sure enough," the other whispered, "they are giving that kid a Turkish +bath." + +And that's what they were doing; but it wasn't Turkish-just Injun. + +Returning to camp the boys proceeded to slip into their blankets +quietly, say nothing about what they had seen, and go to sleep. They +believed the straggling band of Arapahoes were not on the war-path and +had work for the "medicine-man"--the big buck they first saw come out of +his tepee. + +You have no idea how cautiously the boys went about getting the blankets +off the wagon so as not to disturb the boss, a man they feared. So they +moved noiselessly. + +One threw his roll of blankets from the top of the trailer and the other +caught the bundle and proceeded to flatten it out into a comfortable bed +when he heard a familiar noise, and forgetting that they were to be +silent, the youth on the ground yelled: + +"Look out--a rattler!" + +It woke up the whole camp. The snake had occupied the blankets from four +a. m., at least, until this time--midnight. Perhaps he had slept with +the boy until four a. m.; I think he did; anyway, he had rolled him up +and put him where found. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BELATED GRACE FOR A CHRISTMAS DINNER. + + +After fighting through a ten-hour blizzard that swept across the plains +from the Elk Mountain country our wagon-train reached the foothills of +the Medicine Bow range, where there was shelter for the work cattle +along a swift running stream. The snow was piled in great drifts +everywhere except upon exposed high spots, and it seemed impossible for +us to proceed farther, for we knew that along the government trail just +beyond, and 1,000 feet higher, that the drifts would be so deep that a +long camp where we had stopped would be necessary. + +Ten men were tolled off by the wagon-boss to chop down young quaking +aspen trees, the bark and small twigs of which furnished appetizing +fodder for the bulls. Another gang climbed a sidehill and with axes +felled a group of stunted pines for the side walls of a cabin; still +others were sent into a "burnt and down" piece of timber to gather well +seasoned dead pitch pine for firewood. + +The storm lasted until six o'clock in the evening, then continued as an +old-fashioned heavy snowfall with no wind, increasing the level of the +snow to the tops of the wheels of our corraled wagons. Apparently they +were doomed to stay where they were until spring. + +Next morning there was a let-up. Then the blizzard began again in all +its fury--only such a blizzard as one can see in but one other place on +earth, judging from Dana's description of his experience in going around +the Horn. The cattle, with almost human intelligence, 200 head of them, +crowded toward the big bonfires of pitch, and with long faces looked +mournfully upon the scene. They seemed to know, as we did, that the +prospects were not bright for our cavalcade. Certainly there was no +grass in sight now, not even on the round-topped knolls bordering our +little valley, for the night fall of snow was heavy and damp, and +finally, when the thermometer registered a few degrees below zero, the +grass was sealed against the tough noses and even the hoofs of the +hungry bulls. An attempt was made by a scouting party to find a clear +feeding place on the back trail, but a day's investigation resulted in +failure. Not a blade of grass could be found--all sealed with a heavy +crust that would, in most places, carry a horse and rider. + +The storm continued, after an eight-hour let-up, the temperature rising. +Two feet more fell on top of the crust, then came another freeze and a +new crust. After twenty-four hours another blizzard from the north, +consisting of sleet and snow and some rain, was like a sandstorm in +summer on the plains below. It was fierce, nearly freezing and blinding +both men and cattle. The poor bulls were more forlorn than ever. They +gnawed the very wood of the aspens, and there wasn't enough of that. + +On the last crust of all this snow and sleet it was finally found +possible to take the oxen farther along into the mountains, where four +men drove them. Others went ahead with axes and for two weeks cut aspens +and sought out hidden protected places in the valleys where there were a +few blades of grass and some succulent underbrush. + +One day, when the sun was shining brightly on the white mantle and the +distant peaks of the majestic mountains of blue stood out like a +painting, Nate Williams, wagon-boss, spoke: + +"Do you know," he said to the fellows who were carving the carcass of a +faithful old bullock, "that tomorrow is Christmas?" None had thought of +it. + +"And," he continued, "do you know we are liable to stay where we are +until the Fourth of July, if we don't get a move on?" + +There were no suggestions. + +"Furthermore," added Williams, "we haven't much else to eat but +beef--there are just five 100-pound sacks of flour in the mess wagon--no +bacon nor canned goods. Its a case of shoveling a road to Crane's Neck." + +Crane's Neck was a mountain twist in the road, a mile from camp. If the +road could be cleared to that point there would be fair hauling for five +miles in the range to another stretch that had been filled in places +with from ten to twenty feet of snow, while one spot was covered by a +slide from a mountain to a depth of forty feet and for a considerable +distance along the trail. + +For three hours plans were discussed, and it was finally determined to +go to work with shovels and picks, but not until after Christmas. Our +caravan included a blacksmith's forge, also a regular wrecking outfit, +and in a short time big wooden shovels were made from blocks of pine +with handles stoutly attached with iron bands. + +The cook was a youth of twenty and had all the enthusiasm of the +adventurer. He had spent a year on a whaler and knew what it meant to +drift in the ice north of Point Barrow. This present situation, he said, +was a picnic; so was the one in the Arctic. It couldn't be so bad that +he wished to be snuggled away in a feather bed somewhere east of the +Missouri River. That would be too ordinary. + +"If I could sit down to a table at the best hotel in the land," he said, +"I'd prefer to eat the dinner that I'm going to cook for you fellows +tomorrow." + +Williams sneered. "Yes," he said, "we put old Tex (a long-horn bull) out +of his starving misery and the boys have found his liver to be O. K. +Maybe you can give us a liver pie." + +"I'll do better than that," said the boy; "I'll not only give you a beef +stew, but a pudding that you can't buy outside of London or +Liverpool--a plum duff--and a cake. Old Tex will also be on the menu in +several places, for his tenderloin looks good, and there are a few +steaks which, when properly treated with a maul on the top of a stump, +will be as good as you will get in a 'Frisco water front lodging, and +better than any of you fellows have had since we hit the drifts." + +I have eaten meals that mother used to cook, I've been famished during a +sea voyage, and devoured a Norwegian sailor's pea soup; I've +participated in several real banquets in New York; I've dined at +Delmonico's and at Sherry's, at Young's in Boston, and I've feasted in a +circus cook tent; but my Christmas dinner in the foothills of Wyoming in +1874, under the circumstances I have but faintly described, still is a +fond memory and holds the record as the best meal I ever ate. It was as +follows: + + MENU + Marrowbone Soup--"Tex" Water Cress + Beef Stew--"Tex" + Hamburg Steak--"Tex" + Planked Porterhouse Steak--"Tex" + Tenderloin Steak-"Tex" Roast Beef--"Tex" + Corn Bread Wheat Bread + English Plum Pudding--Hard and Soft Sauce + Raisins Cake Coffee Tea + (No butter or milk) (Lots of salt and pepper) + +The corn bread was made from meal milled by the cook from shelled corn +in the cargo. The "plums" were raisins, of which the cook had a few +pounds. He used wheat flour, baking powder and grease saved from the +final ration of the bacon which gave out a week before Christmas. The +hard sauce was made with sugar and grease and a flavoring extract. The +soft or liquid sauce contained a "remedy" requisitioned from a +homeopathic quantity found in the wagon-boss' medicine chest--a few +spoonfuls of brandy. The watercress was found two miles away at a +spring. The boys called it "pepper grass." There it was fresh and green, +protected by spring water which never freezes, and in some places it was +peeping out from the edge of the snow at the brookside. + +And now about whisky. There were sixty men in this camp, and in one of +the big wagons were three barrels of whisky, but it belonged to the post +trader at Fort Fetterman, and it was a tradition not even broken on this +exceptional passage from Medicine Bow on the U. P. to Fort Fetterman on +the North Platte that a consignment of hard liquor was as safe in a bull +train as it would be anywhere on earth, and that it would reach its +destination untouched. Few men drank intoxicants on these trips. It was +a crime to be found with whisky, punishable by banishment from camp, and +that might have meant death. But at both ends of the journey--that's +another story. + +The plainsman and mountaineer, the bullwhacker and the stage-driver, +when chilled, drank water. Whisky caused him to perspire, and that was +bad. He did not often use it when on duty. + +One of the peculiar things about this Christmas dinner is the fact that +there were no mountain grouse, no sage hen, no antelope, deer, nor elk +for the menu. The truth is the storm drove everything of the kind in +another direction--the direction in which we were slowly moving--and +some time later, when we emerged upon the other side of the range with +our ox-power so greatly reduced that we made less than a mile of +progress a day, the herds of elk stampeded a dozen times past our camps, +and the "fool grouse" sat a dozen in a group upon the pine boughs in the +mountains and refused to move, allowing us to kill them, if so disposed, +one at a time; but we did it only once, just to prove that it could be +done. (Colonel Roosevelt, please note!) + +It took us a couple of weeks to shovel our way out, and while the sun +shone in the middle of the day hardly a flake of the snow melted. The +air was at times biting cold, but invigorating, and every man, including +the boss and the cook and even the night herder, fell to the work with a +will that finally meant victory. In places we operated in the drifts as +you see the excavators in a city cellar or subway operate, digging down +to the surface and then benching as the open-ground miners or cellar +excavators do, the men below tossing the blocks of snow up to the bench +above and they in turn passing it to the top of the drift. + +Once or twice, in narrow passages, it was necessary to build several +benches. In one place we began to tunnel, but the plan was given up, for +our wagons, the regulation prairie schooners, would require a passage +big enough for a railroad furniture car to pass through. + +After the high plateau was reached--the land that represented the +watershed of the Platte Valley--it was clear sailing, and while +food--wild game--was plentiful, and we ate lots of it, the memory of our +Christmas dinner remained to remind us after all that in the midst of +greatest hardships and suffering we often find something to be thankful +for, something to bring us to our senses when we grumble or complain of +our ill-luck or misfortunes. + +Had I been as appreciative when I partook of this mountain dinner as I +am today for the blessings of Divine Providence, I would have been able +to say, in relating this story, that we properly gave thanks to Him who +is responsible for all our blessings and who chasteneth us for our +wickedness; but I was not properly appreciative, neither were my rough +but honest companions. Therefore, I take this opportunity to say grace +more than forty years late: + +_Thank God for that snowbound Christmas dinner._ + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE FATE OF ONE-EYED ED. + + +From the cross-tree of a telegraph pole hung the body of a man when the +9:30 Union Pacific Overland Express stopped for a "slow" order across a +bridge that a band of Comanche Indians had tried to burn. + +A Massachusetts woman enroute to 'Frisco stuck her head out of a car +window and exclaimed, "How awfully terrible!" + +Yes, it was. + +Ed Preston was a one-eyed man. I don't know how he lost the other one, +but I do know that he was a dead shot with the one eye that he slanted +along the barrel of his pistol or buffalo rifle, the latter a sawed-off +Springfield and the first mentioned an old-time army Remington. + +Preston's marksmanship cost him his life. They hung Preston, the boys +did, because he killed a man just for the meanness of it, or, as one of +them said, because he was spoiling for trouble. + +One day as we were camped on the north bank of the North Platte near the +eastern line of Wyoming, Preston, full of liquor, lurched up to a bunch +of bullwhackers and asked if anyone present thought he was a "dead +shot." Of course, all hands admitted that his reputation was +unquestioned. + +"But you never saw me shoot," he said, "so what the ---- do you know +about it?" Then he pulled his gun and backed off, saying, as he pointed +to a heap of discarded tomato cans: + +"Hey, you Charley, heave one o' them cans in the air--hurry up." + +Observing his apparent quarrelsome attitude, Charley Snow, a youthful +member of the outfit, obeyed without protest. Snow had been assigned by +Martin, the wagon-boss, to help the cook and the cook had made him +responsible for the proper boiling of a pot of beans. Snow left the +beans and threw a can as far away from himself as he could, and before +it hit the ground it was perforated by a bullet. + +"Now throw one straight up in the air," commanded Preston, and Snow +obeyed. Preston put two shots into that "on the wing." Snow attempted to +resume his duties at the mess fire, but Preston's shooting had drawn a +dozen or more of the men of the outfit to the scene, and he was in the +humor to show off; therefore as Snow was the youngest and possibly the +most inoffensive man in the party, Preston decided to eliminate the bean +question by ordering Snow, with a flourish of his gun, to remove the +beans from the fire. This done, he continued: + +"Now you throw the cans and be lively about it." + +Snow did as ordered. One, two, three, ten cans went into the air. +Preston missed none. Finally the boy threw, at Preston's command, two at +a time and both were plugged before they came down. Then as Snow picked +up another one Preston shot it out of his hand, and he tried to quit and +return to the bean kettle, whereupon Preston bored a hole through Snow's +sombrero without cutting off a hair or bruising his scalp, although it +was plain to see that while Snow was no fresh tenderfoot from the effete +East, but a seasoned young bullwhacker and plainsman, he was more than +uneasy. The boy said afterward that while he had a whole lot of +confidence in Preston's marksmanship he knew he had drunk at least a +pint of whisky--the worst of the squirrel variety at that--for had he +not taken the last swig out of a flask, thrown it almost at Snow and +sent its splinters in every direction by a shot from his Remington? +Sober, said Snow, Preston would not have been so bad, but drunk--he +objected to further participation in the William Tell business and he +entered his protest. When he discovered that the chambers of Preston's +revolver were temporarily empty, Snow quietly took a rifle from its +leather fastenings on the side of a prairie schooner. His move looked +ominous to his tormentor. + +Preston was a coward, as were all of that class of killers in those +days. He was an engineer of a bull team of seven yokes and a good man at +his business, but a bully, a braggart and a coward, whose victims +usually were known to be peaceful and who were unarmed or unprepared to +defend themselves. He was not the heroic figure of the almost forgotten +wild west--the brave and big-hearted fellow who fought sometimes for his +rights or what he considered his rights. Preston was just a plain +murderer, who had taken a place among rough but honest frontiersmen, +chased from an orderly community somewhere in God's country--then east +of the Missouri, now anywhere from the Atlantic to the Pacific--because +of some dark crime he had committed, no doubt. + +All day long we had been fording the North Platte at this point--Sidney +crossing--a distance of at least a half a mile, including a small island +of sand and a few bushes. It was the last trainload of provisions for +the season we were taking north to the government's beneficiaries--the +Ogalala Sioux and the Cheyennes. We had seventy teams, each of seven +yokes, and two wagons, and as the Platte is a swift-running stream at +this point and there is quicksand between the south shore and the +island, it was necessary to "jack up" on blocks some of our loads on the +wagons and double and treble teams, sometimes using as many as +twenty-five yokes of oxen on one wagon and a half dozen men, belly deep +in the mush ice, punching the bulls. The water was in places up to the +tops of the wheels. It was a sun-up to sun-down job from corral to +corral. + +Someone had whisky, but it was not apparent until late in the afternoon, +when the target shooting incidents began. The boys were a sober lot--the +good, honest kind, and not a desperado among them, barring One-Eyed Ed. +Others there were, sure enough, who might be considered hardly fit for +even the most humble society, for they looked like pirates--all of +them--hair long, clothes weather-beaten and rough, faces unshaven and +grizzled, and language or topics of conversation not what would be +called cultured by any means. Yet there was in this outfit a +predominance of good, honest hearts, most of them measuring life from a +standard never understood if ever known in "God's Country." These +sailors of prairie schooners, these pioneer transportation men of the +virile, virgin West, knew little law or order or justice, as we know +them; they frequently violated what is known as the law, but they didn't +know it. They had but one degree of murder. It wasn't murder for them to +fight and kill with pistols. It was the custom. Murder was something +else. It was to kill a man who was not "heeled" or when his back was +turned, or to mount another man's horse and ride away. This was murder +in the first degree--the same as if the owner of the horse had been shot +to death while asleep. In those days some things were as necessary, as +indispensable as life--a horse, a saddle, a pair of blankets, a gun and +ammunition and a butcher knife--perhaps a small bag of salt. The last, +however, would be termed a luxury, although nearly every man in those +days had a little salt stored away in a weather-proof pocket or saddle +bag for the sage hen, antelope, deer, or buffalo beef he might have for +dinner or breakfast. + +But let me tell you how Preston spent the rest of his day. It was early +in the afternoon when he perforated Snow's sombrero, but it was sun-down +when he shot and killed Tom Sash, the boss herder, a splendid Texan, who +had charge of an Indian contract beef herd which had come up the trail +from the Lone Star state to the Platte Valley guided by a half dozen +range men in charge of Sash, and were being grazed along the Platte +bottoms previous to being doled out as per agreement with Uncle Sam to +the clouted redskins at the White River Agency at Red Cloud. + +All during the previous summer, as the wagon trains passed to and from +Sidney and the northern forts and agencies, Sash had told the wagon +bosses not to go hungry for lack of veal. "We are anxious to fatten +these cattle," he would say, "and you are welcome to a calf or two any +time you want it." Sash was all right and the bullwhackers couldn't sing +his praises loud enough. + +It was at the close of Snow's engagement with Preston that the wagon +boss told Preston to try his hand on some Indian veal. So Preston +disappeared down the river, returning at suppertime with the admission +that he had not only veal but "yearling steak." And he had some of it +with him. + +The beans had been boiled and eaten, the tin dishes and cups, pots and +kettles and iron ovens dumped into the mess wagon, and two crews of men +were at work jacking up wagons and greasing axle skeins, when the space +at the north mouth of the corral was suddenly filled by as fine a +horseman as ever galloped over the plains. It was Sash, dressed in the +costume of the real cowboy of the long-horn cattle day--sombrero, chaps, +Rowell spurs, a Mexican lariat properly adjusted over the horn of his +elaborate double-cinched cutting-out saddle--everything was perfection. +He was astride a fine big black American horse--not a regulation cow +pony--a shiny, deep bay charger with a white left ankle half way to the +knee from the fetlock, and a spot of white the size of a hand on the +face. + +He came on a gallop and stopped so short at the corral mouth that, had +he not known his business, he would have been thrown over the chains. +But that was the style of riding. Plunge ahead to the object or point +desired--then stop short. He waved his hat to Martin, our wagon boss, to +come to the corral chains. + +"Someone from your outfit," shouted Sash, "has been out in one of our +herds and shot a half dozen yearlings and two three-year-old steers. +Aren't you satisfied with veal? Say, old man, who did this mean trick?" + +The acts of a coward are preceded by a queer train of thought, the +kingpin of which is fear. Preston knew his disreputable work of +butchering among the herd of cattle had been discovered. He knew that +Sash, a Texan, was a man of action, and that Sash was fortified with the +right on his side, and if justice were meted out it would be some kind +of punishment. The revolver in his holster was close to his hand and +fear--cowardly fear--overpowered his weak mind. + +Martin had no time to reply, and the first indication that the coward +was to act upon the impulse that would move him was the cry from a +bullwhacker: + +"Don't shoot--don't." + +Sash, who was looking straight over his horse's head, turned at hearing +this just in time to receive a bullet in the hollow spot under his left +ear. It passed clean through his head. Both arms flew into the air, his +horse sprang forward, and Sash laid upon the ground flat on his back, +with arms spread out from his body--dead. His face was ashen white, eyes +and mouth closed, both fists clinched. + +It was young Snow who tied the black charger to a wagon wheel, replacing +the bridle with a halter. The horse whinnied, pawed the dirt, and for a +time spun around as far as the halter strap would allow, and looked at +his prostrate master with what seemed to be almost human intelligence; +in fact, his body was soon in a white lather, necessitating a rub-down +and then a blanket. He trembled like a leaf and snorted and pawed the +earth for an hour. + +Sash's camp was on the south bank of the Platte. There Preston was +delivered by Wagon Boss Martin and a delegation of the bull outfit +fellows after he had tried to escape. + +That night, together with a negro boy, Snow stood guard over Sash's body +to protect it from the coyotes, for they were numerous, close at hand +and howled mournfully until break of day. + +None touched the body, as it had been determined to follow what was +believed to be the law, for this time the outfit was only fifty miles +from where at least a pretense of regularity was observed. + +A rider was dispatched to Sidney, then a scattered lot of board shanties +on the south side of the Union Pacific Railroad track. + +The second night there came to the bullwhacker camp two men in a light +road wagon. They took the body away. + +At the same time a dozen bullwhackers and nearly all the men from the +cow camp rode away to the south. Preston, silent as the Sphynx, sat +astride a horse, his hands tied behind him. They told him he was going +to Sidnev to have a trial. He smiled, but said nothing. It was just an +effort to appear brave. His life had been one of crime. He was a pest +of the plains, of the trails, of the camps--and he was on the way to the +end of a rope. He knew it, and did not plead for mercy or ask for +quarter; he did not in the long ride across the sand hills utter a word +of regret for what he had done. He was heartless, cruel, brutal, even in +the valley of the shadow. And he was silent even as death itself. He +showed no fear as we would describe fear. + +Entering Sidney the posse and the prisoner took the center one of three +coulees that ran down into the town, all three meeting at the level. It +was here that One-Eyed Ed met the court that was to try him, together +with the populace. The court consisted of fifty horsemen, half of whom +rode down the east coulee, the other half down the other, meeting the +prisoner and his escort as abruptly as one meets a person sometimes in +whirling around the corner of a city block. + +One long yi, yi, yi, yi, ye! was the "hear ye" of the plainsman court +crier--the signal understood by all the horsemen, and especially those +comprising the posse just emerging from the center coulee. As if by +magic the escort faded away and the prisoner, bareheaded, long hair +waving in the wind, his hands securely tied, sat upright--alone. + +Then from the east and west coulees dashed horsemen led by Jim Redding +swinging his lariat over and over and over his head until he was in the +right spot to spin it out. Preston's horse stood like a piece of +statuary, and to give the man on his back his proper meed of credit let +it be recorded that he had the appearance of a man bravely facing death, +for he sat erect and made no effort to dismount, which he might have +done, for he had not been fastened to the saddle, as that would have +made impossible the program mapped out to the minutest detail. + +When Redding spun his lariat for Preston's head--after he had ridden +past him two or three times while the horsemen lined up like a company +of cavalry and looked on--it landed around his shoulders. Redding +planted a spur into his cow pony, there was a jump and Preston's body +shot up and away from his mount and to the ground. + +[Illustration: Copyright by American Colortype Co., Chicago + +Track-Layers Fought Redskins--Chapter VIII.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TRACK-LAYERS FOUGHT REDSKINS. + + +When the Union Pacific Railroad was being built the Indians were wild +and hostile. The appearance of the locomotive was unwelcome. Surveyors, +track-layers, bridge-builders and others if not properly guarded by +details of United States troops were attacked from ambush and often +killed. + +It was indeed an adventurous calling to be a railroader in those days, +no matter in what capacity; for if it wasn't Indians it was something +else that made it so in the then wilderness. Towns were built in a day +along the South Platte River and the populations were first made up +largely by the scum of the earth, consisting of criminals of all kinds +from all quarters of the globe, either engaged in gambling, highway +robbery or running saloons that were the toughest ever known in America. + +Dance halls and dives followed the work of railroad building from Omaha +to Ogden, and if the earth could speak it would tell a story of murder +that would make one shudder. Hundreds of men were shot either in brawls +or by robbers and their bodies buried in unmarked graves. + +At Julesburg alone, the story was told, after the temporary terminus +was moved on west 100 miles, there were 417 graves in one sidehill, and +among the lot not one grave in the so-called cemetery was filled by a +man who died a natural death. This may be an exaggeration--perhaps it +is--but it was not an uncommon thing for a man to be shot and killed in +a brawl while a dance was in progress without for a moment stopping the +festivities. + +But the "noble" Indian, so often represented in heroic portraits--and +always called a "brave" by writers who never saw an Indian of that +period--was not there, at least not numerously. He was a sneaking +sniper, hiding behind a sand hill or concealed in a clump of bushes in a +creek or river bottom, with a good chance to get away if attacked. He +seldom came out into the open to fight even a lone surveying party, but +waited for the cover of night, hid behind a rock and took a pot shot and +then rode his horse at top speed to a safe distance. He was a miserable +coward, and dirty. Perhaps the next day he would come meekly into some +camp where there were several hundred men, begging for sugar or bacon. +Artists have painted him in all his glory in sight of his enemy +discharging his arrows or his gun. Don't believe it. He didn't do it +more than a half dozen times, and when he outnumbered the white from 50 +or 100 to 1. It is too bad, I know, to destroy such beautiful fiction; +but it is necessary in order to keep these chronicles straight. + +However, it is the truth that a crew engaged in track-laying in the +vicinity of North Platte was one day almost overwhelmed by a band of +Comanches that came up from the south following a herd of buffalo across +the Republican River. There were less than fifty men in the gang, +including a locomotive engineer, fireman, conductor, foreman and +track-layers, among the rest two Chinese cooks. The Indians had come +upon the crew unexpectedly, for the buffalo herd, in passing near at +hand, kicked up such a cloud of dust that the crew was unseen until it +was too late for the Comanches to retreat without a fight. + +The buffaloes rushed on past the right-of-way of the road, and when the +Indians followed the first they knew of the locomotive was when the +engineer sounded his whistle to bring the scattered crew to the shelter +afforded by a train of flat cars and the engine. The country all about +was flat. The Indians scattered in a circle and at a distance of perhaps +500 yards began to shoot. The crew was well supplied with guns and +ammunition and the battle lasted for half an hour, resulting in the +death of one Indian and the wounding of not one white man. Still it had +all the elements of a movie show, and would have made a fine reel. In +another hour track-laying proceeded as usual. + +Outside of a few clashes of this kind the U. P. went its glorious way +without open battle with so-called redskins. Indians look good in +pictures, and they are picturesque--in pictures and paintings; but when +you were near them in those days you found them nearly always +good-for-nothing, insect-infested, diseased, hungry and cowardly, with +less nerve than a regular tramp. + +When the U. P. was building it should be remembered the Indians had been +seeing the pioneer going across the plains with wagons for many years. +The pony express rider, the bullwhacker and the California and Utah +emigrant had been his almost daily companion; therefore he had learned +to be circumspect. Those hardy people had shot straight and to kill, and +by the time track-laying began the Indian was about as cautious as a +mountain sheep. He knew the range of the white man's gun, the fleetness +of his big American horse, and he governed himself accordingly, devoting +all his time, when doing anything at all, to impede the progress of +railroad building, to pure and unadulterated murder from ambush. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +"BILL" HICKOK, CITY MARSHAL. + + +"Wild Bill" Hickok, who had been city marshal at Abilene, Kan., blew +into Cheyenne in 1874 along with Texas Charley and a few more "bad men." +Things were booming in the Wyoming metropolis. Gold had been discovered +in the Black Hills, and the crowds of fortune-seekers from every point +of the compass had begun to flock in. Men were there from South Africa, +Brazil, California and Australia, intermingling with the New Englander, +the Middle Westerners, the cowboys and bullwhackers and others attracted +by the reports of fabulous discoveries. Cheyenne was the chief +outfitting point for a trip into the hills, although thousands tramped +through the sands of the Bad Lands to the new Eldorado via Fort Pierre. + +It meant big work for the small police force of Cheyenne, for there +were, besides the "killers" of the "Wild Bill" order, garroters and +other crooks from near and far to look after. Gambling didn't bother the +authorities at all, and such characters as "Canada Bill," the most +famous of all the confidence men, were, as a matter of fact, able to +ply their trade almost unmolested. + +"Canada Bill" had the appearance of a Methodist preacher of that period, +wearing a black broadcloth, long-tailed coat, trousers of the same +material, a black felt hat, "biled" shirt and black bow tie. He carried +an old-fashioned satchel made of oil cloth, a pattern of which is seen +nowadays only on the vaudeville stage. "Bill" was certainly an +innocent-looking individual--solemn-faced and perfectly +harmless--apparently. He spent most of his time on the U. P. passenger +trains between Omaha and Cheyenne and is said to have swindled travelers +out of an aggregate of $100,000 at three-card monte, a form of swindling +in great vogue at that time. Cheyenne was his headquarters and he was +almost as well known as any man in the town; but he followed his +profession practically undisturbed for several years, and I doubt if he +ever spent a day in jail. Has victims included some men who prided +themselves on their shrewdness. + +"Wild Bill" Hickok was perhaps the best known "character" in Cheyenne in +the 70's. He, too, was a ministerial-looking person, but was not a +confidence operator. He was just a plain gambler, and not a very good +one, but he managed to escape the halter every time he put a notch in +his gun. "Bill" killed no one in Cheyenne; in fact, his days there were +quiet and prosy. His killings were all done in Kansas at the time the K. +P. was being built from the Missouri to Denver. When in Cheyenne he was +on his last legs--had begun, as they say nowadays, to slow up. +Nevertheless, he was feared by a great many, owing to his reputation, +although among certain classes it was generally understood that he had +lost his nerve. This was demonstrated while the Black Hills excitement +was at its height. "Bill" was more than six feet tall, straight and +thin. He carried two big revolvers in his belt and they protruded +sometimes from the side of his long broadcloth coat. He also carried a +bowie knife. But for all this and his reputation, he weakened one night +when an undersized little California _buccaro_ challenged him to walk +into the street and fight a duel at twenty paces. "Bill" laid down, +saying his eyes had gone back on him and that his shooting days were +over. + +Shortly after this incident the Cheyenne authorities decided to rid the +town of a few of the worst criminals, so they tacked a notice on +telegraph poles containing a list of a dozen or more names of men, +headed by "Wild Bill," giving them twenty-four hours' time to get out of +town. When "Bill" saw the notice he smiled, and with his bowie knife cut +the notice into ribbons, and he stayed until he got ready to leave some +months later. He went to Custer City, then to Deadwood, where he met his +death at the hands of an avenger, who shot him in the back as he sat in +a poker game. His murderer claimed "Bill" had killed his brother in +Kansas and said he had followed him for two years, waiting for a chance +to kill him. "Bill" had a rule of life that he violated the night he +died, and that was never to sit with his back to a door or window. On +the fatal night he sat with his back to a half-open door into which the +avenger crept. + +"Wild Bill" was a "road agent" (a highwayman) long before the Black +Hills stampede and frequently entertained a crowd with descriptions of +the raids he and his pals made upon the Mormon emigrants when they were +enroute from Nauvoo, Ill., to Salt Lake. According to his own stories he +was a heartless brute. Many deeds, however, that have been laid at his +door, and others that he bragged about, were never committed. It has +been estimated that he murdered all the way from fifteen to thirty men, +but most of these were killed while he was marshal. + +One story that used to be told in Cheyenne, but which was not +authenticated, was that on one occasion at Abilene he entered a +restaurant for breakfast and ordered ham and eggs "turned over." The +waiter returned with the eggs fried on one side and "Bill" angrily said: + +"I told you to have them eggs turned over!" + +Whereupon the waiter playfully gave the dish a flip and turned them +over. This so angered "Bill" that he shot the waiter dead, and then +finished his meal, the poor waiter's body lying at his feet. + +There was so much garroting of men who came to Cheyenne to join the +rush into the hills that some of the wiser ones slipped outside the town +at night and slept on the prairie, while others, armed to the teeth, +either walked the streets or formed companies with guards for +protection. It was a condition of affairs that gave the authorities more +than they could handle at the start. However, after the first few months +of excitement Cheyenne began to be good, and soon the civilization and +order of older communities was apparent on every hand. + +The railroad shortened the distance between the frontier and "God's +Country," and before one could realize it Cheyenne was as orderly and +well behaved as Worcester, Mass. So it is today. "Wild Bill," "Texas +Jack," "Canada Bill" and the thieves and gamblers, with their guns and +daggers, are forgotten; and if some of them could come back and tramp +the streets again they would be as great curiosities as they would be on +Broadway, New York, or State Street, Chicago--and they would land in +jail or get out of town unless they walked a chalk-mark. + +Cheyenne has long been in "God's country," although at the time +discussed it was a long way over the line. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHEN CHEYENNE WAS YOUNG. + + +Let us suppose this is the year 1872, and that we are taking a trip +across the continent on the first railroad from the Missouri River to +the Golden Gate. We have passed through western Nebraska and its +uninhabited hills and plains and we are entering Cheyenne, on a vast +plain, yet situated at the foot of a range of the Rocky Mountains known +as the lower Black Hills. We are in sight of Long's and other Colorado +peaks of the Rockies and while apparently on a wide prairie for several +hours we have nevertheless been climbing a steep grade all the way from +Sidney, the last division point. + +Cheyenne is (in '72, remember) a city of boards, logs and canvas, but is +beginning to shake off the very first things of a "camp," and is +entering the brick age, with good prospects of acquiring fame as a +substantial city. + +But there are some hundreds of things here that are strange to the eyes +of an Eastern man. For example, in all his life he has never seen a man, +outside a military encampment, with a revolver strapped in a holster to +a belt around his waist. Perhaps he has never seen a faro game in his +life, and chuck-a-luck is as mysterious to him as the lingo of the +broad-hatted men who recommend it to the fortune-seeker instead of a +gold mine or honest toil of any kind. He has never seen, much less heard +of, a hurdy-gurdy where the men and the scarlet women "waltz to the bar" +to the tune of the "Arkansaw Traveler." + +He used to see his Uncle Cyrus plow with a slow-plodding team of oxen +among the cobble stones of a Vermont farm; but this is the first time in +his life that he ever saw seven yokes of oxen hitched together in front +of two big wagons and every team pacing a gait that would bring praise +from the judge's stand at a county fair. + +He starts down the main street and he sees "The Gold Room" in big +letters on a big wooden building. "This is where they keep it," he +muses, and he goes in. It is where they sell it--"forty-rod," "squirrel" +and the rest. But that is not all we see in the "Gold Room," run by Jack +Allen. We also see a woman called Madam Moustache dealing the game of +"twenty-one," at which "Wild Bill" Hickok, Texas Jack and a lot more +celebrities are "sitting in." Then in another corner is a faro game. Men +here are so eager to get their money on the cards that some of them are +standing on the back rungs of chairs and reaching over sitting players +to put stacks of golden twenties on the table, either "calling the turn" +or betting that the nine-spot or some other card will win or lose as +the dealer slips the paste-boards out of his silver box. + +It is night, of course, and after a while, when the gambling begins to +drag, the tables are shoved a little closer to the wall and the big +floor is given up to dancing, even though through it all--dancing and +gambling--a stage performance is going on. Some painted female person of +uncertain age, but positive reputation, is either shouting personalities +at characters in the crowd or bellowing and butchering a popular song in +a male voice. Smoke is thick and not fragrant to the nostrils of the +new-comer--the tenderfoot. The "Gold Room" roof is also occupied--that +is, the inside part of it--with boxes crowded with men and women, the +women being known as "beer jerkers." In the early hours of morning it is +difficult to find a sober man or woman. + +The same thing is going on in "McDaniels' Variety," opposite Tim Dyer's +Tin Restaurant. McDaniels, bald-headed and also smooth of voice, is +circulating around among his top-booted guests like a pastor among his +flock, and you wonder that such a fine-looking, well-spoken man is not +in a pulpit instead of a dive. + +But this is some of Cheyenne in 1872 to 1875. Go to Cheyenne today--and +what do you find? Nothing like this, that's certain. It is doubtful if +you will round up more than a handful of men who remember there ever was +such a place as Allen's "Gold Room" or the McDaniels' Variety, or even +Tim Dyer's Tin Restaurant--tin because the plates and cups were tin +when the big place was first opened. But see Cheyenne today. There isn't +a city 200 years old on the Atlantic coast that has more civilization, a +finer lot of railroad men, more culture and good order to the square +yard. + +Cheyenne had a bad reputation, but it soon reformed when the natural +resources of Wyoming began to be developed, and today, while we who +pioneered it there so many years ago spoke of it as a "desert +metropolis," are witnessing every little while either in agricultural or +horticultural shows its progress in wheatfield and orchard. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LOST INDIAN AT BEDTICK CREEK. + + +This Indian was lost--something that has rarely happened. No Indian +could use a compass if he had one, and he wouldn't if he could--not the +real Indian of the days of General Custer, Buffalo Bill and a few +others. Indian instinct beats any mechanical contrivance man has +invented for white sailors, hunters, explorers and lumber cruisers. + +But the full-blood of this story was lost and was bleating like a sheep +away from its flock, and just as timid and gentle. A lost Indian, and a +proud, high cheek-boned, breech-clouted, bronzed specimen, too; six feet +tall in his moccasins--hungry, unarmed, footsore, tribeless. + +He came into the camp of the wagon train at Bedtick Creek not far from +the site of the deserted and famous overland stage station run by Jules +Slade, whose life was saved by his wife, who rode 200 miles on a horse +from Julesburg to a gold camp in Montana just in time to stop the +lynching being conducted by the Vigilantes. + +And the day the Lost Indian was found was Christmas, a time when every +man--plainsman and mountaineer, far from civilization and living in the +open, as well as those toasting their shins at comfortable firesides in +snug homes in "God's country"--has a sense of something mysteriously +elevating in his soul. + +Everyone in the frost-bitten bunch of overland freighters knew his +program for the day was to have no change so far as the bill of fare of +bacon, beans and venison was concerned, and everyone thought it was +pretty good; but there was to be no Christmas tree or happy children--no +church services or anything else--everyone was contented, nevertheless, +and surely full of the spirit of the day, though far out of reach of +anything that would give the slightest flavor to a proper celebration, +even informally. + +The breakfast had been disposed of, the tin dishes washed and plans made +for a full day's rest for man and beast, for it was also Sunday, and the +wagon boss, old Ethrop, while loaded down with revolvers and bowie +knifes, was of a religious turn and was known as "The Parson." + +Far away to the south, across a rolling plain, was the blue-white +outlines of Laramie Peak. A long way this side, according to the +eagle-eye of Farley, driver of the lead team, something was winding a +crooked course toward camp. It was a mere dark object reflected against +the snow-covered surface, but when viewed through a field glass was +plainly discernible--it was a man, all agreed; but with the glass in +Farley's hands it was a buck Indian. + +So the boys watched and waited for an hour, and finally the Lost Indian +was within hailing distance and stopped, circled and began to close in. +Farley waved him to come on, and as insurance of friendliness went +through the ceremony of placing a rifle in its sling on the side of a +prairie schooner. Then the Lost Indian came forward at a trot and landed +at the camp-fire. + +Between grunts, motions and words on the part of the Lost Indian, and as +many from several plainsmen, none of which seemed to be clearer than +Hottentot, this was, in simple language, the story told by the Lost +Indian at Bedtick Creek: + +"Five moons ago, while at White River, where the Great Father has begun +to issue rations of beef on the foot to every head of a Sioux tepee. I +gave the Mountain Fox seventeen beaver pelts, a bale of buckskins, +twelve obsidian arrow points, one lame calico pony, a pipestone +peace-pipe, some kinnickinnic and an iron oven, found after the soldiers +left a camp at Clear Creek, and eleven bone buttons for the hand of his +second oldest daughter. This was all of my fortune, except one saddle +pony, a pack pony, one lodge-pole tepee and poles, four buffalo robes, a +coil of telegraph wire [stolen from the Overland], several hair-braided +halters, a lariat and my private store of scalps, none of which I took +myself, but which had been inherited from my father, a sub-chief known +as the Hawk, a brave man whose bones are now dry in an elevated grave +near the fast-running creek known to the whites as Ten, but which in +Sioux is Wickachimminy. This, with my bows and arrows and a Spencer +rifle, for which I had no ammunition, with my moccasins, a breech-clout +and jerked meat to last one moon, was all I had--not much, but +enough--and I was happy with my bride. + +"After the sun had risen and set three times Mountain Fox came to my +tepee and said I must give him still another horse, two blankets (which +I did not have and could not get), and which he said I had promised. + +"In our Sioux nation we never kill--that is, we do not kill Sioux. No +Sioux has yet killed a Sioux, and few Sioux have ever called another of +our tribe a liar. I called him a liar. He made a sign of anger and a +loud noise of distress. My bride, on his command, left the tepee with +him, telling me that under Sioux law, which I knew to be right, that the +contract had not been filled until one moon had elapsed and all members +of both families had smoked in celebration. What did I do? I rode away +in the night toward the tracks where the Iron Horse runs, twenty days +away, going and coming, to get from a white man's corral a horse and +perhaps the blankets. This was while the grass was still green. + +"I found the horse and the blankets and a gun; also food in cans. But I +found in a large bottle what I had heard of, but never tasted before. +After the first sun had set I stopped at Dry Canyon, which is never dry, +but full of roaring water, and there I drank nearly all from the bottle. +What I did then I only remember as a dream, but I saw in my dream my +bride and I wept. My pony and the horse I found in the white man's +corral at the trail of the Iron Horse, with the blankets and the food in +cans, and I--Big Jaw--waded Dry Canyon Creek, which I say was wet, for +nearly a day and left no trail. I drank more of the white man's poison +and then camped without a fire. + +"When the next sun came up I was ill and drank lots of water. Then came +six men from the corral at the trail of the Iron Horse, and they bound +my hands with small chains, tied me to my pony and took me back to the +trail of the Iron Horse, where I was kept in a log house with iron +windows until one night it burned, and I was taken out by the white man +in charge, who, three moons ago, blindfolded me, put me on a horse and +took me to another corral on the trail of the Iron Horse and locked me +in a large tepee made of stone, where they fed me well and gave me +medicine. + +"Then I was, one moon ago, put to work in a forest to chop trees, and I +ran away. + +"Have you seen my bride--she of the hair as black as a starless night +and teeth as white as the wing of a dove? + +"Oh, white man, tell me, have you seen her? I am a lost sheep--the trail +is covered to my eyes, with which I have wept almost constantly all the +moons I have been away. Have you seen her I seek? I am hungry, not in my +stomach, but in my breast and in my head; I must feast or die!" + +Then he wept like a child. + +"Crazy," said Rawhide Robinson. + +"As a loon," added Parker, the night herder. + +"Give him a pull at the Parson's bottle in the medicine chest," +suggested the Kid, as he gave the fire a stir under a pot of bean soup. + +"No," said the Parson, as he rode up on a mule and was told the +story--"no liquor, boys. Feed him up and well let him trail back with us +to Cheyenne and to the asylum. Poor cuss, he loved the squaw and he's +clean daffy, but hasn't a bit of Injun left in him." + +And so the Lost Indian, with a broken heart, brain tortured, went back +to the asylum--a child of the plains who bought his wife, but loved her +for all that. For the Sioux, while selling their daughters, never sold +them unless there was real evidence of true love. + +And while Big Jaw stole to make good his bargain, wasn't his deed an act +of old-time knighthood after all? + +Moreover, his undoing was not so much because of his own delinquency as +it was that of the white man's invention--whisky--that brought about +his downfall. + +A thief, yes; a red-skinned, uncivilized wild man of the plains and the +mountains. But can we classify him with the civilized white man who +commits a crime? + +If the Lost Indian did not recover and win his bride in civilization's +regulation way, perhaps it is just as well; and let us hope he is an +angel in the Happy Hunting Ground. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A SHE-BEAR AND HER CUB. + + +Before my feet were thoroughly toughened--that is to say, when I was +still to some extent a tenderfoot--I joined, single-handed, in an +undertaking which had more chances for failure than almost anything that +can be imagined. It wasn't a trip to the moon, neither was it an attempt +to wipe out the then powerful Sioux nation, but it was worse than either +of these. + +On Wagon-hound creek, one summer day, when our outfit was in camp for +several hours, I strolled away from camp alone. It was early summer, +probably July, and everything was green and fresh. Three miles from camp +I came upon signs of life--the limb of a wild plum tree broken and +hanging to the ground. The first impression was that there were prowling +Indians in the neighborhood. The grass had also been trampled. The plums +were only half ripe, and after gathering a few, I dropped over an +embankment into the creek bottom, where I saw a large track in the soft +silt; it was almost the shape of a human hand. There was a smaller one +of the same character. These I followed, clutching a small "pop-gun" of +the Derringer variety. After turning several curves of the creek I +suddenly came upon my quarry--a big she-bear and a cub. The former +snorted and made for me, and, sensibly pocketing my revolver, I lifted +myself out of the creek bottom by grasping a convenient overhanging root +of a tree; but almost simultaneously the she-bear was beside me. + +Then began as pretty a race as you ever witnessed. It is a pity none saw +it. + +Fortunately I had only a few nights before been a silent listener to +several camp-fire yarns of old-timers, one of which contained some +advice about a man who finds himself in the predicament I now was in. +Before me was a bald hill rising perhaps 200 or 300 feet, covered with +sage and other brush. Up I flew. My feet were like wings. But Mrs. Bear, +though heavy, was able to keep within ten feet of my heels until I +reached the top. Then as I almost felt her warm breath I wheeled and ran +down hill. This was tactics I had heard at the camp-fire and it saved +me, too, for Mrs. Bear, being set up heavier behind than in front, and +having long hind legs and short front ones, was obliged to come down +slowly and sidewise at that. + +Her cub had stayed at the bottom of the hill, whining, and as I reached +him I gave him a kick in the jaw and there was some more zig-zagging, +fast running and heart palpitation, although I felt somewhat relieved +when, looking over my shoulder, I saw Mother Bear licking her cub's +face. + +Later on I sneaked into camp and tried to keep my secret; but I looked +and acted queerly, and finally told the story. In ten minutes five of us +were on the way to the site of my encounter, all mounted. + +We soon discovered Mrs. Bear and her cub, and the boss insisted that I +should have the first shot at her with a Winchester. I took good aim and +fired, but saw the dirt fly a rod behind the old lady. It was a bad +miss. Then "Sailor Jack" Walton sent a bullet into her heart and the +rest of us lariated and captured the baby, which we took to Fort Laramie +and gave to an army officer's wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A KICK FROM A PLAYFUL BULLOCK--AND A JOKE. + + +Near Horse Creek lived a ranchman of the name of McDonald, a pioneer, +and I believe a religious and perfectly sane and honest Scotchman, +although I am not sure of his nativity; however, he had all the good +qualities of that race. One June morning I joined a bull outfit owned by +him and drove a team attached to the naked gears of two wagons into the +virgin parks on Laramie Peak, along the streams and upon the sidehills +of which grew the straightest aspen and small pine trees in all the +territory. No ax had ever desecrated this beautiful forest. The trip was +for the purpose of cutting some of these poles and building, while on +the mountain, two dozen hay racks upon which was to be hauled to an army +post the contract hay cut in the wild meadows. I was still something of +a tenderfoot, for I knew nothing of this kind of work, and I soon +discovered that I was regarded--much to my chagrin--as only a half-hand. +I complained to other drivers when McDonald indicated that he thought me +a burden because I had to learn how to use an adz and because I had +mishandled my team on a winding new trail we broke in the hills. + +One of the bulls, just before leaving the plain below, had playfully +reached me with one of his heavy but unshod hind hoofs and keeled me +over into a bed of prickly pears. For hours a kindly bullwhacker helped +me pluck the sharp and brittle brads from my back. McDonald took a +dislike to me, and naturally I lost any admiration I might have had for +him. And here is where I made a fatal mistake. I shouldn't have noticed +it; instead I took every opportunity offered to annoy him. One day, +while in camp, at the instigation of an older man, I remarked that we +were to have a change for supper. + +"And what will it be?" queried McDonald. + +"Bacon and coffee," I replied. + +"But we had that for breakfast," said he. + +"I know," said I, "but it was coffee and bacon--now it's bacon and +coffee!" + +The fact is there was no game in the hills, at least we got none. I knew +McDonald wouldn't like the joke, but I never believed it would be taken +as a personal affront. He was, as a matter of fact, a bountiful +provider, but expected to find plenty of grouse, venison, etc., on the +trip and had therefore provided only flour, bacon and coffee. + +I met McDonald fifteen years later in the Middle West on a railroad +train. He remembered me and hadn't forgotten the wound I inflicted by my +alleged wit, for he said: + +"Yes, I remember you, and you were a poor stick!" + +I sincerely hope the last twenty-five and more years has softened his +heart--if he lives--as it has softened mine, for I have only kindly +thoughts of him, and even hold no grudge against the bull that reduced +my efficiency by the playful caress he gave me with his hoof. + + * * * * * + +If you have ever tried to hoof it up a wild mountain stream running +through towering cliffs of shale, without a trail, you can well imagine +the task a bull-train outfit would have in working its way through the +same maze of trees, rocks and rushing waters, winding from bluff to +bluff. But these tasks were common undertakings for the men engaged in +the business of freighting. "Corduroy" bridges consisting of gravel and +poles had to be built, trees chopped down, fallen and dead trees +removed, brush cleared away or used at the fording places. + +A pioneer trip of this kind, and a fair example, was one which took our +outfit from Cheyenne to the headwaters of the Cache de la Poudre river +in what was known as the North Park, some years before Centennial Peak, +one of Colorado's principal mountains, was of enough consequence to be +christened by the government. + +Cheyenne was passing from the camp to the substantial town stage and +lumber was needed for building purposes. The North and Middle Park +regions were virgin forests, untouched by the woodman's ax, and the +earth and its precious store of gold hardly scratched by prospectors. +There were no mines, no ranchmen, nothing but nature undisturbed; lakes +of sweet, cold water, groves of white pines and other trees, wild and +untenanted except by blacktail deer, bear, cougar and other animals. The +Greeley colony, however, had been established many miles to the east in +the valley of the Poudre. This was the first great American irrigating +project and a few settlers had begun to till the soil. + +Beyond Fort Collins and Livermore the country was as new as an +unexplored country could be. Trout leaped at play along the narrow but +fast-running streams, and if a sportsman had ever cast his lines in +these places he must have been a red man or some daring white hunter who +preceded the stage of development now under way and who left no record +of his doings. + +It took several weeks to chop and dig a road through this wilderness and +set up in an open space a couple of sawmill outfits we had with us. Then +it required a couple of months of chopping, hauling and sawing of logs, +and loading of the green and heavy lumber upon our Murphy wagons. The +lumber was unloaded in Cheyenne a month later; some of it was quite dry, +but in much smaller quantities than would have been delivered had the +owners been willing to wait for it to dry where cut. + +But Cheyenne was in a hurry, and the boomers couldn't wait, consequently +many of the green joists in the new buildings shrunk and there were +several collapses. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE INDIAN AND THE TROUSERS. + + +When the first clothing was issued to the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at +Red Cloud Agency the scene was better than a circus. If I am not +mistaken Carl Schurz was secretary of the interior, and after a +conference with some of the big chiefs it was decided to attempt to +abolish the breech-clout. The "Great Father" at Washington, represented +by members of Congress and some of the Pennsylvania Quakers and others, +discovered that Uncle Sam had a warehouse full of discarded or out of +date army coats and trousers, and it was decided to give these to +certain tribes of Indians as part payment for lands that were needed for +white settlement. + +The Indians were gathered by hundreds from far and wide the day of issue +at Red Cloud, and Agent McGillicuddy addressed them in their own tongue, +telling them the light blue trousers and coats were the same kind worn +by the brave men who fought heroic battles for their Great Father. His +words were received in silence, and after he had finished several chiefs +held a pow-wow, after which one of their number presented himself at the +delivery window of the big warehouse and received a coat and a pair of +trousers. Several white men helped him to adjust the trousers and coat, +and when he was fully rigged he started to walk toward his group of +red-skinned and breech-clouted companions. + +As though the stage had been set and every player had learned his part, +the show began. The up to this time silent Indians jumped into the air +and made a demonstration of guying that would be a credit to any +baseball crowd that ever sat in the bleachers at the Polo Grounds. They +danced and cavorted, they yelled and keeled over, and laughed. The +squaws and papooses thought it the greatest joke, and participated in +the hilarity. Finally the buck who wore the first suit managed to get it +off and resumed his breech-clout. + +This first attempt was a failure; but Mr. McGillicuddy was a resourceful +man and was implicitly trusted, especially by the leading men of the +Sioux nation, and he finally tried another plan which after a year or +two succeeded to some extent. He engaged several bucks to help him at +the agency warehouse, paying them in extra amounts of sugar, tobacco and +bacon, but insisted that while they were on duty they must be dressed in +the white man's garb, and finally he had a large number of bucks who +were willing to forego the jibes of their friends for the extra +allowances. + +Sooner or later these Indians began to circulate around among others of +the tribe in a lordly manner, and in the end it was not necessary to +bribe any of them, except the youngsters of Sitting Bull's band, to wear +clothing. + +At first the Indians insisted in cutting out entirely the seat of the +trousers. + +When the first beef on the hoof was issued at Red Cloud, a four-year-old +steer was allotted twice a month to the head of each tepee in the tribe. +It was "cut out" from the herd by a cowboy and turned over to the +Indians forming the tepee, or family, to do with as they pleased, and +what they pleased to do would not have the approval of a humane society. + +Always the animal was as wild as a buffalo, and if he did not +immediately start a small stampede on his own account a few +bloodcurdling yells from the Indians did the business. Selecting the +easiest path of escape the frightened steer made a dash, followed by the +bucks on their saddleless ponies. Some of the Indians had long spears, +all had bows and arrows, and some had guns, ranging in make from an old +Spencer rifle to a modern Winchester, although there were few of these. +Most of their weapons were bows and arrows and spears. The latter were +thrown with great accuracy, and fatal thrusts were never made until the +steer had become exhausted. The arrows were also used, perhaps for an +hour, as weapons of torture and shot with no other purpose into the +fleshy part of the steer than to increase his speed. The Indians could +have killed their steer at any time by a shot placed under the shoulder. +But the idea was to torture the beast and perhaps encourage him to turn +and fight for his life, which he often did when surrounded in a ravine. +This was Indian sport, and was indulged in for some time before the +Agency authorities required the government's wards to use civilized +methods. + +Usually when a steer had been chased up hill and down vale for an hour, +or until it was worn out, the Indians planned to round up the chase +close to their tepee where a final shot with arrow or bullet put an end +to the animal's misery. Then the squaws swarmed about the carcass with +their skinning knives. The hide, always badly damaged by the spears and +arrows, was removed in a workmanlike manner and carefully put away for +tanning later on. The flesh of the steer was taken away and the feast +began in a few minutes. Much of the meat was dried or "jerked." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THERE'S A REASON: THIS IS IT!--CONCLUSION. + + +And now let me answer questions that have no doubt arisen in the minds +of the readers who have waded through these chapters. "Why isn't this +record presented in the regulation way--as a novel with a love story +running through it;" or, "What is the moral?" + +Let me ask such readers to follow me a little farther. + +On March 22d, 1873, a description of a certain boy who left his +Wisconsin home to buffet with the world on his own responsibility would +have read as follows: + + Age, 16 years, 6 mos. and 7 days. Weight 109 pounds; black hair, + black eyes, smooth, pale face; well dressed; had, after paying for + one handbag, a Derringer revolver (pop-gun) and a few knick-knacks, + $85.00 in cash (a large sum for a youth of his age in those days). + + Carried trip pass from Milwaukee to Council Bluffs, Iowa, via the + Chicago & Northwestern Railway, personally given to him by Marvin + Hughitt, then superintendent; also letter of introduction from E. + J. Cuyler, to S. H. H. Clark, general manager of the Union Pacific + Railroad at Omaha, recommending him as a worthy boy looking for a + railroad office job, also requesting transportation favors. + +This description takes no account of a deep-seated cough, occasional +flashes of red in the pale face, and a fear expressed by friends that +he was taking a desperate means of escaping the fate that had overtaken +his dear mother but four months previously. It takes no account of his +life up to the time of his departure on the long journey, not yet ended; +though in the natural order of worldly things, the day is near at hand. +I might add that he had been a "call boy" at a big railroad terminal, +had advanced to a desk as a way-bill clerk, and when advised to seek a +dry climate and there live out-of-doors, was earning a man's wage. + +We will pass over briefly an encounter with one of the best men that +ever lived--S. H. H. Clark--in his office at Omaha. When asked for a +pass to Sherman, Wyoming, he said gruffly: + +"Haven't you got any money?" + +This was the reply: + +"Yes, sir, and I'll pay my fare, too, if you don't want to give me a +pass." + +"Well," he said, turning to look out of a window, "maybe I'll give you +an order for a half-fare ticket," which brought forth this: + +"I don't want to be impolite, Mr. Clark, because you are a friend of +good friends of mine--Mr. Hughitt and Mr. Cuyler--but I must say you +don't know me as well as you might--I'm no half-fare fellow. Good-bye." + +And then Mr. Clark laughed, and said he was not in earnest and gave the +pass freely and willingly. + +There was a nice chat after that between the pale-faced youth and the +big railroader, during which The Boy discovered that Mr. Clark liked his +nerve but questioned his physical ability to stand the rough knocks that +were coming. + +Later, after a season in a division railroad office The Boy, carried +away with the spirit of adventure that was everywhere about him, and +carrying out a plan he had made to live in the open, went to Cheyenne, +signed up with a bull-train, and began the life of out-of-doors. The +"train" was loaded and ready to leave Camp Carlin, at Fort Russell, for +Fort Laramie on the North Platte, but it was for a while impossible to +employ men enough to drive the teams. There had been an outbreak among +the Sioux, and things looked dark when The Boy asked for a job driving +bulls; and when he was hired by Nate Williams, the Missourian wagon +boss, it was almost a joke to Nate, who said afterward that he took one +chance in a million when he employed The Boy and took him to camp. Both +The Boy and Nate won on the long shot. + +A year later The Boy was driving a lead team, looked after the +manifests, kept the accounts, and shirked no duty, fair weather or foul. + +All this time the pale and flushed cheeks were giving place to bronze, +the thin arms and skinny legs were toughening and filling out, and the +cough had disappeared--weight after first year, 155. + +Before leaving Camp Carlin on this first trip The Boy had time to write +home and receive a reply. He told a relative what he had done, and the +reply was a stinging rebuke and almost a final farewell, for the +relative said nothing good could possibly result from quitting a job +with a railroad paying $100 a month and taking one as a teamster at the +same figure--"and you nothing but a sickly boy." But the relative was +wrong, although excusable. + +And now, after all the evidence is in, we find that the "sickly" +youngster is still in the land of the living, past three score years, +and with some prospects of another score! + +The letter left a sore spot, and The Boy foolishly decided that he was +cut off. So he did not write again for nearly two years. + +The middle of the second winter found him at Fort Fetterman, living in a +dug-out in the embankment of a creek bottom, waiting for the springtime +when he could again use his stout lungs in shouting at his bulls, but +his strong arms were not idle the while, for he chopped cottonwood, box +elder and pine logs for the Fetterman commissary. + +In those days there was naught but military law, and the civilians were +under more or less surveillance, and it was customary for them to report +at given periods to the sergeant who sat in the adjutant's adobe office +in the fort. + +On one of those occasions The Boy's attention was directed to a +bulletin board upon which was tacked a card carrying the caption in big +black types: + + "INFORMATION WANTED" + +Under this was The Boy's name, a detailed description of him when he +left Cheyenne, and the statement that "anyone knowing his whereabouts +will confer a favor upon his anxious father and sister and receive a +reward if word is sent to Thomas Jefferson, a friend of the family at +Sherman, Wyoming Territory," to whom an appeal had been made. It was +stated in the notice that he "weighs about 100 pounds, has black hair, +black eyes, and is pale and sickly." + +At this time The Boy weighed nearly 170, was brown as a berry, had +muscles of an athlete, and in no wise resembled the description. He had +no difficulty in convincing the sergeant that while the name was similar +to his own it evidently was the description of a tenderfoot, and he was +no tenderfoot--not then. + + * * * * * + +If I could pay any greater tribute than this to life in the open I would +do it; and if there were a possible love story in this record I would +ignore it because, while it might entertain and please some tastes, it +would not answer the main purpose of these tales, namely: + +To demonstrate that as long as there is life there is hope, especially +if the spark of life is properly fanned in a salubrious, glorious and +vigorous climate. + +"As long as there is life there is hope!" But after all is it not truer +to say "As long as there is hope there is life?" + +Hope is the centerpiece of the familiar trio--Faith, Hope and +Charity--and not the least one of these virtues. It is practical to be +hopeful and to order our lives in the spirit of hopefulness; the world +will be better for our hopefulness, especially in these depressing +times. Moreover, it is a Christian duty to be hopeful. + +"Hope," says the Rev. Julian K. Smyth, head of the Swedenborgian church +in the United States, "is an affection of the will, and the will is ever +in the desire to act; thus hope is not only a lively virtue, but a +heroic and even a practical one." + +It is a good rule of life never to be discouraged no matter what the +misfortune, disappointment or mistake. Life will have been a success to +one who lives in hopefulness, for life will have been lived happily +through many human failures and errors. Life in the world of the flesh +is a battle which, if well fought--if we have faith in the Divine +Providence--means a victory over what we call Death, for Death is in +truth not the End, but the-- + + BEGINNING. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Prairie Schooner, by William Francis Hooker + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40497 *** |