| Show INITIATING A TENDERFOOT i For I THE SDNIUY HERALD As I look back fourteen years and remember I re-member how I was initiate into the mysteries mys-teries of the bullpunching craft I laugh heartily and believing my experience worth recounting J give it for tho benefit of THE HERALD In 1877 twas in the early fall I met an old schoolmate in San Antonio Tesas and at his urgent request I agreed to accompany accom-pany him to his ranch on the Todos Sawtos creek in Frio county and about eighty miles from the old Alamo building I was going U west for the first time E How my heart leaped within me as myjfriend told me how the murderous Lip an Indians raided his neigh borhood every full moon So tho day before wo were to leave for his sheep camp I went abound to a corral where ponies could bo bought to pick out ono that I could trust to carry my freight in the wilds of western Texas I bought a calico pony a cute little fellow for 25 an old state muley saddle with iron stirrups stir-rups a square barrel Winchester rife r Colts navy six revolver a pair of highheeled boots a pair of bell spurs a blue flannel shirt and last not least in point of value a magnificent sombrero Thus heeled for either peace or var we started reaching a German town the first night out I was called Castrovillo and I believe the county seat of Medina county We put up with an old Frenchman one of those who stood by Napoleon at Waterloo How eagerly I Jistened to his tales of the Old Guard as they charged lor their emperor and what interested me more was the stirring truths he told of the Indian raids of earlier days Now bo it known I was young my pate now well nigh bald then revelled in D luxurous growth of light brown hair my age under twenty by several years Of course I imagined how I woulu stand my ground light the wily red man and gain a record as an Indian hunter We remained with the old Frenchman French-man a day then pressed on reaching the ranch late at night I was called a ranch i well lets see i we can describe Ita log cabin no floor boards for bunks nailed together under tho branches of a large oak just facing the cabin around the house a mesquite fence that is cut brush piled up around it I staked my pony out taking the precaution precau-tion to hobblo him and being sleepy was shortly wrapt in the strong arms of Mor pheus I 1 enjoyed my roughly prepared breakfast very much and for at least two months was growing doing nothing but eating juicy steaks und constantly exercising exercis-ing on horseback One morning one of my neighbors living about six miles called to say he had noticed Indian signs near by and borrowed niy Winchester as a safeguard safe-guard to reach his home About an hour after ho l Tt another cow puncher called to say the redskins were in the neighborhood and complained of being witnout arms and after some persuasion borrowed mj Cylta revolver He had no sooner vanished van-ished than cattle and sheep men for miles around some of them living at least thirty live miles from tho camp began to arrive and all had the samedoleful lougfaced tale to tell of tho wily savage Now to say I was calm would bo to stretch the truth My hair rose like uuills on a porcupine and great beads of 1 perspiration tricKied down my checks I was fairly frightened I was without arms The men had held an impromptu counci ol war and it was decided to go inquest in-quest of the marauders and annihilate them Of course I assented to all they said but I nearly wished I had never been born I remembered there was an old muzzleloading shotgun in the cabin so 1 got it and loadedd it Loadedit Yes put j in enough powder and shut to have exploded ex-ploded the barrels had it ever been fired j Now I had to get my pony I had Co mauche as I had naniedhim staked nearby i near-by and I sneaked like a coyote t get him fearing to receive an arrow or ball from some implement in tho hands of the Indian Whilst I was gone the boys spiked the gun and burned out the caps but I never knew it for months afterwards learning that they did it fearing I might shoot and kill myself by doing so Now Comancho was ti racerthat is ho could lead any of his kind in that region from 200 to 400 yards Theboys tried to exchange ponies with me Taut that was no go my life depended on brisk ileetfdoted Comrnanche and no one could ride him but myself I was about 2 oclock In the afternoon when we started for ab arroya creek some five t 1 i r If 1 I miles distant where the Indians were supposed sup-posed to bo nooning Wo were riding Indian file about twentyfive of us myself next to the leader It was a solemn procession Not a word was spoken in jest I not even coveted cigarette was smoked It bore a strong resemblance to a funeral party My friend in the lead vouchsafed to me the information that an Indian signal by day was a shrill whistle and at night they mimicked night birds or coyotes I did not appreciate the fact of my being so far ahead of tho rest but I did my utmost to remain composed I felt my heart in my mouth and lo and behold just as wo reached the arroya for which we were heading I heard a plain loud whistle Simultaneous with that whistle I saw what I supposed to be indians In-dians ride towards usthey camo directly i 1 for me Did I shoot Did I use that old shotgun 1 Well I guess not I whirled Comanche around and used that gun for a quirt whip until I thought it too heavy then dropped it I imagined I was in a battle sure enough fully one hundred shots were fired and I looked back once to see if I was pursued My eyes saw Indians in large numbers and they were closing on me I run that poor but faithful pony just four miles when I got to an irrigating irrigat-ing ditch which I could not make the tired animal jump Before I got to the ditch I lost my sombrero I dismounted dis-mounted at the ditch ran on all fours through the tall mosquito grass for fully a bal mile when I reached a road i down that road I ran for two miles when I reached tho Frio river 1 That stream was out of its banks but I never paused for reflection but jumped in swam it with my clothes and reached a friends house Just seven miles from the fight in a condition more dead than alive I was frightened and for three days wrestled with a fever One of the boys brought by pony another my sombrero with holes shot through it to show how narrowly I escaped death At that time I was writing for the San Antonio An-tonio Bzprels and penned a very lengthy article for that journal descriptive of the terrible fight with the Lipan Indians At the timo the article appeared in print there was quite a number ot sheep men in San Antonio who owned sheep in Frio and adjoining counties and they believing i hired conveyances and drove by night and day expecting to find their herders killed and sheep scattered to the four winds Imagine their chagrin to find that it was only the novel method of initiating the tenderfoot from the states who had come among them That I was made the brunt of many a laugh goes without saying I was as much mortified as a lad could could have been when I ascertained the truth of tho whole affair At that time that genia whole souled character now of national fame Alex Sweet was scribbling for the old now defunct San Antonio Zfcrnld and when he met mo shortly afterward in the Alamo city he dubbed mo as ono of the great jouralsti prevaricators of the age but I told the facts through the Express at that timaas S I firmly believed them FRITZ |
