Show TIff OLD SANTA FE TRAIL I The Famous Highway Across the Plains and Its Place I History St Louis GlobeDemocrat American Ameri-can literature has been enriched by anew a-new history of the wild west from the pen of Colonel Harry Inman late I assistant quartermaster of the United States army The Old Santa Fe Trail is the title of his book and it is borrowed bor-rowed from the name of that famous highway across the plains which occupied t occu-pied the center of the stage in the A great drama of the frontier enacted in Ia S 5F the memory of the generation now graying The book is ep of ZOO pages I I and is admirably illustrated With drawings draw-ings of Frederick Remington reproduced I repro-duced in photogravures and by Thom 1 1L as Willing The Macmillan company > 4 New York are the publishers The I f j story is told in admirable style and the j author keeps his own personality in modest subjection He writes out of i i his own experiences and observation on the plains covering a period of nearly 40 years j Colonel Inman begins with a brief historical I his-torical sketch dating from the explorations i explo-rations and adventures of the Spaniards Span-iards in the 16th and 17th centuries and a description of the ancient manners and customs of the inhabitants of New j Mexico Ultramontane commerce began be-gan in 1804 and 1S05 when a French Creole named La Lande and a Kentuckian Ken-tuckian named James Pursley pioneered pio-neered their way to Santa Fe He traces the gradual development of the trade between St Louis and Santa Fe Up to 1824 all merchandise was transported by pack mules The dangers and the advantages of that mode of transportation transpor-tation are entertainingly portrayed Colonel Inman recalls an instance where a number of mules loaded with i ammunition tumbled nearly 500 feet down an almost perpendicular chasm yet some of them got on their feet again I and soon rejoined their companions without having suffered any serious injury I in-jury Speaking of the stampede of mule trains he says I I remember one instance that occurred i oc-curred on the trail between Fort Hays and Fort Dodge during General Sher I idans winter campaign against the J allied plains tribes in 1868 Three of i the wagons were dragged away by the 1 mules in a few moments were out of sight and were never recovered although al-though diligent search was made for them for some days Ten years afterward L after-ward a farmer who had taken up a 1 claim in what is now Rush county Kansas discovered in a ravine on his < pdace the bones of some animals decayed 1 de-cayed parts of harness and the remains i re-mains of three army wagons which j with other evidence proved them to be i the identical ones lost from the train j Iso I-so many years before j Th advent of the wagon trains the development of a great commerce the I addition of the overland mail stages I and all the attendant circumstances are I traced the narrative being enlivened I with accounts of many thrilling adventures adven-tures 00 < 1 Hostile Indians and renegade whites were a constant menace and the old trail has drunk the life blood of hundreds I I hun-dreds of illstarred mortals The author au-thor gives this account of how one of b I the most atrocious of massacres was k avenged I The fate of the Apache chief White Wolf who was the leader in the outrages I rages in the canyon of the Canadian was fitting for his devilish deeds I was Lieutenant David Bells fortune to avenge the murder of airs White and her family and in an extraordinary I action was really nary manner The 3t wa realy dramatic or romantic he was on a drmatc 1 romantc scout with his company which was I strtioned at Fort Union X 11 having I about 30 men with him and when near the canyon of the Canadian they met I about the same number of Indians A parley was in order at once probably desired by the savages who were confronted con-fronted with an equal number of troopers troop-ers Bell had assigned the baggage I mules to the care of five or six of his i command and held a mounted interview i r inter-view with the chief who was no other than the infamous White Wolf of the Jicarilla Apaches As Bell approached White Wolf was standing in front of his Indians who were on foot al well armed and in perfect line Bell was in advance of his troopers who were about 20 paces from the Indians exactly ex-actly equal in number and < xtnt of line both parties were prepared o use firearms The parley was almost ledously long and the impending duel was arranged 1 ar-ranged White Wolf being voy bcd and defiant At last the leaders ex rhangcd shots the chief sinking to one knee and aiming his gun Bell throwing his body forward and making his hors na Both lines by command fired j jllowing the example of their supii i ors the troopers however spurring forward over their enemies The warriors war-riors or nearly all of them threw themselves on the ground and several vertical wounds were received by horse and rider The dragoons turned short about and again charged through andover and-over their enemies the fire being continuous con-tinuous A they turned for the third charge the surviving Indians were seen escaping to a deep ravine which a though 100 br 200 paces off had not previously been noticed A number of savages thus escaped the troopers having to pull up at the brink but L sending a volley after the descending fugitives fugitves f In less than 15 minutes 21 of the 46 N actors in this strange combat were slaIn or disabled Bell was not hit but four or five of his men were killed or wounded He had shot White Wolf seven times and so did others after him but so tenacious of life was the Apache that to finish him a trooper got a great stone and mashed his head This was undoubtedly the greatest duel of modern times certainly nothing like it ever occurred on the Santa Fe trail before or since < > < sIn 0 s-In the case of Charles Bent the sentimentalist sen-timentalist who believed that education educa-tion is all that is needed to change the heart of an Indian had a severe disappointment His mother was a Cheyenne squaw and his father the famous Colonel Bent He was born at I the base of the Rocky mountains and at an early age was sent to St Louis and given every possible educational advantage He was not allowed to return to his home until he had reached unt manhood and then he spoke no language I lan-guage save English But on attaining his majority he joined his father Almost Al-most immediately he became the leader of about the worst baud of cutthroats that ever breathsd They robbed j l ranches wagon trains overland coaches and army caravans and committed com-mitted numberless wanton murders The government offered t5t0 for his capture dead or alive It was reported that he was killed in a battle with United States marshals but says l J Colonel Inman the whole thing was A manufactured out of whole cloth and if the marshals received the money Uncle Sam was most outrageously swindled Bent died of malarial fever We of today can scarcely comprehend the extent of the great buffalo herds which once covered the plains Colonel Colo-nel Ian gathered statistics which led him to believe that from 1S68 to 1881 no less than 31000000 buffalos were slai ghtered These figures may appear ap-pear preposterous to readers not familiar fa-miliar with the great plains of a century cen-tury ago he says but to those who have seen the prairie black from horizon zon to horizon with the shaggy monsters mon-sters they are not so In the autumn of 186S I rode with Generals Sheridan Custer Sully and others for three consecutive con-secutive days through one continuous herd which must have contained millions lions I the spring of 1869 the train on J the Kansas Pacific railroad was delayed de-layed at a point between Fort Harker and Hays from 9 oclock in the morning morn-ing until 5 in the afternoon in consequence conse-quence of the passage of an immense herd of buffalos across the track On each side of us and to the west as far I as we could see our vision was only j limited by the extended horizon of the j I flat prairie and the whole vast area was black with the surging mass of affrighted buffalos a they rushed onward I on-ward to the south Sometimes a hunter would be caught I in a blizzard precluding the possibility possibil-ity of finding shelter To keep from freezing from cold the hunter would 1 disembowel a buffalo and creep into the cavity the animal heat keeping him warm until the storm abated Early in March 1SG7 the author relates a party of my friends all old buffalo hunters were camped in Paradise Para-dise valley then a famous rendezvous of the animals they were after One I day when out on the range stalking and widely separated from each other j a terrible blizzard came on Three of the hunters reached their camp without I with-out much difficulty but he who was farthest away was fairly caught in it I and night overtaking him he was compelled com-pelled to resort to the method described de-scribed in the preceding paragraph Luckily he soon came up with a superannuated su-perannuated bull that had been abandoned aban-doned by the herd so he killed him took out his viscera and crawled inside in-side the empty carcass where he lay comparatively comfortable until morning morn-ing broke when the storm had passed over and the sun shone brightly But when he attempted to get out he found himself a prisoner the immense ribs of the creature having frozen together and locked him up as tightly as if he were in a cell Fortunately his companions com-panions who were searching for him and firing their rifles from time to time heard him yell in response to the discharge of their pieces and thus I discovered and released him from the peculiar predicament into which he had fallen Kit Carson once killed five buffalos during a single race and used but tour balls having dismounted and cut the bullet from the wound of the fourth and thus continued the chase Buffalo Bill in less than IS months in 18678 killed nearly 5000 buffaloes to bp used as meat for the builders of the Kansas Kan-sas Pacific railroad During one of Fremonts expeditions a stampeded herd charged upon a horse and mule heavily loaded and neither the horse nor mule nor anything connected with thy animals could be found after the herd had passed A great herd of buffaloes on the plains in the early days when one could approach near enough without disturbing it to quietly watch its organization or-ganization and the apparent discipline which its leaders seemed to exact was a very curious sight the author says Among the striking features of the spectacle was the apparently uniform manner in which the immense shaggy animals moved there was constancy of action indicating a degree of intelligence intel-ligence to be found only in the most intelligent of the brute creation Frequently Fre-quently the single herd was broken up into many smaller ones that traveled relatively close together each led by an independent master Perhaps a few rods only marked the dividing line between be-tween them but it was always unmistakably unmis-takably plain and each moved synchronously syn-chronously in the direction in which all were going The leadership of a herd was attained only by hard struggles for the place once reached however the victor was immediately recognized and kept his authority until some new aspirant overcame him or he became superannuated and was driven out of the herd to meet his inevitable fate a prey to those ghouls of the desert the gray wolves Like a army a herd of buffaloes put out vindettes to give the alarm incase in-case anything beyond the ordinary occurred oc-curred These sentinels were always to be seen in groups of four five or even six at some distance from the main body When they perceived something approaching that the herd should beware of or get away from they started on a run directly for the center of the great mass of their peace fully grazing congeners Meanwhile the young bulls were on duty as senti nels on the edge of the main herd watched the vindettes the momprt the latter made for the center the former raised their heads and in the peculiar manner of their species gazed all around and sniffed the air as if they could smell both the direction and source of the impending danger Should there be something which their instinct told them to guard against the leader took his position in front the cows and calves crowded in the center while the I rest of the males gathered on the flanks i and in the rear indicating a gallantry i that might be emulated at times by i the genus homo j The author declares that the buffalo j I bull who has outlived his usefulness is j i one of the most pitiable objects in the whole range of natural history Driven in his old age from the herd to someplace I i some-place of solitude he seems to have i completely lost his courage He becomes I i be-comes the very incarnation of nervousness > nervous-ness and suspicion Nobody ever heard I of one of these miserable helplessly I forlorn creatures dying a natura death I I This pathetic picture of a noble beasts j I ignoble end is drawn I Riding suddenly to the top of the divide di-vide once with a party of friends in 1866 we saw standing below us in the I valley an old buffalo bull the very picture of despair Surrounding him were seven gray wolves In the act of challenging him in mortal combat The I poor beast undoubtedly realizing the I utter hopelessness of his situation had determined to die game His great I shaggy head filled with burrs was lowered to the ground and he confronted con-fronted his wouldbe executioners his tongue black and parched lolled out of his mouth and he gave utterance at intervals to a suppressed roar The wolves were sitting on their haunches in a semicircle immediately in front I of the tortured beast and every time that the fearstricken buffalo would give vent to his hoarsely modulated I groan the wolves howled in concert inmost in-most mournful cadence After contemplating his antagonists for a few moments the bull made a dash at the nearest wolf tumbling him howling over the silent prairie but while this diversion was going on in front the remainder of the pack started for his hind legs to hamstring I him Upon this the poor brute turned to the point of attack only to receive a repetition of i in the same vulnerable vulner-able place by the wolves who had as quickly turned also and fastened thorn selves on his heels again His hindquarters hind-quarters now streamed with blood and he began to show signs of great physical phy-sical weakness He did not dare to leI down that would have been instantly Instanty I fatal By this time he hat killed three of the wolves or so maimed them that they were entirely out of the fight At this juncture the suffering animal was mercifully shot and the wolves allowed to fatten on his thin and tough carcass Indian wives although regarded as slaves and property often displayed awe a-we lh of conjugal love This instance is noted During the Indian campaign in the winter of 186869 I was riding with a party of officers and enlisted men south of the Arkansas about 40 miles from Fort Dodge We were watching some cavalrymen unearth three or four dead warriors who had been killed by two scouts in a fierce unequal fight a few weeks before and as we rode into a small ravine among the sand hills we suddenly came upon t rudely constructed con-structed Cheyenne lodge Entering we discovered on a rough platform fashioned fash-ioned of green poles a dead warrior J 1 in full war dress his shield of buffalo hide pipe ornamented with eagles j feathers and medicine bag were lying j ly-ing on the ground beside him At his j head on her knees with hands clasped I in the attitude of prayer was a squaw I frozen to death Which had first succumbed suc-cumbed the wounded chief or the de j voted wife in the awful cold of that i winter prairie will never be known I but i proved her love for the man who I had perhaps beaten her a hundred I t times Such tender and sympathetic i affection is characteristic of the sex everywhere no less with the poor savage sav-age than m the dominant white race < < 0 I I Indians make smoking a part of their t religion The red sandstone quarries in I Minnesota are the source from which for untold centuries the Indians from j I all sections of the country obtained the material for their pipes Because of the veneration in which these quarries were held no battles could possibly occur oc-cur in those sacred precincts and all hid their weapons on approaching the holy ground Before digging for the atone the Indian made humble supplication cation of the guardian spirits for permission per-mission The author quotes this legend of the Knisteneus tribe Crees avery a-very small band in the British possessions posses-sions in relation to the quarry In the time of a great freshet that occurred years ago and destroyed all the nations of the earth every tribe of Indians assembled on the top of the Coteau des Prairies to get out of the way of the rushing and seething waters When they had arrived there from all parts of the world the water continued contin-ued to rise until it covered them completely com-pletely forming one solid mass of drowned Indians and their flesh was converted by the Great Spirit into red pipe stone therefore it was always considered neutral ground belonging to all tribes alike and all were to make I their pipes out of it and smoke together to-gether While they were drowning together to-gether a young woman Kwaptan a virgin caught hold of the foot of avery a-very large bird that was flying over at the time and was carried to the top of a hill that was not far away and above the vater There she had twins their father being the war eagle that had carried her off and her children have since peopled the earth The pipe stone which is the flesh of their ancestors is smoked by them as the symbol of peace and the eagle quill decorate the heads of their warriors Uncle John Smith was one of the most famous trappersand traders in history In 1826 as a boy he ran away from St Louis where he was apprenticed to a tailor with a party of Santa Fe traders trad-ers and was so fascinated with the life that he followed it for over 40 years He was a famous story teller and the author relates several that were told I about the army camp fires during a i campaign in 1868 Uncle John would not I eat quail One of them had saved his life some 20 years before and the old I trapper had taken an oath to starve before he would partake of one of the birds He and a party were returning from a trapping expedition and were in camp on the Pawnee batten near Pawnee Rock where so many bloody encounters took place in early days They were in want of meat and one morning four buffalos were seen graz gazing gaz-ing about a half mile from camp Uncle John and two others started after af-ter the animals crawling through the tall grass to get in range The buffalo was now between me and Thorp and Boyd and they was furtherest from camp said Uncle John I could see them over the top of the grass kind o edging up to the bull and I kept acrawling on my hands and knees toward the cow and when 1 got about 150 yards ef her I pulled up my rifle and drawed a bead Just as I was running my eyes along the barl a darned little quail flew right out from under my feet and lit exactly on my front sight and of course cutoff cut-off my aimwe didnt shoot reckless In those days every shot had to tell or a man was the laughing stock for a month if he missed his game I shook the little critter off and brought up my rifle again when durn my skin if the bird didnt light right onto the same place at the same time my eyes growd kind o hazy like and in a minute I didnt know nothing When I come to the quail was gone I heerd a couple of rfle shots and right in front of where the bull had I stood and close to Thorp and Boyd half a dozen Ingins jumped out 0 the tall grass and firing into the two men killed Thorp instantly and wounded Boyd He and me got to camp keeping off the Ingins who knowed I was loaded load-ed when we with the rest of the outfit drove the red devils away They was Apaches and the fellow that shot Thorp was a half breed nig I ger and Apache He scalped Thorp I and carried off the whole upper part of his skull with it He got Thorps rifle and bullet pouch too and his knife We buried Thorp in the bottom there and some of the party cut their names on the stones that they covered his body up with to keep the coyotes I I from eating up his bones Boyd got onto the river with us all I right and I never heerd of him after we separated at Boonyille We pulled out after the Indians left but soon afer lef we didnt get no buffalo meat You see boys if Id fired into that cow the devils would a had me before I could a got a patch on my ball didnt have no breech loaders in them days and it took as much judgment to know how to load a rifle properly as to shoot it Them Ingins knowed all that I they knowed I hadnt fired so they I kept a respectable distance I would I a fired but the quail saved my life by I interfering with my sightand thats the reason I dont eat no quail I haint superstitious but I dont believe they was meant to eat I Uncle John could never be disabused of the idea that the quail lighting on I his rifle was not a direct intervention of Providence I Jim Bridger was another of the famous fa-mous old trapoers He too hailed from St Louis and had many admirable I traits He was also a great romancer He once told Colonel Inman that in the winteh of 1830 it began to snow in I the valley of the Great Salt Lake and continued 70 days without cessation The whole county was covered to a I depth of 70 feet and all the vast herds of buffalo were caught in the storm and died but their carcasses were perfectly per-fectly preserved When spring came on declared this old fablemaker all I had to do was to tumble em into Salt Lake an I had pickled buffalo enough for myself and the whole Ute nation for years In that way Jim Bridger accounted for the fact that there were no longer any buffalo in the valley A most remarkable exhibition of nerve is recorded John L Hatcher a noted trader and merchant of New Mexico He was a celebrated Indian fighter as well and his name was a terror to the savages He was en I route east with a wagon train of furs and was approaching Wagon Mound when a band of 300 Comanches led by I Old Wolf suddenly appeared While the Indians were nominally at peace with the whites Hatcher knew that they proposed to murder his little band I of 16 men and rob the caravan But the Indians as was their custom under un-der such circumstances professed I friendliness and were served to a lunch of sugar While the chiefs were eating their I saccharine lunch says the author I Hatcher was losing no time in forming his wagons into a corral but he told his friends afterward that he had no idea that either he or any of his men would escape only 15 or 16 men against over 300 merciless savages and those the worst on the continent and a small corralthe chances were totally hopeless Nothing but a desperate action ac-tion could avail and maybe not even that Hatcher after the other headmen head-men had finished eating asked the old chief to send his young warriors away over the hil They were all sitting I close to one of the wagons Old Wolf i in fact leaning against the wheel resting rest-ing on his blanket with Hatcher next him on his right Hatcher was I so earnest ear-nest in his appeal to have the young I men sent away that both the venerable I villain and his other chiefs arose and were standing Without a moments notice or the slightest warning Hatcher I reached with his left hand and grabbed Old Wolf toy his scalp lock and with I his right drew his butcher knife from its scabbard and thrust it at the throat of the chief All this was done in an instant as quick as lightning no one had time to move The situation was remarkable The little wiry man surrounded by eight or nine of the most renowned warriors of the dreaded Comanches stood firm Everybody was breathless not a word did the savages say Hatcher then said again to Old Wolf in the most determined manner Send your young men over the hill at once or Ill kill you right where you are holding onto the hair of the savage with his left hand and keeping the knife at his throat The other Indians did not dare to make a move they knew what kind of a man Hatcher was they knew he vould do as he had said and that if I they attempted a rescue he would kill their favorite chief in a second Old Wolf shook his head defiantly in the negative Hatcher repeated his or der getting madder all the time Send your young men over the hill I tell you Old Wolf was still stubborn he shook his head again Hatcher gave him another chance Send clance your young men over the hill I tell you or Ill scalp you alive a you are Again the chief shook his head Then Hatcher still holding on the hair of his stubborn vic tic commenced to make an incision in the head of old Wolf for the determined determin-ed man was bound to carry out his threat but he began very slowly As the chief felt the blood trickle down his forehead he weakened He ordered his next In command to send the young men over the hill and out of sight The order was repeated imme diately to the warriors who were as tonished spectators of the strange scene and they quickly mounted their horses and rode away over the hill as fast a they could thump their animals sides with their legs leaving only five or Six chiefs with Old Wolf and Hatcher Hatcher held on like grim death to the old chiefs head and immediately crdered his men to throw the ropes out of the wagon as quickly a they could and get inside themselves This was promptly obeyed and when they were all under the cover of the wagon sheets Hatcher let go of his victims hair and with a last kick told him and his friends that they could leave They went off and did not return This source of some of the blue blood of St Louis is alleged in the authors description of the valley of Taos N l According to the statement state-ment of Gregg the first white settler setter of the fertile and picturesque valley was a Spaniard named Pando who established estab-lished himself there about 1745 This primitive pioneer of the nonthern part of the province was constantly exposed to the raids of the powerful Comanches but succeeded in creating a temporary friendship with the tribe by promising his daughter then a young and beauti ful infant to the chief in marriage when she arrived at a suitable age As the time for the ratification of her fathers covenant with the Indians however the maiden stubbornly refused to fulfill her part The savages enraged at the broken faith of the Spaniard J immediately SV ptdown upon the little settlement and murdered everybody there except the betrothed girl whom they carried on into captivity She was forced to live with the chief as his wife but he soon became tired of her and traded her off for another woman with the Pawnees who in turn sold her to a Frenchman a resident of St Louis I is said thaI some of the most respectable re-spectable families of that city are descended de-scended from her and 50 years ago there were many people living who remembered re-membered the old lady and her pathetic pa-thetic story of trials and sufferings when with the Indians j I Satanta White Bear was the most I efficient and dreaded chief of all who have been at the head of the Kiowa nation na-tion He was the very incarnation of deviltry in his hatred of the whites full of courage an orator of great power and a most wily strategist But he once got the worst of it in an amusing amus-ing encounter The author relates that once when Satanta had remained at Fort Dodge for a very long period and had worn out his welcome so that no one would give him anything to drink he went to the quarters of his old friend Bill Bennett the overland stage agent and begged him to give him I I some linuor Bill was mixing a bottle I of medicine to drench a sick mule The i I moment he set the bottle down to do something else Satanta seized it off I the ground and drank most of the liquid before quitting Of course it I made the old savage dreadfully sick as I i well as angry He then started for a certain officers quarters and again I begged for something to cure him of I the effects of the former dose the of x fleer refused but Satanta persisted In j i his importunities he would not leave without i After a while the officer went to a closet and took a swallow of the most nauseating medicine placing I the bottle back on its shelf Satanta watched his chance and as soon as the I officer left the room he snatched the I bottle out of the closet and drank its contents without stopping to breathe I I was of course a worse dose than the horse medicine The next day very early in the morning he assembled a I number of his warriors crossed the Arkansas Ar-kansas and went south to his village I Before leaving however he burnt all of the government contractors hay on I I the bank of the river opposite the post He then continued on to Crooked Creek I where he murdered three woodchoppers woodchop-pers all of which he said afterward he did in revenge for the attempt to poison t him at Fort Dodge |