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Show "BUFFALO" JONEs! ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE FIGURES IN THE WEST. Gained a National Reputation as a Buffalo Buf-falo Herder Prominent In Political Wfe First a Republican, Then a Populist. critical hour in the convention, when the third ballot indicated that the next ' would nominate the man from Maine, Jones, who had attached to his banner pictures of Blaine and Logan, marched down the aisle of the convention hall, creating the wildest' excitement and enthusiasm. en-thusiasm. This demonstration not only-made only-made Blaine's nomination certain, but it sealed the fate of a number of rice presidential candidates and gave the honor to General Logan. Five years ago "Buffalo" surprised his friends by renouncing Republicanism Republican-ism and joining the Populist party.. He was as enthusiastic in his support of Populistic principles as he was when he marched through the streets of Chicago Chi-cago carrying the Blaine banner. During Dur-ing the latter years of his life he had lived quietly at his home near Topeka and had not figured very prominently in public life. ; ( Special Letter.) " "Buffalo" Jones is dead. The greatest great-est friend the dumb brutes ever had has left them and in a few years the name of C. J. Jones will be forgotten. He was one of the most unique characters charac-ters in Kansas, the "home of great men and freaks." "Buffalo" Jones was known from one end of the country coun-try to the other, and a complete story of his life would outrival any book of fiction yet published. Early in his youth he cultivated a benign feeling for dumb brutes, and his sympathy was not without its reward, for his animal friends seemed to understand his affection for them and eagerly responded re-sponded to it. He domesticated a number of buffalo, using them for agricultural ag-ricultural purposes and demonstrating that they had utility other than that found in their pelts. His appeals for the dumb race, however, were in vain, and he lived to see the great family pass away under his very eyes. A Unique Career. C. J. Jones was born in Tazewell county, 111., and was 71 years old. He received a first-class education in the Illinois State Normal school and for a time was a student in Wesleyan university. uni-versity. After leaving school he went to Kansas, settling in Troy, at that time one of the oldest communities in the state. He lived quietly here for a time, then became restless and with a crowd of speculators started for western west-ern Kansas. They located at Garden City, and in one night a town of 2,000 inhabitants sprung up. Jones was chief boomer. He built a business block and was the first man to test the raising of crops in the desert by means of irrigation. The prefix "Buffalo' was tacked to Jones' name fifteen years ago. In the early part of 1886 he organized a buffalo buf-falo hunt at Garden City in which .about fifteen citizens participated. The hunt lasted five days and the hunters killed six buffalo and captured fourteen calves. The young animals were taken to Jones' farm near Garden Gar-den City and he began the propagation of the American buffalo. He could not Kit C. J. "BUFFALO" JONES, wait until the small herd should multiply mul-tiply and increase and secured eighty-five eighty-five more bison. These he got near Manitoba, Canada, and while en route from there to his farm in Garden City he gave exhibitions in all the principal princi-pal cities. Buffalo meat at that time was selling for fifty cents a pound In Chicago, and Jones thought that by crossing the bison with native cattle he would have a fortune in a few years. But this enterprise proved a failure and a few years ago he sold the last of his stock to Austin Corbin. National Political Figure. Jones was a delegate from Kansas to the National Republican convention of 1884, held at Chicago, and it was there that he gained a prominence which spread from ocean to ocean. He was an enthusiastic admirer of James G. Blaine and upon his arrival in Chicago had a banner made. Around the margin were painted pictures pic-tures of sheaves of wheat, shocks of corn and other illustrations setting forth the agricultural possibilities of Kansas. Within this border, in letters let-ters of gold that could be read a block away, were these words: "Kansas! Fifty thousand for the Nominee of the Convention. Seventy-five Thousand for Blaine. Wheat and Corn for the Nation. Fall In." Perched on the top of this banner was a big live rooster, roos-ter, with a streamer tied to his neck bearing these words: "Kansas crows for her loyal delegates." This was "the banner that boosted Blaine and locked the Logan link." The day on which the great convention met, Buffalo Buf-falo Jones, with a howling mass of humanity, hu-manity, following a band playing Hail Columbia, marched through State street, Wabash avenue and Dearborn street wxryin this banner. At the |
