Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-07-20
aAlGGell
THE PALE FLOWER.

My old friend Joe Harris, who has long
since been dead, was, when wild young
man. induced to try his fortune in the new
world He left England with the intention
"t settling III America, hut, to the surprise
ui his friends, he returned home in middle
1gc, an altered man, settling down in a
little village, where he lived a bachelors
lie, till the end Of his days. That there
was a romance of some kind connected with
the old mans soiourn in America, was well
known, but the particulars were never di-
vuIgrd, Till Il few years before his death.
when he related the little episode to me
4 which caused his return to England The
q allowing is, as nearly as possible, in his
q wn words
When first | saw the upper Missouri, no
white man had never crossed the Black
Hills, or woke with his rife the echoes of
the Rocky Mountains The vast pararies,
winch lie at the base of the Cordlleras,
u street ching for hundreds Of leagues towards
the Mississippi, had never heard the voice
d oi pale face, or been pressed by the foot
Of civilization. All was wild, solitary, and
q sublime. Even the trader had not penetra-
II ted this wilderness and the beaver built,
q the buffalo herded, the eagle scared, and
# tie red man hunted safe from Chrisatin
. rapne and wrong
s. It. Louis was frontier town, and still
q IN the possession of the French and it was
quite common thing for the Sioux to come
s down there to trade. \ young brave of
that nation was there when | arrived
met him at the Governors and we soon got
lmtc intimate. He was a noble fellow, as
tall and graceful as an Apollo, and with
volume Of sinew that might have been the
model for an Hercules We went so far as
To change names, and so he always called
me the War Eagle" At last he asked me
81 10 visit his country, and hunt the buffalo
beneath the Black Hills Young and ven
SuTesome, it was the very thing | wanted
IL was something to penetrate where no
Whte man had ever been. So, bidding
adLeu to civilization, | shouldered my rifle,
AID plunged into the pathless wilderness
under the guidance Of my young Sioux
brave.
We crossed prairies, upon which one
may travel for months without seeing a
Ill, r'l' uee or speaking to a human being.
1"t sun rises and sets on a boundless ex-
F"-se "i green. vt times you will find the
nam ae as level as the ocean in a calm; and
''" LOT several weeks you will travel "a
"""5 rolling uplands like the same ocean
III " storm and by-and-by you will come
Il upon short steep hills like the cross chop
pea seas at the mouth of a tidal river Now
aerd Of a hundred thousand buffaIoes
VIII 60 tramping by, shaking the solid
"." IKE an earthquake ; and now the
~'''"y outline Of Indian horsemen will be
4 sweeping gracefully along the far off
" And such scenes we iourneyed
weeks. When hunger overlook us we
'u oF'ng down buffalo, light fire, and
Ihe choicest morsel, and have feast
,Ny 81 kings and at nightfall, spread
# '" buffalo robes beneath US, we Law
,.:. 'A On the velvet turf, with the balmv
s,.' II,.iI'hS us to sleep, and millions of
entering in the calm blue sky above.
,l "ud but fascinating life, ever full
',."ant variety. Now we would he
IA the wlgwam of some friendly
II, ana now passing some tribe of hos
III ,n "''ahS At such times what a choice
M was my Sioux brave How he
PaiaYer to the old chiefs, and talk Of
p- 7Ie"I medicine man as he called me
>..r., ne thought this wouldn't do how
mi 'lI'y he would creep around their vii
[.s, os III the night Once or twice we had
c.r,5 aI our F, way through and we only es-
,.d T pI Il" thousand Pawnees, encamped on
them '"''e' by 81 ding with the current past
A,l,., DaFk canoe during a night storm
i,g., we Dcheld the Sioux village, far
r..rs y, 1n 'Ae horizon and a hundred war
,.ejr fnS, f,SDovercd us at once, galloped on
,-yn,i",!y st,eeds, waving their lances and
10 soanon TTuaIy to welcome us. They had
,aem '5 LDi learned what | was-for few of
taey aI' ,i@u ever before seen white man-than
md hlr Utmost dragged me from my horse
' 'ne In triumph to their village.