Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-02-12
Idians on the War Path.
ANOTHER MASSACRE OF THE WHITES.
Particulars OF the Fort Kearney Mas.
Sacre.

A telegram from Junction City, Kansas, ON
the End instant, states that man came into
Salina, about fifty miles West of that place, ON
the Gay previous, and reports a frightful mas
sacre of white men by the Cheyenne Indians
near the head of Smoky Hill river, few days
since, under the following circumstances
Wallace's train, with seventy men, were in
camp and party of fourteen Indians came beg
ging. The teamsters refused to give them any
assistance, whereupon the Indians fired upon
them, but without effect The teamsters re-
turned the fire and killed eight Indians At
about eight 0 clock that night the camp was
surrounded by 1000 Indians, who massacred
fifty y-nine out of sixty-three men. The man
that brought the news had an arrow head
through his shoulder and another wound on his
hip. He claims to be one of the four men that
escaped.
William Comstock, the famous interpreter
and Arapahoes of Arkansas and Smoky Hill
appear to be friendly, but part Of the Northern
Indians are now moving Southwark, and have
already committed many murders and other out
RACES. Comstock believes they mean war.
On the 2Sth Of January General Sherman
forwarded to General Grant an extract from a
private letter received at his office from SER
geant at the fort, describing the horrors Of the
Fort Kearney massacre. 1t represents that no
one escaped; that ''all were butchered and
scalped, and their bodies gashed and chopped
with knives and tomahawks, stripped of every
article of dress, and shot through and through
with arrows"
The official report estimates the number of
Indians attacking the massacred party at 5000
There are detachments of six companies, with
five officers, at the post, and their numbers are
deemed too few, and the weather too intensely
cold to admit OF any aggressive movements at
present
A letter from a soldier at Fort Phil, Kearney
says the Indians are still hostile and very threat
enlng in that vicinity.
1t was with great difficulty that the bodies of
the victims of the late massacre could be buried
owing to the presence, in the immediate vicln-
ity, of large bands of savages.
Late Montana papers report considerable
alarm in different regions on account of the In
dian depredations, and that people were arming
to chastise them
A Useful Nose.
A good story is told of Mozart at the time he
was pupil with Hayden. The latter challenged
his pupil to compose piece of music he could
not play at first sight. Mozart accepted the
banter, and a supper and champagne were to
be the forfeit. Everything being arranged be-
tween the two composers, Mozart took his pen,
and in five minutes he dashed off piece of
music, and much to the surprise of Hayden,
handed it to him, saying:
'There is piece of music which you cannot
play, and | can-you are to give 1t the first
trial.
Hayden smiled contemptuously at the pre-
sumption of his pupil, and placing the notes
before him, struck the keys of the instrument.
Surprised at its simplicity, he dashed away un-
til he reached the middle of the piece, when,
stopping all at once, he exclaimed:
''How is this. Mozart? How is this :? Here
my hands are stretched to both ends of the pi-
ano, and yet there is middle key to be touched.
Nobody can play such music-not even the
composer himself"
Mozart smiled at the halfexcited indignation
of the great master, and, taking the seat he had
quilted, struck the instrument with such an air
Of self assurance that Hayden began to think
himself duped. Running along the simple pas
sages, he came to that part which his teacher
had pronounced impossible to be played. Mo
zart, as many are aware, was favored, or at
least endowed, with an extremely long nose-a
prodigious nose, which, in modern dialect,
stuck out about feet" Reaching the diff
cult passage, he stretched both hands to the
extreme ends ofthe piano, and, leaning forward,
bobbed his nose on the middle key which 'no-
body could play!" Hayden burst into an i'm
moderate fit oflaughter, and, after acknowledge
ing the corn, declared that nature had endowed
Mozart with a capacity for music which he had
never before discovered