Litchfield enquirer., 1870-12-29
ON THE TRAIL.
ExPLo1rs 9oFSA PRAIRIE DHrEeT1yE.


 hsahasaa ON THE TRAIL. f hEt4 ga&Aaaa .3aaa-A---8 Aaa sia g&fas Ba. tsaeEzPLOITs OF A PRAIRIE DETEeTIyE.
 Detective sHackenburg, of the United States Post Hospital at Fort Randall, Da. cotah Territory, gives the following ac. connt of some shfewd characters he mel there:---s aaa saIiaSd t1auI1648 A 8aI
 l rode several hundred miles with an ex, perienced guide and trailer, Hack, whom 1 Iaterrogated upon many points in the practice of this art. In going to the Mo: hrara river. we crossed the track of an h; dian pony. My guide followed the track g few miles, and then said:-
 'It IS D stray, black horse, with long bnshy tall, nearly starved to deatil, has ! split hoof on tue left fore foot, goes very iame, aud he passed here early this morn ng. 3s..' SIS +4lfo3atkslA7 l@51sf-5 P
 Astonished and incrednlous, I asked him the reasons for knowing these particular: Dy the track of the, animal, when he re piied:-
 1t was a stray horse, because it did not go ma direct line; its tail was long, for he 4ilal1s.d--i -it-- --in- -h4uSAine aaainst a bush he left some of its halr, wi ch shows its color. He was very hlu sr5, tor iu going along. he has nipped al those high dry weeds, which horse s seldom eat. The fssufeNof theAfeft fore foot left. aso. it's track, and the depth of the inden tation sho"s tue degree Aoi his Ia1pen ess ;ahd uis tracks snov lie was here thls \msrnng, when tLs, ,suowA was har& with frost" G'
 At aso other placsr ws8anSs across an In. uia.u trssk, and he sald::aA .,>'.
 Tt Is an olJ Yahksoh Hho came across the Missouri last eyeuing, to look at his tlaps. h coming oyer, he carried in hls right baud a trap. and in his left lasso, tt catch . pony which he had lost. He rs. tarnsd without tindiug the horse, but had canght m tue trap Le had out 8 prairie wolI,. winch he carried home on his back. and 2 bundle of kiiikinic wood in his right haud." .sE sts.fja.f#.* Es Ya,
 Then he gave his reasons:
 Il know he is old by the impression his gait has made, and Yankton by that of us moccasins. He is from the other side of tue river. as there are no Yanktons on this side. The trap he carried struck tue snow now and then, and in the same man- ner1as when he came, shows that he did not find his pony. A drop of blood in the centre of his tracks shows that he carried the Wolf on his back, and the bundle of kindling wood he used for staff for sup. port, and catching a wolf shows that he traps out" .a..s X fy5 oa .,'.s--I
 "But," I asked. .'how do you know it is wolt? why not a fox, orr coyette. OF even a deer?' fs.e4
 Said he: ri it had been a fox. or ,, a coyette, or any other small game, he would have slipped the animal in his waist belt, andso carriedit by his side and not on hls shoulders. Deer are not caught by traps; but if 1t had been. deer. he would not have crossed this high hill, but would have gone back by the way of the rayine, and the load would have made his steps more tottering. 4s 'Asa ~ ss4T taN' -
 Another Indian, track we, saw twenty miles west of thls he put this serious con straetion upon: ' at45t1s3 3i4aAaatl aAI
 ''Hesias an upper Indian --a prowling horse thief--carrled 9 double shot gun, ,and is a rascal that killed some white nnaa late. Ig, and passed here one week ago: for, ? s,a asld hss "a lone Indian in these parts ia for horses. He had on the shoes of white man whom he had, in all probability, kill, ed, but his steps are those of an Indian. Going through the ravlne, the end of his gun hit the deep snow. A week ago We had very warm day, and the snow being soft, he made these deep tracks; ever since 1t has been intensely cold weather,2 which makes very shallow tracks," ..a vsf.f .
 I suggested that perhaps he bought those shoes. + %7'''1~ s@. '.s'"
 "Iudians don't buy shoes, and if they did, they would not buy them as large as these were, for Indians have very small feet. '@' @' ''
 The most noted trailer of tllis country Was Paul Daloria, a haif-breed, who dleC under my hands of Indian. consumption last Summer. At one tune I rode w,tE nm, and trailing was naturally the subjtcl of con onversatlon. I begged to trail witf to learn Its history. l I had hardly made wnicn Was at a ravlne, and said:-E Y Ss
 'Well, here Is an old elk track. Let us get off our horses and follow It. anrJag-
 We followed it but few rods, when he said 1t was month old and made at two o'clock Ill the afternoon. This he knew, as then we had our last rain, and at the at any, other time. The track before Us Was tnen made. He broke up here and there clusters of grass that lay in tue path OA buO tIdChs du0 SuOWCO AC OAy CuC of some, the stumps of others; and by nu' m. rous other slmliar items accounted tol many circumstances that astonished me We followed the trail over a mic. N W aud then We saw that a wolf, fox, auU other animals had practiced their -traiIin g instincts ou the elk's tracks. Here anU tnele he would show me where a snake, q rat, aud prailie dog had crossed the track. Nothing had followed or crossed the track tlat the quick eye ot Daloria dld not de- tect. He gave an account of the habits u1 all the animals that had left their footprints on the track, also of the state of the weath CT since the elk passed and sand storms and other influences that had g bearing ol these tracks. ,,.4,.s .,m ..-...g
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 GAIL HAMILTON DENouscINa LoNa SK1Rrs --The following is an extract from lively article by Gail Hamilton in the last num ber of Harpe1's BazaaT:
 And here come the costumers and dauni long skirts in our faces once more. Do blane the costumers. i Not I. They lave their living to get, and must invent or SC lecs ntinualiy. lButsif the women of this country, having once tasted the freedom of short dresses, shall be spirited enough to go into long ones again at the dictate of any costumer under the sun, they have themselves and nobody else to blame. A pretty thing it will be for them to talk about making laws, if they have not sense