The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1876-11-02

lame woman, young and pretty, but |
helpless, who had stayed in the broken |
wagon because there was no longer
any means to save her from the wig
wan of some filthy savage; the old
man, hardly able to understand the
meaning of the stir about him, who |
would not cease from his monotonous
complaints even when silence was nec-
essary to save his life-these and such
as these were the followers of Old Betz.
Here, there, everywhere she picked
up her recruits-in the houses or vehi-
cles where they had been left, in the
thickets where they had hidden, up and
down the roadside, everywhere. At
first but handful, they grew by fresh
accretions to company of more than
fifty, nearly all of them helpless and
slow of motion, and some of them un-
manageable beside. Decidedly Old Betz
had task upon her hands now.
Already the bloodthirsty pursuers had
oyertaken and passed beyond them,
crossing and recrossing the country in
every direction, filling It with eyes keen
to penetrate trail under every disguise,
and hands that yearned for scalps.
Betz and her party travelled continually
in the very midst of danger. Often
from their midday hiding place they
could see the Sioux hurrying down the
road or silently quartering the wood
lands in search of signs of passage, until
it seemed that these hunters must sure
ly suspect the presence of the hidden
ones, and that all was over. Often at
srrhf nof Nff flaS, f,soxy
done, stumbling through the woodlands,
they would come full in sight of some
campfire that sent its dance of alter
nate light and shadow far up among the
groined boughs overhead and off
through the plllar-like trunks on every
side.
But Betz was perfectly versed in all
the woodland craft. Throughout the
whole center of the State she knew the
least dangerous routes, the most secure
hiding-places, the spots where food and
water could safely and certainly be
found. She understood and praeticed,
too, every strategem familiar to the
males of her tribe, whereby the pur-
suer is put at fault and the hunted ones
given at least some hope of escape. She
was aided, too, by the fact that the
great body of her tribe were busily en-
gagged in chasing the larger masses of
fugitives far down the road, or in vigor-
ously assailing the towns which had
given them refuge. Therefore, as she
carefully avoided the neighborhood of
villages, her danger was somewhat less
ened. Indeed, with all her skill, the
feat would otherwise have been almost
impossible. As it was, the city of ST..
Paul was thrown into most enthusiastic
astonishmont when one day, long after
the outbreak had desolated half the
State, Old Betz made her appearance
somewhat uglier than usual from toll
and care and hardship with fifty poor
wretches behind her, every one of
whom had been believed to have fur
nished an ornament to some Sioux war
rior's scalp-pole.
/ But the history of the world shows
us too plainly that applause is not al
ways followed by due reward. Not
that we are ungrateful; we merely for
get. Minor incidents, like stars, pass
out of sight in the sunlight of the great
excitements and events of the day +: and
the injury of the mass makes more
abiding impression than the kindness
of the individual. Well, not to moral
ize, it somehow came to pass that when
the hostile Sioux, cowed and captured,
were exported pretty nearly to the base
of the Rocky Mountains, Old Betz, in
requital for her unexampled services
:. was sent with them. Do you realize
what this meansp 1t means that she,
who had done us nothing but Kindness,
and that at her own extreme hardship
and peril, was torn by military order
from the only spot and the only people
that she loved on earth, and committed
to the tender mercy of those who re.
garded her as renegade that had
robbed them of their lawful prey. Still,
it does not seem that any violence was
offered her. Possibly the war chiefs
were beginning to realize their folly il
not following her advice; possibly they
were too thoroughly whipped, for the
time being, to dare any revenge. Or
yet again, they may have been moved
to forbearance by savage admiration
for such courage and constancy, wher
displayed by squaw. At any rate
, they did not stab her, nor brain her
nor scalp her, as mightreasonably have
been expected.
But, nevertheless, she was i'll at eas,
I and downhearted. The new land tx
which she had been moved owned moth
, ing in which she had an interest. Al
} about her she beheld sullen looks tha
} repelled, if they did not threaten. He
J condition was that of the merest say
agery, without the hope of learning Ca
, she was fond of doing) any thing bet
ter. And, besides all this, there wa
, the ranking thought that she had beel
r punished by those whom she had served