Connecticut western news., 1876-07-28
ONE OF CUSTER,S SCOUTS.

.y . -Frdncts O C0nn0r.
 ONE OF BUSTERS SCOUTS. Daring Deeds of "LOnesorne Charley"
 Reynolds, who Perished with his Gem
 eral--HIs Romantic History.
 I see in the list of the killed under Custer, says Graphic correspondent, the name of Charley Reynolds Lone some Charley Reynolds. When Gus ter was at the base of Harlley's peak in 1874 and our camp was ablaze with ex- citement over the gold discoveries, Gus ter sent for Bloody Knife, the chief of his scouts, and asked for an Indian to carry dispatches to Fort Laramie, two hundred miles below us. Bloody Knife shook lis head solemnly and said in. reply: eh. L-2T ;. =-ft ! 33t.t5 T>
 " My warriors are brave, but they are wise. They will carry bag of let ters to Fort Lincoln, but I cannot ask them to go through the Sioux country to Laramie.
 Fort Lincoln was two hundred miles further than Laramie, although the route to the latter place was beset with tenfold more dangers. It led directly through the Sioux hunting ground, and just at this particular time of the year the young men were all out in hunting parties, so that the plains were full of them. Bloody Knife's braves were Rees-a tribe for which the Sioux has @ hereditary enmity, and he was too wise to ask one of them to undertake go suicidal project. But mails must be sent somehow, and Custer was ponder ing what to do. Charley Reynolds was sitting on the ground, with his legs crossed, cleaning revolver, seemingly inattentive to the conversation. Custer had been thinking but a moment, when Reynolds looked up and said:
 "1'll carry the mails to Laramie, general" a-.. --
 Custer was familiar with courage in every form, but such proposition sur prised even him. .'."
 "I wouldn't askyou to go, Reynolds" he said. ..as.0 =.
 "I have no fear," responded the scout, quietly. "When will the mails be readya"
 "f was intending to send something tomorrow night, replied Custer.
 "Ill go tomorrow night"
 And picking up his piece of buckskin and bottle of oil, Reynolds strode quiet ly away. ..-r. 9a
 'sT6ere goes man," said Custer, "who is constant succession of sur prises to me. I am getting so that feel a humiliation in his presence. Scarcely day passes-andI have known him three years-that does not develop some now and strong trait in his charac- ter. l would as soon have asked my brother Tom to carry mail to Laramie as Reynolds"
 The next day saw Reynolds lead an old, M-shaped, bony, dun colored horse to the farrler's. l was somewhat curious to know if he was going to ride that animal to Laramie, and asked him.
 "Yes," said he, in his quiet way. ''The general lets me pick my own mount, and I've got one that suits me-"
 Noticing my surprise at his choice he continued:
 ''I suppose I could have picked out a better looking one, but this is the sort for my trip" And scanning the beast over he added "He knows more than man, If he is bony. Look in his eye."
 The farrier took the horse's shoes off and pared his hoofs neatly. Reynolds then went to the saddler and had set of leather shoes made to fit the horses feet, so as to buckle around the fetlooks.
 What are those forl" asked.
 "A little dodge of mine to fool the Indians. They make no trail" +E
 Then he packed three or four days rations in saddle pocket, prepared a supply of ammunition, and cleaned up- long, old fashioned rife. Then. eating hearty dinner, he lay down under a wagon for a nsp.
 About four o'clock that evening an engineering party started off in the direction Reynolds was to take, and sad- ding his horse and strappipg on can- vass beg of letters, he accompanied us. We rode till about ten o'clock, and went into camp in O cluster of trees near a brook. A fire was lighted, a pot of coffee made, and after drinking cupful Key holds mounted his saddle and rode off into the dark.
 His path lay through trackless will derness-two hundred miles of 1.-the constant haunt of hostile Indians, and not foot of the ground had Reynolds ever seen before. He had never been at Laramie; he only knew the general direction in which it lay, and his only 8UAAOOOSsHA WdS VlIC ctdESs AIbCI 1Our nights of riding and three days of sleep ing he reached his destination unharm- ed. l saw him afterward at Fort Lin coin on our return. He told me he got through nicely and mailed the letters had intrusted to his care. -,S- ,-
 had been told that under his gentle demeanor lay romance as remarkable as any Cooper ever wrote, and one day I asked him to tell me the story of his life. He blushed little, laughed quiet ly, and replied he didn't think it worth while.
 "But they tell me you have had re- markable experience" I suggested.
 "Not so very remarkable" he an- swered. II guess you can find enough to fill your paper without publish ng anything about me-" e,e.,
 And that was all the romance I got from his lips. But from the lips of others learned that he had not always been Lonesome Charley Reynolds. " No one, however. knew his true name. He was called Lonesome because of an absent, pensive way he had-a habit of secluaiVenesS, He came to I,inooln