The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-10-11
.sOUR FOOL"

1858 9, the redskins made it their busl- I
ness not only to hunt for scalps, but to
find them. There were twenty-four OF
us in the party, and in August we were
in camp called, "Old Tom Jones. y
The diggings were good, and we had the
camp 50 secured as to insure the Indians
warm reception whenever they took a
notion to visit us. A sentinel was post
ed during the day to watch for the enemy,
and at night we all retired under shelly
ing rock in the face of a cliff 80 feet high.
This cave, as it might be called, could
only be approached by one path, as we
thought, and as there were three dogs in
camp none of the miners were asked to
stand watch Running parallel with
this path to point within so feet Of the
cave was gulch, down which ran a
stream of water in the spring and fall.
1t was dry at this time and the bed of
gravel was foot thick. Any one sneak
inc down this gulch could come within
80 feet of the cave, but would be separat-
ed from it by avail of rock about 20 feet
high. This wall could easily be scaled
from the gulch, and party gaining the
crest of it could look down into the cave,
almost could at least shoot down all
who attempted to leave it.
Such was the general situation on the
9TH day of August, when ''0ur Fool"
made his appearance. He was man
about 80 years of age, poorly dressed,
even for that country, and his face wore
the silly look of born idiot. AS he
came into the diggings he carried his
hat in his hand and grinned like 4 ba-
boon over a big stick of candy.
"Who ar We, and what do ye want?"
growled one of the men, as the stranger
halted before him.
"Te-hei Te-he!" laughed the fool, in
his silly way.
"Boys, here's regular born fool"
shouted the miner, and as the men
gathered around the fellow swung his
hat by string and called out:
'The cow jumped over the moon
te-he! te-he!n
1t was plain that he was fool.
Where he came from and how he had
reached us no one could guess, but after
talk among themselves, the miners
decided to let him stay around until he
got ready to go.
Our Fool was soon at home. He had
the appetite of wolf, and we couldn't
get a stroke of work out of him. The
very first night of his arrival, however,
he armed himself with a club and paced
up and down the path like p sentinel,
and we heard him mutfering:
81 see Injuns-they can't see me!'
He paced up and down all night long,
and next night he took the post again
without a word being said. No one
thought him any protection to the camp,
and yet | think we all felt little safer
in knowing that some one was moving
about and keeping the dogs active and
vigilant. After Our Fool had been in
the camp week the Indians became
unusually numerous. The day sentinel
reported seeing them on the hills around
us, and one night they certainly came
close enough to our cave to give the
alarm to the dogs. Up to this time
Our Fool, as every body called him, had
slept most of the day, land had been very
quiet. Next day after the alarm he
was noticed on the ridge dividing the
gulch from the path, and he was up
there and in the gulch so much of the
time during the next three or four days
that one of the men remarked:
81 guess Our Fool has discovered ;
rich thing up there"
One morning it was discovered thai
our key of powder was missing. W.
all had, firearms and personal supply
of powder in our horns, but this 2:
pound g,swhich had been bough
with company funds to fall back on il
case of necessity, had been taken from
the cave by some one, and there was +;
deep mystery about it. None of tn,
men could be charged with the theft, a
no one wanted to leave or could carr
/ it down the mountain and sell it. Th
] dogs couldn't take it, it couldn't carr,
itself off, and the only thing left was t.
declare that Our Fool had stolen it
He was cuffed and shaken around, an,
some of the men wanted him whipped
but all he could or would say was:
"lnjuns coming-Injuns blow wa
up high"
We searched all around for two hours
but the key was not to be found, an
the incident created much ilI-feelin
among the men. 1t was agreed tina
one man should Keep watch of Our Foe
for two or three days and see if he woul
not betray himself. Both remained i
the cave, but in some way the Idle
crept out unnotieed and was absent fo
three or four hours. When he returne
he was more silly than usual, and as h
moved around he kept calling OUT
"Got all fixed-got all fixed"
That night he went on duty as usua
Having slight fever l Twas nervous an
restless, and at IL o'clock | awoke an
heard him talking to the dogs. At
O'Clock | awoke again, and he wa
missing. | cot LID and walked G,aa,