The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1878-06-21
Very Like a Novel.
Coorrespondence OF the GIobe.pemocrat.

pOHucuCc VI
New BRAUNFELs, TEX.-One of the
most noted instances of captivity
among the wild, rowing tribes of the
Southwest has just come to light, and
might well serve as the ground work
of another fresh, racy and interesting
yellOw-cOvered novel OH the "Ear
Southwest" Ned Buntine's widest
romances have been lately thrown in
the shade by the real adventures of
Lehman BookmeYer, who, while q
lad Of eleven years was, in 1870, stQ-
len from his mother and family, resi-
ding in Mason county, on the extreme
frontier of West Texas. At the time
the lad was carried away by the sava-
ges, Mason county, situPted on the
headwaters of the Llano River, a wes-
tern tributary of the Colorado, was
complete wilderness, inhabited by the
buffalo, the deer and the bear, and the
echoes of whose sOlitudes were fire.
quently disturbed by the wheop of the
savage and the upearthly yell of the
Comanohe, BOokmeyer's mother and
father lived in a frontier hut on the
very verge, if not beyond the circle, of
civilization. 1t was located on the
rocky banks of a pure and beautiful
brook that went babbling by, and
whose sands glittered like those on the
golden shores of romance. 1t was a
retired spot, shaded by lofty trees, and
shut in by rocks that rise Hike eternal
walls around the northern and wes-
tern horizon. Loyal Valley was its
name, and but for the terror of the
wild beasts that ever threatened, and
the stealthy tread of the remOrseless
savage, it might well have ranked
h. XTo1Iorv -, al,
roamed Rasselas, Prince of Abyssipia.
TRs gaest lttS ae pHS 9aSdsng Tf? ReRR BeR OF65 One
fno6nligght g night a band Of rowing
Apaches, fresh from the great plains
to- the westward, suddenly swoOped
down upon the little hut and It's in
hahitants. What happened to Mrs
BOokmeyer Is not positively known,
but the savages seized the little Leh>
man, and, binding his hands, put him
on one of their ponies and carried him
away. Another boy, about the same
age as himself, was also oaptuFed, but,
while lha nafl& Was riding through
the shadows and Qhscurity of "A rocky
pass, he escaped and returned to his
friends in the valley. Great was the
geief of Lehman's mother, who loved
him tenderly, but now mOurned him
as lost. Her thoughts for years ran OF
the unsolved problem. whether ne had
been haselH murdered, tortured to
death, and his little body allowed to
lie unburied in the lonesome snlitudes.
Five, six, seven years passed away
without ever hearing af hpr hoy again.
Finally she concluded he was dead.
One day, however, and it was joyful
one for her, news was received that
Lehman still lived among the Indians,
having grown into a young man.
Mrs. BOOkmeyer, still residing In Ma
son oouptY-n9W settled up hy thrifty
epigrants-at once made an earnest
appeal to one of the most gallant Uni
ted States officers in the frontier ser
vice, General Mckenzie. He at once
had the proper steps taken. They res
suited in the recapture of Lehman
Bookmeyer, and his restoration to his
mother and family in Mason county,
1t so happened that on one occasion
Gen. MOkenSIe's troops took lot of
Comanehe bucks prisoners. In the
lot was Lehman BoOkmeyer, whom
Gen. Mckenzie Immediately turned
over to his mother in Loyal Valley.
Her ioy can he better imagined than
described, After being carried off by
the Apaohes far into the great plains
through which flows the Rio PecOs,
Lehman's captOrs sold him as slave
to the Comanches. The Indians
named him "Red Dog" He was sold
into the Camanche tribe of Chief Qui-
nine, one of the "Big Medicines of
the Comanches. He served and shaved
for the Indians several years, soon
learning their language, habits and
manners, and becoming to all intents
and purposes, a real Indian. lie wore
moccasins, painted his face with the
usual tattoo, sported crows feathers and
| silver ornaments, drew the bow and
shot the arrow-in fact, got to be one
| of the warriors of his tribe. Lehman
Bookmeyer, alias Red Dog, though an
| involuntary tramp among the noble
red men, managed to get into their