The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1881-02-26
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FrrNDrsH TREATMENT of PRISONERS
by sAvAGEs - BURNING AT
THE STAKE.
Detroit Free Press.I

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Here are the dying camp-fires of
company of soldiers. To the righ
the ground is broken into swells lik'
great green waves. On the left is 4
scraggy plain. Ahead, seeming onl,
two or three miles away, is a mountain
range. The soldiers will have to rid,
a long ten miles to rcachit. You car
see their backs as they trot over TIN
crest of swell half annie away.
i Now look behind you. Twenty
tnfted heads are peering over this
ridge, not 300 feet from campfire
twenty pairs of eyes CLINT and CLEAN
and blaze hate as the cavalry dis
appear.
Now twenty Indians rise mp and
peer and look. They were hiding
there full hour before the troop left
1 ibut they were not strong enough to
give battle. They waited on in hopes
that some one would lingcr behind
and fallsa victim. Like tigers they
hugged the grass--like snakes they
wormed themselves aleng-like devils
they bided their time.
Hah Every red-skin has disap-
peared like fash. The clank of
sabres has almost died away in the
distance, and no birds utters its note
near the deserted camp. What is the
alarm.
Thud thud thud!
1t is the hoof-beats of horse. a
trooper returns at gallop, searching
the ground with his eyes There it is
the iron pin with which he stakes
his horse. lie overlooked it in pack
ing up, apd has returned to make
good his loss. He gives one
anxious look around him, and then
dismounts. The pin is in his hands
when there is rush of feet, and he
straightens up to, find himself the
center of circle of demons. Not
veil has been uttered--not shot fired.
or bow bent.
lie is a brave old trooper He
bears the scars of arrows and bullets,
and he has sent more than one red
man TO his long home. See how pale
he grows as he looks about him and
sees the circle complete See the
despair in his eyes as the devils mock
him. The troop is two miles away.
and riding ahead at a trot.
He clutches the stout iron pin with
firmer grip, but after moment his
fingers relax and it falls to the grass.
If he had raised to strike, dozen
arrows would have entered his body
before the blow fell. lie is trapped,
and there is no hope.
Before the troopers have missed
their comrade he has been captured,
tied to his horse, and is riding away
at gallop. As he leave the camp he
turns and looks back over his trail.
Three or four miles away he sees a
line of blue for an instant as the
column sweeps over a ridge. Now
it fades out, and he is doomed. ThcSc
is malicious chuckle from every
savage throat, and the trooper feels a
chill creep over him at the sound.
The gallop slacksns. There is no
hurry. The cat has the monse and
enjoys its sufferings. Over ridges
across little valleys--skirting hills
and here is lone tree beside pur-
ling stream. Behind it is a hill.
Between it and the creek is a level
spot Of ground ahundred feet square.
The red riders dismount, pull their
prisoner from his horse, and the ami
mails are turned loose to crop the rich
short grass. Despair first nerves a
man to take desperate chances. Then
itrunneryes him and chills the blood.
An hour ago the troopers face was
| like bronze. Now it is as white as
the snow lying on the crest of that
grim mountain fifty miles away. But
he is no coward. a coward would
lament, and beg and entreat and de-
mand mercy.
The old man shudders as they bind
him to the balf-grown cottonwood,
but no word passes his lips. He does
notebook at 1.-THE Indians, but over their
heads atsthe green plain---thc groves
the silvery thread winding around
the glorious sun which is warming the
heartsof every living thing beyond
that circle Of savages.
Now an Indian leaves the circle and
advances to the tree. He laughs in
tho face of the prisoner. He peers
into his eyes. With his keen knife
be reaches out and sewers an ear and
waits fora scream of pain. 1t does
mot come. The teeth shut hard, thu
eyes grow stony in their gaze, and
that is all. The swift, sharp knife
sewers the other ear, and the fend,
shout with pleasure at the ghastly
figure before them. They hope tic
hear screams and shrieks, but they
are disappointed. The blood trickles
town---a chill shakes the old man
then his white lips are pressed close'
than before.
Not one slndiansnew, lbutsthe whols
circle. They crowd around him witt
sharp knives, and each seeks some new
torture. Fingers are unjointcd, ltht
nose Is sliced off, cords and ttendoni
are exposed, powdsris poured upor
| the hair and fired. and after each hel
11llish net they draw back and hope III
lhear his screams of agony. Not !;
sonnd escaped his compressed lips
4i1l;. u;s1a-oy,ap svaa ware fixed .uns.r, I,