Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-08-21
COMANCHE BILL.
How He Made Man Dust of the solss of q
 Girls Shoes

wide by the appellatiOn of COmanche Bill, has been for some time with Gen. eral Reynolds at Fort Reno, and is now on his way to join General Terry's com mand at Parton, Dakota Territory. He came direct from the POnca country here, riding horseback the entire dis tance, and indeed from Reno. "CO- manehe disdains all such modern con veniences as railroad cars, and 1t is only when pressed for time that he will use them at all. It Is his favOrite boast that he has been thirsy-One years in the sad- dle. This is ths first visit Comanehs Bill has made t. the States for almost a score of years. In 1S67 he went back to his old home, seventeen miles above New Ulm, Minnesota, the scene of the ter rible Sioux massacre five years before, which made Bill an Outcast and left him without a drop of his own blood flowing in the veins of any mortal on earth. This, he says, made him a demon and he turned to the slaughter of the red man with all the avidity of a rapaciOus blood hound to the human trail Everybody knows how strong the attachment of a | ScOtchman Is to his home and country. | Bill was ScOtchman and still can pie ture in vivif oolors the awful revulsiOn and terror of desOlatiOn that came over him when he came back on that fair summer morning of August Is. 1882, and found that little Scotch mother. who | kissed him at parting, with tomahawk sticking in her skull He swore ven- geance against the Sioux forever. and ' faithfully has he kept his VOW. : The life of William Porter reads like a border romance. It has much of the ! dime-nOvel order of sensatiOnalism in it. COmanche Bill has already figured in several such stories, but little was really known of his earlier life and history He is tacitum almost tO fault, and 10th to speak of himself In the far West his reputation as guide, scout and inter- preter IS great, and he looks with scOrn on such lesser luminaries as Buffalo Bill and other would-be heroes. In fact, Co., manche never did like Buffalo Bill much, and since the latter's stage experience has liked him still less. It is notorious that he would take the latter's scalp on the least prOyOcation, and he has ire quently taken occasion to refer to him in terms which the latter has never seen proper to resent Buffalo Bill steers clear of the old plainsman.
 COmanche Bill IS 41 years of age, but looks much younger. No one would take him to be over 30 He wears the pro- verbal long hair, cropped closer behind than some who affect thls style, and a heavy mustache, which is allowed tO run far down on the side of his face. He is not over five feet ten inches in height, with broad chest and brawny arms and an iron frame, which fatigue cannot overcome nor exertiOn subdue. He has a slightly aqullline nose, a piercing gray or dark blue eye and is in all respects the typical scout and frOntiersman of fact and fiction.
 When seen by the reporter Bill had already mOulted his buckskin suit and assumed the garb of civilization, but he still wore his riding boots and pants, dark blue flannel shirt and the indescrib- able heavy hat, with depth and curya- ture of brim which would have made a Quaker or stage scout turn green with envy and die of iaundiee the same night.
 Who killed your mother, Bill"
 It was one of Cutnose's band"
 Is he alive yet?"
 "Wa'al, guess he'll never scalp any more women"
 Did they kill your wife, tOo?'
 Yes; they tortured her to death"
 "Oh, I've had a scalp for every drop blood they spilled that day" he con tinued
 q took an oath that as long as I could look through the hind sights of a rifle I'd kill every Sioux Indian I got a chance to shoot at. I went back there afterwards and sat down at table to eat, and somebody says that's Conan che Bill Another man said he didn't blame the Indians for what they had done that day. l jumped over the table and scalped that fellow, and I'd do 1t again to-day if anybody commenced to make another such talk"
 The conversation then took . general turn and by the aid of frequent pOtations of the milder grades of fire-water loqui- tor and listeners began to brighten up.
 Bill" asked the reporter, what Is your opinion of IndiansY
 never saw good Indian but once m my life, and he was dead was'the response.
 @Do you know Buffalo Bill?"
 ~Oh, BiffalO Bull; yes I've heerd on him"
 What kind of a scout Is hep
 "ScOut% Ievidently scouting Rt the lucd l- WHY, l4ldt Q--u Aot4 Cdii tch d bCSA trail from a pony track"
 Have yOu- any friends in Missouri, COmanche, or are you just stopping here to see the towny
 -"Friends? No. I ain't got no friends anywhere. The only friends ever had were a pair of good six-shOOters, and when they cracked l mowed they reached for keeps"
 "Were you ever in Kansas City be- foreg'
 "Young fellow, reckon was in this town before you was foaled."
 An incident Illustrating the nobleness of heart and gallantry toward women of mountain men is related of Bill, which happened in Wichita a few weeks since. Bill rode into town dressed in a con- plete suit of buckskin and with a gang of honest rangers at his back As he went along he saw a counter jumper" as he was pleased to call him, roughly catch little girl about eighteen years old CBilPs idea of little" girD by the shoulder and solicit her attention. The girl withdrew her arm angrily, and just then the scene fell under Bills personal inspection.
 sShe was poor girl says Bill, "and plainly clad in an old dress, but l want going to see her insulted by any durned counter hopper under my mountain eyes. l jest jumped down from my hOss and l called for that fellow to stop. He didn't seem to want to, but made him stop. took up the little girl in my arms and sat her down on box. took of her shoes and said to the counter jumper: Now want you to get down and lick the dust off the soles of that poor girls feet whom yOu have insulted.' And I made him do it. He lOaked down in the muzzle of a 45-calibre Colts for just about half a minute and then he came to his milk like a little lamb. And I made him lick that girl'sfeet for plumb two hours, though big crowd gathered around, but had all my men with me and did not care whether they liked 1t