Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-08-03

"Sa' shc poSt-olhcc, anu was surprised
to hear my friend exclaim:
why, helloa, Jim, what are YOU do
ing In New York;
Leaving the two talking together in a
warm window in the post-offfce / took
the stage and rode home. He was n
poor, common looking fellow, that
half-breed, with thin, worn clothing on
ly distinguishable from the ordinary
tramp by his tall, 1.-the form, long, black
hair, dark face and PIERCING ewes. and I
wondered why my heightened friend
had stopped to renew acquaintance
With that link of two races. Three DAYS
later lmet my friend and remarked:
"Well. Will, that Indian didn't get
your scalp
mo. Let me tell you something
about him.
IAN right
81 met him first at Abilene, Kansas.
lie was our guide in surveying party.
Saved my life one night
"HowpH
From rattlesnake; the deadly rep
tiles are the terror of surveying parties.
In measuring off land YOU suddenly
hear under your very feet in the thick
grass the blood-curdling warning and
you must either jump or be bitten At
night they will actually crawl under
your blanket and lie up close to you to
get warm. That is your terrible and
unconscious danger. Move hand or
foot and they bury their deadly fangs
in you. The only way to keep them
out of tent is to surround it with
horse hair lariat laid on the ground in
an unbroken circle; they will not crawl
over it. The hair scratches them or
perhaps they mistake it for their mortal
enemy, the black snake. But as to the
story. One night in the bright MOON
light Jim saw a rattlesnake crawling
over my neck, and just as l moved he
caught it by the tail as quick as light
ning, and threw it out of the tent door.
Poor fellow, he was hungry the other
night and took him over and ordered
q first class supper for us both and he
told me little incident that went right
to the bottom of my heart. He is only
a poor half-breed outcast but he's true
as steel, and when they come to make
up Jewels the last day for the great
crown / think there will be something
shining in his heart that may give poor
jim chance.
This is what he told me: He had been
away West to see his old Indian mother
who is with her tribe, and was returning
across the plains with his pony when,
one day, about half way between Dem
yer and Fort Wallace, he saw wagon
in the distance, whose owner appeared
to have gone into camp. Riding toward
1T he was surprised to see no horses in
sight; and going nearer he saw wo-
man sitting on the ground crying as if
her heart would break At her breast
she held a poor hungry-looking baby,
which was seeking nourishment from
source that was evidently fast failing for
the want of food. 1t was pitiful scene
The woman's husband lay dead in the
wagon, and the horses had broken loose
and gone in search of food. There was
not a spark of fire and not bit of food.
The woman, or rather girl she might
have been called, she was So young, told
a sad tale of suffering and desiitution.
She had married against the wishes
and command of her father who lived
on comfortable farm near Concorda.
Kansas, and after year of privation
and toll with hei husband on farm he
had rented a few miles from her father,
they had decided to go further west and
Started in their wagon with all they pos
sessed in the world, including a little
baby one or two months DID. Fora few
weeks they enjoyed the rip. The wea-
Their was pleasant, game plentiful and
grass abundant for the horses. Then
they got into the sterile region and be-
came lost on the wide prairie, where
day after day they had driven around
in a circle; then her husband was taken
sick and suddenly died two days before
Jim found them, and in despair she had
given up all hope, and sat down to wait
for death to take her and her pitiful
babe.
Jim had plenty of jerked meat with
him and some coffee and other little ar
ticles of food, and he actually turned
around to hide his tears, he said, when
he saw that poor half starved creature
eat He wasn't the man to leave that
woman alone out there, so he stood by
the woman and her baby, put them on
his pony, abandoned the wagon after
burying the dead, and at her request he
started with them for her old home,
walking and leading the pony. and oc-
caslonally killing some game on the way
with his trusty Spencer rifle. The wea-
Their was gradually growing colder until
at shutdown of Tuesday they reached
the locality of her old home just as a
few flakes of snow began to fall.
1t was there that the woman made q
fatal mistake. Instead of having Jim
go with her to her fathers house she
had him leave her within half mile
of the farm, thinking she could better
effect reconciliation with her father if
she returned alone. In parting with
jim, under his promise to come to her
fathers the next morning she trudged
along the old, familiar road alone. and
jim rode out of sight toward the vii
lage, when he saw her reach her faith
er's door. Poor girl, he didn't see her
father spurn her from the door; he
didn't see her turn her weary footsteps
out into the coming snow-storm and
wander heartbroken, desolate and aim
lessly down the road into the darkness;
he didn't hear the cry of the freezing
baby ut her breast; he didn't hear her
wall of anguish; he didn't see the white
warm snow waving its mantle of etern-
al silence over her and her little dead
baby by the roadside, but there he found
them the next morning with the snow
heaped over them, a frozen smile on her
face and pressing the head of her home
less babe to her homeless breast. Did |
say homeless? Oh, no, they had gone
home to that father who had heard their
pleading voices and their cold hands
knocking at the gates of pearl
Chatelaine Bags.
Chatelaine bags are again very gen
orally worn, often hanging from the arm
from which they are suspended by a
colored ribbon tied in bow at the top.
1t is rather unsafe to carry yaluables of
L.. Il a