Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-05-25
Burying the Baby.
From the Detroit Free Press.

Burying the Baby.
From the Detroit Free Press.
! I remember that far-away reports of
rifles reused us from sleep in the gray
of dawn, and as re stood on our feet
and listened more intently, we could
now and then catch the echoes of an in.
fernal war-hoop.
There We're twenty Of us, miners all,
and we were in the foot hills of the
Rockies, not more than half a mile from
the great Overland Trail.
Boys, them sounds means an Injun
attack and butchery," whispered our
leader as we listened; and without an.
other word WE picked up our traps and
headed for the spot at half run.
Two Immigrant families, farmers from
Indiana, who had started for the lando
gold and had separated from the train
from whim or accident, had encamped
in a bit of green valley beside the trail.
There were thirteen souls of them, and
M might wonder if the bravest among
them did not shudder with fear as the
night crept down and the howl of the
wolf came from the rocky hills.
The men had seen their danger, and
both had set out to act as sentinels
through the long night. Hour after hour
had passed away without an alarm, and
just as drawn was breaking the merciless
savages, creeping along like snakes, had
found of the sentinels asleep. A
thurst from knife finished him so quick
lythat he did not even throw up his arms.
Perhaps he uttered asingle cry or agroan
and alarmed the other forthe second one
was shot while running toward the
wagons,
Then with both men dead, came the
rush upon women and children. Only
iends could do such work as was done
there, and when we came to look at it
the strongest man in the party grew white
atd faint. Every head but one was seal
ped, and no doubt the scalps had been
taken while the victims lived. The
bodies were hacked and gashed-hands
and arms severed, brains beaten out
the spectacle was one to live in memoir
when all else had been forgotten.
The fiends had finiahed their work of
butchery before we were near enough
to open fire, and it was poor consolation
to save the wagons. While all the
bodies were yet warm, life had departed
from each and every one We were
collecting them liz heap, to make ready
for burial, when q sudden wall startled
everybody.
"Ow-ow-ow-ow!" came the sound,
and each man looked in the air above
and on the ground below.
"That'ere noise purceeds from a baby,
or I'm not the father o thirteen children
back in Ohio" exclaimed jackson as he
made for the nearest wagon.
He was rioht Down haSida a chac+
almost smothered under bed-quilts, was
a year-old boy baby, but alas! when he
was handed out we found that be had
been fatally wounded by a bullet. Jack
son sat down on the grass and chirped
to him and rocked him to and fro, while
the rest of us looked on in wonder and
doubt, but in a quarter of an hour the
baby was dead. 1t had gone to sleep the
night before in his mothers arm, a pat
tered old rattlebox clutched fast in his
tiny hand, and he neve. let 60 Of it.
There it was in his hand as death stiff
ened his fingers around it.
"Well, there was a general break
ing down when we saw the little one was
going. He threw up his hands, gasped
once or twice, and then settled back with
such a smile on his face as babies wear
when their dreams are sweet. Old jack
son was crying like a child. and some of
the men hid from each other behind the
wagons. 1t was a long time before the
old man arose, laid the little body down
among the prairie flowers, and huskily
whispered:
"We'l bury him by hisself. One of
them bodies out there was his mother,
but as we can't tell which from which
We'll make no mistake"
There was one large grave for the mu-
tilated remains, and when the earth had
been pressed down above them and
rocks rolled down to prevent the
work of the wolves, we went to
the center of the dell and there, under
a lone pine, we followed a resting-place
for baby. When all was ready Jackson
took the baby up in his arms, dropped
bis hat on the grass and looked around
and said:
Hats of, men! We are nearer seein'
angels this mornin' than any of us will
ever come agin!"
Slowly-tenderly--grieyingly the little
form was laid away, and it was Jackson's
coat that came off his back to cover it be-
fore the earth was filled in. Every sin
gle man in our band took the shovel by
turns to fill in and round up the grave
and protect it, and before we went away
there wasa head-board to mark the spot,
and on the board a knife had engraved
the single word: "BABYp