Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-08-14

llOneu by llle post commander 10 look
out for danger there and leave it be-
hind as soon as possible. 1t is lined
with graves, and as many as forty
frontiersmen are said to have fallen
there at different times, victims to
the fury of savage foes. We found a
piece Of board which had been the
tail-gate of an army wagon, the blue
paint was still on one side Of it, and
on the other was written in rude
characters each HOusted here"
Who he was or just where his grave
was we did not know, for the board
was lying on the ground and there
seemed to be no grave there. There
were only two Of us, and where a
regiment could not stay few years
ago, two of us were more than enough
to makeit safe.
There was an air of sadness and
Loneliness about this place, and as we
looked at thegraves of these unknown
men, we could not but recall the anX-
ious days of 1866, when delicate la
dies waited day after day, not know
ing but the next their beloved ones
would all be massacreed, and they
themselves'prisoners in the hands of
a merciless foe, reserved for a fate
worse than death.
The trees around all bore themarks,
and everyone had been fortress for
a white or a red man as they fired at
each other day after day in 1866.
Near this place is grove of cotton
wood trees where the Indians had a
burying ground. The bodies were
placed on scaffolds or strapped to the
limbs of trees. Many old warriors,
pappooses and Indian women were
buried there. That was one reason,
perhaps, why the savages fought so
fiercely for the defense of the place.
They will often carry their dead a
hundred miles to bury them at a ia
vorite spot, and they do not like to
have their dead disturbed. Should l
make another trip and see or hear
anything interesting l will let you
know.
The STANDARD and New Era are
both welcome visitors at my rancho"
hardly know how l could do with
out them, especially the wedding col
umn. [ see the announcement of a
wedding near Irving College, my old
home, some weeks ago. | was very
much surprised. / used to tell him
would get married before he did. If
there is any truth in newspaper re-
ports, guess Tam sadly left. T had
begun to think perhaps it was time.
From my reserve seat at home and
out on the plains of Dakota, I have
been watching the procession a good
while, day after day, and week after
week, until the weeks have length
ened into months, the months into
years, | have looked on at humani-
tvs wedding march. 1t is the old
story, one by one the roses fall. The
trap springs and another victim is
caught
One by one have seen my lowell
est companions passover passing
away, to that dreaded bourne whence
no voyager returns, save through Il
Warren county divorce suit or a
"first-class funeral" Nearly all my
blooming associates. are faded and
gone to happiness of the connubialis-
tic type. A few years since a noble
band of handsome and high aspiring
friends stood around me, fresh, bright,
verdent young plants. The matri-
monial fever has swept over the
plain and where are they now? Well
boys, go ahead, | am too far behind
the procession to hear the bugle blow.
The young, the brave, the gay, the
ugly, the pretty, the silly, the witty,
the brilliant, the stupid, all kneel to
cupid. | am willing to try it any day
where she is, but here is the inevita-
BILE result, grocer's bills, wash days,
sad biscuits, slop coffee, Sunday hats,
patched elbows, drudgery, squawls,
and variegated unpleasantness. The
story has always been the same.
Obstacles, trials, anXieties, mad
dening jealousies, debts and misun-
derstandings beset the love-lorn
counting ninny's way, a stern old
dady's No. 10 stoga boot with big
brass headed nails in the toe, vixen
ish prospective mother-in-law, a mis-
carried note or package of taffy, a
look, wink, anod, anything, every
thing suffices, has for sixty centuries
sutficed, to urging wooers senses with
red-hOt tweezers.