The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-14
A Teller of Frontier Tales Who Had Personal
knowledge of the Scenes Described and
the People He Wrote About.
A Funny Personal Encounter Between
Two of New York's Society Bellies.
An American Author To Be Associated with
Gilbert and Sullivan in Order to Protect
Their Works Against Literary Pirates.
BUOKsKIN SAM.

special to the Indianapolis Journal.
New YORK. Feb 13.-Buckskin Sam is dead.
Adult readers may not recall him at all. but
juvenile grief will be as widespread as the coun-
trys borders He was the author of Indian stories,
such as 'Blanco Bill. the Mustang Monarch"
''Ths Rattling Ranger" "Bowlder Bill, the Man
OF Taos" "Dandv Dave and His Horse White
Stocking" and 1.-THE Mountain Bravo" He was
not = hnmbug, who had never been further West
than Michigan whose knowledge Of horses was
confined to saw-horses, and of Indians to the
Niagara Falls specimens. Fifty years ago the
Han family. of Leominster, Mass. had son
born to it. They named him Sam II. He grew
to early manhood in the quiet New England
neighborhood. Sam Hall demanded excitement,
and the community frowned on his favorite meth
DDS OF obtaining it. So he ran away from home
and wandered down to Texas The first that was
known of him there was as one of Ben McCul
lough's roughs. He had at last found congenial
employment, and from that time to the breaking
out OF the Rebellion there was no harder riding
or fighting daredevil than he. His companions
named him Buckskin Sam. He was slender and
understood, with good features, gentle voice and
manner. and dark eyes of more than ordinary
beauty. He rode at about 125 pounds, and
fought at four or Ave TONS The Rangers went
up and down the Rio Grande, killing Indians
usually and greasers sometimes. 1t was not
long before Buckskin Sam became known as a
dead shot. skillful equestrian, hard drinker
and man without fear. That he was the
chosen companion of Big foot Wallace, Joe
Ford and the Ben Thompson who was shot re-
Gently at San Antonio, shows the sort Of stuff he
was made Of The war came on, and men in
Texas had to choose sides; or. rather, they had
to choose one side, and that the Southern one
Sam was q New Highlander andhe took no stock
in secession. If he did. along with the other
rangers, join the rebel army, it was under COM
pulsion. and it was not long before he appeared
within the Union lines. Until the close of the
strnssae be did service as spy and scout, in the
Army Of the Southwest
When Sam reappeared in the New England
village his hair was long, his hat wide brimmed.
and his aspect that of the most picturesque Of
rangers; and yet his reception was not warm.
for he tried to turn the town into bordercamp of
registering inebriety and he soon got elected from
the family domicile. He to this city, and how
he lived for awhile nobody knows; but eventual
friended him, discovered that he had unusual
facility of description. and advised him to write
fiction based on his personal experience. So
Sam turned in to cheap publishing firm story
called kit Carson, jr" The manuscript was
so crude that they could not use it as it was, but
they discerned merit in it. and advised him to
have it edited for them to read. He then bar
gained with a professional writer, an Oxford
graduate, to lick the narrative into readable
shape. This partnership lasted until Sans
death. The publishers say that the charm Of
the series Of stories lay in their truthfulness to
reality and their freedom from coarseness
Buckskin Sam found the temptations of New
York too much for him. In Wilmington, Del,
lived George NJ. butcher, an old Texas friend,
who had been one of the toughest of the rangers,
but had reformed and become temperance re-
vivalist Sam went there to be improved by his
former pard. He stayed until his moral teacher
ran away leaving a helpless family, by whom
Sam stood sturdily to the day of his death as
sole support He was one of the characters of
Wilmington, marked by his retention of the ran
ger hair and sombrero, and when, occasionally,
he insisted on daubing the town red he was al
lowed to do it without great hindrance But
that sort of life could not last even with a steel
wire constitution, and 60 it has cone about that
Buckskin Sam died, surrounded by the family
of his old pard. The Mayor of Wilmington has
written to his publishers. aud they have respond
ed with check sufficient to bury him neatly
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