Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1888-06-08
HOW HE FOUGHT INDIANS.
The Romance and the Reality Of Scalp
Lifting.

]
Causes Many Young Man to Run Away
and Enlist.
lie was a young man-scarcely more
than q years of age-but he had a
fund of "reminiscences that would have
done cred to an older settler. lie
had before him little of the fluid that
! has the reputation of cheering. and he
was looking over copy OF the Tribune.
Presently something among the small
advertisements caught his eye. He
scanned it closely, and then. handing
the paper to the reporter. said:
There is something that reminds
me of the time | left home to 90 knock
ing about the world"
1t was just little advertisement ask
ING for information as 20 the where
abouts Of. who had mysteriousy
disappeared.
"A number of wears ago." he con-
tinued. IL was described in an adver-
tisement similar to that one. and my
relat yes searched for me everywhere,
except N the right place. Perhaps if
the advertiser n this instance knew
where TO look some trace of the miss
inc one might be found OF course
this Is only Il surm sc, because there
are really many mysterious disappear
ances that cannot be explained in the
way refer; to but happen to know
that "A good many others can be."
80 what do you refer?' asked the
reporter.
''Well. think that if the records OF
enlistment for the United States army
were examined good many of these
disappearauces could be cleared up.
j know mine could have been and il
was about as strange one as any OF
them. just walked out of the house
one morning without say No a word to
any body and / never came back-at
least not for good many years. The
main trouble with me was rush of
dime novels 10 the head. | had read
any number of these. and when,
finally. friend of mine was killed IN
an Indian tight | made up my mind
that no less tnan dozen Indian scalpS
would sat ST. my thirst for gore. But
question. iinally solved it by enlist
ing in The United States cavalry. | had
no great time to swell around in nv
uniform, but was sent AT once TO the
frontier | reached Bismarck. ID. T.,
one dark, cold, rainy night and with
number Of other recruits. was rushed
aboard Il Missouri river steamboat. |
will never forget that night. We were
DIR ven ike herd of cattle over
muddy, SHINY bank that We had to
slide down as best we could to get Ia
the boat. When we got down we wee
hustled on 10 the hurricane deck. and
there we Jay withou. anything to
shelter us from the cold and tue Pain
All the romance and revenge were
taken out Of me. ] wasn't looking for
any Indian scalps, but l WAS signing
for the nice, warm bed l had left. And
somehow 1t did seem to me as though
| never had read in any OF my novels
about any such experience; everything
had been about killing Indians and
nothing about cold and rain.
But | managed TO live through it
all. and after fifteen days of travel ar
rived at Fort Buford. only 10 find that
] had some 500 miles TO march to reach
Fort Custer. 1t took us three months
to make the trip, for il was W inter-.
YOU know, and the thermometer was
way below zero We buried three
men on the trip, and often never got
into camp until or 10 o'clock at
night, and then had to hustle for wood
in "A binding snow storm. The num-
Der of Indians had set out TO kill had
gradually decreased until | was will
ing to GO home without single scalp;
but ] couldn't.
I'VE arrived at Fort Custer, NJ. r.,
one morning in December and took
up the regular routine of soldiers
life. 1t was not sport either. At that
time of the year it consisted of chop
ping wood and cutting ice. with TWEEN
ty-four hours guard duty once week.
as a sort of variation. | hadn't read
anything about this in my novels and
it discouraged me more than | can
tell.
But at last the long expected event
came. We were booked for an Indian
fight. IA the redskins were reported
raidng the settlers. | will confess
Candidly that when the time came
and the bugle sounded boot and sad
die was not so anxious for an Indian
fight as had been when in the sta ties.
But we had TO 60. Our company was
made up mostly of recruits, and we
didn't like the idea of turning out in
the middle of the night to scour the
country for Indians. We were all af-
ter scalps. but we preferred to take
them in daylight when we could see
the Indians. But Uncle Sam doesn't
run his army TO suit youthful scalp
hunters-l trust some of your readers
will bear this in mind.-so we had to
go.
"Well. fortS-fve men strong. with
six Indian scouts, one guide. eight
packers, and twenty pack mules laden
with ten days rations. we started. and
the first day travelled forty. five miles
without rest Each man was armed
with rifle and a revolver. and with
our overcoats and blankets it made
load that was not particularly comfort
able for such de. A man can't