Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-07-10
BEAVERS LOVED MUGGINS
A Wild Western Romancer Tells q
Remarkable Tale.
How Trapper Won the Friendship Of
Three Hundred of tho Flat-Headed
Little Animals - Remarkable Dec
Grafton Day Exercises.

OF all the story -tellers in the West, x.
Beidler is least given to exaggeration. He
was talking TO party of friends yesterday
and was in his best vein, says the Helena
IN. T) Independent.
sit is fact" he said, "and can be proved
by anumber Of persons, not only in Helena,
but all over the Territory"
"What is itf' was asked by a newcomer
81 was tellin' story about Muggins Tay-
lor. Muggins was trapper, as good as
any one that ever baited trap in Montana
Before Fort Custer was built, in 1877, the
Big and Little Horn was full of beaver, but
since that summer when the soldiers.
teamsters and mechanics commenced chop
ping logs and wood, rafting, running saw
mills and engaging in other civilized pur-
suits the beaver dropped to the situation
and left.
"But before civilization Muggins and I
trapped on all the streams. He was then on
the Yellowstone. ! told him thought the
beaver would come to that stream, leaving
the places where they were then thick OH
account of the influx of inhabitants into
their country. he agreed with me, and
said he would make big catch If would
stick to him, and agreed to do so.
I'VE went over to Fort Custer and traded
two mules for an outfit superior to any
trapper had in that region. We had three
hundred traps and plenty of skinning-
knlves-a good outfit all around. At Gus
ter helped him across the Big Horn, and
as had other business to attend to I left
him. He went on to the Yellowstone and
set his traps on the south side of the river
"The next morning he examined his traps
up and down the stream, but didn't have
beaver, nor could he discover sign He
awaited day, sharpened his knives, in
tending to rest during the night and to visit
his traps the next day, and il he discovered
no beaver he would go some place else.
That night he discovered the prairie afire.
and only saved himself by catching his out
ut and taking refuge under a protecting
bank OF the stream. The fire was such q
furious one that it leaped clear across the
river and burnt the grass for miles on both
sides of it,
"In the morning he crept out from under
the bank where he had ensconced himself.
and the first thing that suggested itself
was business, and he::started on a tour of in
spection of his traps. He found that his
first trap had beaver fast, and looking UP
the river could see the water agitated in
the vicinity Of his traps. OF course he was
agitated, for three hundred beaver amt to
be picked up in single night.
Pulling up the first trap, he found the
beaver, but what was his surprise to find
that the animal did not have a single hair
His first impulse was to kill the animal.
but after having released it he saw that be-
sides having its fur scorched off, its feet
were burned, so he let the little fellow CO.
AS it swan off it waggled it's tail, as if to
thank its captor for what he had done. Go
ing to the other traps he found that each
trap had a beaver. but there wasn't fur
enough in the whole lot to wad Wells
Fargo shotgun, so he let them all go, ours
ing the fire for what it had done for him.
"He lay around until the next spring and
commenced trapping again, shrewdly
thinking that the fur of the animals would
have grown again in that time. Well, he
had splendid luck, catching from fifteen to
twenty a night But Muggins had
learned lesson. He wouldn't skin the
animals, but just sheared them and let
them go back into the water
HE got an awful big pile of fur that
spring and went back the next spring to re-
sumo operations. But he had no use for
traps then. The beavers knew him, and
when he walked along the river and whis-
tied the old fellows would come prancing
out of the water, creep up to him and lie
down by his side, wait until they were
clipped and jump back into the water, wav-
ing him a goodbye with their fiat tails.
"Muggins kept that up for three years,
but had to quit the business on account OF
rheumatism. He went to Billings, where he
received an appointment as deputy sheriff
He served in that capacity for two years,
when, attempting to stop row one day, he
was killed.
HE was buried in romantic little spot,
and the beavers built feAce around his
grave. But they are not satisfied with that
Mvery year pilgrimage is made to poor
Muggins' tomb by the knowing little ami
mails, who hold services for night over the
sacred spot and then depart for their re-
spective homes"
"What do they dol"
Each beaver takes a green branch in his
mouth and marches solemnly around the
grave. tell you, boys, when beaver is q
friend to q man 1t is a friend.n