Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-05-09
SAVED BY LIGHTNING.
A Cattle Stampede on the Plains
of Montana
Miraculous Escape OF Three Men from Be-
ing Trampied to Death - Rock Rent
Asunder by Providential Means
Affords Them a Refuge.

| the "cow men, who have seen real, genu
inc, downright tornado of hoofs and horns
sweeping along in a wild, mad rush to de
struction and crushing or eliminating al
most every thing in their pathway save the
naked earth itself. One Of the most graphic
accounts of such thrilling incident was
given to the writer, says Livingston (M
To- letter to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat,
by an cid settler of Montana, the stampede
| occurring near the Red Butte some years
| since. Late one afternoon ranchman and
! two companions started on foot to cross a
wide, open range of prairie to secure some
! horses that had strayed away from the
| formers ranch. 1t was a very unusual
proceeding for the ranchman or any of his
men to venture such distance from their
home on foot, but their ponies having wan
| dered off this time it was matter of neces-
| sity. Within less than an hour after they
! had started and when not over three miles
from home they were overtaken by a very
! severe thunderstorm, thing that is liable
to occur in this climate within a very short
space of time during the rainy season. Soon
every thing was enveloped in almost COM
plete darkness and the rain poured down in
torrents, while the lightning flashed and the
thunder roared in appalling grandeur.
There was not single spot near where
shelter could be obtained and the three men
were compelled to undergo severe drench-
ing.
Just before the darkness came on the
three men had deserted in the darkness an
immense herd of cattle quietly grazing and
seemingly without any signs of fright or
danger. AL at once, however, the men
were startled by a heavy, rumbling, rush
ing tread in the distance that drowned even
the heaviest peals of thunder. On turning
around quickly they discerned through the
darkness, by means of the binding flashes
of electricity, an extended line of dark OBJ
jects closely wedged together and moving
down the valley upon them like an impend-
ing army threatening them with total de-
structiOn.
whats that mauna'' exclaimed one of
the men, Scotcbman, who was newly
arrived pilgrim from the States, of little ex-
perience with Western life s'Dinna can We
tell mel"
"Them thar's cattle stampedin',n re-
sponded the old-timer. "T'll tell We, pards,
we'd better be trampin', mighty quick,
too"
'Howly murther! The bloody divils |" ex-
claimed the third individual, a real, raw
Hlbernlan, not great while from the sod
of the Emerald isle. And away the three
men fed down the valley at their topmost
speed N an opposite direction from that in
which they had seen the herd coming. But
their chances of escape from that maddened
mass Of cattle, closing and encircling their
pathway, seemed well-nigh impossible. APP
parently nothing short of a miracle could at
all save them from complete humiliation.
So, realizing their awful, desperate situa-
ton, the three men strained every muscle,
the aold-timer keeping the lead, the other
two men closely following At every step
it seemed that the roaring and believing of
the cattle grew louder and more terrific, as
if the very crash of doom itself was at hand
The scene was majestically awful, the noise
of the stampede actually drowning the
thunder.
On came the cattle pell-mell, with such a
demoniacal mixture of 0ellowings and clat-
terlng Of hoOfs and horns that the trio of in
dividuals in their flight half imagined them
selves being tossed or trampled into frag-
ments. In all that broad stretch of prairie,
forty or fifty miles in extent, the men re-
membered but one single object to break the
monotony-that was their own ranch
Luckily there was another, huge rock of
singular formation on the prairie with sides
so perpendicular that no human being had
ever attempted to climb to its summit, and
II was probably by the merest chance that
the fleeing individuals had started in the
direction of the huge mass of stone, which
was known as Lots Wife, it having in
the minds Of some a supposed resemblance
10 that disobedient woman. Possibly the
old settler remembered the rock, but evil
IDENTITY he had not the least assurance that
1t might aid them to escape from the cattle
However, the three men arrived at the rock,
and discovered to their delight and aston
ishment that by some strange and unearth-
ly power it had been rent asunder so that
they could easily climb to the top and be
perfectly secure from danger AS not
had ever known of the rent in
the rock before it is altogether probable
that IL had just been cleft in two by one of
the fearful discharges of electricity 1t
was certainly most providential circum-
stance, and the means of saving the three
mems lives, for only moment after they
had climbed to the top of the rock there
swept past them with the roar of cyclone /
one of the most confused masses of cattle /
that any human being had ever witnessed /
In that horrid crush a score or more of 4
them were killed and trampled to pieces at !
the foot OF the rock, and the remains were
afterward found of hundreds which had
persisted in the deep gullies pulverized by .
the sharp hoofs OF their comrades. The es-
cape OF the three men was one of the most
narrow on record. aud probably due to a
single flash of lightning