The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1890-02-14

NAL, both pursuer and pursued go.
ing at full speed, 80 that it is abont
the height OF the legs. The, by sud-
denly stopping the pony, wh0l,snts
his foreleGs- firmly to withstand osa,;s
shock, by quick, sudden jerk the.
steers legs are pulled from under.
him, and over he rolls in the dust.
This is precisely the mannerin which
Yerkes treated his strange captive.
When everything was ready and.
the line in position he pulled his
horse up suddenly and jerked the
brnte's legs from under him. Tho
mighty body OF the latter tumbled
heavily oil in q heap, but there was
o sharp, ugly snap as IL something
had cracked. In O word, the fall
had broken his neck.
In few minutes the four men were
grouped together standing over the
carcass and eying it in perfect won
der.
"Wall, I'll he shot for q atenderfoot,
but that leafs mc," said Jim Pepper.
"Where in the devil did he come
from, anyhow" exclaimed Bob New
hall.
Yerkes alone was silent. After
scanning and examining the creature
closely he ut length uttered, in the
most absolutesurprise: "Boys, that's
camel assure as agun'siron. Now,
how in the name of reason did he get
in Texas? I've always heard .t6sys
lived in Asia or Africa, hut 5tstes
burned and scalped nlive ifhefe fSnse
one in Texas. Let's go back TO-
camp, boys; I'm done herding anil +
branding. I'm going back to the
states, ! am"
The mystery, after all, is no mys-
terry ut all, for it was really and tfu-!.
ly a camel. Another genuine camel
wnsactuallycaughtby cowboy nam
ed Dennis Madigon near the ranch of
Of Col. Lewis Wollley, late of the
Confederate States army, in tho vi
cinity of Gila Bend, A. +. 1t was a
large one, measuring overtime feet in
height, and was supposed to he an
estray from the old herd that has been
roaming over the deserts of Arizona
and California since 1853 or 1859.
They We're imported first for the pur-
pose of carrying freight from Inyo,
Cal, to Carson, New, and proving q
failure for this object, were turned
loose to hustle for themselves.
just before the civil wur the gov
ernment got hold of them and pro-
posed to make them useful on the
frontier in keeping up communica-
tion between the widely separated
military posts, where it became nec-
essary to travel long distances with
out water. They were never, how
ever, Of much service, and upon the
breaking out of hostilities between
the north and south were seized by
the Confederate authorities and sent
to Camp Verde, about sixty miles
northeast OF Snn Antonio. Here
they were put in service as mail car
riers, often making trips of fifty-fve
to sixty miles IL day in IL dry, barren,
hot country where no American
horse could have survived such hard.
ship.
At the close Of the war they again
fell into the hands of the Federal au-.
thoritics, and were sold at auction
~ SAAo SiIy VI kottu AutOulO Ill lSOOs'
They We're finally taken west to Ari-
zona, and, proving useless, were soon
abandoned to their fate. Wander
ing over the wild portions of Arizona.
New Mexico and Texas. they in
creased somewhat in numbers, but
was supposed that the Indians had
long ago killed them off. 1t has
since been learnet1 TINT the rod mon
snperstitious and silly as they usu-
ally are in such cases, regarded
them with great awe Us strange
creatures from tho clouds and
so fled from them in terror.
A few lonesome and lorlorn camels
are yet drifting over the wild, unin-
places of the fur southwest,
so that the novelty of Il genuine cam-
el hunt presents itself to those I'M
search of pleasures new" who care
to travel the long distance to seek
them.-Atlanta aConstitution.