Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-02-22

d0NNe ot0NQS nswCetv looming QOtcW on e00
se0sntNG Jruwse Of his fathers osd friend.
Far up in the northwest, along the
banks Of the broad. winding stream the
Sioux call the Elk, train Of white top
ped army wagons IL slowly crawling
eastward. The October sun Is hot at
MONDAY, and the dust from the loose
soil rises like heavy smoke aud powders
every face and form in the guarding
battalion 30 that features are we'll nigh
indistinguishable Four companies of
stalwart, sinewy infantry, with their
brown rifles slung over the shoulder, are
striding along in dispersed order, cover
ing the exposed southern flank from sud-
den attack, while farther out along the
ridge line, and far to the front and rear,
cavalry skirmishers and scouts are rid
ing to and fro, searching every hollow
and ravine, peering cautiously over
every divide" and signaling "halt" or
forward" rs the indications warrant.
And yet not hostile Indian has been
seen; not one, even as distant vedette,
has appeared in range of the binoculars,
since the scouts rode in at daybreak to
say that big bands were In the immediate
neighborhood. It has been long, hard
summers work for the troops, and the
Indians have been, to all commands that
boasted strength or swiftness, elusive as
the Irishman's flea of tradition. Only to
those whose numbers were weak or
whose movements were hampered have
they appeared in fighting trim. But
combinations have been too much for
them, and at last they have been "herd-
ed" down to the Elk, have crossed, and
women, children. tepees, dogs, "travois,"
and the great pony herds, to the fast
nesses of the Big Horn; and now comes
the opportunity for which an old Indian
fighter has been anxiously waiting. In
q big cantonment he has held the main
body under his command, while keeping
out constant scouting parties to the east
and north. He knows well that, true to
their policy, the Indians will have scat
tered into small bands capable of reas-
sembling anywhere that signal smokes
may call them, and his orders are to
watch all the crossings of the Elk and
nab them as they come into his district.
He watches, despite the fact that it is
his profound conviction that the Indians
will be no such idiots as to come just
where they are wanted, and he is in no
wise astonished when courier comes in
on jaded horse to tell him that they have
doubled" on the other column and are
now two or three days march away
down stream, making for the big bend"
His own scouting parties are still out to
tba OF nvs1. hn v,irlr fhnv,,
he goes. He sends the main body of his
infantry, a regiment jocularly known as
"The Rifiers," to push for landing
some fifty miles down stream, scouting
the lower valley of the Sweet Root on
the way. He sends his wagon train,
guarded by four companies of foot and
two Of horsemen, by the only practi-
cable road to the bend, while he, with
ten seasoned "troops" Of his pet regi-
ment, the -th cavalry, starts forthwith
on a long detour in which he hopes to
"round up" such bands as may have
slipped away from the general rush.
Even as "bootsa and saddles" is sound
ing, other couriers come riding in from
Lieut.. Cranes party. He has struck the
trail of big band.
When the morning sun dawns on the
picturesque valley in which the canton
ment nestled but the day before it illu-
mines an almost deserted village, and
brings no joy to the souls Of some two
score of embittered civilians who had ar
rived only the day previous, and whose
unanimous verdict is that the army is
fraud and ought to be abolished. For
four months or more some three regi-
ments had been camping, scouting,
roughing it thereabouts with not cent
of pay. Then came the wildly exciting
tidings that boat was on the way up
the Missouri with satrap of the pay de-
partment, vast store of shekels and
strong guard, and as consequence there
would be some 1900 men around the
cantonment with pockets full of money
and no one to help them spend it, and
nothing suitable to spend it ON. 1t was
Q duty all citizens owed to the territory
to hasten to the scene and gather in for
local circulation all that was obtainable
of that disbursement, otherwise the curse
of the army might get ahead of them,
and the boys would gamble it away
among themselves or spend it for vile
whisky manufactured for their sole
benefit. Gallatin Valley was emptied Of
its prominent practitioners in the game
of poker. The stream was black with
"Mackinaw" boats and other craft.
There was a rush for the cantonment
that rivaled the nultitudes OF the mining
days, but all too late.
The command was already packing up
when the first contingent arrived, and
the commanding officer, recognizing the
fraternity at glance, warned them out
side the limits of camp that night, de-
clined their services as volunteers on the
impending campaign, and treated them
with such calmly courteous recognition
of their true character that the eastern
press was speedily filed with sneering
comment on the hopelessness Of ever sub
DUNG the savage tribes of the northwest,
when the government intrusts the duty
TO upstart officers of the regular servics
whose sole conception Of their functions
Is to treat with insult and contemp. the
hardy frontiersman whose mere presence
with the command would be of incalcu-
liable benefit. 1--WE have it from indis-
putable authority" says The Miners
Light of Brandy Gap, that when our
esteemed fellow citizen Hank Mulligan
and twenty gallant shots and riders like
himself went in body to Gen. - at
the cantonInent and offered their services
as volunteers against the Sioux now de-
vastating the homesteads and settlements
of the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone
valleys. they were treated with naughty