, 1890-01-30
NOTED FRONTIERSMEN.
Men Who Travelled over This
Country when II Was a
Wilderness.


"Old john Smith Or"lncle Johh
as he was fumlllnrly called. He was
II celebrated truppcr and guide, had
lived with thc Chcycnucs, oil ana OF
from boyhood, which tribe adopted
him long before the establishment
of the Santc Fo trail or any such
thing ns the "commcrcc of the
prairlcs." He figured onlya little
less conspicuou.ly In the history of
the border than Kit Carson and
other famous men of those times.
Uncle John was II character-iull
of supcrstitions a. II plantation
negro. lie would never eat a quail,
hCcuLse some forty years ago, just
~ he was about to pull the trigger
Of his rifle to Kill u buffalo he had
drawn a bead on one of those little
birds Jumped ON hi4 front sight and
mtCricrcd with his aim, thus saving
his fife, as he declared, for the tai
grass was full OF Indians, who killed
two of his comrades who had DIS
charged their pieces mt the buffalo
He was one Ot thcprincipNl guldc
and Interpreters during the cclc.
bruted winter campaign of General
sheridan against the allied thcy'
enncs, Arapahocs, and KlowHs, un.
der the lead Of the dreaded Satan
tn, i'm lsss.6O. lie died the following
summer ON the Cheyenne rcScrVa.
tion In the Indian territory, among
the tribe that had adopted him half
u century before.
PASS FINDER BRiDGER.
Jim Bridger was another Of tho
famous cotcric especially distin.
gtllshed for discovery OF deilles
through the intricate mazes of the
Rocky mountains In the early days
Of ofintra-contiuent travel, one of the
principal northern passes of which
is named after him. He died at his
boyhoOd home, Western Missouri, a
few years ago.
He used 10 relate some curious cX.
pcricnccs of his life in the noun.
talns. He told ofa pctrilicd forest
he had visited, where the birds wcr"
still sitting on the limbs of the trees
all pctriiied, too. General Gatlin,
an officer OF the old regular army
who was stationed at Fort Gibson, In
the Cherokee Nation, over hall a
century ago, said To me last summer
when met him In Arkansas, that
he asked Bridger, when he was u
young man If he had ever been in
the valley of the great Colorado,
then e vcritable terra incognita.
AYES, sir" replied Bridgcr, "and
there's where the peaches, oranges
and lemons bear all the year round.
It's the only place, too, I've ever
seen where the moon isalways full!'
Bridger became abs 1lutcly blind
before his death, which occurred In
the fullness of mans allotted period
and in the possession of all his fucul.
ties, with that one exception,
At one time, early In the sixties,
while the engineers OF the Union
Pacific Were temporarily In Denver,
then an insignificant place, they
became somewhat confused In re-
latlon TO where was the most FEAST
bic point in the mountains over
which to run their line. They sum.
moned Bridgcr from st. Louis.
In due time the old man arrived.
The passage of the great plains then
was only made 10y relatively slow
NiAHuEll 'NllAlllNlNlAAN lllEhN hilAl 'Au.N
riding, changing teams Mt stations
averaging ten miles apart.
After breakfast ncNt morning,
when all were pulling vigorously at
their matutiuai pipes around the
campfire, Bridgcr, anxious, of
coursc, TO know why he had been
sent Tor In such hurry, and from
20 great distance, propounded the
question::
"Well, what do you surveyors
want of mc?"
When told, with n look of un q.
mlstakable disgust, he asked for n
large piece of paper, at the same
time rcmarking:
"Why! could told you all that
in st, Louis and saved you all this
here expense
lie was handed n piece Of paper,
which hc spread out on tho ground
before him, and taking dead coal
from the aYhcS Of the campfire. he
skctchCd a rough outline map; then
pointing To II certain peak in the
topography Of the range hc had hur.
rledly made with his crude pencil,
he said:
"rherc's where YOU fellows can
cross with your road, and nowhere
else, without "A heap more cuttin'
and diggln' than you'll want to con-
tract for."
That crude map-and IL was crude
is, | am told, preserved in tho
archives of the great corporation,
and its line crosses the main spur oi
the Rocl; los just where Bridger said
| n would have tn
OLD MAN BENT AND HIS PROGENY,
Old man Bent l never became
intimately acquainted with, as he
died only II few months after | first
saw him, although l had been on
| the plains for years and knew the
others ! have mentioned for n long
period before ! happened TO know
the proprietor of the fort on the
upper Arkansas, whose name the
now dllapidated old adobe structure
still bears.
lie and John Smith were the only
two Of all the great number of prom.
inent frontiersmen who married
squaws. Uncle John Smith made
no effort to educate hls children
they were savages from their birth
and remained so.
Bent was determined that his son
and daughter, Charles and Julia,
should have the best education,
money could obtain--he was sadly
deficient himsclf-so he sent then,
to st, Louis when mere children,
alIrrOil ndpl them with NIL fha ,,,I