Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1892-03-12
IIE FOUGHT C0MANCH..S.
Lf| RENEE CHRlSTOP4FR CHRl6G
BUFFALO HUNTER.

S2inion of Comnnches and Adventures
with Them-sk "n '"&iam.
A Rough Practical Joke. nnd How
Lieutenant Turner Got Even VITA
General Buell..
Lawrence Christopher Chriss. an old
time buffalo hunter of west Texas. now
living at El Paso, says a correspondent
of the New York S',a is as full OF good
stories as fig is full of seeds.
Clris| had been known. in years gone
By. to Slav with his trusty rife not less
than ,,3i buffalo in one month. and
while he regrets the determination of the
imlrriran bison, he is proud of this feat
lie asserts that the buffalo hunters did
more to make the settlement of this part
vi tine country possibly than any other
ia n. so long as the buffalo We're here, y
.a.,s ha. "thc Comanrhes could not DO
,.iiren out of the couL;ry.
"HuliaIo hunting in the Old days was
nrefty exciting sport, said Lawrence
'j;ri, opher Chriss to-day. but it
""nldu't hold a candle 20 tomanrhc
hunting. The CumaWches We're the u3osy
cruel boodth,s;y demons that ever es-
,.apcI from hell and settled on the green
-anh. rrmrmher on one occasion in
;ne, winter OF i,3-4. that 10 CoG;rcnes
"an across camp of buffalo hUIt2l, and
'uIlnd there Young boy who had been
.eft while the hunters were out attending
20 business. The Indians destroyed
everything in tue camp and killed the
bov. There was a quantity of ierhed
buffalo meat hanging on the mesquite
trees around the camp. The Indians cut
the boy up and hung his flesh in strips
with the buffalo meat to dry. This was
at Wild Horse Springs, about 20 miles
north of where Midland now is. | was
one of the party of hunters, and when
we got back to camp and saw what had
been done to the boy we started out in
hurry to run down the Indians. We
caught them 40 miles from there and
illcd seven of them. One of those we
LiIlcd had the boys scalp and one of his
'Hr5 strung on string around his neck.
he father of the boy, who was one of
II" party. was so enraged that he emp
tied his six shooter into the body of the
dead Indian. That did not satisfy either
niln or the rest of us, and someone pro-
posed that we should skin the Indian and
nrpp his hide to remember him by. We
were expert skinners, and it didn't take
long to remove that red devils hide
with buffalo knife. did most of the
;Ilinnng myself, and found that on the
~, IF l, he
had pressed against his horse, the skin
was at least an inch thick. He was 50
fat that it reminded me of skinning
hcg. We stretched the skin out and let
It dry in the sun, and | afterward took it
10 Dallas. A man who was running
hotel and barroom there was so tiCkled
Mt the idea of having skinned a Co
manche that he offered me free board
and lodging and all the drinks | wanted
if | would give him the skin. did so
and he put it up behind his bar. and for
a month OF more after that he had a tre-
mendous rush of business.
thriss has passed much of his timo
around the army posts in this country,
and he tells some pretty racy stories
about garrison life. Here is one that is
worth repeating.
In the early part of II | was up at
Fort Griffin. General Buell. was com
manding the post, and among the young
officers there was Lieutenant Ed Turner,
of the 18th cavalry. son of Admiral
Turner. Turner was a daredevil and a
terror to the Indians. He had the well