The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-12-18
The Unique Gift That Has Been
Sent by Residents Of
Freeze Out
Captured BY apraying" Bill Tib-
betts While Looking for
q Mine.
Il Is the Most Peculiar Animal Yet Pro-
duced in tho state-on tho
Road Now.

! correspondent of the Chicago Herald who
lives at freeze Out, the stage station be-
tween Sun River and Choteau City. II
recms that last June Otis Osborne. Myer
Friedly and "Praying'' Bill Tibbets started
to discover . new pass in the Rockies to the
Flathead country. The three expected.
also. to do some prospecting. There has
always been q legend among the residents
IL Freeze Out that the Jacobs mine lay
aomvwhere in the Rockies between Fort
shaw and tho Indian reservation. thirty
years ago, the story runs. "Humpy" Jacobs,
! hunchback from Idaho. and = companion
whose name is not known. struck O rich
lead of collaborating Quartz IN Q gulon not
far TO the northwest of the present size OF
Fort Shaw. Stories Of the marvellous rich-
ness OF the mine are a part OF the history
of the Sun river country. But Jacobs ana
his friend never lived to enjoy the fruit OF
their discovery. Running out OF provis-
iona. they started in the early winter for q
ranch many miles to the south IN tne nope
Of being able to replenish their larder. be-
fore starting they loaded themselves with
nuggets, and fixing their cabin in shipshape
for the month they expected to be away,
Che two men travelled rapidly to the south.
II ia believed that they were not long on
the road whom they were overwhelmed by a
blizzard from the mountains which first
chilled the blood in their veins and then
strangled them. Al aay rate the bodies of
Jacobs and his friend were found CLOSE to-
rether and among the white bones OF their
horses. When their belts were opened
over q handful of nuggets rolled ous upon
the grass. The nen must have oeen ueao
three years or more, for their guns were III
pieces and the heavy shirts they wore
clunp in shreds to their bones. since
Freeze Out and Hard Up were started eight
years ago it is probable that no less tnan
twenty expeditions have started Tor the
peaks from these camps to discover snat
Before Tibbetts started he took a big pull
at a bottle and offered up q PRAYER, the bur-
den Of which was that the expedition Dc
spared from sickness and that 1T be re-
warded with all sorts of luck. This was
the custom of Tibbetts before proceeding
ON a long Journey. The first time he prayed
he came back from the Bear Paw mount
aims with mountain fever, one shirt ana a
raw backed horse. But all this didn't lessen
his faith in the efficacy of prayer. Natuf-
ally She most profane man in the Sun River
valley, Tibbets' supplications always
aroused more than passing interest In
Freeze Out.
TIL months rolled by without bringing
any l0lOfmdtlOu lIOm u asO DSA-
Sheepherders, cowmen and now then
the sheriff of the county would assemble IN
the store and speculate as to the outcome
Of the expedition. Everybody allowed
that Tibbets wouldn't come back empty
handed, but there was many an explosive
discharge of tobacco juice and an emphatic
thrump of a hlgh-heeled boot on the foor
az a lawyer about the big bellied stove ques-
toned Tibbets' ability to find a new pass IN
the hills to the Flathead country this side
OF the Piegan reservation. when the vino
began to below around the mountains III
October, hurting a heavy surf of snow into
the CANYONS, the men at the store predicted
an early and a severe winter. Everybody
agreed that Tibbets would have to do &
heap of PRAYING and pull his freight from
the hills in short order if he and ms mer
were to escape being cut off from Freeze
On tuntil spring. ,
Last Tuesday night the loungers at ths
store heard a volley of rifle shots and a vel
which everybody knew to be Tibbets' be.
cause of the mighty hemoirhage OF OATH
that followed it. Out of the door thu
~loungers tumbled and there. sure enough
was Tibbets, bronzed and clustering, in
tightly buttoned slickef.
Find the mine, Tib?' asked one Of TIT
boys.
tramped stiff and sore into the store.
Locate n passT'
NAV, ner a pass nuther; but. bows, view
got the - critter out here that God
almighty ever let rustic fur grub"
''Eind any mineral!"
NAV, ner min'ral nuther. Went as flu
as that - hogbeck on Niehtshirt peak al
I'm --i if we got to smell anythin' a
PHOSPHORUS as q SNOWFALL in -, but Ill b
roped, an tied an my brand changed eff W
hain't got the - thing on the way her
that Godalmiehty ever stuffed a hide with.
"What is it?'' asked Lafferty, the store
keeper.
Beast
what kind of q beast?"
"Anernsl."
Where did you rope him?"
"Cius to the Three Brother range an il
q Rulch as deep an as black as the devil.
Where is he?"
'tBe in in the mornin' with the boyi
Widest thing that G~odalmiRhty eve
pumped q snort out of. But how's 'leo
tion p
1.-THE DEVILS fire! Whereaboutsw
Both sides of the divide"
'Tumbling Jericho!"
tits right"
SLOWS Wyeromingf"
Democratic"
GOOD God! And Montany?'
'lhe same"
More bronchos for Elijah! You don
Say; but. boys, yer ought ter see that -
beast. Talk about catte mounts an beal
an tnlng5 tDat come out OF trees at y9
They haln't cottonwood bugs hitched wit
this f~eller."
M go the ~loungers and old Tibbe.
talked until away into the night. Ear
the next morning people in the camp sa
two men who were easily recognized as O
borne and Friendly, dragging a stranl
looking beast behind a wagon. The amin
WAS chained to the hind axe. and lopt
along on its handy legs as though resigne
to its fnte. The town gathered abo& tt
beast. but not one of the people could te
What it was. 1t had the body of a bea
the tall of a puma and legs like a bull pu
Its hair was red. The head was long al
tapering, and not wholly inhospitable n
til the beast was aroused. Then it wou
roll up its upper lip and sxposea row
RerrNted teeth, each grinder being as lol
and broad as a clothes pin. But the stran
est character Of the beast was a battery
horns, each as slender as the bill of q Gu
lew, which it unmasked when enraeed
withdrew into its head when in Il peacef
mood.
"Hain't that the thing Godalmigh
ever gailoped over these knolls?n ask,
Tibbets.
Tho lawyers were dumfounded.
will he bite!" tinidly inquired t
storekeeper.
'Bite!" exclaimed Tibbetts. "He'lI b
the lining ont of yer, an then punch Y
hide so full of holes that they can thread
needle through YER" Some sheep herd.
said they had seen an animal that look
something like the beast. bnt they could