News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-07-20
TERMS SI.5o.

upOll dS du .uIlpTOHIdDle servant VINO
couldn't contribute to campaign funds.
"What the devil do you suppose we had
you made agent way up at Gallatin
for?" asked an irate political "boss" of
deposed and crestfallen late incumbent
who came home superseded.
"Why, it was you and our congress
man who exposed the stealings of my
predecessor and had him fired. | sup
posed you wouldn't stand that sort of
thing. l supposed you wanted me to be
perfectly honest"
"Of course we did; but, damn it, you
don't seem to understand; he was paying
to the other party"
But railways and telegraphs have
brought all this, or much of it, within
range, so to speak. Things have
changed, except perhaps human nature,
white or Indian. There has been failure
to provide for carrying out the earnest
recommendations of the best friend the
Indian has known for years-the man
whose word was his bond, whom they
feared in war and loved and trusted in
peace. There has been shrinkage both
in the cattle and the count No matter
how much beef might shrivel ON the hoof
in the old days, the Sioux, if he were at
all sharp, got more than was his share,
and most of the Sioux were as sharp as
their knives. Other tribes might have
starved and suffered, but not they. With
the new order of things came full stom-
achs for hosts of other aborigines, but
fault finding for these Dakotas. No
more "tepee COUNTS" on the contrary
heads of families paraded their entire
force, and while enumerators with
book and pencil went along the front
of the line, Uncle Sans bluecoats on the
border keenly watched the rear and put
sudden stop to all sham and swapping.
Now the shrinkage came to be privation,
and, turning in appeal to the general
who headed the great commission and
won their faith, appealing to Crook for
the remedies congress had utterly failed
to provide, their hearts were bowed with
the tidings that the Great Spirit had
summoned the "Gray Fox" to happier
hunting grounds.
Then was there no other appeal? One
one which had never failed to wiring
from the government the concession de-
sired. Old chiefs might plead in vain,
but the blood of the young warriors is
hot and strong, the lust for reputation
as vehement as of yore. Every brave
stood ripe for action, and no Indian
leader ever equaled in craft, in cunning,
in adroitness the scowling old sinner
Sitting Bull, and no man need doubt
that it was he who gave the cue. Every
medicine man in the Dakota Nation be-
gan to preach the coming of the Mes
siah, but the Messiah craze was only
the means to an end. Un-koi-to, the In
dian redeemer-he who ordained that
his children should prepare themselves
by the savage rites of the ghost dance
to meet him and all their dead ancestry
and with them wipe the paleface from
the land-Un-koi-to was fraud of the
| first water, a masquerading scamp of a
white man at odds with his own kind,
and progressive Indians knew it. But
even to such saviour, when urged by
the charlatans in every village, the su-
perstitious nature of the red man turned
in eager adulation, and the CHASTITY, mad
dening dance went on.
Night after night all over the broad
northwest the skies were aglow with the
Indian fires. The vault of the heavens
echoed to the sound of frenzied shrek
and yell and the furious beat of the
Indian drum. 1t is but step from the
ghost dance to the scalp dance-from
Indian worship to Indian war; A year
ago in every valley of beautiful South
Dakota cattle were browsing on the
bunch grass, settlers plowing on the
plains, women sewing and singing under
the new raised rooftrees, and gleeful
children playing in the golden heaps of
corn. Now the plow stands idle in the
abandoned furrow; the cattle have gone,
to make up, presumably, for the reser-
walton shrinkage; women's songs have
changed to sobs, children's laughter
hushed to terrified silence, as the settlers
seek the refuge of the towns. New red
glare in the sky at night, and the new
ranch house lights the way of many a
favage warrior. bound with arms and
ponies to swell the hostile ranks in the
mazes of the Bad Lands.
"God only knows how soon it may
come" read Farquhar, but a week be-
fore, "but think you would better be
with your command" Farquhar re-
linquished his shooting trip and at once
got him home. He could not bear to
tell his people, in the happiest garrison
the regiment had ever known, that per-
maps it might be as well to drop the
plans for the cavalry ball and the
Christmas theatricals, the cherished
projects for the coming holidays. He
hated to have any one ask him if he
thought there were not just a chance,
just chance-of their being ordered
up there. But even before he left hej
and Berrien had been talking the mat
ter over. The idea was to always have
the regiment ready for anything, and it
did seem as though with all the sum,
mer and fall marching and scouting and
maneuvering in the field they were, as
the Englishmen would say. pretty fit.
Fit, certainly, for any amount of scout
ing or fighting on the southern plains
and yet utterly unprepared for the
rigors of a Dakota winter. ANY colonel
who, serving in Arizona or in the Indian
Territory, was to apply for canvas
overcoats, blanket lined for fur caps
gloves, boots, leggings. ETC.. intended
only for service in the high ATTITUDES
would have been laughed at, If not
snubbed. Farquhar decided it best not
to let any of the women worry over a
possibility. No use> borrowing trouble
he said. Long years had the regiment
served in that wintry land Fierce and
incessant had been its campaigns against
the Indians Dire had been its suffer
ings and losses. Only recently-only
within the year-had they reached this
paradise, with its hazy landscape, its
lovely, peaceful homes, its kindliness
and greeting yet warm in remembrance
the edge of its cheer still new and un
worn.
And then Kenyon came back from
leave, burly major of foot who had
been visiting at his old home in Chicago |
and was reported to be wearing the will
low for girl who had but just married
a mere junior first lieutenant in the
Eleventh, their predecessors along this
line. 1t might be that Kenyon was
cross and grabbed. The youngsters
called him "grumbly" at first acquaint
ance 1t might be that he was so hipped
and unhappy himself he could not bear
to see the bliss and content on every face
about him. He and Rolfe were con
genial spirits, said the boys, for "both OF
them got left" But Kenyon. close
as he was at times, had watched
things day or two and then had given
n tsnointern He had hoard |