The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1894-12-06


stamped out smallpox Epidemic.
Lying in the picturesque valley 81
the Columbia river in British Columbia,
with the Selkirk mountains OH one eiae
md the Rocky mountains On tho other
is the town OF Donald on the Canadian
Pacific railroad. II used 10 he known
as wide open town, but il il NV
Il sedate little place Of nearly :, 900 IN
habitants. 1t Is the meeting place Il
divisions Of the railroad, and from tha'
reason takes on "a commercial impar
lance that other towns Of the same W.
along the railroad lack. 1t also has an
added importance from the fact that il
is the home of Sheriff Rcdgrayc, the
chief official Of all that country around
for great distance.
Sheriff Rcdgraye is distinguished
man not only because he holds the chief
Office thoreabouts for many miles, but
because he has notable past He ha-
bad many fierce campaigns with the IN.
,lians, has fought his full share of dead
y duels with despcradoes, has drop
ped his man ON more than one ocea.
sion, knows what roughing 1t means IN
"A country the widest OF the wild, aau
for years before such thing as u rail
road was thought of i'll that country was
marked man.
Sheriff Rcdgraye is always amiable
and almost always cheerful. Once a
year, however he is manifestly trou
bled and downcast 1t j. custom III
Donald ON these occasions to wait until
goodly collection Of citizens have ar
rived, and then this conversation usual
ly ensues:
Good morning sheriff. You seem a
little troubled this morning. You look
blue. Nothing gone wrong, has there
some one will say, and the sheriff Will
make this response:
''Oh, no, with an apparent effort t.
throw off his careworn look, "nothing
is the matter but the fact is this is HE
anniversary of very sad day with me,
and never can shake off its rcnem-
brance
'.Indeed:' some one will say, and at
that invitation the sheriff will tell this
story of an cventful day in his career,
one that annually fills his soul with sad
ness:
1t was just 30 years ago today that
| was up i'll the Caribou country with
the dearest friend | ever had He was a
noble fellow. one that | would have
gladly given my life to any day We're
there occasion to do so. We were walk
ing through "a gorge one afternoon, and
by lamentable oversight had only one
gun with Us. Ny friend had that. Sud
denly we came face to face with an
enormous grizzly bear, one of the old
time bears, tremendous fellows, such as
we used to have i'll these mountains
The bear was angry, and | think had
been stung by some bees. He showed
fight, and | saw at "A glance that it was
either his life or one or perhaps both oi
ours. He came right for us, roaring and
determined to kill us
MY friend was IA nervous man, and
could see that he was little fright
cned. Now, you know that | never lose
my ncrve and SO | said to him that
thought he had better give me the gun
and let me kill the bear, so as to make
sure of the job. He agreed and seemed
| to be glad to have the responsibility of
! his hands, The bear came straight fur
us, and | took deliberate aim. He had
ois mouth open, and | aimed to shoot
him there and let the bullet penetrate
| the brain, and thus make neat job OF
it, When the bear was about ten PAGES
off, | pulled the trigger. That bullet
H. Int
do you know, just as it struck the bear
i'll the mouth, that animal for some rca-
son or other turned ON his heels. The
| bullet passed through his head, and the
| bear, turning just AS 1t was passing
| through, doflccted the bullet, so that
| it flew back to us and killed my fricn
instantly by my side. Yes, tins is al
ways a very sad day with me, and | am
sure you will excuse me if | don show
| my accustomed chcerfulness
Sheriff Redgrave has another thrill
| ing experience that he relates occasion
| ally, and it illustrates his fertility OF
| resource in time Of great emergency
and reveals to some extent the reasons
| for his popularity and advancement l.,
| He was I'D in the Caribou country ma"y
years ago and stumbled into II can.p H.;
| Indians where there WAS an epidemic oi
| smallpox raging. 1t would Lever do 10.
| him to return home after having been
exposed to that c0ntaglun and 1t ais
was incumbent ON him rs a man with
| q sympathetic heart to try to stamp on
the terrible disease. He and his friend
pondered over the situation for Il len.
time, and at last Is plan came to them
How do you suppose we stamprc
that smallpox OUT the sheriff says as
he tells the story
well, it was this way. Neither ii
us had any medical education. and il
we had it wouldn't have done any good
for we had no remedies with us and ii
would have been impossible to max
those Indians take any medicine. NhU
do you think we did? We just rounded
up all the Indians that had the disease.
and when we were sure that we had cV-
cry on9 cs them and had burned all
their effects we buried all the Indians ui
to their necks in the ground and left thpm
there for the night. The next nGrHinV
We came around to see how they were
getting along, and-would you hehcV,
1.-THE wolves had come during TN
night and had eaten OF the heads Of t'N
cry one of those Indians, That stanr.t
out the epidemic in that whole section,
and to this day there has never been a
case Of smallpox there. 1t WAS rather