The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-17
PONIES DIED BRAvELY.
Nee Perez Horses Followed Their
Black Leaders over the Prscipice.

Black Leaders over the Prseipice.
Joaquin Miller in New York Press
The hardy little Nez Perez horse, some
times pied or calico in color, sometimes
blue, and sometimes as black as coal, and
always beautiful, is quite well known in
way; but few people, fancy, know what
remarkable courage and sagacity he has. In
1862 and 1868 I was enga -ed in carrying
gold dust out OF the Idaho mountains. One
Gay when descending steep trail on a
oenSelX wooded mountain side
found the trail blocked by
tree, that seemed to have
Deen suddenly blown down 5y the wind
and newly opened trail leading OF to the
left My Nez Perez pony stopped, threw
back his ears and almost sat down on his
launches as l mercilessly drove my spurs
into his TANKS. We were often cruel in
those hard, swift rides, for time was
precious and peril waited on every moment
spent between stations. We always
dashed on at hard gallop, the load of
gold dust in the "catenasn hanging down
on either sideof the saddle bow, the reins
In the right hand and a cooked pistol in
the left
spurred until the great Spanish spurs
were streaming with blood from the
pony's tanks, but still he would not bulge
an inch in the newly cleared trail. At
last, gathering up all his strength, he
raised in the air and then plunged head
long on down the hill over the fallen
tree. In the leap my pistol was shaken
from my hand, and while l was drawing
another from my "catenaS" there came
rain of lead from company of robbers
lying in ambush. But the poor pony kept
me in my seat, faced about for a second,
as if to give me chance to defend my
self, and then plunged on down the
r0N4ar1f ron mil 70 nn
on the edge of the river he fell dead from
bullet wound that must have meant
death from the first, for his nostrils were
streaming with blood all the way down
the mountain.
AN INCIDENT OF WAR.
When the Indian war swept the Nez
Perez country the Indians gathered about
5000 horses into a valley that fronted on
steep bluffs of the Columbia river; and
there, with the great white mountains at
their back, prepared to make their last
desperate stand In the battle that fol-
lowed they We're defeated, ard the small
fraction of them that remained unkilled
put TO fight. The horses, shut in by the
steep mountains on one side and the steep
river bluffs on the other, had to be left
behind.
When the battle had closed the,soldiers
or volunteers (for only a part were regu-
lars AlduC d udSl AOL Vic uOIS6S. Dun LuGH
could not lay hands on one of them. Their
splendid heads, with great names, tossed
and tenbled, were in the air, and they
went round and around in a circle in the
pretty, pent-in little valley and along the
edge of theSheer bluff of the river.
And now for the first time it was no.
ticed that they were under a boy herder.
The boy was unarmed, entirely naked,
and as red as a copper. He rode a black
stallion with a neck like bulls and lit
orally mantled and clothed with name
The boy had no bride, but wove his
hands into the name and thus guided the
horse at will at the head of the herd
Sometimes he laid his face down on the
proud neck and buried it in the mass of
hair which matched his own in its
glossy blackness. Hundreds of men tried
to stop or stay the herd in it's wild flight,
but tried in vain. The green grass dis
appeared beneath the strokes of the
spurning feet and dust began to rise in
clouds.
SHOOTING THE LEADER.
The volunteers dropped on their knees
here and there around the edge of the
circle and began to fire at the boy. They
were deadly marksmen, and they had no
care to spare either horse or rider. But
the boy did not seem to want to be spared
any more than did the horse At last
few high into the air, then fell and rolled
in the dust.
The horses now divided as they came
by. Their nostrls were distended at the
smell of blood, and their eyes ablaze at
the sight of their young keeper in the
dust. It seemed as if they truly knew
and understood all the fearful trag-
edy of that day and hour. On
the second round after the boy fell
the black leader seemed to run side
wise, his eyes fastened to his little dead
master until they looked frightful from
under the black name. He plunged on
around ana came to the very edge of the
beetling basalt bluff. Then there was
the sight as of sculptured image OF a
horse poised in midair, and a mad, wild
cry such as a horse makes but once, a cry
indescribable, that filled the valley. Men
looked away and when they looked back
the black statue was gone. Then, faith
full to the leader, over the bluff into the
foaming white river went another horse
And then ten, twenty, fifty. five hundred
the whole five thousand Not one of all
the herd was left to the invading victors;
and the stream was literally choked with