The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-05-05
/ BRAGGART IN LOVE.
Story OF an Army Tragedy in the
Southwest.

room, and we had finished our first CT
CARS, when the conversation struck on
matrimony. We were all married men
explaining how it happened. The
other guests had told in turn their little
story in the free confidence one easily
feels at the end of perfect dinner. !
had related my romance, and we now
turned to our host
marlin, how did you win your
wife?"
Its long story-began on hunt
ing pass in the Arizona desert. crossed
the water and ended in Colorado.
Light fresh cigars No; I'll take Mex
lean. Butler. bring the Chartreuse-
green for me, if you please"
/ think it was the summer of SO.
Geronimo was not yet taken, and we
had been chasing in our turn until. for
lack of backs and feet, our horses were
tagging in the race, and we were set
to watch water holes in the San Simon,
SO polluted with alkali and arsenic a
sensible savage would have Stunned it,
as my dyspepsia, which dates from
that campaign, tells me failed to do.
Somehow the Geronimo campaign al
ways reminded me of a fox chase; the
Indian scouts keeping their noses close
to the scent like dogs too slow to force
the bush into the open, while the vari-
GUS troops, like hunters in different
wind, held and lost the place which
promised first at the finish. If you
know Arizona at all. you will recall
how sharp and rocky are the crests of
the divides; being lines of most re-
sistance in this land of deep erosion.
they retain the sharp, jagged profile
often seen in the snow-ice of mountain
drifts as it disappears in early summer.
Below these scoops lies colony of
rounded foothills. receding and grow
ing less until they end in broken bowl
der mesa which, with numerous arroyos,
fades into the soft, level adobe plain
and blends, as unsupported as the can
vas walls of cyclorania join the rocks
and logs in the pit belowyou.
The Indians preferred these sharp
crests. which were for them both
watch towers and impregnable bas-
tons Occasionally they would strike
across the valley, kill rancher, and
steal fresh ponies, and some troop
would cut in and crowd them in the
open till they took the next divide and
met some barrier that baked the pur-
suers and forced on them a detour,
while some other troop. through acct
dent of locality. would take the chosen
place on the trail, giving for few days
It's dust to the other pursuing columns.
1t was a weary, stern chase, performed
under burning skies of cloudlcss blue
In thirsty land of heat intoierable.
And it was best expressed by our lieu
tenant, who, on being informed by a
certain captain of "Nubian Horse" that
he was after Geronimo, replied: "Yes,
captain, a long way after" 1t was
like cutting cards for an ace or calling
the turn ut roulette or faro to tell
which one of some twenty-five troops
would be in at the death.
We had had our little spurt; had
brushed them off the divide, and for
three days led in the open across the
valley to the Sierra Madre, where
fresher horseflesh cut in from our right
and took from us the place of honor and
left us, foot-sore and back-sore and
winded, at the base of the mountains,
where we were ordered days march
back into the valley. near the border,
10 guard water holes of the San Simon
in the sullen month of August. The
nights were getting bearab;e, but the
day heat still held on with the stubborn
insistence of a southern summer. Our
camp was not happy-the water was
bad; our shelter halves, but little
thicker than cheese cloth, proved leaky
sunshades. and we reinforced them
with our saddle blankets; we had nc
amusement except to growl, wish we
were in the chase. and wonder whose
blooming intellect had squatted us
down among ella monsters and sand
flies to watch water so foul neither soil
nor sun wouli drink it,
The local sports of the cantonment
were disgusted. A week before they
were giving odds-ten to three--on us
In the race. and now used pool checks
to light cigarettes from the candles
about the cook fiye. There was not q
S-~r> - auw<s,lvn1 L. $1,000 nl-H