Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-04-06
the headquarters of another post with
whose commandant he was on u%nfriendly

Inc commanding officer at Fort Rice
had meantime become cognizant of the
state of affairs by his sergeant having tc
wait in Bismarck for the mail for that fort
70 be returned from Fort Lincoln. Army
officers are keenly Jealous of their official
prerogatives and it was natural that a
subordinate officer in full command Of a
post should resent having the mail for his
post pass through regimental headquarters,
aside from the direct route. Then l wrote
to the postmaster general asking for addi-
tional mail sacks, and for instructions to be
given to the route agents west of st. Paul
to send the Fort Lincoln mail in a sack by
itself and billed to that post. This request
was granted, and next trip the sergeant
brought IN two mail sacks, a small one
billed to Fort Lincoln and a large one
billed to the Bismarck postottice and con
tanning the mail for Bismarck, Rice
Berthold and Stevenson. The sergeant
handed both sacks through the postoffice
windowto be unlocked and was greatly dis
tressed because l only handed one of them
out again. At his request I wrote a note
to General Custer so as to shield him from
blame, and stating that l had made ar
engagements for the mail for his post to be
carried separately from the other mail
thereafter. When the general read that he
was said to have been very angry, and to
have declared that his carrier should carry
no more mail for the citizens.
. But Gen. Hazen and the Rice command
ant had sent complaints to army head
quarters, asking for orders to direct the
military mail carrier to leave mail for
their posts at the Bismarck postofice, and
that was an end of the whole trouble. BY
the next spring l had succeeded in having
the mail route between Jamestown and
Bismarck made a star route and the mail
wa thereafter carried by the paid route
agents of the postal department. The
first route agents to bring mail into Bis
marck was Messrs. Plummer and Tenney.
The latter was burned to death in a postal
car on the Northern Pacific railroad about
Dec. l, 1886. A postofice was soon es-
tai lished at Fort Rice, with Capt. William
Harmon, p0st-trader as postmaster, and a
mail route was established between Rice
and Bismarck. Capt. Harmon was a brave
ex-oficer Of the army, n his wife an &C.
complished, noble minded lady, was the
daughter of Mrs. Galpin, a noted ha~lfblood
Sioux IN of great influence in her
tribe and the widow of a wealthy French
trader. Fl. s. Parkins, who afterward
married a sister OF Mrs. Harmon was book
keeper IN the post-trader's store at Fort
Mexican in 1872, and now has an extensive
ranch at the mouth of the Cannon Ball
river.
From my little postofice window | saw
life as 1 had never done before. The en-.
tire population of the city passed IN re-
view before mi on each mail day, and
believe that each man, woman and child
of them regarded me as a personal friend.
I wrote hundreds of letters for those who
could not write. 1 was the recipient OF
countless condolences. Those who re
ceived good news IN their letters turned
back to tell me of it. Those whose letters
bore i'll tidings waited to confide their sor'
rows to me. For the first time in my life l
understood fully my fellow men and wo;
men. The book of human nature was un,
closed before me, and 1 read sad chapters
of the struggles and despair Of lost hu
mainly.
DR.. Slaughter's Office adjoined the post,
Office and many painful Genes have I wit
messed there
On one occasion two men came into
town, got drunk, and went noisily about
the streets. One of them was a boy of Il
years. They were shooting indiscrimi
nately and a bullet went through Jack
Whites tent. The barkeeper seized a CUR
and returned the fire. The boy fell, shoI
through the shoulder. He was carried tt
the Jail, a log building on upper Main
street, where Whites livery stable now is
and where DR.. Slaughter, assisted by DR.
Middleton, post surgeon at Fort Lincoln
performed amputation at the shoulder
joint. His father had come from Duluth
and when the amputation was being per.
formed he came down and asked permits.
sion to stay in the doctors Office, as he
could not control himself to witness the
operation and did not like to be seen cry.
lux I'LL tllC oIACCU. 1uCIO AO 10y uOWu VII
the lounge and sobed and prayed and cried
as I never heard a man cry before. Two
weeks later the boy died, and the same
scene was repeated. The poor mans
greatest trouble was how to break the
sad news to his wife. How he talked
about the boy, telling. us of his pretty
boyish ways, his early promise, n ODE
dience until he fell into bad company and
left home. He could not control himself
to write to the poor lads mother and gave
tup after repeated trials, and it was l who
finally wrote the letter that conveyed the
tidings that her husband was bringing
back to her the lifeless body of their only
son. The man who had fired the fatal
shot was afterward tried before Judge
Carnette and acquitted.
Another victim of indiscriminate shoot.
ing that l saw carried into the doctors Of
fee was William Regain, the six-foot bully
of Jack Whites establishment. He was
shot by a sergeant Of the 18th Cavalry, on
Fourth street. This affair occurred on &C.
count of a woman called 4"Dot," who had a
hairlip, with consequent impeachment in
her speech. Having some business one