The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-16
LAND OTHERS CONSIDERABLY MOVED AWAY"

station, and with that troop, the maddest
man in all Wyoming, was Lieutenant Will
Farrar.
Six or seven weeks previously an order
had come to Fenton to send two troops to
scout the western slopes of the Big Horn,
and keep the peace between settlers and
the Shoshones. Time was when these lat
ter rarely ventured across the Big Horn
River, partly through fear of the Sioux
who claimed sovereignty over all the lands
east of the Shoshone preserves in the Wind
River Valley, partly through regard for
the orders of their loyal old chief, Wash
axle, who for long, long years of his life
had kept faith with the Great White
Father, held his people in check and
suffered the inevitable consequences of
poverty and neglect, the policy of the In
dian Bureau being to load with favors only
those of its wards who defy it and deal
death to the whites. Settlers seldom en-
croach upon the Sioux, those gentry being
abundantly able and more than will
ing to take care of themselves, but the
Shoshones had known long years of ener-
waiting peace, and being held in subsection
by their chief became the natural prey of
the whites. who mistook subordination for
subservience, as is natural to free born
Americans, and as easily adopted by fell
low-citizens of foreign birth, and who soon
began to encYach on their own account,
stealing Shothone crops and cattle and
promptly accusing the army officer on duty
as agent of cattle-stealing and all-round
rascality when he reseized the cap
tured stock. Then, while this bad
gered official was defending himself in
court, the Shoshones had to defend them
selves in the field, and that peripatetic
buffer between the oppressor and the op-
pressed, the corporations and the cranks
the law and tho 10 wi Sc-tha n 1a1
lied aTmy-was sent out as usual to receive
the sings and arrows of outrageous for
tune and of both parties. Finding it diff
cult to swindle the Shoshones so long as
their new agent-the army agent re
manned in power, the obvious thing was
Washington, and, if that didn't work, by
deft manipulation of the local law Of
course they didn't expect to prove him
guilty of anything, but there was no law
against lying, and they could compel him
to come into court and prove himself inno-
cent, and leave his unarmed wards to the
mercy of the settler in the meantime, and
so it happened that there We're high links
up the Wind River valley and along those
wonderful ranges in the wild valleys of
the Gray Bull, the Meeyero, the Meeteet
see. north of the Owl Greek Mountains,
and the cavalry having long since
been Withdrawn from that section,
tnat was HOW inc uetali Iell on
old Fort Frayne. "You can straighten
matters out in month" said the com
manding officer to Major Wayne, who had
fastened back from the East to take COM
mand, and when it came to selecting the
troops to go, even though it lacked less
than two months to his wedding day, Will
Farrar gloried in the fact that his was one
of them. 1t was hard to conceive of a lot
in which spirited, soldierly fellow of
twentv-one could possibly be happier than
commanding troop of cavalry on an ex-
petition through SO glorious country.
Amory's troop and Leale's were desig-
mated, and the latter captain being still in
Berlin and the senior subaltern on staff
duty in the East, Farrar was his own cap
tain and troop commander, and, despite
the troubles Of the Christmas season, long