The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-10-27
REAL GHOST DANCE.
1T OCCURRED AT THE CITY JAIL
LAST NIGHT.
Two Drunken Indians Came Near
Soaring an Intoxicated Sheep
Hcrder to Death-PoIice Notes.

What might have proven a case of
literal scare to death was narrowly
averted at the city Jail last evening by
the timely rush of Desk Sergeant James
Adams to the drunk house, who dragged
out Jim Thompson, a drunken Swede
sheep herder. who had been thrown in
few hours previous by officer De
Young
Thompson was asleep on the be-
erimed floor back of the grated iron
door. when Officers Everill and Brown
brought in Will Crow and Jim Crow,
Two OF Uncle Sans wards, who We're
Just run enough of tarantula juice to be
y1eiously funny 1t was twilight when
the two Indians were dulaped from the
patrol into the dingy nest occupied by
the man from the sagebrush and cactus.
lngs and sized up Thompson on the
moor, they took some fresh keal from
theIr pockets and painted up their faces
Win the savage War-streaks that make
even Gosh Ute Indians face look
meaner and more hideous. They then
started in on their low grunt and walk
around the PROSTATE form of the uncon-
sclouS herder; on and on and round and
round they went; with that indiscribable
sl1p-hitch- and-kick-hop step and slip,
With now and then grunt and "ugh!'
and between the 'ughsi" were sand
wlched low, wild, tiendishly weird in
as they warmed up to their work.
Louder and louder grew the voices, and
SWlfter grew the steps. Finally the In
dlans mad worked themselves up into all
the wild and wooHy enthusiasm and
maddened frenzy of the Simon Pure ar
tlcle of the war Dance and they were
yelling and gesticulating and dancing
IKE demons, fourishing two long Bowie
KNIVES above their heads and anon they
would slash close to Thompson's neck,
When that very drunken denizen from
the sheep trails woke up. He was SO
drunk that he could scarce realize what
was transpiring at first but very soon
ms eyes became accustomed to the
ghostly scene made quite plain by the
big ,arc-lamp then Pickering in the jail
yard
Thompson, as he subsequently, related,
said that he was dreaming that ne was
being pursued by Indians that had first
Killed all of his sheep; that they were
chasing him up canyon, whose walls
1t was impossible to scale; that arrow
after arrow had been shot through his
body, and then the bullets whizZed by
and around him and then they shot his
head full of holes, from behind. but still
canyon; finally he came to a bluff up
which he apparently climbed al right
angles. and the Indians followed in the
same manner; and finally, surrounded
him on the ice-cap of a cloud-croWned
mountain; here they were slowly freez-
ing him to death and then with fire
brands would warm him back to life
again when they scalped him, and then
between roasts and freezes they were
slowly Remembering him. At this point,
he says, he passed from his dream into
semi-consciousness, and gradually real
lied that there were sure enough Indians
around and about him when they were
at their highest pitch of the wild orgy
being INDUCED in. He was sure they
We're about to kill him, and in an in
slant, he says, he was as sober as he
ever was in his life 1t was at this mo-
ment that he began to yell murder"
police" and help" and Adams rushed
the Indians had in reality worked them
selves up into a maddened frenzy SUI
perinduced by abundance of liquid
barbed wire. '3
Thompson was taken out of the drunk
house and put in the jail pro-
per. where he finally recovered,
rallied from sWoon, and a
second shock no doubt would have killed
even had the Indians never touched him.
He was the most abject looking crea-
ture that ever lived through such an I'M
canny ordeal.
After considerable trouble the Indians
We're finally subdued and Quoted, but
they were very mean about it. Finally
they demanded blankets on condition Of
their knives. which ex-
change was subsequently made.
Up to an early hour this morning It
was no sure thing whether Thompson
would survive the scare or not.