Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-03-14
A BUFFALO STAMPEDE.
An Indian Chief Saves . White Boy from
Being Crushed to Death.


| low, and to throw dirt with their hoofs.
Their noise and stir started a herd
from the nearest hill, and we saw n
| host of them come tearing down the
slope, with long, Iunging jumps, some
of them fiinging their heels and tails
l"gh in the air. jumping sidewise and
bawling in a mad, freal1ish way, just as
cattle sometimes plunge down hill
half in play, half in a state of nervous
excitement. There was now a perfect
bedlam of noise, and clouds of dust
were rising on all hands. The chief
motioned to me to shoot
carried a short, thick-barreled b1f
+alo-gu1-it was before the days of tie
breach-loaders-wh threw an ounce
and half slug. eimed at bull some
80 feet away, who offered broadside
shot in his paving. The heavy ball
knocked him off his feet, and the mex.
moment he was at the last gasp.
The chief also fired his rife, with
what effect I did not see, for our shots
mals, so great was the noise of their
own Rawlings, and so thick the cloud
of dust they had raised. A mad era =
seemed suddenly to have possessed
me whole herd, for great crowd had
pressed down cut of the rayine, and
hundreds were plunging down tho
bluffs. The situation had suddenly be-
come startling and dangerous.
The chief, in alarm, sprang to his
feet, and threw the wolf-skin from his
head. l did the same. He had evident
~ counted on scattering the buffalo,
and frightening them Off by our first
shots.
Instead, tumbling mass of them
had gathered about the animal which
1 had shot, and, excited to greater
frenzy than ever by the smell of blood,
were filling the air with hoarse, deep.
quavering roars, which made the
ground tremble under US.
The dust from the multiplying mum
bcrs which surged in toward us per.
vaded as it was with alkali, set me into
paroxysm of sneezing and coughing
in spite of my intense alarm. It now
onveloped us in SO thick cloud that we
could practically see nothing. SuG-
denly the chief seized me by the arm.
"Come,' he said, 1--WE go quicl1!" and
we started off at a run. We lodged
hither and thither to get out of the way
of plunging, bawling animals, many
Of which lunged past within arm
reach.
The dust had grown continuously
thicker, and my eyes, filled with smart,
ing alkali, failed me utterly before we
had ruiz so yards. I was again seizeI
by violent fit of coughing and sneez-
.ag.
[ shouted to Little Bear, between
my coughings, that I could not see. He
answered only: eve go quick
quick" and, keeping tight grip up n
as we rushed ahead.
But, active and powerful as he was
he could not save me in my blindness
from collision. I was hit by one of the
huge animals and knocked over. The
creature struck me on the left side
and I was wrenched from the chiefs
grasp and sent rolling over and over IN
the dust. In fact, [ was knocked
breathless, haif-stunned, and could not
have risen at once of my own accor!.
I should have been run over and
crushed but for the chief. AS it was,
[ had just sense enough to know that
was ierked from the ground, tossed
upward, and borne forward upon his
shoulders.
He raE like deer, carrying me as if
: hadSbeen papoose, jumping and
lodging this way and that, among tho
throng of animals, whose rumbling
tread sounded in my ears like the NUT
tering of thunder.
Twice he was run over and thrown,
and we both measured our full
lengths; but h was on his feet again
in an instant, and, lifting me as before,
darted ahead, seemingly unhurt. How
lie managed to keep his eyesight and
his bearings in that choking cloud,
end among that excited mass of ami
mails is, and always will be, mystery
to me.
But ne did it.
He carried me out of that believing, |
crazy crowd of animals, and set me
upon my feet upon the hill above them.
giving utterance to huge grunt of
satisfaction when he found that could
stand. Frank Welles Calkins, in 81.
Nicholas.