Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-03-12
A BUFFALO STAMPEDE.
An Indian Chief Saves . white Boy from
Being Crushed to Death.

An Indian Chief Saves . White Boy from
Being Crushed to Death.
A number of the bulls began to BET
low, and to throw dirt with their hoofs.
Their noise and stir started herd
from the nearest hill, and we saw
host of them come tearing down the
slope, with long, lunging jumps, some
of them finging their heels and tails
high in the air. jumping sidewisc and
bawling in mad, freakish way, just a
cattle sometimes plunge down hill
half in play, half in state of nervous
excitement. There was now perfect
bedlam of noise, and clouds of dust
were rising on all hands,. The chief
motioned to me to shoot.
/ carried short, thick barreled buf
Salo-gun-it was before the days Of the
breach-loaders-whic threw an ounce
and a hilf slug. cimed at a bull some
30 feet away, who offered broadside
shot in his paving. The heavy ball
knocked him off his feet, and the next
moment he was at the last gasp.
The chief also fired his rifle, with
what effect I did notsee for our shots
did not startle even the nearest ami.
mails, 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 a great crowd had
pressed down out of the ravine, and
hundreds were plunging down the
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. did the same. He had evident
ly counted on scattering the buffalo,
and frightening them off by our frat
| shots.
Instead, tumbling mass of them
had gathered about the animal which
had shot, and, excited to greater
! frenzy .nan ever by the smell of blood,
We're filling the air with hoarse, deep,
| quavering roars, which made the
| ground tremble under us.
/ The dust from the multiplying num-
Dcrs which surged in toward us. per-
yaded as it was with alkali, set me into
paroxysm of sneezing and coughing
in spite of my intense alarm. 1t now
enveloped us in SO thick cloud that we
could practically see nothing. SUD-
denly the chief seized me by the arm.
Come he said, 1--WE go quick!" and
we started off at run. We lodged
hither and thither to get ont 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 run so yards. 1 was again seizeI
by a violent fit of coughing and sneez-
ing.
1 shouted to Little Bear, between
answered only: "We go quick
quick" and, keeping tight grip up n
ny arm, jerked me his way and thai,
as we rushed ahead.
But, active and powerful as he was.
he could not save me in my blindness
from collision. / was hit by one of the
huge animals and knocked over. The
creature struck me on the left side
and 1 was wrenched from the chiefs
grasp and sent rolling over and over in
the dust. In fact, 1 was knocked
breathless, half-stunned, and could not
have risen at once of my own accord.
1 should have been run over and
crushed but for the chief. AS it was,
| had just senst enough to know that
| was ierked from the ground, tossed
upward, and borne forward upon his
shoulders.
He raE like a deer, carrying me as If
had been a 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,
and among that excited mass of AM
mails is, and always will be, mystery
to me. ...
But ne did il.
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. " " H.
They Come to the United States.