The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1896-03-18
A BUFFALO STAMPEDE.
An Indian Chief Saves White Boy from
Being Crushed to Death.

Being Crushed to Death.
| A number of the bulls began to BET
low, ant! to throw dirt with their hoors.
Their noise and stir started herd
from the nearest hill, and we saw a
host of them come tearing down the
slope, with long, lunging jumps, some
of them flinging their heels and tails
l.gh in the air. jumping sidewis; and
bawling in mad, freakish way, just az;
cattle sometimes plunge down a 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.
l carried short, thick barreled bIf
-alo-gur-it was before the days of tie
each-loaders-which threw an ounce
and a half slug aimed at bull some
30 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 rifle. with
what effect l did not see, 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 great crowd had
pressed down cut of the ravine, and
hundreds We're plunging down thu.
bluffs. The situation had suddenly be-
come startling end dangerous.
The chief, in alarm, sprang to his
| feet, and threw the wolf-skin from his
head. 1 did the same. He had evident
ly counted on scattering the buffalo,
and frightening them off by our first
| shots.
Instead, tumbling mass of them
| had gathered about the animal which
| L had shot, and, excited to greater
frenzy than ever by the smell of blood,
were filing the air with hoarse, deep,
| quayering roars, which made the
! ground tremble under US.
The dust from the multiplying num-
bcrs which surged in toward us per-
vaded as it was with alkali, set me into
a paroXysm of sneezing and coughing
in spite of my intense alarm. 1t now
cnveloped us in so thick a cloud that we
could practically see nothing. Sue
denly the chief seized me by the arm.
| Come he said, ''we go quick!" and
we started off at 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 run so yards. was again seizei
by violent fit of coughing and sneez-
ing.
l shouted to Little Bear, between
| my cnnghings; that could not see. He
| answered only: "We go quick
quick." and, keeping tight grip up =,
ny arm, jerked me this 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 l 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 tina
| was jerked from the ground, tossed
upward, and borne forward upon h; s
shoulders.
He raE like deer, carrying me as Il
had been papoose, jumping and
lodging this way and that, among the:
throng of animals, whose rumblin9
tread sounded il my ears like the NUT
tering OF thunder.
Twice he was run over and thrown,
and we both measured our eull
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 tina, excited mass of AM
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 a huge grunt of
satisfaction when he found that could
stand. Frank Welles Calkins, in ST.
| Nicholas.
| Warning IF the Register.