Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-06-08

mlnSCfol SHOWS. anu Inc HOps, anu Iuc
dinners at the coloneIS and the doctor S
kind of make up for the bad winter
months and the sand feas. OF course
it's the same doggonit old story, week
in and week out. Until you people came
I'VE hadn't new arrival for mOren two
years, exceptin' Indians and the pay
master-and Miss Corliss, the adjutant' S
niece / reckon you've met her? Well,
she come out last November, green and
somewhat shy for this part of the Unit
ed States. The doctors daughter is the
only other girl we have, and she's at
school in Boston. When she comes
home the two girls ought to make pair
worth your while, / tell YOU
The sutler twisted his mouth into a
smile. Mix bit the end off a fresh cigar
and asked if Miss Corliss had ever en-
joyed killing day.
''She hasn't ever seen one, sir. She
bought some smelling salts at the store
/ dunno of any handsomer this side of
Omaha. pom my socks | don't, eX-
ceptin' the doctors daughter; and we've
kind o got used to putin her first. We
can't somehow get over it.
So the talk ran while the blackboard
iolted easily over the lumpy, springy buff
falo grass of the level prairie. When
ever the sutler tagged little on Miss
Corliss Mix promptly reminded him, and
was in turn reminded by a nudge from
Sandman, who found difficulty in squeez-
ing in an occasional question on the con-
dition of the reservation and the possible
ity of a war dance. BY the time Mix
had extracted bookful on the adju-
tant's niece the blackboard was in sight
of Spotted Tail reservation.
"We'll drive over to Black Wings log
house." the sutler said. ''You can dress
there while | hunt UP couple of ponies.
I suppose you want 'em fast and don't
o4 10 II J1174 1N01y O1If
if they have sore backs. dunno, maybe
Black Wing himself is goin' to kill to-
day He usually does when there's COM
pany from the post"
By 2 o'clock the long, thin procession
of bucks and squaws which had been
stringing out from the four corners of
the reservation were gathered around
dusky heads capped the pointed birch
slabs as if they were spiked. Excepting the
monotonous mumbling of 5000 gutteral
voices, the crowd was remarkably quiet.
Some of it was squatting indoiently on
sleepy ponies, but most Of it was afoot
in yellow and gray and red blankets and
ill-fitting getaway coats and buckSkln
breeches, and cast-off cavalry raiment.
Against the fence, near the long bar gate,
the post ambulance was drawn up, and
on top of it, in camp chairs, under red
and white parasols, sat the colonel and
his wife, and the post adjutant and Mrs.
Urquhart, the suffers wife-and a black
eyed girl under a big leghorn hat. She
looked down with studious tranquility
along the rows of ugly faces turned to-
ward her, or watched the dozen steers
that were grazing lazily in the center of
the corral. She was getting some more
of that experience which her parents had
told her would be unconventional and
already she was thinking how much of it
ShQ
paper in a small square envelope that
very night, not forgetting to mention the
strong smell Of Indian that was every
where in the the air.
Presently the mumbling along the
fence grew louder, and as the bar gate
rode in bareback on lope, it swelled
into lusty shouting. Two of the riders.
in tight, beaded buckskins and flannel
shirts, wore red calico on their heads
and toed in. Another, the brawniest of
the batch, had three speckled feathers
in his hair and sat his pony as if he were
posing fer photograph. That was
Black Wing
According to custom, the riders swung
to the right and cantered down around
the corral and back to the gate, waking
up the herd and saluting the party on
the ambulance with waving of hands,
amid prolonged bowling from the throats
aIOnS ne renee. iDeH there was a
lull, which fell to dead silence while
Black Wing raised his broad bowie as
high as he could reach, uttered a piercing
coyote cry, and charged into the herd.
He bore down on the beast with the
longest horns and dealt it a swooping,
savage, crunching blow behind the shout
der with al Ibis might, then drew back
little, brandished his dripping knife, and
sprang in again.
The show had now begun. A mighty
hurrah went up from the crowd along
the fence as all the riders closed in for
the fight and slaughter; and while they
punched and slashed on left and right,
and spattered themselves with hot blood,
the applause broke into frantic screech-
ing, aud the 5000 spectators jumped up
and down and waved their hands and
dug their dirty nails into the fence for
JOY.
Two steers dropped on their knees and
toppIed over. The crazy herd seemed to
understand, and made a furious dash
for the lower end of the corral, came to-
gether. Rugged the fence and stampeded
in sheer terror, with the ponies on 4 run
at their gathering heels in a cloud of
dust. If you have never seen bleeding
Texas cattle stampede, with their long
horned heads shaking frantically close to
the ground, and their big eyes glistening,
there is at least one kind of excitement
you maven experienced. line nero was
rounding past the gate, well punched,
when suddenly there went up from along
the fence yell that split the air. One
of the bucks with red calico on his head
had been pitched from his pony. Sand
ham had warned Mix that his ticklish
pony might throw him, and when he
saw the boy lying at the lower end of
the corral in a heap, motionless, with
the frenzied herd aimed straight at him,
he grew a little pale under his grease
paint. AS he swung away from the
bucks and kicked his pony into a dead
run, the crowd quit screening, and with
jaws set watched him race to bea1 the
plunging herd. At seventy five yards
he passed it. Six lengths farther he
threw himself full length half off his
pony's back, swooped out and down,
snatched a handful of Mix's shirt and
took up the race again, Juggling 155
pounds of limp helplessness. It was
magnificent showing of skill and nerve
and the crowd said so at once with an
outburst of shrieking that increased to
panic when it realized that both bucks
were white men. Sandham's shirt was
rinOnd TO his waist and Miy'S Honda