St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-27

OF Frontier Life In South Dakota I'm
the Early Days.

The following incident Of early life Is
written by Samuel J. Brown, son of the well
known pioneer Joseph Brown, and re-
lates Mr.. Browns narrow escape from a
wounded and maddened buffalo. 1t is copied
from the Browns Valley Tribune.
In the fall of 1865 Gen Corse and staff came
up from st. Paul on a tour of inspection.
In order to give them treat number Of
officers and soldiers, and some of the scouts
and Indian hunters from the fort, numbering
in all about 100, under the leadership of
Gabriel Renyille escorted the distinguished
party to the buffalo country about Buzzard's
Roost, high peak on the western slope of
the Coteau des Prairie, about forty miles
southwest from the fort and overlooking the
James river fats. Near this point, about
where the town Of Gordon is located, we
struck an immense herd, terror-in inspiring
one. from $4,000 to $4,000 strong. sprig Of
an of1cer,a lieutenant or captain on the gener-
ais staff and named Scott, who had borrowed
the most valuable and swiftest horse at the
fort, and was going to teach the Indians
how best to slay the buffalo, armed himself
with brace of Colts revolvers, telling the
Indians the long gun was no good, ,at the very
outset or onIush, when the Indians, at sig.
nal from Gabriel Renville began yelling and
whooping in a manner that would have put
the Israelites at Jericho to the blush, got
excited and dropped one of his pistols and
with the other accidentally shot his horse
through the head and felled it to the grounds
thereby losing the days sport.
At this same hunt and chase q strange adj
venture befell me. But before relating it
wish to say that never was an expert buffalo
hunter-that is, never could pick out the
fattest and best of the drove and kill them
ono after another and as fast as one could
fire. as the late Chief Renville or as Charles
Crawford used to do. ! have seen the former,
armed with Henry repeater, shoot and kill
sixteen on one run and In less than that
many minutes, and the latter fifteen, while
four Is the most ever killed, and had a full
hour to do 1t in. My forte was to single out
the bulls, drive them from the herd and fiji
them with bullets. At the time I speak of
noticed in the midst Of the scampering herd
big buffalo bull, very shaggy fellow, and
one Of the ugliest looking brutes I had ever
seen. at once made up my mind to separate
the big fellow from the drove and kill It II
could, or at least have some fun with It.
was mounted on a swift horse and armed with
a Henry repeater l rushed toward the big
fellow and drove it from the herd and followed
1t for about three miles peppering 1t as T
went along. wounding it in several places and
shooting off my last cartridge. 1t 30 hap
pened that the buffalo, as If 1t knew that I
was out of ammunition and could do 1t no
last round, turned upon me and gave chase.
was going at full speed and passed the ami
NAL and circled around with the buffalo in
| hot pursuit, not more than twenty feet away.
| put the whip to my horse and fed for 'ear
| life, and was soon far in the lead, quartz Of
| a mile or so from the buffalo galIoped up
to the top of the knoll and looked back. 1 saw
| the big fellow coming toward me slowly and
| leisurely. Thinking that perhaps the animal
was not after me in particular, but was crazed
| from the wounds had inflicted upon it, and
| was simply looking for a place to drop, 7
| thought would give 1t the slip and see what 1t
| would do. l went down on the opposite side Of
the knoll and came back around under the
| mound and hid behind hillock, where could
| be seen only from the top Of the knoll. The buff
falo soon Came Jogging along UP the knoll and
ascended to the top. Here it stood for some
minutes looking around in every direction,
AT the instant 1t caught sight of me the
| big fellow bounded down and took after me as
before again put the whip to my horse and
| started for camp, two miles away and soon
| left the buffalo far behind. 1 would now and
then look back and see 1t coming at slow
! pace, and when about a mile from camp again
tried to puzzle the animal by passing over q
mound and showing myself and then going
down into dry run and following 1t back
and standing partially hidden from view by
| the tall grass and deep washout. Very soon
| the big fellow came jogging along, passed by
and went on the mound, and on reaching the
top stopped and looked around. He stood
there for some minutes looking in all direc-
tions, and the instant it caught a glimpse of
me through the tall grass 1t again gave chase
galloping slowly and then walking, as If 1t
meant to catch me eff it took all summer"
l became somewhat nervous Indeed, the
thought that my horse might step into a wolf
hole or gopher knoll or throw me off and be
tossed in the air by a buffalo, and mad one
at that made me fairly shake with fear, and
l put the whip to old Dobbin and dashed Off
Very soon the buffalo started on run and
when saw this piled the whip more vigor-
ously than ever, and made a ''bee line" for
camp, into which went tearing, with the in
furfated animal close at my heels. 1t so hap
pened that Capt. Mills, the quartermaster
general of "Tatanka Republic" who had just
got in from the chase and had not yet dis
mounted, rode out and shot the mad buffalo,
within hundred yards of the ambulance and
baggage wagons.