The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-10
-S-aas-e--
LIVING WITHOUT A SCALP.
The Agony of 1t Does Not Cease, Even
I'm % Years.
From the New York Press.


in % Years.
From the New York Press
To be scalped and yet to live is the good
luck of but few victims of Indian ferocity.
Many a time in the last twenty-five years
has John T. Cummins wished that the
red man had taken his life along with
his scalp. Cummins lives in one Of the
small towns of Northern California. For
quarter Of century his days have been
filled with agony and his nights with
dreams, in which he lived over again that
awful awakening in 1873.
lie is but one Of the 200 sufferers, most
OF whom are dead. Of the Modoc war, in
which fifty warriors were arrayed against
the United States government The gov
eminent, with that fine sense of justice
which has brought on countless conflicts
attempted to remove the Modocs from
their fertile lands, near the boundary be-
tween California and Oregon to reser-
walton in Oregon, where the soil was so
poor that the whites could not cultivate
il. The Modocs, returning to their old
homes, it became the duty of the great
father in Washington to put them back
on the reservation and make them stay
put" To be sure the Modocs had not
been VIGOROUSLY peaceful in former days
Resenting the intrusion of the whites In
the gold fever times, they made forays
upon the newcomers. In 1852 the settlers
massed their strength and invited the
Modocs to peace talk FOrty-six Indians
responded and the whites killed forty-one
of them. That set the pace for the Candy
massacre twenty years later.
one night in 1872 the cavalry made a
forced march and surprised Captain Jacks
camp while the Modocs were asleep, shot
down eight or nine and wounded others
soldiers wa md
wounded. 1t wasn't much of a victory for
the soldiers, for the Modocs got away 20
the lava beds, in the northeastern corner
of California, killing settlers on the way
These lava beds discount the bad lands Of
Dakota. The surface of the land is of
volcanic formation, and criss-crossed by
scoriac ridge and valley.
Notwithstanding there was a big battle
IN the lava beds in January, 1873, Cum
minis, who was prospecting close to the
Oregon line, didn't seem to know that the
reds were on the warpath. Yet he was no
tenderfoot in the west For years he had
been roaming about the state, looking for
evidences of the yellow metal. Here and
there he found pay dirt, but he had made
no strike. One day, early in the year, he
and his partner, Sam Williams were going
through patch of underbrush, skirting a
stretch of standing timber.
THE first intimation we had that the
Modocs had jumped the reservation, and
that they were numbering all the whites
they could find" he says, was a volley
from the brush. We were armed, of
course, but the lay of the land about us
| offered no protection. Before we could re-
turn the fire there came another Volley,
and Sam fell dead, shot through the head.
If he had been wounded / would have
stayed by him, but to have attempted to
| save his body would have sacrificed my
own life. Hastily snatehing his cartridges
| and examining them into my belt, l ran
| for the tall timber l didn't know the
strength of the Indians, and hoped behind
breastworlos to stand them off. / had just
| reached the trees, when a bullet tore
| through my forearm making il hard to
use the gun. Still, didn't stop, until all
of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in the
| breast and fell down. That's all remem-
| Der till the next morning.
II came partly to my senses, and my
| face was all wet. There was a most pc
| cullar sensation In my head, yet l wasn't
| conscious enough to feel pain. Instnc-
! lively put up my hand to my head and
the touch made me culver all over. lost
| consciousness again, and il was hours
| and hours before l came to.
"A party of soldiers found me, and the
surgeon did all he could. My scalp from
| the temples back down to the neck had
| been torn off. leaving little wisps of nair
around the ears. 1 suppose ] ought to
I
| to be scalped by a Greaser, for they lift
| from side to side, and take off the ears
| with the rest. No one who has been scalp
| ed by the Mexicans ever lived to tell how
| 1t felt.
| THE surgeon applied such cooling and
healing lotions as he happened to have or
| could make l wished, oh, so many
| times, that the reds had finished their
| work and put me out of my misery. The
/ head healed, of course, but IL was like
/ laying bare your heart and touching Il
| with a red-hot iron. You never felt that?
| Well, perhaps your mind is active enough
/ to imagine. IL Is easier now, but I can't
| bear the weight of a pencil, hardly the
weight of a hair, there. Even the warm
/ touch of a finger makes me scream. As
| to my other wounds, the one that knocked
me out was in the right breast. / went
east into a hospital and they cut an ar
| row head out of me. There, too, / was
| lucky. II I had been among the PEACHES
would have been killed outright, for
| they poison the tips Of their arrows"
| The scalped part of Cummns head does
MT look like ordinary badness Il is COW
/ cred with thin, green-blue skin. Hair
continues to grow on the untouched part
| OF the head. and the edge OF the old scalp
/ makes a ridge about the bare place.
| Cummins still lives in the region made
| memorable TO him by the loss OF his scalp.
| But things have changed up there. After
| the massacre or the peace commissioners
| and Gen. Candy, the government parleyed
no longer. The troops closed in, and after
| several battles and the loss Of many lives
| the Modocs were defeated, the chiefs cap
| tured and four Of them hanged. Twenty
| years later Fort Bidwell, IN the Surprise
/ Valley, Modoc county near the lava beds
! was abandoned by the war department
| and turned over 60 the interior depart
ment All r. peace ana quiotncss IN North
| ern California nowadays. and John Cum
| Minis has the satisfaction Of knowing that
| his injury was, IA part. reVcnged.
| Princes Marie Won Hohenloho, wife OF
/ the Imperial chancellor, has performed The
/ notable feat OF killing "a bear whio hunt
| --- ON -.r ---.L-- I'M uL---- L-- mn