The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-19
JUMPING ON BUFFALOEs.
Tiger jacks Truest story of a Mar
veIOus Escape.
From the Kansas City Journal.


From the Kansas City Journal.
Speaking of liars" said the western
Kansas man, as he knocked the ashes out
of his pipe and looked at the real estate
agent out of the corner of his eye, Il think
Western Kansas can show up some as rare
specimens as 1 ever set eyes on. Now,
there was old John S. I'll not give his
full name because the old man still lives
out somewhere near Kiowa, and if he was
to get in print as noted liar ne might
get hot When ! read an account OF Speak
er Bill Streets speech up in Jewell county
at an old settlers picnic, where he said
that he had stood on a knoll and seen a
dense. moving herd of buffalo as far as the
eye could reach, some way it brought ola,
John TO mind.
''When 1 first struck the short grass
country old John was there. He got me
cornered one day, and was so tickled to
get a fresh victim that he hardly stopped
even to take a drink, until he had stuffed
me so full that l was partially paralyzed
for a month afterward. He gave me to UNI
derstand that for years before he came to
Kansas he was one of the most dreaded
desperadoes and Indian killers that ever
roamed through the Rocky mountains. 1
learned afterward that he wouldn't fight a
cat, and actually trembled with fear when
ever his hatchet-faced wife turned loose on
him with her tongue, but when first met
him his boodthirsty talk fairly made my
blood run cold.
HE informed me that he was known
far and wide through the mountains as
Tiger Jack, the terror Of the Rockies
But 1 was going to speak of his buffalo
story. l asked him one day, just to bring
him out, If he ever got into any tight
places when he was hunting buffalo. ON.
I've been in places that l suppose most
AL, r., Is,I fI,,.A
never any place that ratified Tiger Jack
but once, and that time l own l was
little worried
81 was huntin' buffalo down the Medi-
cine Valley along in 20. The country
was just alive with the critters and 1 was
knockin' 'em right and left, when all at
once somethin' started a stampede, and
three or four million buffalo came rushin'
down the valley, just maxim the ground
shake as they come. 1 seen at once that /
would have to get out of there or be run
over, but my pony was all tagged out,
and the herd kept gaining on him at
every jump. 1 saw that them buffalo was
goin to run that pony down and that
something had to be done and done quick.
Well, sir, 1 seen that there was just one
thing to do; l waited till the head buffalo
was right on my ponys flank and then L
made a jump and landed right on that
buffalos hump.
Then, sir, L just went Jumpn from
one back of one buffalo to another and
shootin' as 1 went-though, maybe, you
know, that l could scatter the herd and
get a chance to get down to the ground.
Well, sir, when 1 struck the rear end of
that stampede 1 was only a mile from
home l went out the next day and meas
ured the distance from where 1 jumped
from my pony to where l hit the ground,
and found l had Travelled on the backs
of buffalo for six miles and a quarter.
I'll tell you honestly, mister, 1 think it
was a little the closest shave ever had"