Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-06-08

remained in the country turned their
attention to stock raising or farming,
and lucky were those who stayed with
the few head of cattle they managed to
get together. In few years they
found themselves rich beyond their
widest dreams.
Briny located ranch on the Marias
river and put into practice some cher
ished theories he had about raising
crops on the benchlands without irri-
| cation. Like many another old-timer
he had married an Indian woman, and
with their child of six or seven years
they lived frugally and for time in
peace. Two or three miles up the
river another former trader had To-
Gated, who was also married to an
Indian woman, and Briny's wife often
went up there to stay day or two
with her friend, who was of the same
tribe as herself. Late in the fall a
big bull outfit, OF freight train of
wagons drawn by oxen, came to the
river to winter, and the owner of it,
man named Tricket, made arrange
| ments with Briny's neighbor to board
himself ana his men. Tricket was a
fine looking man and evidently we'll
off, and seeing Briny's wife at the
ranch often, he finally persuaded her
to quit her husband. When Briny
heard that his wife had deserted him,
which he did in the course of few
days, he gu etly saddled his horse and
went up to where she was stopping
His little son was playing out in the
yard with some other children, and
calling the child to him he lifted him
up on to the saddle and returned to
his home.
While the boys mother didn't care
for her husband she did for her son
and fretted continually about him.
One day she told Tricket that if he
did not go and bring the child back to
her she would leave him. Tricket de-
INJURED; he had no use for the boy and
didn't want him around, so he kept
putting the woman off with all kinds
OF excuses. Finally Tricket's herder,
a wild young fellow who had come
west with his head filled with dime
novel yarns, told the woman he would
get the boy for her and saddling his
horse rode away down the river. Ar
irving in front of Briny's cabin he
shouted to him to come out, and when
Briny came to the door he levelled his
rifle at him and said:
''Now, then, you old potato eater,
I've come after that kid; his mother
wants him. Give him out here quick
or I'll fill yon full of holes"
Briny looked him quietly in the eye
and replied: ''The boy is mine, 1
will not But he never finished
his sentence; the herder shot him
squarely in the forehead, and down he
went in heap. The murderer got of
his horse and stepping over Briny's
body into the cabin grasped the ter
rifed child, threw him up into the
saddle and returned home.
By the time news of the murder
reached the settlers the murderer had
become alarmed and had disappeared
without leaving trace of his course.
The little band of determined men
who hunted for him were finally OBJ
liged to give up the search and return
to their homes. A month later they
heard some news which caused them
to rejoice that they had not found and
hanged him. The mail carrier from
Fort Macleod, away across the border
in Canada, brought word that on his
way north on the previous trip he
found the fellow wandering about on
the prairie badly frozen. He carried
him in his wagon to the fort, and there
the surgeon was obliged to cut off both
hands and both feet. Thus his punish
ment was vastly greater than if he
had been hanged or sh ot. No warrant
was ever asked for his extradition; the
friends OF Briny wished him to live
and suffer.
The following spring Briny's son
died. and late in the summer the
woman followe him. The writer was
at the ranch OF friend where she was
stopping the night she died. She had
been sinking rapidly all the evening,
and about IL o'clock, after repeated
supplications to the gods of her people
to spare her, she said to the ranch
man:
"Pray to your white mans God for
me- Ask Him to let me live
Woman" said he, 81 cannot pray
for you. I cannot forget that you
were the cause of Briny's death"
A few moments later she died.
New York Sun.