The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-17

| his feet forever. PerhapS ne was Soille-
what wild and his debts overbalanced
his allowance by considerable, but that
was nothing more than was the case
with many other younger sons. who at
| terward lived to wear the title and
scatter the estates of their fathers
with prodigal hand. 1t was not the
| debts nor the escapades OF younger
son that started him drifting. Per-
| haps it was the story of the many
! who leave their homes and a waiting
| sweetheart to seek fortune in another
land. Sometimes they find the fortune
and return to finish the story-thls
younger son was one of the ones VINO
never come back and whose identity
| becomes lost among the moving DRIFT
wood of life's river
/ Whatever the reason, one day 1ier
| Majesty Queen Victoria had changed
second lieutenants in the Royal irish
rifles and the younger son, with Inc
commission money in his pocket, board
| ed a ship bound for the United states.
No matter what the name was across
| the water, when the gang plank was
| lowered, it was John George Brown,
handsome, soldierly appearing young
| man with an Irish accent, who stepped
| on American soil for the first time,
| and John George Brown he remained
| to the end Of the chapter. That was IN
1851, and young Brown followed the
| stream Oh fortune IuuLtlS ttlcll pun MS
| into California. Sometimes fortune
smiled upon him, but more often he
was on the ragged edge. One day he
| found the claim he had been looking
| for and things began to come his way.
| Having d comfortable little fortune
gathered, visions of home and sweet
heart were almost realized. One day he
| took a small flyer in stocks and was
phenomenally successful 1t looked easy
and he concluded he might just as well
| take back a million to the waiting
| sweetheart as a few paltry thou
sands. He would give the market
a touch of high life. He did, and in
less than a month he did not have
money enough to buy breakfast with.
The savings of 10 years were gone and
| the story began over again. Brown
| and three companions drifted into Brit
| ish Columbia and the kootenai coun-
| try. They We're successful, and after
three years of the toughest kind of
roughing it, loaded their horses and
started for old Fort Mcleod. In the
holsters of each mans saddle was pack
ed about $4,000 in gold, besides valu-
able furs. One day While they We're
eating dinner on the banks of the Old
| Man river, they We're suddenly attack
ed by a war party of Blackfeet Indians
and compelled to take to the brush
| Luckily none of them were killed, but
| they lost everything they had and were
compelled to foot it to Fort Benton
several hundred miles distant through
a country so thick with hostile Indians
that a mans scalp almost raised itself
on the slightest provocation. That was
| in 1865, and the chances to make money
were plenty Brown trapped and car
ried the mail between Buford and Clag-
gett. He bought hides from the Indians
and by spring had piled up over $1,000
| IIrnr h a nc ,tyT of Ind
his place one night and the next morn
| ing Brown, looking out of the brush
heap in which he was hiding, saw only
| a pile of ashes and the remains of a
| Red River cart where his house and
wealth in furs had been.
Brown was not a profane man nor
with all his wanderingS had he become
anything other than an English officer
and gentleman. but continued misfor-
tune was not aiding in building up his
character by any means, and to one of
his intimate friends he often remark
ed that it was the unlucky day of his
life when he laid off the red coat. One
day the mail brought a letter: what
news was in it no one knew, but his
| one intimate friend always insisted
that the elder brother in Ireland had
married the sweetheart of Brown the
trapper. Perhaps this was so, perhaps
not; but no one of his friends ever saw
him get another letter with a foreign
postmark- If Brown was crossed in
love he took queer way of showing
IT. for he soon after married Red RiV-
ed half-breed and proceeded to raise a
| dusky brood OF young Crees and drift
along with the tide in true Indian fash
ion. In 1872, he came to Fort Benton
and finally located on the Teton river
a few miles north of the fort. One day
his squaw and the squaw of French
Louis, who lived further up the stream
quarreled and Brown called at Louie's
teepee to look the matter up. Brown
was horseback and after a wordy war
Louie dared him to dismount Brown
who was a man who feared nothing
sprang from his house and Louie rar
for his teepee. Brown followed him
and just as Louie was bringing arounG
his rifle to fire, Brown planted his bowie
knife between his shoulders, and the
Frenchman's light went out.
Brown was arrested, taken to Helena
and after remaining in Jail for a yea
was released on the testimony o
Louie's squaw, who was the only wis
ness to the tragedy. During his near