The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-28

shortly after daylight, there was z
 knock at the door and some one shout
 ed:
 "Openl Open There's a customer with robes"
 Tripp swung the door open and the
 old man, frozen stiff, a bullet hole ir
 his breast, almost fell on him. Some
 early risers had found the old fellow
 leaned him against the door, and then
 called out that customer had arrived
 The Fort Standoff traders met with
 such success that winter as far to ex-
 ceed their expectations. The following
 season another company built Fort
 Whoop-up, and in order to secure a
 better position successfully to compete
 with the new fort, Standoff was aban-
 doned and Fort Tripp built up on the
 Old Mans river. It was at this place
 that the noted chief of the Bloods, Calf | Shirt, was killed. He was a man of
 large build and undoubted bravery,
 having attained his position by daring
 feats in battle with other tribes, and
 with the whites, too. As he grew old
 CT his manners changed in many ways
 to his own people. When angry he
 would beat them, or shoot them as the
 whim seized him, for, he said, and they
 believed that mysterious charm he
 wore prevented bullet and arrow,
 knife and club, from touching his body Up to the time Fort Tripp was built he
 had killed in fits of passion, and es-
 pecially when frenzied by liquor, more
 than thirty of his people. Half the
 time he went about unarmed. but was as safe from his enemies, and all the
 tribe hated him, as if he had carried
 an arsenal. One day at Standoff
 North Piegan came into the trade room
 drunk, brandishing war club brist- 1 ling with knife points, and proceeded to | have a war dance all by himself. Calf Shirt was standing by, and after lis- 1 tening to the warriors boasts for a while calmly grasped him by the hair, wrenched the club out of his hand. and sawed it back and forth over the poor fellows face lacerating it in a fright full manner. The chief had many q time threatened to kill the traders. but when he came around they were al ways so well prepared for him that he did not make the attempt. One day however, he came into the trade room of the fort and found Tripp all alone, the rest of the traders being in one of the living rooms playing poker for wolf hides. As soon as he saw the chief coming Tripp picked up revol- yer, and held it just below the top of the counter, ready to raise 1t and shoot if necessary.
 "Ha, dog!" exclaimed Calf Shirt as he saw the lone occupant of the room, and started to draw his pistol, i've got you now!,
 Before he could raise the weapon Tripp fired, and probably gave him a mortal wound. But instead of return ing the shot, the chief turned and went out walking slowly. as was his custom. Tripp ran to the door and fired again at him. and then the other traders rushed out and joined in. Calf Shirt looked neither to the right or left, but kept walking slowly away, until he had gone nearly hundred yards. when he stumbled and fell; but, rising again, went on once more, but more slowly, and all the time Winchesters and pis- tols were hurling lead into his body.
 At last he came to deep hole in the ground where the soil had been exca- vated to put on the roof of the fort. Probably he did not see 1t; he must have been practically dead ere he came to it, for he walked into 1t as if he had solid ground ahead of him. The traders found him lying on the bottom quite dead, the revolver still in his hand, and they found that forty-four bullets had struck him, most of them in mortal place. They stripped him of his fine war clothes, blood stained though they were, and threw the body into the river. Needless to say that his people rejolced at his death as well as the traders
 The other day wrinkled, bent and | almost blind old squaw went meekly to | Tripp and said:
 You took away my support, and | now in my old age am poor and hun gry. Take pity on me"
 Who are you?' the ex-trader asked.
 An" she replied, "Of course you do not know me now. I am the widow of Calf Shirt, whom you killed so long ago. I have come from the far north to ask of you a little aid.''
 She did not ask in vain, but went away rejoicing. rich beyond her widest 1reams.
 By the summer of 1874 a large num- per of whiskey traders had established themselves on the streams of what is 1ow the province of Alberta. Opposi- ion had lowered the price of their goods SO that for a robe an Indian ,ould get enough firewater to keep him Trunk week. But robes were becom- ng rather scarce The Indians were so ooor, many of them having parted with heir last horse, and so demoralized rom their debauches, that they could lot hunt as formerly. One day in the ummer of that year some of them vho had been hunting to the eastward eported that they had seen a band of oldiers who were red coats, travelling westward over the plains. To most of he traders this was a sufficient hint of that was coming, and they lost no ime in caching their liquor, and get ing their robes on the way to Fort 'enton But there were others who eleved that the Indians were lying, nd continued to trade as usual. These he newly arrived police caught and antenced to q term of confinement. ( nd so ended the whisley trade, a ter ( ble and demorallzing industry but ne which broke the Indians spirit and a h1a tp rac,Iat ti5o of | -