The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-12-10

as he called 1t, John had his brothers AMI
some one inside at work and these III n |
ground up the bones and packed them to
tho nearest railroad, and got SIS ton lof
them {. o. b. and sometimes more. When
the supply was exhausted here he moved
on and began another fort as the skulls
and skeletons were seemingly ineXhausti-
BILE. Why, | have seen places where for
miles the country would be dotted with
the. bleaching bones. and it was NJ tfsk
to get thousands. BY and by others began
to get on to it and 1t was one of the sights
on the northern roads to sea the piles of
buffalo bones waiting shipment
What John made l don't know, but
fortune without doubt. The railroads u d
tell he story, and / know that in one year
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe shipped
1900, 0o0 pounds; that was in 1872 In 1915
they shipped about 100000 pounds ard in
1874 nearly 1000. 600 pounds. In the North
/ thu great places for shipment we.e FL j.
| ings, Mont. and jamestown, Dakota. Here
you could see up to ten or twelve years ago
piles OF bones. as large as the State house.
| / was going to say. Finally, when hides
began TO get scarce, the bone hunters were
rs thick as hops ard with big bullock
teams they went all over the country
wherever buffalo had been known and Took
every bone. They hauled them TO the
/
er down to central places, from which
tens OF thousands of tons were shipped a
over the world
| in those days my business took me
out on the plains. We often advanced
money to the responsible hunters for their
outfit and was often in the camps. Gen
orally there were three men together.
| They had wagon. tent horses, rifles am,
munition and canned provisions. Each
| man WAS armed with rife, three skinning
| knives and a long steel or sharpener, and
| they we're pot hunters from way back;
manv of them would kill fifty TO eighty
/ buffaoes a day. Their method was to steal
I up 10 a herd, lie in coneealment and shoot
! the leader The buffalo was stupid beast
and would stand looking at the smoke and
! gather around the first victim. Finally
/ another one would start OFF and the hunter
! would shoot it and the scene would be re-
enacted. and so on until single p,an by
I firing about once minute has been known
! In a very short time to wipe out nerd.
Nearly all these skins were handled in
New York by two firms. & A, Bosko-
1 WITT bought in nine years 246,l75 robes and
hides, for which they paid S929,790, and
probably sold for at least 100000 The
I other firm. Joseph Uilnan paid out for
robes and hides in four years about $780,
600. The two firms In eight years paid OUT
( 81 ,233, 900 for hides and robes; so you can
figure out as to the number of animals
/ slaughtered.
John Bone worked at first for men with
capital; then when they got 1900 o. 1910
head the brothers went in for themselves.
1t was not always plain sailing. Their
men We're often caught in billiards and
frozen TO death, and their bones mingled
with those of the animals they were III
search of. | heard this man tell an ex-
perIencc which well illustrated the numper
of brffaloes at the time and the dangers
of the sport He was hunting Tor bones
and had four wagons packed high with
them when one night they heard rush
ing. roaring sound as of a mighty wind
while the very earth seemed to tremblc.
/ spuffaloes on stampede cried Bones,
starting up; and In few moments over
the divide came a black mass OF forms
that covered the earth. They seemed 70
be pushed on with irresistipie loree anu
were coming down on the camp IKE al
4 avalanche Bone himself rushed toward
them firing his gun to turn them. II pos.
i sihle while the others endeayored to wheel
the heavy carts together. But the mass
of animals came ON like the wind and the
men could only crawl beneath the carts.
\ One was overturned while against the
other was piled a solid mass OF, believing.
groaning bisons that were crushed to death
nv the passing throng The men barely
ESCAPED with their lives, only the stoutness
of the heavy wheeled carts saving them
as they crouched beneath them.
This herd was estimated to be thirty
miles wide and was fve days passing q
given point on a walk Hundreds were
Shot as they went by, the men never ven
!, turing far from their wagons. At TINS
time Il was not uncommon for buffaloes To
derai engines and cars in their rush. The
Atchison. Topeka and Santa Fe tried con-
I illusions with them on several occasions
the cars being laid low by the mighty
throng that poured on as resistless as a
tidal wave"