The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-04-09

| any means avoid 1t. and always being
| abundantly supplied with food for your
self and animals, whether horses or dogs,
besides fuel, matches, blankets, robes and
| all the paraphernalia of q snow camp
| should you have to make one. No people
! are more careful IN these particulars than
the Indians themselves from whom the
! French yayageurs undoubtedly learned
I their lessons.
| To give an idea of how treacherous the
| weather may be, and of what dangers
frontier people are subjected to, will re-
| late an adventure IN which 1 participated
when living in the Indian country, which,
however, turned out pleasantly I had
been at my Redwood agency for several
days, and it became important that I
should visit my upper agency, situated on
the Yellow Medicine river about thirty
miles distant. up the Minnesota river
After crossing the Redwood river the
road led over a thirty-nile prairie with
out a shrub on 1t as big as d walking
stick. The day was bright and beautiful,
and the ride promised to- be a pleasant
one, so | invited my surgeon, Dr. Dan
1els, and his wife to accompany me- They
gladly accepted. and Mrs. Daniels took
her baby along. by the way, that baby
Is now the elder sister of the. wife Of one
of our most distinguished attorneys. Mr..
John " L. Dodd) Mr.. Andrew Myrick,
trader at the agency. learning that we
were going. decided to accompany us
and got up his team for the purpose TAX
ing some young friends with him and
off We went
had early taken the precaution to
construct sleigh especially adapted to
winter travel in this exposed region 1t
had recesses where were slowed AWAY
provisions, fuel. tools and many things
10 meet possible emergencies. The cush-
IONS were made of twelve pairs of four
point Mackinaw blankets, and the side
rails were capable of carrying two car
casses OF Venlson or mutton. so I felt
quite capable of conquering a blizzard
may say there that had a surgeon at
each agency. DR.. Asa w. Daniels at the
lower agency, and DR.. Jared Daniels at
the upper, who were brothers. and this
excursion presented pleasant opportuni-
ty for the families to meet The upper
agency was In charge of my chief farmer
a Scotch gentleman by the name of Rob
ertson He was a mystery which 1 never
unraveled. A handsome aristocratic.
mighty educated man about 70 years of
age, with the manners of a Chesterfield
he mad been In the Indian country for
many years, had married q sQuaw and
raised numerous family Of children, and
had been in the employment of the govern
ment ever since the making of the trea-
ties always thought he had been
1
some way, after travelling the world over.
and had sought oblivion in the wilds of
America
Ihere was a large comfortable log house
at the Yellow Medicine agency. occupied
by Robertson, which answered for ALI his
purposes. both business and domestic. and
furnished home and office for mo ube,
1 happened to be there, and on one coca
sion, during the Ink-pa -doo-ta excite
ment, found 1t made a very efficient fort
for defense against the Indians.
Our trip was uneyentful, and we arrived
IN the evening. That night a. blizzard
sprang up that exceeded In severity any
thing OF the Kind In my experience, and
have had nearly half century of Minne
sofa winters. 1t ragged and rampared II
piled the snow on the prairie In drifts of
ten and twenty feet in depth. 1t filled the
river bottoms to the height of about three
feet on the level 1t lasted ten DAVIS dur
ing which time, we. of course did not
dream OF getting out. but amused our
serves as best we could. 1t was what the
French called a poudre de riz. where
there is more snow in the air than on tbe
ground. Although / have been enter
tanned In many ports of the world and
by many and various kinds of people. I
can say that 1 never enjoyed few
weeks more satisfactorily than those we
spent under compulsion at the Yellow
Medicine river on that occasion.
Personal association with Mr.. Robert
son was not only delight, but an edu-
cation. He had been everywhere and
knew everything. He was charming In
conversation and magnificent in hospi-
tally. and the unique nature of his en-
tertainment under savage environments
lent an additional charm to the situation
lie soon became aware that we needed
something exciting to sustain us In our
enforced imprisonment, and he produced
fddlers and half-breed women for dane
ing. He gave US every day dinner party
composed Of viands unknown outside of
the frontier of North America One day
we would have the tail of the beaver al
ways regarded as great delicacy on the