The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-25

IN reply to question. The tragedy of
his life undoubtedly threw a shadow
upon his social nature, and, although he
was always cheerful and good-natured.
tnere was an air of melancholy in all
his moods
II Is no doubt true, also, that his in
tellectual and moral culture made the
society of ordinary frontiersmen dis
tasteful to him and caused him to pre-
Ter an Indian, who could not talk the
frontier dialect and had no interest in
the gossip OF the plains. Reynolds
never drank whiskey. never swore,
never gambled and never used bad
grammar. His vocabulary was simple
ana ms syntax was correct. His con-
Versatlon at a campfire was the same
as it might have been at dinner table
at the white house or in the drawing
room of the most refined society. He
never lost his temper and was never
guilty of boastfulness, which is the
prevailing fault of frontiersmen. So far
as we knew, he had no vices-not even
an Indian wife.
Reynolds might have told great deal
about himself that people were anxious
to know, but never gratified public
curiosity. He was often asked to relate
his history, but declined to do so, and
learned incidentally or accidentally
Frank Bird Grinnell, the naturalist,
editor of Forest and Stream, was his
closest friend, and respected his conf
dence, but I doubt if he knew as
much of Reynolds former life as people
supposed he did.
The generally accepted story was that
Lonesome Charlie was Tennessee
an and a member of highly educated
and wealthy family. He was sent to
Yale college, and was nearly through
his course when the civil war broke out.
His father and his brothers joined the
confederacy, but he had imbibed north
ern ideas and declined to do so. At the
same time his resources were cut off,
he was compelled to leave college. and
buried himself in the mining regions
of the West in order to be out of the
way of political discussion and war
news. After the surrender he returned
to Tennessee, found his old home had
been burned. his father and brothers
Killed IN battle, his mother. the victim
OF sorrow and suffering, lying in the
churchyard, and his sister, the only
surviving member Of his family, mar
ried to some confederate officer whose
name he could not ascertain. For sew
eral months he sought for her, with no
result. and, finding himself alone and
friendless, with no prospects in his ma
tive country and the prejudice of the
neighbors strongly against him because
of his sympathy for the union, he re-
turned to the West, and from a pros
pector gradually became hunter Dur
ing the Indian troubles he offered his
services to the government as scout
because of his familiarity with the ter
ritory and the habits of the hostile
tribes.
Reynolds made his headquarters at
Fort Lincoln. where the 7th cavalry
was stationed for several years during
the Indian troubles. Custer had more
confidence in him than in any other
scout, and they were constant compan-
ions; but Reynolds would never go east
of the Missouri river. 1t is said that
during all the years he spent at Fort
Lincoln he never once visited the town
of Bismarck, which was within sight
and accessible by ferry boat. He was
a great reader, and had a remarkable
fund of general information, being
a botanist and a geologist.
and had an extraordinary knowledge of
Indian languages. A volume might be
written of his adventures, but the ac-
tual facts were never known to any
one but himself, and he declined to re-
late them. He accompanied Custer on
his last campaign, and his body was
found lying across that Of the general
on the hill where the last stand was
made Chicago Record