The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1900-02-03
Is WITH THE BOERS.
ex-oFFIcER oFTHE AMERICAN
ARMY.z.
Giving His valuable Experience In
Fighting Indians to. the Burgher
Cause.-The Record. at Home . Credit
able One v

Fillmore Blake, a graduate OF West
Point and for nine years an officer in
the United States army. Blake has
had much experience in Indian fight
ing, and army officers who know him
take an additional interest in the war
as the cable tells of British reverses
brought about by tactics similar to
those employed to whip the Indians.
Recent reports state that Blake, who
is said to have left johannesburg at
the head Of an Irish force, vas with
Cronje at the Modder river, north Of
which, at Magersfontein, the British
under Methuen were defeated and
hurled back. Blake's record in the
United States service is a creditable
one. That much-scanned, much-cOn-
densed book known as the Army Reg
lister has little to say of John Blake.
Put into English that little would read
something like this: John Y. Fill
more Blake, born in Missouri; appoint
ed to the Military Academy from Ar
kansas; became a cadet September l,
1876; received his commission as sec
ond lieutenant June -, 1880, and was
assigned to the Sixth cavalry; made
first lieutenant October S, 1887, and re-
signed from the service August 10,
1885," But his brief record says moth
ing of nine years of the hardest kind
of service which the "%galloping" Sixth
put in whipping hostile Apaches into
submission. Nor is there the slightest
mention of a campaign that covered
Arizona, New Mexico, the panhandle,
the southern portion of the Indian ter
ritory. and far into the land of the
Mexicans. Army officers are supposed
to know all of this and the register is
not intended for civilians eyes.
Several months after Blake's gradu-
alton from West Point the White
Mountain Apaches had shown signs
of desiring to take the wal path and
Blake, who was sure of making the
cavalry, prayed that he would be or
dered to join the "galloping" Sixth,
then in Arizona under command of
Col. Eugene A. Carr. In May the
Apaches, under the leadership Of the
medicine man and prophet Mckay
detklinne, took the war path. and there
began a series Of India atrocities ex-
tending over a period of nine years,
which have been approached in
the history Of the southwest.
|, To his delight, Blake was ordered to
Join his hearts desire, and without a
thought Of the three months leave
which was his he flew across the con-
tinent as fast as steam could carry
him. On reaching Chicago he learned
that troop M, to which he was as
aligned, had taken the field, but he was
to report at Fort Lowell, long since
abandoned, and ascertain, II possible,
Its whereabouts. Two weeks later
tine fedgling from the Point" re-
ported to his captain, William A. Raj
ferty, in the heart of the White Noun
tain district. The fact that a tender
foot had ridden through a hostile coun-
try alone and found his troop was a
surprise to Rafferty,.
It was early in this campaign that
Blake first met a man who became IA
nous at San Juan Hill, Gen. Adna R.
Chaffee. at that time captain of I troop
in the "galloping" Sixth. Two years
later "the man without a hurdle on
his straps" carried a message to that
beau ideal Indian fighter, the : Gray
Fox, which resulted in the killing of
Nokaydetklinne at Cibiuc creek and
saved a squadron of the Sixth from
being massacred.
In those days the troops in the de-
partment Of Arizona spent most Of
their time chasing Indians-Apaches,
Comanches, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Nava-
joes and Zuni-from the upper part Of
the Indian territory far into Old Mexi-
co. 1t was rarely they saw a garrison
unless sent home wounded or sick with
fever. And this was the sort Of exist
ence led by Blake for nine years. When
his regiment did reach Goods
try" all of the fight had been knocked
and licked out Of the Indians in the
southwest and helpless settlers, ranch
ers and prospectors could travel the
land without fear of massacre.
Russi. Wants Typevrlt4rs.
The latest Russian information re-.
..eived indicates that a considerable
modification Of the imperial Russian
law affecting the use of typewriters In
that country is about to take place,
savs the Detroit Free Press. Hitherto