The Weekly Tallahasseean., 1901-05-30
A TEST OF COURAGE.
TORTURES WHICH INDIAN SCOUTS
BORE WITH SMILING FACES

1t Was Up to Lieutenant Farrou
Once to Emulate Their ExnmDIe.
but the West Pointer Used His Wits
and Escaped the Ordeal,
The Indian scouts that joined forces
with the United States army in 1878
TO make prisoners of the Sheep Eaters
In western Idaho were skeDtical at
hrSt of Lieutenant FarroW's abilities
to lead them into battle. They had
never seen his courage tested and
plainly intimated by word and action
that they had no intention of obeving
his orders unless he should prove him
self drawer than any chief, subchief or
buck in the command,
First they gave themselves I'D to all
kinds of physical torture as a lesson
to him. They slashed their bodies
with knives without showing pain.
They slit the skin on their chests. ran
skewers Hereunder and jerked off
cutaneOus and fieshly strips while smil-
ing happily in his face. They split
their ears, pierced their noses. LAGER
ated their cheeks, butchered their arms
and legs. Their stunts were so far
beyond anything Farrow could inflict
upon himself that the poor young lieu
tenant thought he "saw his finish"
Suddenly, while rivulets of cold Der
spiratiOn trickled down his spine. the
West Pointer recOIlected that in his
SchOolbOy days he was an adept at
driving a pin into the thick of his
''vastus externus" without feeling pain
and the joyful inspiration to thus iIlu-
inmate his courage seized him.
The necessary pin was in the lapel
of his fatigue jacket. Ruthlessly he
slit the front of his breeches leg from
pocket to knee, then his drawers till
the front of the thigh was exposed to
the wondering gaze Of the Indians
gathered close around. Then dramat--
1cally exhibiting the pin, an affair of
an inch and a sixteenth, he reached
for fiat stone and drove the harmless
bit of wire down to the head in the
unreSisting muscle. His handsome
face was as uncIouded as when be
helped to haze his first plebe.
The red men nodded apprOvingly,
grunted, looked wise and sat down on
their launches. They had seen some
thing new, but wanted something more
convincing. Farrow realized this and
was in the seventh heaven of despair
as he smilingly pulled out the pin and
held it alOft for inspection.
To show the white feather meant in
that hostile country ipsubordinatiOn
and treachery, involving FarrOw's
mysterious death. 1t was q moment to
try SOul-and to fry it. The lieuten-
ant whispered to his trusted sergeant:
Il am going to take desperate chance.
1 am going to shoot myself through
the head with my revolver, but you
stand beside your horse, and just an
instant before l shoot you fire your
rifle, yell 'Si-washp mount and make
off through the woods as fast as you
can ride. Don't forget to fire before l
do, else l shall be dead man."
Sitting upon a jagged rock, he ex-
planned to the Indians what he was
about to do, and with great delibera-
ton and some fine theatricals he cock
ed the pistol and placed the muzzle
against his temple. The Indians were
wrought up to a high pitch. They had
never seen man shoot himself through
the head and live. Surely here was
the braVest of all brave leaders. They
would follow him through hell.
The sergeant, un1oticed, fired his ri
1e. his "Si-washw woke the echoes of
~s=~~@ --'-. -~s%S -" and the clat-