Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1901-06-06
A TEST OF COURAGE.
TORTUREs WHICH INDIAN SCOUTS
BORE WITH SMILING FACES.

1t Was Up to Lieutenant Farrow
Once to Emulate Their Example,,
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 skeptical at
first 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 obeying
his orders unless he should prove him
self Drawer than any chief, subchief or
buck in the command.
First they gave themselves up 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 feshly 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 We're so far
beyond anything Farrow could infict
upon himself that the poor young lieu
tenant thought he saw his finish"
Suddenly, while rivulets Of cold per-
SEPARATION trickled down his spine, the
West Pointer recollected 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 illu-
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-
ically exhibiting the pin, an affair Of
an inch and a sixteenth, he reached
for a flat stone and drove the harmless
bit of wire down to the head in the
unresisting muscle. His handsome
face was as unclouded as when he
helped to haze his first plebe.
The red men nodded a%pprovingly,
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 insubordination
and t%reachery, involving Farrow's
mysterious death. 1t was a moment to
try a soul-and to fry it. The lieuten-
ant whispered to his trusted sergeant:
II am going to take a desperate chance.
am going to shoot myself through
the head with my revolver, but you
stand beside your horse, and just an
instant before ! shoot you fire your
rifle, yell 'Si-wash! mount and make
off through the woods as fast as you
can ride. Don't forget to fire before l
do, else / shall be a 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 We're
wrought up to a high pitch. They had
never seen a man shoot himself through
he head and live. Surely here was
the bravest Of all brave leaders. They
would follow him through hell.
The sergeant, unnoticed. fired his ri
le, his "Si-wash" woke the echoes of
Shoshone and Bitter Root, and the clat-
ter Of his horses hoofs rang down the
Clear Water as far as Fort Lapwai.
"Si-wash?" The Indians knew what
that cry meant. In less time than it
takes to tell 1t Farrow was alone. His
forces had scattered to the four winds.
In b course Of q few hours all were
united again, but the courage test was
not renewed.
Twenty-Five years after this exciting
incident. on a certain evening in 1900,
Farrow occupied a box in the Madison
Square Garden when Buffalo Bills
Wild West was In full blast. Chief
Joseph, the celebrated commander of
the Nez Perces, whom Farrow had cap.
tured % years previously and whom
he had not seen in the interim, led a
wild, %whooping. yelling, screeching
mob Of painted Indians out into the
arena for a dash around the circle.
But the charge was interrupted-cut
short. When Joseph reached the curve
near the Madison avenue end Of the
amphitheater, he pulled his horse sharp.
ly to the right, cutting acros the first
file Of warriors in most dangerous fash.
ion. In a mad gallop he poked his
chargers head into an arena box,
Strengthened up in his stirrups, held
out his hand and cried: "How! How!
Howl" The old fellow had caught
sight of Farrow, and nothing could
prevent him from riding up to salute
his captor of 1878. 1t was a dramatic
incident.-New York Press.