Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-06-07
A TEST OF COURAGE.
ToRTUREs WHICH INDIAN SCOUTS
BORE WITH SMILING FACES.

IL Was ZIP 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
I'm western Idaho We're 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 fleshly strips while smil-
| ing happily in his face. They split
| their ears. pierced their noses. LAGER
ated their checks. butchered their arms
| and legs. Their stunts were so far
beyond anything Farrow could infiict
upon himself that the poor young lieu
/ II.
Suddenly, while rivulets of cold per-
| spiration 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
i 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 fiat 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 apprOvingly,
| gruntcd. looked wise and sat down on
their launches. They had seen some
| thing new. but wanted something more
| convincing. Farrow realized this and
was I'm 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 INSTRUMENTATION
and treachery, involving Farrow's
/ mysterious death. 1t was moment to
| try n soul-and to fry it. The lieuten-
ant whispered to his trusted sergeant:
Il 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 ana make
| off through the woods as fast rs you
| can ride. Don't forget 10 fire before
| do. else 1 shall be a dead man."
Sitting upon jagged rock, he ex-
| planned to the Indians what he was
about to do, and with great delibera-
| ton and some fine thcatricals he cock
| ed the pistol and placed the muZzle
| against his temple. The Indians were
j wrought up to high pitch. They had
| never seen n 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, unnoticcd. fired his ri
/ fie. 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 LapwaL
"Si-wash" The Indians knew what
/ that cry meant. In less time than ii
i takes to tell it Farrow was alone. His
forces had scattered to the four winds.
In the course of a few hours all were
| united again, but the courage test was
| not renewed.
Twenty-Five years after this exciting
| incident, on certain evening in 1900,
| Farrow occupied box in the Madison
| Square Garden when Buffalo Bits
Wild West was i'm full blast. Chief
| Joseph, the celebrated commander of
| the Nez Perces. whom Farrow had cap
i tured % years previously and whom
| he had not seen in the interim, led a
| wild, whooping, yelling. screechinS
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
amphitheater. he pulled his horse sharp
/ ly to the right. cutting across 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! Howl
| Howr' The old fellow had caught
sight of Farrow. and nothing could
| prevent him from riding up to salute
| his captor of 1878. 1t was dramatic
| incident.-New York Press.