El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-30
Writes About His Experiences in the
Early DAYS for Herald Readers.
Some Amusing References to Certain Well Known FL
Paso People Serve to Spice the Narrative.

ALWAYS turned his back and closed his
ewes. and when Charles turn came
FeweI turned his back and knelt as
though in silent prayer. But whether
he prayed or counted the good-good-
goods as they came from the jug. de-
ponent saith not
At daylight we took out across the
dry plains for the Jarillas and nooned
there % miles distant The turquoise
mines that caused poor De MeuleS TO
lose his life could have been mine but
the impression then was that the
stones were worthless and the blue
color a vegetable stain. l might nave
made a fortune. then again L might
have taken De Meules's place in the
grayeyard-and under the circum-
stances would prefer being poor live
man, than a rich dead one
1t was a long stretch to the loot OF
the Sacramentos. and the mountains
ard cliffs that appeared only Few
miles distant were only reached in the
night. We got some water at small
spring called Aqua Chiquita. and next
morning Perk led us around to the
south up to a log house he had built on
a small branch
We then went to his fort on the Sac
ramentos and his place looked very
much like Robinson Crusoe had just
left there. This was the first house
tuilt and l built the next on the west
bank of the Sacramento at the only
prairies on the stream We wanted a
Mace to go to in case a snow storm
caught us, or the Indians proved too
strong. The ranger force, Company A,
lad fifteen men, and five left for duty
| i'll camp.
But / am going a round about to get
to Perks story. and he had many he
Twas one of the buffalo hunters that
1 thinned out the immense herds on the
Texas frontier They used almost ex-
clusively the old Sharp's reliable so cal
iber and with rest sticks. getting to
the windward of a herd OF bunalos,
they could drop one nearly every shot,
and the animals scarcely hear the re-
mort of the rifles. The ground would
soon be covered with their big black
carcasses. All they got was dollar
apiece for the hides, the meat of the
bulls was rarely saved, only tongue
and hide but fat COWS and calves were
cut into chunks. dipped in boiling
brine. and hung up to dry. The hot
brine formed a crust. but inside the
meat was moist and very fine eating
| Many exclaimed against the ruthless
destruction of the noble bison but 1
shed no tears for / knew that as long
as the Kiowas and Comanches and
other plains Indians could go out and IN
week kill meat enough to do them
six months. they would harass. rob
and murder our frontier people. but as
soon as the buffalo were destroyed.
then they would be compelled in a
great measure to go on the reserva-
lions and live on Uncle Sam.
Perk said after hunting hard all one
| winter killing buffalo and skinning CO.
| votes wild cats. lobos, Skunks. until ne
smelt like one, on making settle
mcnt with his merchant he found he
was in debt The merchant seeing
what a long face he put on, cheered
him I'D by saying Never mind the bal
ance. you can pay me in fur next
winter''-perk said. II did. got on just
as fast and fur as | could"
l During one summer he was walking
along through a green briar thicket on
/ the edge of a very deep gully, and an
old tree had fallen down across the
path. He had five or six cur dogs
trailing along at his heels and when
they came to the log they began snli-
| fing. growing and scratching at the
log and he came back and saw the log
was cracked open and a mere she'll He
saw TOO that il was an old she coon
and lot of young ones.
| IL was summer. and the fur useless.
but he wanted to see a little fun so
he raised up his foot and came down
with the heel of his shoe with all his
strength and the log split wide open
Old Zip coon is a fighter from away
back and in common with most wild
animals will make fight for their
young So no sooner did Perks heel
enter the hollow log that she grabbed
him by the heel. Any one who has ev-
er hunted coons in his boyhood days
will remember that whenever coon
got a hound by the lip or ear he held
OF until the hold broke or cut out. al
though the other dogs all had hold OF
him and were dragging him around
he would boiler "nuff," all the time
but never quit fighting.
| So as soon as the coon grabbed
Perks heel. the dogs grabbed the old
she coon and started down the hill
jerked Perks heels from under him
and away they went down the steep
side of the gully. Some times Perk
was on top and again the dog and coor
we're piled on him, and high above the
| wells of the man and barking OF dogs