The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-06-06
OLD BLUE DOCS MEDICINE.

| -@o-PA DdiHnaT0, government contractor
ooctor, Joined the cautoument on the
Platte river the LIST Of July. Burnham was
an ambitious young fellow, who knew bis
PROFESSION. and he thought IL would be
good experience for him to go out
where the kiowas and Comanches were
KICKING up row. there TO do a little
surgery for the soldiers.
contract doctors pay is $3.50 d
year and Durham concluded that he
and q certain young woman down East
coud live comfortably enough on that
amount until he chose TO quit Uncle
sam service and pick up a practice
worth $1,000 a year or Whereabouts.
Burnham was sanguine.
The new doctor recruit reached the
cantonnent about o'clock in the morn
ing Outside the troops quarters was 2
Dig kiowa encampment. Durham had
never seen an Indian before, barring a
few broken-spirited Oneidas down on a
New York reservation He hadn't been
IN camp an hour before an Indian sneak
ca in and asked for the surgeon. 1t
| happened that the regular army surgeon
had gone shooting for the morning. and
the Kfowa buck was turned over TO Burn
nam He had "sneaked onto" the camp
because he did not want his fellow braves
to know that he was the messenger after
the doctor. The Kiowas believed impIic-
lily in their own medicine man" and
| SERCN4dl4t III one. an ugly, flSdkeU OlQ
| chap named Blue Dog
Durham was told half in signs and
half in words that a Kiowa buck was
sick. He went along with the Indian I'M
al they reached the edge of the reds
camp There the Kiowa pointed out
tepee as the place where the sick man
| lay, and then disappeared. Burnham
| went to the lodge and entered He was
! met with growls and a frightful odor,
On the ground lay Kiowa warrior. I'M
! conscious. and round him was dancing
and chanting the most hidenlis looking
creature that Burnham ever looked on.
The dancer was old Blue Dog. In addi-
ton TO dancing he was burning some
sort of Indian incense. which was worse
than asafoetida. He was trying to drive
| the devil Of sickness out of the PROSTATE
! warrior.
Burnham saw in an instant that the
buck on the ground was suffering from
/ epilepsy. He swung his medicine case
round and began to take out some visIs.
Old Blue Dog gave a yell. and three
| bucks entered and told the doctor IN
pretty tough English that he couldn't try
his medicine till Blue Dog got through.
Blue Dog got through in ten minutes.
The. dancing had exhausted him. and
| his unconscious patient had not as much
as trembled an eyelid
Then Burnham went at him. He had
the buck on his feet inside OF five min
utes, and with the stimulation OF the
| brandy that the doctor mad given literally
the kiowa acted as though he had never
seen sick day in his life.
! Blue Dog looked amazed but he told
| his fellows that it his own med
cine that had brought the back around.
but that 1t was little Slow in acting.
that was all.
Three weeks after this Burnhln WAS
I
\ ing on the window frame of his log
shack He rose and found old Blue Dog
without. Blue Dog had pretty fair
smattering OF English.
| Little one sick, he said. Come.
Same tepee."
Burnham followed the old medicine
man. who disappeared Just as the other
| Kiowa had done before reaching the
| lodge. The doctor found a child of Blue
| Dog suffering from a fever. tossing and
moaning in delirium. Blue Dog came in.
People mustn't know" he said, -or
| they'd kill me-"
Burnham attended the child surrepti-
| tiously for a week. She recovered. and
the next day Burnham found at his door
as handsome a blanket as ever a Navajo
made. Blue Dog gave the blanket
That was the summer that the Kiowas
and Comanches went out and raided Kan
sas, Nebraska and the Indian Territory.
/ 1t was one of the worst years for the
| settlers and the troops known in Indian
warfare. Things had been quiet about the
! cantonment on the Platte tin late in Au-
/ gust. The garrison was in ignorance
| that the Indians were thinking OF mis-
chief. Burnham had received word from
/ the East that the young woman who
was TO be Mrs. Durham, Helen Truxton
/ by name. was, in response to his earnest
letters, TO come to the cantonment on
| the Platte and let the chaplain have
something 10 do in the marrying line
Helen Truxton was an orphan and school
teacher. At her lovers solicitation she
left civilization behind and started for
/ the Platte. The stage in which she was
| &c make her last part of the journey
never reached the cantonment-
! The Kiowas jumped from their Platte
encampment the night before and went,
devastating horde. on the warpath. Old
! Blue Dog went with them, somewhat to
the amazement of the soldiers. He had
always been fairly friendly to the whites.
Well there were fights and skirmishes,
and finally the Kiowas were pretty thor
oughly smashed. The stage in which
Helen Truxton had been a passenger TO
the Plate was found. The driver and
four men passengers wer~ dead and
scalped There was no trace of Helen
Truxton.
Those who know something of Indian
warfare and savage methods can .imag-
Inc the feeling that was in Ralph Burn
hams heart. Four weeks had gone BY,
and all hope OF rescuing Miss Truxton
alive had been given over. One morning
Blue Dog. with his wives and children,
showed up at the site of the old Kiowa
encampment There he pitched his tepee-
The old fellow told the commanding OIL
Ger that he had been forced TO go out
and that he had come back 10 his friends,
the whites. as soon as he could The colo
mel knew something of Blue Dog, and be-
lieved him.
At noon that same day the old medi
cine man went 20 Burnhams quarters.
Your medicine is strong he said. Il
show you mine is stronger. You raise Up
Kiowa brave who was like dead You
cure sick papoose. but 1 have stronger
medicine than that You come see
Burnham went along with the old fei
lew. not realizing what he was driving
at He reached the tepee which was 4
big double affair. with the skins falling
Ike a curtain and dividing il into two
PARTS Blue Dog squat;ed on the ground
and began burning incense and chanting
Then he drew circles and danced n
them Finally he let out terrific shrek.
and. raising his arm. he said to Burn
nam. '-Kiowa medicine man make dead
alive.
Blue Dog Jumped backward. and in an
Instant the curtain Of skins fejl. AMI
Rurnham. with a staggered mind and
biurring eyes. knew that Helen Truxton
vas IN the tepee beyond. surrounded b.
the wives Of Blue Dog
Safe and unframed she was and saved
By Blue Dog who. through the fear that
tfs Office IS medicine nan worked r. his
tribe. had saved the girl IN the assault
or the stage and had brought her safely
n the s.artcaruen. thouEN he did 81