The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-10-25
Pledge at Spruce Ridge.
IFrom the Record Herald

/ [F,rom the Record Herald
It is now something over ten years
| ago when the Spruce Ridge and Gray
| Creek Sioux were on the warpath.
Thieving officials had robbed the Indians
OF a large part OF their rauons. ana
| the redskfn fathers, seeing their child
rem starving. had taken their rifles ana
killed few cattle belonging to some
settlers. This high-handed outrage, of
course, meant that the Indians must be
punished. while the officials responsible
Ior the trouble. in accordance with gov
eminent well established ideas. were TO
| go scot free. Tus the war began.
There were 5000 reds, all told. women
and children, who scampered from the
agencies and We're followed by the
troopsers and dough boys" whom I'm
Gle Sam hurriedly gathered up and sent
at double time to the front. Standing
Bull had been killed and his particular
band of followers was headed for the
Bad Lands where the warriors expect
ed to be joined by their brothers OF the
band of Little Foot, Big Wound. Long
Bull and Standing Bear. The reds knew
it would be hard to dlslodge them from
the natural stronghold of the Bad
Lands, and that it would make a good
| center of operations for raldlng the
country round about
There was intense excitement all over
the country and every newspaper of any
prominence had a correspondent either
with the troops actually in the field or
at the army headquarters at Spruce
Ridge Now there were three newsoa-
per men who bunked together in a mis-
cradle tumbledown shack near the
Spruce Ridge headquarters. They were
James Halliday. William Watson and
| Charles Deane, though, of course, among
| themselves and to others they were Jim,
Billy and Charlie. Every day under es-
| cOrt they would ride out MANY miles to
the north of the Ridge and get from the
outlying bodies of troops the news from
the front. Then back to the agency to
get from headquarters such news as the
commanding general would vouchsafe
to give them out of the mass of infor-
nation which he had received from his
couriers.
Now in order to get their STUFF into
| their papers these three newspaper men
were compelled to employ a courier to
make the trip daily to Siowville. on the
northern Nebraska frontier, eighteen
miles away, where was situated the
nearest telegraph office. The courier
| left every afternoon at o'clock on one
| or the other of his stout Indian ponies
and returned the next morning. This
| courier was a devoted little chap named
Bob. He was nothing more than boy,
though he had the grit and determine
ton of a man, and his devotion to his
employers was such as to make him
daily dare death to serve their ends.
Bands of reds in their hideous green
| and black occasionally raided between
| Spruce Ridge and Slowville. AS rule
they raided just after daybreak, fact
that Bob, the courier, knew. SO he
profited by the knowledge to time his re-
turn from the telegraph office SO as to
avoid the painted raiders.
| No one on an Indian reservation is
| allowed to sell liquor. A man caught
doing it is fined $1,000 and imprisoned
for year or therea bouts. The govern
| ment imposes the fine and does the jail
ing, and as Uncle Sam rarely does the
Furnishing act by halves the vending of
whisky on an Indian reservation is not
I-.r. i'm tn inv "a "a X
less.
It was pretty cold out at Spruce
Ridge the winter of that Sioux uprising.
The three newspaper correspondents
found that little liquor inside the belt
was conducive to warmth of body and
warmth Of imagination. Their courier.
Bob. brought them over from Slowville
| two bottles of whisky every day. The
newspaper boys didn't drink it all. They
had friends in plenty to gather in their
shack in the evening and help them dis
pose of their fire water. There were
civilian employees at the Ridge and &C.
casionally an army officer would drop
in. and there was rarely a morning
when either of the two bottle furnished
forth enough for a cocktail.
One day when theGndian trouble was
at its very worst a courier came in
from one of the outlying camps and told
the correspondents that they might ex-
pect half a dozen soldier friends the
next evening to enjoy their hospitality.
L
these same soldiers and had asked them
to name a night for a return visit. Bob
was told that day to put half a dozen
bottles into his saddle bags instead of
the regulation brace. The next noon
Bob appeared with his six bottles of bad
whisky, for it was bad, though good by
sheer force of the fact that it was the
only stuff to be obtained for love or
money.
Jim, we're in for a wet night of it,
| RI
You bet we are. Charlie. answered
Jim, "our own capacity is none too
small and our guests have been dry for
a. month. There won't be a drop left to-
morrow morning with which to clear
the cobwebs out of our brains and en-
able us to do days work"
TN be dead for a drink in the morn
ing" said Billy Watson. 1--WE ought to
have sent for more stuff, for as a mat
ter of fact this will hardly go around.
hope nothing breaks loose tomorrow.
for after a nights siege with bottle
or two 7 couldn't do Justice with my
pen to the story of a massacre"
Bob the courier was standing near
while his employers were prophesying
woe and thirst for 1.-The morning after
you gentlemen has been mighty good
to me- said the boy, land when takes
your kilograms over this afternoon III
buy the stuff tonight and leave Slow
vile before daybreak and by the time
you's awake I'll have your licker.'
Don't you do it. Bob" said Billy
Watson. Jack Blue Cloud and hall
hundred of his fellow devils are raidine
pretty near every morning as you know
across the trail that you come by. and
if you START before sunrise you'll rur
plump into them.
Don't you be scared answered Bob
''I'H ger by 'em all right. I kin teach
Jack Blue Cloud a thing or two.
1t was a wet night in the shack. This
last drop was gone, and the correspond
ents something more than weary
wher they crawled into their blankets
along about : o'clock.
At o'clock that morning, an hour be-
fore sunrise-it was midwinter-Bob